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| Composers Biography |  |
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Humphrey Searle
[ Life | Photo Gallery | Home Page] |
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| English twelve-tone and serialist composer active from the Second World War onwards contemporary of Benjamin Britten and Bernard Stevens; younger than Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Havergal Brian, Rubbra, Walton and Tippett; older than Arnold, Simpson, Maxwell Davies, Birtwhistle.A distinguished writer and teacher, Searle also cataloged the music of Franz Liszt.A largely autodidact composer who studied briefly with Anton von Webern (Vienna, 1937: Searle - who also studied with Jacobs, Morris and Ireland - used this Austro-German experience while working with the British intelligence service during the Second World War) while spending much of his life cataloging the music of Liszt was bound to have an intriguing take on contemporary music.The formalism of twelve-tone and serialist musical construction (more of the Schoenberg school than his teacher's, admittedly) was Searle's dominant musical aesthetic; but an obsession with the purity of the tone-row was never his musical style: like Liszt, Searle was a great compromiser, always willing - and able – to fuse techniques to achieve the desired musical effect.The Piano Sonata (1951) is a good case in point; and ties together the two main threads in Searle's musical life with a surprising neatness written for the 140th anniversary of Liszt's birth - the work is closely modelled on Liszt's B minor sonata; but is written using twelve-tone techniques. In essence, a romantic serialist (which isn't a contradiction in terms, although some people seem to assume that it is), Searle delighted in cats and unusual instrumental ensembles. "The Owl and the Pussycat" (after Lear; 1951) and "Two Practical Cats" (early 50s; a distinctly un-Lloyd Webberian setting of TS Eliot's "Macavity: The Mystery Cat" and "Growltiger's Last Stand") had both; being written for speaker, flute, cello and guitar ("Two Practical Cats", "New Music with Guitar, Vol. 4"; "The Owl and the Pussycat", etc). The composer worked in all of the major musical forms (five symphonies; two piano concerti; three ballets; and a large number of chamber and instrumental works); but his works list is dominated by vocal pieces: three operas, one a setting of "Hamlet" (1964-68), a large number of songs and some mighty choruses, the best-known, a trilogy for speakers, chorus and orchestra from texts by Sitwell and Joyce: "Gold Coast Customs" (1949), "The Riverrun" and "The Shadow of Cain" (both 1951).
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