Antony Hopkins

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Antony Hopkins CBE (born March 21, 1921 in London , † May 6, 2014 in Ashridge , Hertfordshire ) was a British composer and music writer.

Life

Hopkins was born as Ernest William Antony Reynolds. After his father's death in 1925, he was adopted and grew up in Hertfordshire . In 1947 he married Alison Purves, who died in 1991.

Hopkins attended Berkhamsted School , studied from 1939 to 1942 with Cyril Smith and Gordon Jacob at the Royal College of Music and then worked as a music teacher with Michael Tippett at Morley College in London. In 1943 he made an appearance at the Proms .

He began his career as a radio, stage and film musician in 1946 with the composition of the incidental music for Michel Saint-Denis ' production of King Oedipus at the Old Vic . At the BBC he was commissioned to write the music for Louis MacNeice's radio plays The Golden Ass and Cupid and Psyche . He has written the music for a large number of radio programs. In 1952 and 1957, two programs won the Prix ​​Italia with his participation . In 1950 he wrote the incidental music for the production of The Skin of Our Teeth . In the following years Hopkins composed, among other things, stage music for fifteen Shakespeare productions in Stratford and in the West End , for example in 1956 for Peter Ustinov's Romeo and Juliet .

He has also composed three operas : Lady Rohesia (1947), The Man from Tuscany (1953) and Three's Company (1953). His Ballet Café des Sports was performed in 1954 by Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet , choreographed by Alfred Rodrigues . Hopkins wrote 1948-1962 seventeen film scores, including to the movies Here Come the Huggetts (1948), The Pickwick Papers (1952) Cast a Dark Shadow ( demon of Women , 1955), The Angel Who pawned Her Harp (1956) and Billy Budd by Peter Ustinov (1962). His smaller compositions include the Variations on a Well-Known Theme for piano.

Hopkins gained greater fame from 1954 through his BBC radio show Talking About Music , in which he paved the listeners' access to classical music; the show ran for 38 years. Although he wrote a large number of popular and popular scientific writings on composers and musical styles, he did not succeed in attracting a broad audience interested in music to his own compositions.

From 1963 to 1967 he was Gresham Professor of Music at Gresham College . Ciarin Scott made a 20-minute film with him in 1976: John and the Magic Music Man . Hopkins was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1976.

Compositions (selection)

  • Doctor Musicus, an opera designed especially for the young . (1971)
  • Johnny the priest (1960) libretto by Peter Powell. ("A musical drama based on The telescope by RC Sherriff.")
  • Café des Sports (1954), ballet
  • Three's Company: an improbable opera (1953), opera. Libretto Michael Flanders
  • The Man from Tuscany: opera in two acts (1951), opera. Libretto by Christopher Hassall
  • Lady Rohesia (1947), opera

Fonts (selection)

  • The seven concertos of Beethoven . Aldershot, Hants: Scolar Press, 1996
  • The concertgoer's companion to orchestral music . London: Dent, 1984
  • The concertgoer's companion . London: JM Dent, 1984
  • Beating time . London: M. Joseph, 1982
  • Sounds of music: a study of orchestral texture . London: Dent, 1982
  • The nine symphonies of Beethoven . London: Heinemann, 1981
  • with David Blum and Paul Tortelier : Casals and the Art of Interpretation . Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1980
  • Understanding Music . Dent, London 1979
  • John and the Magic Music Man. A child's guide to the orchestra . Vinyl record. London: Unicorn, 1978
  • Downbeat music guide . London; New York: Oxford University Press, 1977
  • Talking about sonatas: a book of analytical studies, based on a personal view . London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1971
  • Music all around me: a personal choice from the literature of music . London, Frewin, 1967

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Antony Hopkins - obituary
  2. ^ Antony Hopkins - obituary in: Scotsman
  3. ↑ a b Who’s Who 1978 , p. 1184
  4. ^ Antony Hopkins , at British Classical Music: The Land of Lost Content, blog
  5. ↑ Antony Hopkins  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , at BBC Proms Archives@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.bbc.co.uk  
  6. ^ Antony Hopkins: Café des Sports Ballet , at British Classical Music: The Land of Lost Content, blog
personal data
SURNAME Hopkins, Antony
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British composer and music writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH May 6, 2014
Place of death Ashridge , Hertfordshire , England