Joseph Horovitz 1926-2022
The death has been announced of world-renowned composer Joseph Horovitz, who sadly passed away on 9th February. Horovitz was born in Vienna in 1926 and emigrated to England in 1938. He studied music at New College, Oxford, while acting as an official lecturer in music appreciation to the Forces and giving piano recitals in army camps. After taking his BMus and MA degrees, he studied composition with Gordon Jacob at the Royal College of Music, where he won the Farrar Prize, and for a further year with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
His first post was as music director of the Bristol Old Vic, where he composed, arranged and conducted the incidental music for two seasons. The Festival of Britain in 1951 brought him to London as conductor of ballet and concerts at the Festival Amphitheatre. He then held positions as conductor to the Ballets Russes, associate director of the Intimate Opera Company, on the music staff at Glyndebourne, and as guest composer at the Tanglewood Festival, USA. He toured extensively in Great Britain and abroad, conducting major London orchestras as well as on the BBC.
In 1959 he won the Commonwealth Medal for Composition and in 1961 a Leverhulme Research Award to work with Philomusica of London. He also won two Ivor Novello Awards. Since 1961 he taught composition and analysis at the Royal College of Music, where he was a Fellow since 1981. From 1969-96 he was an Executive Council Member of the Performing Right Society, and President of CISAC's International Council of Composers and Lyricists from 1981-89. In 1996 he was awarded the Gold Order of Merit of the City of Vienna, and in 2002 the Nino Rota Prize, Italy. In 2007 he received the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art First Class, and honorary membership of the Austrian Composers' Society. The Worshipful Company of Musicians awarded him the Cobbett Medal in 2008 for services to chamber music. In 2017 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music of the Royal College of Music, London, and in 2019 he became an Honorary Fellow of New College, Oxford.
His compositions number twelve ballets, nine concertos, two one-act operas including 'Gentlemen's Island', orchestral works - including Fantasia on a Theme of Couperin (1962) and Sinfonietta for Light Orchestra (1971). He wrote several works for brass band - including the Euphonium Concerto (1972) and Concertino Classico (1985) - and also for wind band. His chamber music includes five string quartets and the often performed Sonatina (1981) for clarinet and piano, and the Music Hall Suite (1964). His best-known choral compositions are Horrortorio (1959), a Hoffnung commission, the award-winning Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo (1970), and Summer Sunday (1975), an ecological cantata, and an oratorio 'Samson'. His activities extended over a wide range of music, from Son et Lumière productions in England and overseas to scores for theatre, film, radio, and over seventy TV plays and series.
BBW editor David Childs pays tribute, “as a euphonium player and a friend, I want to pay tribute to Joseph Horovitz, who sadly passed away earlier this week at the age of 95. Joseph composed his iconic Euphonium Concerto in 1972 - the first of its kind. During the ‘90s I remember listening to my father perform it in London with the Black Dyke Band under James Watson. As a young euphonium player the performance and the music made a huge impression on me – the Lento movement especially. Since that time, I’ve had the honour of performing it in the composer’s presence on several occasions, including once at his home! I always found him so encouraging and supportive, but he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind either!
“I last spoke with Joseph on the telephone during a covid lockdown last year – he was busy cataloguing his music and, like the rest of us, looking forward to live music returning. As ever, his thoughts and wisdom were thoroughly engaging, and although I wasn’t to know it would be the last time we’d speak, I’m grateful I had the opportunity to thank him for his wonderful music and the impact it made, particularly for the euphonium community. ‘The Horovitz’ has become a rite of passage for euphonium players all over the world and, in my opinion, it remains one of the most musically challenging works in the repertoire. It’s probably the most performed euphonium concerto too (I played it just last week in New Jersey) and whether performed with brass band, wind band, orchestra, or piano, it works so well. However, for me, it’s the beauty of its Lento movement that makes it so special – it truly moved me when I heard it all those years ago, and today I believe it is without doubt some of the finest original euphonium music ever composed. Thank you for the music Joseph Horovitz (1926-2022). Rest in Peace.”
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