Humphrey Searle (26 August 1915 – 12 May 1982) was an English composer and writer on music. His music combines aspects of late Romanticism and modernistserialism, particularly reminiscent of his primary influences, Franz Liszt, Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, who was briefly his teacher.[1] As a writer on music, Searle published texts on numerous topics; he was an authority on the music of Franz Liszt, and created the initial cataloguing system for his works.[2]
Biography
Searle was the son of Humphrey and Charlotte Searle and, through his mother, a grandson of Sir William Schlich. He was born in Oxford where he was a classics scholar before studying—somewhat hesitantly—with John Ireland at the Royal College of Music in London, after which he went to Vienna on a six-month scholarship to become a private pupil of Anton Webern, which became decisive in his composition career.[2]
Searle was one of the foremost pioneers of serial music in the United Kingdom, and used his role as a producer at the BBC from 1946 to 1948 to promote it. He was General Secretary of the International Society for Contemporary Music from 1947 to 1949. He accepted this post with the encouragement of the new president, Edward Clark. For Clark, he composed the Quartet for Clarinet, Bassoon, Violin and Viola, Op. 12, a musical palindrome.[3]
Searle wrote his Piano Sonata, Op. 21 for a recital at the Wigmore Hall on 22 October 1951, given by the Australian pianist Gordon Watson to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the birth of Franz Liszt. (Watson also performed the complete Transcendental Études on that occasion.[4]) The Sonata was loosely based on Liszt's Sonata in B minor and has been described as "probably, both the finest and most original piano work ever produced by a British composer".[5]
Searle wrote the monographs Twentieth Century Counterpoint and The Music of Franz Liszt. He also developed the most authoritative catalogue of Liszt's works, which are frequently identified using Searle's numbering system, abbreviated as "S.".
Searle married Fiona Nicholson in 1960. He died in London in 1982, aged 66.[8]
Concertante for Piano, Strings and Percussion (1954)
Scherzi (1964)
Hamlet Suite (1968)
Zodiac Variations (1970)
Tamesis (1979)
Chorus and instruments
Gold Coast Customs (1947–49) for speakers, male chorus and orchestra
The Riverrun (Joyce) (1951) for speakers and orchestra
The Shadow of Cain (1952) for speakers, male chorus and orchestra
Jerusalem (1970) for speakers, tenor, chorus and orchestra
My Beloved Spake (1976) for chorus and organ
Dr Faustus (1977) for solo woman, chorus and orchestra
Voice and orchestra
3 Songs of Jocelyn Brooke (1954) for high voice and ensemble
Oxus (1967) for tenor and orchestra
Contemplations (1975) for mezzo-soprano and orchestra
Kubla Khan (1973) for tenor and orchestra
Unaccompanied chorus
The Canticle of the Rose (Sitwell, 1965)
Rhyme Rude to My Pride (1974) for male chorus
Chamber music
Bassoon Quintet (1945)
Intermezzo for 11 Instruments (1946)
Quartet for Clarinet, Bassoon, Violin and Viola, Op. 12 (1948; a musical palindrome)[10]
Passacaglietta in nomine Arnold Schoenberg (1949) for string quartet
Gondoliera (1950) for celesta and piano
3 Cat Poems (1951/53): "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat" for speaker, flute, cello and guitar and "Two Practical Cats" for speaker, flute/piccolo, cello and guitar
Suite for Clarinet and Piano (1956)
Three Movements for String Quartet (1959)
Cello Fantasia (1972)
Il Penseroso e L'Allegro (1975) for cello and piano
Song cycle
Les fleurs du mal (1972) for tenor, horn and piano
Songs
Two Songs of A.E. Housman, op. 9 (1946): March Past (On the idle hill of summer) and The Stinging-Nettle, for voice and piano
Counting the Beats (1963) for high voice and piano