William Lewarne Harris

Last updated

William Lewarne Harris (23 May 1929 - 17 August 2013) was an English composer and teacher.

Contents

Harris was born in Birkenhead. He was educated at the King's School, Canterbury until the war saw him evacuated to St Austell in Cornwall. He performed National Service with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. [1] Afterwards he studied at the Royal College of Music with Patrick Hadley and later Herbert Howells. While there he won the Lionel Tertis prize for his folk-song influenced Suite for viola and piano (1952). It was later broadcast on BBC Radio by Watson Forbes. [2]

Harris was married in 1956 and the couple had two sons and a daughter. But the marriage ended in divorce and Harris became a single parent of three children, working as a music and piano teacher in various London and Kent schools. He maintained his Cornish roots from his mother's side of the family, frequently returning to Cornwall and becoming friendly with another Cornish composer of operas, Inglis Gundry. [3] He was made a Cornish bard in 2002 in recognition of his support for Cornish music. [4]

He died in a London nursing home on 17 August 2013, aged 84. [5] His memoirs, Knocking on a Bolted Door, were edited by his son Steven and published in 2014. [6] Steven Harris has also written a memoir about his time working as a piano tuner at the Harrods department store in the late 1970s. [7]

Selected works

Harris composed operas, song cycles and orchestral music as well as chamber music. His operas include: The Woman on the Hill (1980), based on a short story by Eleanor Inglefield (a relative of Delius); The Sunken City (1992), his largest opera, telling the story of the mythical submerged city of Ker-ys off the Breton coast; The Shining Ones (2000), set in London's East End of the 1930s; and Rescorla Variations (2001, premiered in 2006 by the Cornwall Chamber Orchestra), [8] about the Cornish national hero Rick Rescorla, who died saving lives at the Twin Towers on 9/11. [9] [10]

The seven song A Cycle of Love and Death, setting Ezra Pound, was composed in 1967 and premiered in 1973 at a Wigmore Hall recital featuring the composer as pianist. The same recital included Stanzas for a Drowned City and the piano duo Sonatina patetico. [1] The orchestral works include three substantial pieces: Dance of Life (1982), Celtic Triptych (1983, for chamber orchestra) and the 20 minute symphonic suite My Country (1987) also arranged for two pianos. [5]

The Camerata Ensemble has recorded the Quintet for recorder and string quartet, which was dedicated to recorder soloist John Turner. [11] There is also a modern recording of the early Suite for viola and piano by Sarah Jane Bradley and John Lenehan. [12]

Related Research Articles

John Harris Harbison is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Alwyn</span> Composer (1905-1985)

William Alwyn, was an English composer, conductor, and music teacher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kazimierz Serocki</span> Polish composer

Kazimierz Serocki was a Polish composer and one of the founders of the Warsaw Autumn contemporary music festival.

Richard Danielpour is an American composer.

Arnold Atkinson Cooke was a British composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferenc Farkas</span> Hungarian composer

Ferenc Farkas was a Hungarian composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ilja Hurník</span> Czech composer and essayist (1922–2013)

Ilja Hurník was a Czech composer and essayist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iša Krejčí</span> Czech musician

Iša František Krejčí was a Czech neoclassicist composer, conductor and dramaturge.

Raymond Wilding-White ; was an American composer of contemporary classical music and electronic music, and a photographer/digital artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Dunhill</span> English composer

Thomas Frederick Dunhill was a prolific English composer in many genres, though he is best known today for his light music and educational piano works. His compositions include much chamber music, a song cycle, The Wind Among the Reeds, and an operetta, Tantivy Towers, that had a successful London run in 1931. He was also a teacher, examiner and writer on musical subjects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lior Navok</span> Israeli composer, conductor, and pianist (born 1971)

Lior Navok is an Israeli classical composer, conductor and pianist. He was born in Tel Aviv. His music has been performed internationally by orchestras and ensembles including the Oper Frankfurt, Nuernberg Opera, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra. Amongst the awards he has received are those from the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. He has also received awards from the Fromm Music Foundation, Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Award, and Israel Prime Minister Award. In 2004, he was one of seven composers awarded commissions for new musical works by the Serge Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress and the Koussevitzky Music Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erling Brene</span> Danish composer

Niels Erling Emmanuel Brene was a Danish composer. He was born and died in Copenhagen. In 1948, he won a bronze medal in the art competitions of the Olympic Games for his orchestral composition Vigeur (Vigour).

Gary Kulesha is a Canadian composer, pianist, conductor, and educator. Since 1995, he has been Composer Advisor to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has been Composer-in-Residence with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (1988–1992) and the Canadian Opera Company (1993–1995). He was awarded the National Arts Centre Orchestra Composer Award in 2002. He currently teaches on the music faculty at the University of Toronto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Zhurbin</span> Russian composer

Alexander Borisovich Zhurbin is a Russian composer.

Jiří Teml is a Czech composer and radio producer.

Jiří Gemrot is a Czech composer, radio executive, and a record producer. Since 1990 he has been director in chief of Czech Radio in Prague. As a composer, his music has been performed by all of the Czech Republic's major orchestras.

Ludvík Podéšť, pseudonym Ludvík Binovský, was a Czech composer, conductor, music journalist and editor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbert Blendinger</span> Austrian composer and viola player (1936–2020)

Herbert Blendinger was an Austrian composer and viola player of German origin.

Christopher Montague Edmunds was an English composer, academic and organist who lived and worked in Birmingham.

References

  1. 1 2 Obituary, The Times, 3 September 2013
  2. ↑ Michael Ponder. Notes to Dutton Epoch CDLX 7390 (2021)
  3. ↑ William Lewarne Harris. Knocking on a Bolted Door, Lewarne Publishing (2014), ISBN   9780992619718
  4. ↑ N P Cooper. 'William Lewarne Harris', in A Cornish Almanac (2020), p. 162
  5. 1 2 Biography, British Music Collection
  6. ↑ 'For the Record', OKS Association Newsletter, Autumn 214, p. 14
  7. ↑ Steven Harris. The Man From Harrods, Book Guild (2021) ISBN   9781913551858
  8. ↑ British Music Society News, Issue 132, July 2012, p. 11
  9. ↑ Royal College of Music Upbeat Magazine (2014), p.22
  10. ↑ Bill Harris. 'Some thoughts on Opera', at MusicWeb International
  11. ↑ Jigs, Airs and Reels, Campion Cameo 2034 (2004)
  12. ↑ English Music for Viola and Piano, Dutton Epoch CDLX 7390 (2021)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.