William Mathias

Last updated

William Mathias

CBE
Born
William James Mathias

(1934-11-01)1 November 1934
Whitland, Carmarthenshire, Wales
Died29 July 1992(1992-07-29) (aged 57)
Menai Bridge, Gwynedd, Wales
OccupationComposer
Organizations North Wales International Music Festival

William James Mathias CBE (1 November 1934 – 29 July 1992) was a Welsh composer noted for choral works.

Contents

Biography

William Mathias was born in Whitland, Carmarthenshire. A child prodigy, he started playing the piano at the age of three and began composing at the age of five. At Aberystwyth University Mathias was a member of the Elizabethan Madrigal Singers and wrote 'Gloria in Excelsis Deo' for them in 1954. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Lennox Berkeley, where he was elected a Fellow in 1965. In 1968, he was awarded the Bax Society Prize of the Harriet Cohen International Music Award. He was professor of music and head of department in the University of Wales, Bangor, from 1970 until 1988.

His compositions include large scale works, including an opera, The Servants (1980), three symphonies and three piano concertos. Much of his music was written for the Anglican choral tradition, most famously the anthem Let the people praise Thee, O God written for the July 1981 royal wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales, which had a television audience of an estimated 1 billion people worldwide.

Mathias wrote his Sinfonietta – initially called Dance Suite – for the Leicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra (LSSO) in late 1966, and it received its first performance at Leicester De Montfort Hall during the 1967 Schools Festival. It was also included in the orchestra's tour programme for Denmark and Germany later in the year. The LSSO made the first commercial recording of Sinfonietta for the Pye Golden Guinea label in July 1967 under the direction of the composer (see external links below).

He founded the North Wales International Music Festival in St Asaph in 1972 and directed it until his death, aged 57, in 1992. [1]

He died at Menai Bridge, Gwynedd and is buried at St Asaph Cathedral, St Asaph, Denbighshire, North Wales.

List of works

Choral works

Opera

Orchestral works

Symphonies

  • Symphony No. 1, Op. 31 (1966)
  • Symphony No. 2 "Summer Music", Op. 90 (1983)
  • Symphony No. 3 (1991)

Concertante

  • Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 2 (1955; rev. 1992)
  • Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 13 (1960)
  • Concerto for Orchestra, Op. 27 (1964)
  • Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 40 (1968)
  • Harp Concerto, Op. 50 (1970)
  • Harpsichord Concerto, Op. 56 (1971)
  • Clarinet Concerto, Op. 68 (1975)
  • Organ Concerto, Op. 91 (1984)
  • Horn Concerto, Op. 93 (1984)
  • Oboe Concerto (1989)
  • Violin Concerto (1992)
  • Flute Concerto (1992)

Works for string orchestra

  • Divertimento for String Orchestra, Op. 7 (1958)
  • Music for Strings, Op. 14 (1961)
  • Prelude, Aria and Finale, for String Orchestra, Op. 25 (1964)
  • Threnos, for String Orchestra (1990)

Other orchestral works

  • Dance Overture, Op. 16 (1961)
  • Invocation and Dance, Op. 17 (1961)
  • Serenade for Small Orchestra, Op. 18 (1963)
  • Sinfonietta, Op. 34 (1967)
  • Litanies, Op. 37 (1967)
  • Festival Overture, Op. 42 (1969)
  • Intrada, Op. 54 (1971)
  • Holiday Overture, Op. 57 (1971)
  • Celtic Dances, Op. 60 (1972)
  • Laudi, Op. 62 (1973)
  • Vistas, Op. 69 (1975)
  • Dance Variations, Op. 72 (1976)
  • Melos, Op. 73 (1976)
  • Vivat Regina, Suite for Brass Band, Op. 75 (1977)
  • Helios, Op. 76 (1977)
  • Requiescat, Op. 79 (1977)
  • Reflections on a Theme of Tomkins, Op. 86 (1981)
  • Anniversary Dances, Op. 95 (1985)
  • In Arcadia (1992)

Chamber works

Solo instrumental

Organ

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alun Hoddinott</span> Welsh composer

Alun Hoddinott CBE was a Welsh composer of classical music, one of the first to receive international recognition.

John Maynard La Montaine, also later LaMontaine, was an American pianist and composer, born in Oak Park, Illinois, who won the 1959 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Piano Concerto No. 1 "In Time of War" (1958), which was premiered by Jorge Bolet.

Arnold Atkinson Cooke was a British composer.

Walter Sinclair Hartley was an American composer of contemporary (classical) music.

Harald Genzmer was a German composer of classical music and an academic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paavo Heininen</span> Finnish composer and pianist (1938–2022)

Paavo Johannes Heininen was a Finnish composer and pianist.

David Wynne was a prolific Welsh composer, who taught for many years at Cardiff University and wrote much of his best-known music in retirement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans Gál</span> Austrian composer, musicologist and pianist

Hans Gál OBE was an Austrian composer, pedagogue, musicologist, and author, who emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1938.

Stefans Grové was a South African composer. Before his death the following assessment was made of him: "He is regarded by many as Africa's greatest living composer, possesses one of the most distinctive compositional voices of our time".

Zdeněk Lukáš was a prolific Czech composer who authored over 330 works. He graduated from a teachers' college and worked as a teacher from 1953 to 1963. He was a musical editor and program director at the National Broadcasting Company in Pilsen and conducted the Česká píseň, a choir in Pilsen.

Karl Höller was a German composer of the late Romantic tradition.

<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">Teresa Procaccini</span> Italian composer and music educator

Teresa Procaccini is an Italian composer and music educator.

<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.

References

  1. ↑ "Obituary: Professor William Mathias". The Independent. 30 July 1992. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  2. ↑ "Alleluia! Christ is Risen!". WorldCat . Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  3. ↑ Sleeve notes from William Mathias, St Teilo – London Welsh Chorale, New London Children's Choir and The British Sinfonietta. Tŷ Cerdd (2012)

Bibliography

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.