About the Book
This volume marks the centenary of British composer Stephen Dodgson (1924-2013), whose long, distinguished and multi-faceted career produced many highly distinctive works in a voice that could be both playful and deeply evocative. An approachable, thoughtful book for the musician and curious layperson alike, it brings together interviews and specially commissioned articles on Dodgson's musical output as well as a selection of the composer's own warmly erudite writings and broadcasts. These sit alongside personal reflections and anecdotes from his friends and family, providing a rounded picture of Stephen Dodgson, the musician and the man. With a wide variety of his work, from opera to chamber music, now available on recordings, this book is a consolidation of Stephen Dodgson's importance as a fixture in British music, both in the post-war period and today.
Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION
What to Do with a 1920s Boy? (Thomas Hyde)
Dancing to the Music of his Time (Thomas Hyde with Jane Clark Dodgson)
PART 1 - The Composer's Voice
1. Personal View of a Composer (October 1991)
2. Piano Trios, Quartets and Quintets (March 1975)
3. On Writing a String Quartet after a Gap of 25 Years
(July 1987)
4. The Harp (and Harpists) in my Life (February 1993)
PART 2 - Memories & Tributes
Jane Clark Dodgson
Ursula Jones
Paul Driver
Jonathan Leathwood
Mark Eden
Anthony Legge
John Lill
Richard Field
PART 3 - Perspectives on Stephen Dodgson's Work 109
1. Introducing the Music (Robert Matthew-Walker)
2. The Guitar Works (Lance Bosman)
3. The String Quartets (Joanna Bullivant)
4. Works for Harpsichord (Pamela Nash)
5. The Operas: Two Worlds Apart (Philip Cooke)
6. The Songs: A Singer's Perspective (Stuart O'Hara)
7. The Choral Music (David Wordsworth)
8. Stephen Dodgson's Neo-Classical Language (Oliver Chandler)
9. Putting It Together: The Last Work (Simon Ferris)
ENDMATTER
List of Compositions
Recordings
Contributors
Image Credits
Index A - General
Index B - Works
About the Author :
Stephen Dodgson was a highly respected composer of great breadth, his style ranging from from angularly playful to deeply movingly evocative. He was particularly known for his works for guitar (he was commissioned by both John Williams and Julian Bream) but had a prolific output across many idioms. Himself a professor of composition at the Royal College of Music (and Radio 3 broadcaster), many of his orchestral works were performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Royal Northern Sinfonia, and there has been a resurgence in his chamber works, solo songs and choral works with recent recordings by the Tippett Quartet, Karolos, Magnard Ensemble, Ailish Tynan, James Gilchrist, Roderick Williams, Marcus Farnsworth and Christopher Glynn, and Sonoro, the Marian Consort and the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, receiving extremely favourable reviews in the likes of the 'BBC Music Magazine', 'Gramophone', 'Fanfare', 'British Music Society 'review and many more. Future recordings include an orchestral recording by dynamic young professional orchestra the Outcry Ensemble and a solo piano works CD by talented newcomer Osman Tack.
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Editor Thomas Hyde is a composer based in London. His output includes the one-man opera, 'That Man Stephen Ward', released commercially on Resonus Classics, a string quartet, a Symphony for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and a comedy overture based on Les Dawson premiered by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Dalia Stasevska. He is a member of the music department at King's College London, and in 2019 was elected to a Senior Research Fellowship at Worcester College, Oxford. He is chair of the Lucille Graham Trust, a Vice President of the Presteigne Festival and an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music. He has just completed a full-length opera, 'Aiding and Abetting', to a libretto by Sir Alexander McCall Smith (after the novel by Muriel Spark), commissioned by Scottish Opera.
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Editor Oliver Chandler is Director of Studies in Music at Hertford and Keble Colleges, University of Oxford; he is also an academic professor at the Royal College of Music. He has co-written two books, 'Return to Riemann: Tonal Function and Chromatic Music' (RMA Monographs) and 'A Twelve-Tone Repertory for Guitar: Julian Bream and the British Serialists, 1956-1983' (GFA Monographs), and he has published on a number of other music-theoretical topics in major academic journals, including 'Music Analysis', 'Music & Letters' and 'Music Theory Online'. A keen guitarist, he was awarded the guitar-departmental prize by Trinity Laban in 2015.
Review :
'A wonderful, utterly absorbing collection of essays, interviews and personal reflections, which paints a vivid picture of a congenial and intellectual man, who truly valued the craft of composition.' Cheryl Frances-Hoad; 'An invaluable guide to a fine, individual composer intelligently setting his life and music into the context of our time.' Michael Berkeley; 'A fascinating, wide-ranging collection of writings and wonderfully reproduced photographs, which bring this lively, intriguing composer and clearly loveable man to life.' James Gilchrist; 'This excellent, comprehensive tribute to Stephen Dodgson's life and music must surely help revive his unjustly neglected reputation.' David Matthews; 'A delightful, rich collection of essays, reflections and photos where, much like in his compositions, Stephen Dodgson speaks directly from the page, through the eyes of friends, via his music and in his own characteristically thoughtful, humorous and engaging voice.' Paco Pena
