John Veale

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John Veale (born June 15, 1922 in Shortlands , Kent as John Douglas Louis Veale , † November 16, 2006 in Bromley , Kent) was a British composer and journalist . He created several musical works for the concert hall and British cinema in the 1950s and 1960s. Including compositions for films such as Flames over the Far East , The Spanish Gardener or Don't Look Back .

life and work

John Douglas Louis Veale was born in Shortlands, Kent, England in 1922. His father Douglas Veale, who later received the accolade , served as Chancellor of Oxford University (1930-1958).

John Veale received his education in history and music from Repton and Corpus Christi College , Oxford . As a composer he was largely self-taught, but also took a few lessons with Egon Wellesz , Roger Sessions or Roy Harris .

His compositions include three symphonies. No. 1 was written from 1944 to 1947 and premiered by Sir John Barbirolli at the 1952 Cheltenham Music Festival ; He wrote Symphony No. 2 in 1965 and Symphony No. 3 in 1997. John Veale also wrote a clarinet concerto, premiered on April 4, 1954 at the Royal Festival Hall , played by the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sidney Hide. A violin concerto, Panorama (an orchestral evocation of San Francisco) premiered in 1951 by Sir Adrian Boult , a Metropolis Concert Overture premiered in 1955 by Sir Charles Groves , and numerous other orchestral and ensemble pieces, including Apocalypse for choir and orchestra.

Veales Violin Concerto was released on the Chandos Records CD label, recorded by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Richard Hickox . It is linked to Benjamin Britten's violin concerto .

Since the mid-1950s, John Veale has also composed for British cinema. Director Robert Parrish engaged him in 1954 for his war drama Flames over the Far East with Gregory Peck in the lead role.

1956 followed the film drama The Spanish Gardener by director Philip Leacock with Dirk Bogarde and Jon Whiteley and Michael Hordern in the leading roles. Philip Leacock engaged him again in 1957 for the romantic drama Don't look back with Betta St. John , William Sylvester , Michael Craig and Flora Robson .

In the following years, several crime and horror films were made for directors such as Montgomery Tully and Francis Searle . Among other things, The Blind Spider and Danger in the Night .

The attempt to capture his original film music on sound carriers in later years failed because all compositions, i.e. recording tapes and scores, had been lost at the British film studios.

Since Veale increasingly suffered under the musical avant-garde regime of the British Broadcasting Corporation of director William Glock in the 1960s, he only worked as a film correspondent for the Oxford Mail from 1966 to 1980 and as an editor at Oxford University Press from 1968 to 1987 . It was not until the rediscovery of his concert works in the 1980s that John Veale returned to music and composing.

He died on November 16, 2006 at the age of 84 in Bromley , a south-eastern suburb of London.

Concert works (selection)

  • 1947: Symphony No. 1
  • 1954: Clarinet Concerto
  • 1965: Symphony No. 2
  • 1997: Symphony No. 3

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • John Veale in: The Penguin guide to recorded music , by Ivan March, Edward Greenfield, Robert Layton, Paul Czajkowski, Penguin, 2008, page 1387 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  • John Veale in: The Journals: Volume 1: 1949-1965 , by John Fowles, Charles Drazin, Knopf, 2009, page 294 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographical data of John Veale in: Music in Britain , issues 14–32, British Council, 1951, page 19 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  2. ↑ John Veale in: The letters of Kingsley Amis , by Kingsley Amis, Zachary Leader, HarperCollins Publishers, 2000, page 273 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  3. ↑ John Veale in: Musical Times , Novello, 1954, page 324 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  4. ^ Obituary for John Veale in: The Guardian
personal data
SURNAME Veale, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Veale, John Douglas Louis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English composer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Shortlands , Kent
DATE OF DEATH November 16, 2006
Place of death Bromley , Kent