Tribute to a rather special man
Leading composer, Derek Bourgeois, lost his battle with cancer on 6 September 2017, aged 76. Tim Reynish charts the impact of one of England’s most prolific composers and musicians, whilst the trustees of Sun Life Stanshawe provide a heartfelt tribute to their friend and former conductor.
Which composer liked to sing Verdi arias wearing a gorilla mask? Name the British composer with 116 symphonies to his credit. Who wrote a wedding march for his wife in 11/8? The answer to these three Trivial Pursuit questions, and probably another score equally zany, is the one and only Derek Bourgeois.
Derek, who died on 6 September this year, was a maverick amongst the composers of today. Blessed with an amazing facility and unbridled imagination, a symphonic movement of searing Schoenbergian intensity would suddenly break off into a Tom and Jerry cartoon sequence, and it is this very ‘catholicity’ of taste that has led to the virtual neglect of his work by the musical establishment. When in 2004 I said how much I enjoyed his early music, he replied: “I can write like that now of course - it didn't do me any good then, so why write it now?”…
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