Robin Milford

Robin Milford

Robin Milford (born January 22, 1903 in Oxford , † December 29, 1959 in Lyme Regis , Dorset ) was an English composer .

Life

Robin Milford was the son of Sir Humphrey Milford, the music director of Oxford University Press . He began his musical training in the subjects of piano, organ, flute and music theory at the rugby school. From 1921 to 1926 he studied at the Royal College of Music in London, where Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams were among his composition teachers. He had a lifelong friendship with the composer Gerald Finzi , whom he first met in 1929.

His first compositions were very popular. His double fugue (op.10) was awarded the Carnegie Prize and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Ralph Vaughan Williams, while the oratorio A Prophet in the Land (op.21) was premiered in 1931 as part of the renowned Three Choirs Festival at Gloucester Cathedral . Two of his orchestral works were broadcast on the radio on the BBC . In addition to his work as a composer, Milford worked as a school teacher.

After the outbreak of World War II , he initially volunteered for the army, but suffered a nervous breakdown after a week at the front. After this traumatic experience, he moved with his family to Guernsey , where his further compositional activity was overshadowed by the sudden accidental death of his son and the resulting deep depression. During this creative period u. a. Works such as the orchestral piece Fishing by Moonlight (op. 96) and the Mass for Five Voices (op. 84), the premieres of which received material and ideal support from Vaughan Williams and Finzi and which met with a positive response from audiences and critics alike.

When Milford's father, who had promoted the publication of his works, and his mentors and friends Vaughan Williams and Finzi died in quick succession, he suffered a relapse into his depression and committed suicide in December 1959 with an overdose of aspirin.

music

Milford left behind an extensive oeuvre consisting of piano and organ works, chamber music, orchestral works, songs, operas and choral music. Most of his compositions have been published by Oxford University Press. In terms of style, Milford's work is typical of the late English late Romanticism. Diatonic melodies and slight dissonances, which never go beyond the scope of the tonality, as well as an often elegiac keynote reveal the influence of Holst, Vaughan Williams and Finzi. While the majority of Milford's pieces are rather conservative, some of the vocal works created after his return from the front show more avant-garde features and surprise with strong dissonances and abrupt stylistic changes.

Most contemporaries found Milford's work old-fashioned and backward-looking. While some of his organ pieces are still occasionally heard in a liturgical setting, many of his other works have largely been forgotten. Since the Milford Trust was founded (1986), which aims to rediscover the composer's music, various works have been reissued, performed and recorded. Numerous songs and organ pieces have now been recorded on CD. The Guildhall Strings took 2004 the orchestral work Fishing by Moonlight for the British label Hyperion , while a first intake of Milford's choral music with the choir of Somerville College of the University of Oxford in 2012 was released by Stone Records.

Selected Works

• Double fugue , op.10 for orchestra (1926)
• A Prophet in the Land , op.21, oratorio (1929)
• Symphony , op. 34 (1933)
• Concerto grosso , op.46 (1936)
• Violin Concerto , op.47 (1937)
• Four Hardy Songs , op.48 (1938)
• A Mass for Christmas Morning , op. 84 (1947), later renamed Mass for Five Voices
• Fishing by Moonlight , op.96 for piano and string orchestra (1952)
• The Scarlet Letter , op.112, opera (1958/59)

literature

• Ian Copley: Robin Milford . Thames Publishing, London 1984
• Peter Hunter: Robin Milford. A Composer Illuminated by his Songs . Animus, Dalton-in-Furness, 2009
• Michael Kennedy: The Oxford Dictionary of Music . Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006

Web links

• Robin Milford Trust (Engl.)