Composers

A supplement to the British Symphony chronology

(This page is incomplete – I’ll be adding to it bit by bit as an when I get the time)

Carl Friedrich Abel (1723-1787)
German composer and famous viola da gamba player, taught by J S Bach in Leipzig, and then 15 years in the court orchestra at Dresden, before moving to London in 1758-9. With J C Bach he set up England’s first subscription concert series in Soho, where from 1765 works by Haydn and other European composers received their first English performances. They continued until 1782. Able wrote over 40 symphonies/overtures, most of them published in sets of six.
1761 – Six Overtures/Sinfonias op 1
1762 – Six Overtures/Sinfonias op 4
1771 – Six Symphonies op 10
1778 – Six Symphonies op 14
1785 – Six Symphonies op 17

Robert Brydges Addison (1854-19??)
Choirmaster and teacher in Oxfordshire, Dorset and Dorchester, trained at the Royal Academy of Music, taught at Trinity College London from 1892. His compositions include one symphony, the cantata A Vision (1880), the motet Save Me, O Lord, and the song Rise! For the Day is Passing (performed at the Proms in 1914).
1881 – Symphony in G minor: written while at the Royal Academy of Music, where two movements were performed on December 15 1881.

Emanuel Abraham Aguilar (1824-1904)
Born in London from Spanish parentage, Aguiar was a concert pianist and composer of religious music in the Spanish and Portuguese Jews’ Congregation of London. He also composed two operas, choral, vocal and piano music, as well as three symphonies, dates of the first two unknown.
1851 – Symphony in E Minor (number unclear). Orchestral premiere 1851, two piano version performed by the composer and his pupil Mrs d’Iffanger on January 16 1896 (in London?).
1854 – Symphony No 3.

Horton Claridge Allison (1846-1926)
Organist, pianist, composer and examiner, studied at the Royal Academy of Music and in Leipzig. He composed one symphony, two piano concertos, a suite for orchestra, a War March for orchestra, a string quartet (1865), plus vocal, piano and organ music.
1875 – Symphony.

William Alwyn (1905-85)
Born in Northampton, studied at the Royal Academy (flute and composition), played with the London Symphony Orchestra, became Professor of Music at RAM from 1926-55. He was a poet and artist as well as a composer. His works include over 70 film scores (1941-62), four operas, concertos, piano music and string quartets.
1949 – Symphony No 1 (1948-9)
1953 – Symphony No 2
1956 – Symphony No 3 (1955-6)
1959 – Symphony No 4
1970 – Sinfonietta No 1 for string orchestra
1973 – Symphony No 5 “Hydriotaphia” (1972–1973)
1976 – Sinfonietta No 2 for string orchestra

Thomas Anderton (1836-1903)
A regional composer, conductor and newspaper magnate (The Midland Counties Herald) from Birmingham whose most famous work was the cantata The Wreck of the Hesperus. He also wrote songs and part songs, piano pieces and orchestral overtures – and a symphony, date so far undiscovered.

Thomas Arne (1710-1778)
One of the earliest British symphonists, Thomas Arne is best known as the composer of Rule Britannia and a leading theatre musician at Drury Lane and Covent Garden. His 12 symphonies were originally overtures written for stage works. The first eight were published as a group in 1751, the next four in 1767.
1751 – Eight Overtures in Eight Parts
1767 – Four New Overtures or Symphonies (No 1 in C, No 2 in F, No 3 in Eb, No 4 in Cmin)

Richard Arnell (1917-2009)
Arnell studied with John Ireland at the RCM. Stranded in New York at the outbreak of war he made his reputation in the US first. He taught at Trinity College from 1947 to 1987. Arnell wrote concert and ballet works, film scores and chamber music, including six string quartets. The seventh symphony was a work in progress between 1996 and 2005 (untl ill-health overtook the composer), and was conceived as a tribute to Nelson Mandela. It was completed from sketches by Martin Yates.
1938: Sinfonia (aka “Symphony No 0”)
1943: Symphony No 1
1942-3: Symphony No 2  (1988, Edward Downes, BBC PO) (rec. Dutton)
1944-5: Symphony No 3 op 40 (fp Cheltenham Festival, 1953) (rec. Dutton)
1948: Symphony No 4 op 52 (rec. Dutton )
1952: Dagenham Symphony (suite from the film Opus 65, Ford Motors)
1957: Symphony No 5 (1955-57) (rec. Dutton 2008)
1992-4: Symphony No 6 op 179 “The Anvil” (fp 1995, BBC PO, Leaper)
1996-2005: Symphony No 7 (realized Martin Yates, rec. Dutton 2010)

Malcolm Arnold (1921-2006)
Wide-ranging composer, started his career as a trumpet player with the LPO, though he studied composition at the RCM under Gordon Jacob and William Lloyd Webber. He wrote over 80 film scores, but also many works in other genres, from an opera (The Dancing Master), through to full orchestral works, concertos, ballets, brass band pieces, chamber and instrumental music. He moved to Cornwall in 1966.
1946 – Symphony for Strings, op 13
1949 – Symphony No 1, op 22 (fp Cheltenham Festival, 1951) (3 movts)
1953 – Symphony No 2, op 40 (fp Bournemouth, May 25 1953 Charles Groves)
1957 – Symphony No 3, op 63 (fp RFH, 2 Dec 1957, Royal Liverpool PO, John Pritchard) (3 movements)
1957 – Toy Symphony
1960 – Symphony No 4, op 71 (fp RFH, 2 Nov 1960, BBC SO, Arnold)
1961 – Symphony No 5, op 74 (fp Cheltenham Festival, 3 July, 1961, Halle, Arnold)
1967 – Symphony No 6, op 95 (fp Sheffield, June 1968, BBC Northern, Arnold (three movements)
1973 – Symphony No 7, op 113 (fp RFH, 5 May 1974, New Philharmonia, Arnold (three movements)
1978 – Symphony No 8, op 124 (fp New York, 5 May 1979, Albany SO, Julius Hegyi) (three movements)
1978 – Symphony for Brass
1986 – Symphony No 9, op 128 (fp (professional) Manchester, 20 Jan 1992, BBC PO, Charles Groves)

Algenon Ashton (1859-1937)
Professor of piano at the Royal College of Music, 1884-1910. Later the author of a collection of letters, Truth Wit and Wisdom. Ashton wrote five symphonies, but the manuscripts all appear to be lost.
1895 – Symphony No 1 in F minor
1899 – Symphony No 2 in G: fp 2nd September 1910, Arts and Crafts Exhibition, Birmingham Town Hall, cond. Rutland Boughton
1901 – Symphony No 3 in A minor
1902 – Symphony No 4 in Bb
???? – Symphony No 5

Ernest Austin (1874-1947)
The younger brother of the more famous baritone and composer Frederic Austin, Ernest Austin began life as a businessman and only started composing in 1907. The Pilgrim’s Progress, a narrative tone poem for solo organ, is his best known work, but there is also a symphony (date unknown) among a handful of other orchestral works, as well as piano music (two sets of preludes), songs and chamber works.

Frederic Austin (1872-1952)
Brother of Ernest (above), Frederic was a baritone singer famed for his Wagner interpretations, as well as a composer. He wrote a substantial amount of orchestral music as well as chamber music, choral music and song. But Austin remains best known for his restoration of John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera, which ran for over 1,400 performances at the Lyric Thetre in Hammersmith from 1920.
1913 – Symphony in E minor: for large orchestra.

Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782)
Youngest son of J S Bach, known as “The London Bach”. He studied and worked in Italy from 1756 and was organist at Milan Cathedral in 1760, before moving to London in 1762, establishing himself as a composer of operas. But by the late 1770s he had fallen out of favour and he died in debt. Over 90 symphonies were attributed to J C Bach, but only 48 of these are considered authentic. The G minor symphony (op 6) is particularly dark and dramatic. Three of the op 18 symphonies are the first written for double orchestra.
1765 – Six Symphonies op 3 (No 1 in D, No 2 in C, No 3 in Eb, No 4 in Bb, No 5 in F, No 6 in G)
1770 – Six Symphonies op 6 (No 1 in G, No 2 in D, No 3 in Eb, No 4 in Bb, No 5 in Eb, No 6 in Gmin)
1773 – Symphonies op 9 (No 1 in Bb, No 2 in Eb)
1775 – Symphonies op 8 (No 2 in G, No 3 in D, No 4 in F)
Six Symphonies op 12 (lost)
1782 – Six Symphonies op 18 (No 1 in Eb, No 4 in D, No 5 in E) (No 1, 3 and 5 for double orchestra)

Francis Baines (1917-1999)
An orchestral double-bass player and early musical instrument specialist who was also a composer and editor. As well as his two symphonies he composed a violin concerto, string and oboe quartets, and a concertina for trumpet and music for woodwind and recorders.
1953 – Symphony No 1.
1957 – Symphony No 2.

William Baines (1899-1922)
William Baines was a Yorkshire composer who only lived until the age of 23. He trained with local musicians in Leeds. Despite his short life he wrote over 200 works including piano pieces, chamber and instrumental music (including a string quartet) and short orchestral pieces. His Symphony was written in York when the composer was just 17 years old and had never heard a symphony.
1917 – Symphony in C Minor.

Edgar Bainton (1880-1956)
Bainton studied at the RCM with Walford Davies, Stanford and Charles Wood. He was interned in Germany during the First World War and moved to Australia in 1933. His work list includes operas, choral works, concertos and chamber music. The three symphonies are among his most personal works.
1907 – Symphony No 1 “Before Sunrise”: choral symphony, not performed until 1921.
1939-40 – Symphony No 2 in D: began life in 1933 as a symphonic poem ‘Thalassa’, but was re-written as a symphony in 1939-40 in Bundenoon, Australia.
1956 – Symphony No 3 in C Minor: begun in 1952, but halted when Bainton’s wife died suddenly in 1954 – it was completed only shortly before his own death in 1956.

Michael Balfe (1808-1879)
Irish composer, violinist and singer, best known for his highly successful opera The Bohemian Girl (1843). Over the span of 40 years he composed 38 operas and over 250 songs, including Come into the Garden, Maud. He conducted Italian opera at London’s Her Majesty’s Theatre in the Haymarket for seven years. His one symphony (or Sinfonietta) appeared in 1829, before his operatic successes.
1829 – Sinfonietta

William Baly (1825-1891)
Baly studied at the RAM under Sterndale Bennett and Cipriani Potter. He became professor of music at the University of Exeter. As well as his symphony, first performed at the Hanover Square Rooms on July 10 1847, and again at the City of London Institute in April 1848, Baly composed overtures and chamber music.
1847 – Symphony

Henry Charles Banister (1831 -1897)
Composer and author, the son of a cellist, studied at the RAM with Cipriani Potter. He later taught at the RAM and at the Guildhall School of Music. Banister wrote four symphonies, a fantasy for piano and orchestra, overtures, piano music and songs. But he was better known for his books on music theory, such as Musical Art and Study (1888), The Harmonising of Melodies (1897), a life of George Macfarren (1892), and seven lectures published under the title Interludes (1897).
1847 – Symphony No 1 in D
1848 – Symphony No 2 in E flat
1850 – Symphony No 3 in A minor
1858 – Symphony No 4 in A

Granville Bantock (1868-1946)
Studied at the Royal Academy under Sir Frederick Corder. Succeeded Elgar as Professor of Music at Birmingham University from 1908. He was influenced by Liszt, Wagner and Richard Strauss, and he wrote large scale works with exotic themes, including six tone poems and much programmatic orchestral music.
1901 – Christus: A Festival Symphony in 10 Parts, soloists, chorus, orch
1912 – Atalanta in Calydon (choral symphony, unaccompanied chorus)
1914 – Vanity of Vanities (choral Symphony, unaccompanied chorus)
1915 – Hebridean Symphony (No 1)
1928- Pagan Symphony (No 2) (1927-8)
1939 – Symphony No 3 “The Cyprian Goddess” (1938-9)
1940 – Celtic Symphony for strings and six harps (No 4)

Arthur Barclay (1869-1943)
Choral conductor and composer, studied at the Guildhall School of Music under Thomas Wingham and was for many years the director of music at Brompton Oratory (1893-1935). He wrote orchestral, choral, piano and organ music. He changed his name from Arthur Barclay Jones in around 1900.
1896 – Symphony in C minor

William Bardwell (1915-94)
Studied with R.O.Morris and Gordon Jacob at the RCM, moved to Spain in the late 1960s. As well as the two symphonies (and the later Three Inventions for Orchestra 1992), Bardwell wrote three concertante works (for mandolin, harpischord and violin), chamber and vocal works, including two string quartets and sonatas for guitar and tuba.
1965: Symphony No 1 (fp Commonwealth Institute 1965, fb 10 March 1971, BBC Northern cond. Norman Del Mar).
1971: Symphony No 2

David Barlow (1927-75)
Academic and composer David Barlow studied at the RCM under Gordon Jacob and privately with Nadia Boulanger. He became senior lecturer of music at the University of Newcastle. His early influences included Vaugham Williams, Walton, Bax and Ireland, but after 1962 he studied the works of Webern and began to write using a form of serialism. He wrote two symphonies, the Variations for cello and orchestra, two operas, chamber music and songs.
1950 – Symphony No 1 in E minor (1 movt.) (broadcast 1956, BBC Northern Orchestra, John Hopkins)
1956-9 – Symphony No 2 (2 movts.) (fp Liverpool, BBC Northern Orchestra 1969, Moshe Atzmon)

John Barnett (1802-1890)
Barnett started out as a singer, and from the age of 23 began to compose a series of popular light operas, the most famous being The Mountain Sylph (1834). He wrote many songs, two string quartets and a symphony (date unknown).

John Francis Barnett (1837-1916)
The Nephew of John Barnett and the son of the well-known tenor Joseph Barnet, J F Barnett was a composer and pianist who studied at the RAM. He wrote orchestral, instrumental and choral music, including a cantata, The Ancient Mariner in 1867 and the oratorio The Raising of Lazarus in 1873. But it was his symphony that give him his first success as a composer.
1864 – Symphony in A minor (fp Musical Society of London, 15 June 1864)

Charles Ainslee Barry (1830-1915)
The author and composer Charles Barry studied in Germany, then returned to England to become the organist and choirmaster at Forest School, Leytonstone. His most famous work was the Te Deum, op 22, but he also wrote orchestral pieces, piano music and songs, as well as one symphony (date unknown).

Stanley Bate (1911-1959)
Bate studied with Vaughan Williams, Gordon Jacob and Arthur Benjamin at the RCM, and then in Europe with Paul Hindemith and Nadia Boulanger. During the 1930s he travelled to the USA and Australia with his wife, the Australian composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks. He returned to London for the last decade of his life but found it hard to re-establish himself. However, the Third Symphony was conducted by Barbirolli at the 1954 Cheltenham Festival. He also wrote many concertos (including five for piano) as well as film, theatre and chamber music.
c1934 – Symphony No 1 in Eb (fp RCM, 1936) (disowned, destroyed?)
1937-9 – Symphony No 2 op 20 (withdrawn? unperformed?)
1954 – Symphony No 3 op 29 (Cheltenham, 14 July 1954)
1954-5 – Symphony No 4 (Royal Festival Hall, 20 Nov, 1955)

Hubert Bath (1893-1945)
Studied at the RAM with Frederick Corder. Bath wrote music for theatre and films, including some of the soundtrack to Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail (1929) and The 39 Steps (1935) and the (still well known) Cornish Rhapsody from Love Story (1944). His light music pieces, including many marches and orchestral suites, have been compared with Eric Coates. He also wrote choral cantatas and solo piano and organ works. He approached the music he wrote for brass band very seriously, and it was often used for test pieces in competitions. Freedom, a 12 minute symphonic piece first used for the National Championships in 1922, was considered to be the first brass band symphony, though it’s really a suite.
1922 – Freedom (Brass Band Symphony No 1)

Alfred Julius Becher (1803-1848)
Born in Manchester to German parents, Bacher studied in Germany and became a music critic in Vienna. He returned to London in 1840 to become a professor at RAM – only to return to Germany tow years later. He became politically involved in the Vienna Uprising of 1848, was arrested and shot by firing squad. He wrote mostly string quartets, piano works and songs.
1846: Symphony in D minor

W H Bell (1873-1946)
Organist, lecturer and composer William Henry Bell studied with Frederick Corder and Charles Villiers Stanford at both the RAM and the RCM. He was professor of Harmony at the Royal Academy between 1903 to 1912, after which he moved to Cape Town, South Africa. He wrote a great deal of orchestral, choral, opera, chamber music and songs.
1899 – Symphony No 1 in C minor “Walt Whitman”
1908 – Symphony: listed (unnumbered) in Who’s Who in Music (1913)
1918 – Symphony No 2 in A minor
1919 – Symphony No 3 in F
1927 – Symphony No 4 in A minor: “South African”
1932 – Symphony No 5 in F minor

Julius Benedict (1804-1885)
A German-born composer (who knew Weber and met Beethoven in Vienna), Benedict moved to England in 1835 and stayed. He was conductor of the English Opera at Drury Lane from 1838 and produced three of his own operas there. He was also the conductor at various London theatres and conducted every Norwich Festival from 1848 until 1878. Aside from eight operas (including The Lily of Kilarney, Covent Garden, 1862), Benedict wrote oratorios, cantatas, overtures, piano concertos and two symphonies.
1873 – Symphony in G minor: Op 101, fp Crystal Palace, 22 November 1873
1874-6 – Symphony in C: fp Crystal Palace, 17 April 1875

William Sterndale Bennett (1816-75)
Composer, pianist, conductor and academic, along with Macfarren one of the leading Victorian musical figures just prior to Parry and Stanford. He studied at the Royal Acadamy of Music for a decade, starting at the age of 10. He became friendly with Mendelssohn and Schumann, and worked in Leipzig for three years. He returned to the Royal Academy to teach in 1837, and also taught at Queens College London and at Cambridge. He wrote music considered adventurous in his early years, then composed little in the 1840s and 1850s before starting again from 1858 onwards. Most of his symphonies were written during the 1830s and 1840s. The two later symphonies (the G minor in 1867 and E minor in 1874) were written in much the same style as his earlier works and by then considered old-fashioned. (Information on Bennett’s catalogue is confused and contradictory).
1832 – Symphony No 1 in E flat major
1832-3 – Symphony No 2 in D minor
1833 – Symphony No 3 (lost) (there is an overture in d minor from 1833, suspected to be a surviving part)
1833-4 – Symphony No 4 in A major
1835-6 – Symphony No 5 in G minor
1836-7 – Symphony No 6 in B minor (lost, was probably incomplete)
1838-40 – Symphony No 7 (lost, may have been sketches only)
1863-4 – Symphony No 8 in G minor, op 43 (revised 1867)
1874 – Symphony No 9 in E minor(further research required)

Arthur Bliss (1891-1975)
Bliss is not typically regarded as a symphonist. His training was interrupted by World War One, so it wasn’t until the post war period that his first works emerged, in modernist style and showing the influence of the French. A Colour Symphony, composed under the supervision of his teacher Vaughan Williams and commissioned through the influence of Elgar for 1922’s Three Choirs Festival, was his first large scale symphonic work and helped establish him as a “serious” composer. Other works include 1931’s Morning Heroes (described as a symphony for chorus and orchestra), as well as the Clarinet Quintet and a series of ballet scores including Checkmate and Adam Zero. By the 1950s Bliss had become an establishment figure and was appointed Master of the Queen’s Music in 1953 as the successor to Arnold Bax.
1921-2 – A Colour Symphony (rev. 1932). fp 3 Choirs Fest. 1922
1931 – Symphony for chorus and orchestra “Morning Heroes”

Christopher Bodman (1949-2004)
Composer of solo piano works, three piano concertos and A Woodlands Symphony, inspired by his love of nature. His piano work Butterfly Metamorphosis was first performed at the Brighton Festival in 2003. Bodman lived in Chalfont St Peters.
2001: A Woodlands Symphony

Derek Bourgeois (b 1941)
Studied at Cambridge and the RCM with Herbert Howells and Adrian Boult. He lectured at Bristol Univesity and later became head of music at St Paul’s Girls School in London. Bourgeois is best known for his band music, and has arranged some of his orchestral music for band. He is the UK’s most prolific symphony composer with over 90 numbered works, most of them written from 2003 onwards.
1961: Symphony No 1 in G minor, op 10
1968: Symphony No 2, op 27
1977: Symphony No 3, op 57
1978: Symphony No 4 “Wine Symphony”, op 58
1980: Symphony No 5, op 68
1980: Symphony Of Winds, op 67
1984: Sinfonietta for Chamber Orchestra, op 93
1988: Symphony No 6 “A Cotswold Symphony”, op 109
1999: Symphony No 7 “The First Two Thousand Years”, op 158 for tenor, chorus and orchestra
2002: Symphony No 8 “The Mountains of Majorca”, op 184a
2003: Symphonies Nos No 9 to 15
2004: Symphonies Nos 16-19
2005: Symphonies Nos 20-27
2006: Symphonies Nos 28-35
2007: Symphonies Nos 36-41
2008: Symphonies Nos 42-43
2009: Symphonies Nos 44-52
2010: Symphonies Nos 53-62
2011: Symphonies Nos 63-68
2012: Symphonies Nos 69-80
2013: Symphonies Nos 81-89
2014: Symphonies Nos 90-91

Edwin York Bowen (1884-1961)
Composer, pianist and conductor, especially noted for his piano music. Bowen studied with Corder and Matthey at the RAM. He wrote over 160 works, including four piano concertos (which he premiered himself as a soloist), a viola concerto and a concerto for horn, strings and timpani. He also wrote a grea deal of piano music, such as the 24 Preludes, op 102. But by the 1930s his romantic style had fallen out of fashion. There was something of a revival of interest in the 1980s.
1902 – Symphony No 1 in G major op 4
1905 – Symphonic Fantasia, A Tone Poem in F major, op 16
1909 – Symphony No 2 in E minor op 31(New SO/Landon Ronald, Queen’s Hall, 1.2.1912)
1942 – Symphonic Suite
1951 – Symphony No 3 op 137 (1951 BBCNO/Maurice Miles) – score lost but there is a BBC recording
1961 – Symphony No 4 in G major (incomplete)

William Boyce (c1711-1779)
A chorister at St Paul’s, Boyce subsequently studied with Maurice Greene and became an organist at the Oxford Chapel in 1734, and Master of the King’s Music in 1755. He edited works by Greene, Byrd and Purcell as well as composing theatre music, anthems, odes and chamber music (including 12 trio sonatas. His music was long forgotten by revived in the 1930s by Constant Lambert. His eight symphonies, published as such together in 1860, were written during the previous 21 years as overtures to vocal or stage works. They are all in 3 movements, except No 6 (2 movements).
1760 – Eight Symphonies in Eight Parts, op 2 (No 1 in Bb, No 2 in A, No 3 in C, No 4 in Fmin, No 5 in D, No 6 in F, No 7 in Bb, No 8 in Dmin)

Havergal Brian (1876-1972)
Born in Staffordshire, Brian’s first musical experience was as an organist at a local church. He was self-taught, though he got to know Elgar and Granville Bantock. After moving to London he became the assistant editor of Musical Opinion, a job he held until 1939. He started composing at the age of 19. Brian is unique in the history of the modern symphony in that he wrote 32, even more remarkable because his first symphony (the famous Gothic) was completed in 1927 when he was already 51 years old. And 27 of his symphonies – from number six onwards – were composed after he reached the age of 72. Unlike the two-hour long Gothic, however, many of them are very brief, often between 10 and 15 minutes long. Symphony No 32 came out in 1968 when he was 92. See here for an annotated list of the symphonies..
1907-8 – A Fantastic Symphony
1919-27 – Symphony No 1 “Gothic”
1930-31 – Symphony No 2 in E minor
1931-2 – Symphony No 3 in C# minor
1932-3 – Symphony No 4 in C major
1937 – Symphony No 5 “Wine of Summer”
1948 – Symphony No 6 “Sinfonia tragica”
1948 – Symphony No 7 in C major
1949 – Symphony No 8 in B flat minor
1951 – Symphony No 9 in A minor
1954 – Symphony No 10 in C minor
1954 – Symphony No 11
1957 – Symphony No 12
1959 – Symphony No 13 in C major
1959-60 – Symphony No 14 in F minor
1960 – Symphony No 15 in A major
1960 – Symphony No 16
1960-61 – Symphony No 17
1961 – Symphony No 18
1961 – Symphony No 19 in E minor
1962 – Symphony No 20 in C sharp minor
1963 – Symphony No 21 in E flat major
1964-5 – Symphony No 22 “Symphonia Brevis”
1965 – Symphony No 23
1965 – Symphony No 24 in D major
1966 – Symphony No 25 in A minor
1966 – Symphony No 26
1966 – Symphony No 27 in C major
1967 – Symphony No 28 in C minor
1967 – Symphony No 29 in E flat major
1967 – Symphony No 30 in B flat minor
1968 – Symphony No 31
1968 – Symphony No 32 in Ab major

Thomas Arthur Burton (1842-1935)
Educated at Cheltenham, where he studies the organ, harmony and counterpoint under James Uglow, Burton became organist of St Peter’s in Bournemouth. His first symphony in E major was premiered under Dan Godfrey in Bournemouth on 6 March 1899, and his fourth on the 13 November, 1911, conducted by the composer. The only recorded dates of performances of Nos 2 and 3 are listed.
1899 – Symphony No 1 in E major
1903 – Symphony No 2 in E minor
1905 – Symphony No 3 “Variations”
1911 – Symphony No 4

Arthur Butterworth (1923-2014)
Manchester-born composer who played in brass bands while a teenager. He studied composition with Richard Hall at the Royal Northern College and played the trumpet in various orchestras until the 1960s. As well as the seven numbered symphonies he wrote symphonic studies, concertos (including the Viola Concerto in 1988), brass band pieces and around 40 chamber works.
1949: Sinfonietta op 9
1956: Symphony No 1, op 15 (Cheltenham Festival, July 1957)
1964: Symphony No 2, op 25 (Halle, 1965)
1967: A Moorland Symphony op 32 for bass solo, chorus and orchestra (Saddleworth Festival, 1967)
1979: Symphony No 3 “Sinfonia Borealis” op 52
1986: Symphony No 4, op 72
2001: Sinfonia Concertante for Brass Band, op 113
2002: Symphony No. 5, op 115 (2001-2)
2006: Symphony No 6, op 124
2012: Symphony No 7, op 140

Adam Carse (1878-1958)
Born in Newcastle, studied at the Royal Academy of Music where he was later a professor. Author, editor of classical symphonies and collector of antique wind instruments, Carse was also a prolific composer, best known today for his music for student string players and pianists. His fifth symphony was written in memory of his son, killed in action. Manuscripts of the symphonies are at RAM.
1904: Symphony No 1 in C minor
1907: Symphony No 2 in G minor
1927: Symphony No 3 in F major
1937: Miniature Symphony in D for string orchestra
1941: Symphony No 4 in C major
1945: Symphony No 5 in E flat major

Richard Causton (born 1971)
Causton was born in East London and still lives there. He studied in York and Milan. His breakthrough work was The Persistence of Memory for chamber orchestra in 1995. The Chamber Symphony, recorded on NMC, uses a combination of live and pre-recorded music. Twenty-Seven Heavens, for large orchestra, premiered in 2012.
2009 Chamber Symphony (revised 2010)

Francis Chagrin (1905-72)
Born in Romania (his real name was Alexander Paucker), Chagrin studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and Paul Dukas. In 1934 he came to England for further study with Matyas Seiber, and settled permanently in England in 1936. Chagrin worked for the BBC and produced light music (such as the Roumanian Rhapsody for Larry Adler) and film music (such as The Colditz Story, 1954). But he also founded the Committee for the Promotion of New Music (which became the SPNM) in 1943. As well as his two symphonies he wrote a piano concerto in 1948, a wind octet, orchestral suites, numerous pieces for string orchestra and songs. A third symphony remained unfinished.
1959 – Symphony No 1 in G (published Novello 1967)
1970 – Symphony No 2

Muzio Clementi (1752-1832)
Italian born composer who moved to England in 1774 and lived in London for nearly 60 years. During a tour of Europe in 1781 he engaged in a piano competition with Mozart. He was a famous pianist, produced his own brand of pianos, was an influential music publisher, and conducted at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket. His pupils included John Field, Cramer, Moscheles, Myerbeer, Hummel and Czerny, and he influenced Beethoven. His sonatas (over 100 of them) were among the first works to exploit the new possibilities of the piano. Six symphonies have survived, including two early works published in 1787, and four numbered symphonies.
1807 – Symphony No 1 in C Major
1813? – Symphony No 2 in D Major: two symphonies by Clementi were featured in the first Philharmonic Society concert season in 1813.
1816? – Symphony No 3 “The Great National”: the main theme is based on “God Save the King”. Also written for the Philharmonic Society, of which Clementi was a director.
1823? – Symphony No 4 in D Major: spacious in the manner of Beethoven with powerful allegro, romantic slow movement and rhythmically bold minor key schezo.

Frederic Cliffe (1857-1931)
Cliffe taught piano at the Royal College of Music from 1884 until his death. His pupils included John Ireland and Arthur Benjamin. But he composed only a handful of substantial works between 1889 and 1905, including a violin concerto and two symphonies.
1889 – Symphony No 1 in C minor (fp Crystal Palace, 20 April 1889)
1892 – Symphony No 2 in E minor “Summer Night”, (fp Leeds Festival)

Arnold Cooke (1906-2005)
Cooke studied in Berlin with Hindemith (his primary influence) and became a professor at the Royal Manchester College of Music in the early 1930s, when he began composing. After serving in the Navy during the war he returned to London to found the Composer’s Guild and to teach harmony and composition at Trinity College of Music. He ceased composing in the late 1980s. His works include two operas (Mary Barton and The Invisible Duke, ballet, concertos (including two clarinet concertos), chamber music (including five string quartets and a clarinet quintet), instrumental and vocal music (such as The Seamew, for baritone, oboe, string quartet and flute).
1947 – Symphony No 1 (1945-7)
1963 – Symphony No 2
1968 – Symphony No 3 (1967-8)
1974 – Symphony No 4 (1973-4)
1979 – Symphony No 5 (1978-9)
1984 – Symphony No 6 (1983-4) (fp 7 Sept 2016, BBC Phil cond. Gourlay, Salford Media City)

Ronald Corp (b 1951)
Composer, conductor of the New London Orchestra, and a priest. Studied at Oxford. He has written much choral music and songs, but also three string quartets, a clarinet quintet and a piano sonata. Orchestral works include Guernsey Postcards, a Piano Concerto (1997) and The Wayfarer (2011) for sixteen solo singers and orchestra. The symphony has been recorded (Dutton).
2009 – Symphony No 1

Frederic Cowen (1852-1935)
Cowen studied piano with Julius Benedict and composition with John Goss before continuing his studies in Leipzig under Carl Reinecke and in Berlin with Friedrich Kiel. He appeared regularly in public as a pianist from 1863, but his first symphony in 1869 marked his emergence as a composer. His third “Scandinavian” symphony became highly popular, establishing him internationally. It became the most widely performed British symphony up until the arrival of Elgar’s first. Cowen regarded himself as a symphonist, but a handful of his light orchestral works have been the only pieces to have received occasional revivals since his death.
1869 – Symphony No 1 in C minor (fp St James Hall, 9 December) (score lost?)
1872 – Symphony No 2 in F minor (fp Crystal Palace, 5 April 1873) (score lost?)
1880 – Symphony No 3 in C minor “Scandinavian”
1884 – Symphony No 4 in Bb minor “Cambrian” (or “Welsh”)
1887 – Symphony No 5 in F major
1897 – Symphony No 6 in E major “The Idyllic” (May 1897, Hans Richter)

William Crotch (1775-1847)
Organist at Christ Church, Oxford, professor of Oxford University, 1797, first Principal, Royal Acadamy of Music (1822-32). Best known for his oratorio Palestine (1812), though he may also have composed the Westminster Chimes in 1793. The two symphonies have been recorded by Hilary Davan Wetton and the Milton Keynes Chamber Orchestra.
1814 – Symphony in F Major
1817 – Symphony in Eb Major (unfinished)

Matthew Curtis (b 1959)
Cumbrian composer writing in the light music tradition of Eric Coates and Haydn Wood. He began composing a series of short orchestral pieces from the 1890s onwards, among them Pas de Deux (1981), Rondo Brillante (1985) and the Amsterdam Suite (1995).
1980 – Symphony in D major
1998 – Symphonic Suite “Paths to Urbino”
2001- Sinfonietta

Cedric Thorpe Davie (1913-1983)
Scottish composer, studied at the Royal Collage of Music under Vaughan Williams, Gordon Jacob and R.O. Morris and later in Bucharest with Kodaly. He became master of music at St Andrews in 1946. His compositions include the Phantasie Quartet (1935), a one act opera Gammer Gerton’s Needle (1936), the Concerto for Piano and Strings (1944), and film scores including Rob Roy (1953), Jacqueline ( 1956) and Kidnapped (1959). He also wrote a book on musical form: Musical Structure and Design. His Symphony was entered for the Daily Express symphony competition of 1945 and came second to the Symphony No 1 (“Symphony of Liberation”) by Bernard Stevens.
1945 – Symphony in C major “In Honour of My Brother” – fp Royal Albert Hall, 7 July 1946, cond. Constant Lambert.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (b 1934)
Maxwell Davies was born in Salford and studied at the University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester College of Music, where fellow students included Harrison Birtwistle and Alexander Goehr. His breakthrough piece was Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969). He has lived in the Orkney Islands since 1971. Davies has also written a cycle of ten string quartets, starting from 2002. He became Master of the Queen’s Music from 2004, succeeding Malcolm Williamson.
1962 – Sinfonia for Orchestra (9 May, RFH, Colin Davis)
1976 – Symphony No 1 (2 February 1978, RFH, Rattle)
1980 – Symphony No 2 (26 Feb 1981, Boston, Ozawa)
1984 – Symphony No 3 (19 Feb 1985, Manchester, Downes)
1989 – Symphony No 4 (10 Sept, Proms)
1994 – Symphony No 5 (9 Aug, Proms)
1996 -Symphony No 6 (22 June, St Magnus Festival, Orkney)
2000 – Symphony No 7 (19 June, St Magnus Festival, Orkney)
2000 – Symphony No 8 “Antarctic” (6 May 2001, RFH, PMD)
2012 – Symphony No 9, Op 315 (9 June, Liverpool, RLPO, Petrenko)

Henry Walford Davies (1869-1941)
Walford Davies became best known as an educationalist and strong communicator, broadcasting a series of lectures on BBC Radio entitled Music and the Ordinary Listener. He was Master of the King’s Music from 1934 until his death. As a composer, he wrote much choral, orchestral and chamber music, but only the hymn “God Be In My Head” and the Solomn Melody for organ are remembered today
1894 – Symphony in D Major (English Music Festival, May 2013)
1906 – Sacred Symphony, “Lift up your Hearts,” op 20 for baritone, chorus and orchestra (fp Hereford, 1906)
1911 – Symphony No 2 in G
1927 – A Children’s Symphony in F for small orchestra

Bernard van Dieren (1887-1936)
Dutch composer and polymath who moved to London in 1909. He met Busoni and Schoenberg in Europe in 1912. Despite strong advocacy from Philip Heseltine and Cecil Gray his music (mostly chamber works and songs) never gained wide currency, partly because of its complexity. His Chinese Symphony was broadcast by the BBC in 1935, conducted by Constant Lambert, and again in 1972, conducted by Myer Fredman.
1914 – Chinese Symphony for five solo voices, chorus and orchestra
[undated] – Symphony No 2 in three dance movements (Ciaconna; Sarabande (unfinished) and Gaillarde)

David Campbell Dorward (b 1933)
Scottish composer, studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Manuel Frankell and John Gardner, worked as a music producer at the BBC in Edinburgh. Has has composed four concertos, five string quartets, songs and hymn tunes as well as music for radio and TV, and a musical A Christmas Carol.
1960 – Symphony No 1 (fp BBC SO /Stanford Robinson, Glasgow, Dec 1 1965)
1966 – Sinfonietta for strings, op 34
1995 – Symphony No 2

Christopher Edmunds (1899-1990)
Birmingham-based composer, academic and BBC producer who studied with Granville Bantock. Best known for his Sonatina for recorder and piano, but many light music pieces were broadcast by the BBC Midland Light orchestra during the 1960s. He also wrote four operas (including The Blue Harlequin, performed in 1929 and 1937), choral works, chamber music and part songs. His second symphony has been described as “a turbulent wartime symphony”. The third (date not exactly known, but written at around the same time as the others) remains unperformed.
1937 – Symphony No in D for strings (Birmingham, December 1949)
1940 – Symphony No 2 in D (Birmingham, December 1949)
c1941 – Symphony No 3 (unperformed)

John Lodge Ellerton (1801-1873)
Amateur composer and poet who knew Wagner. Educated at Rugby and Oxford, then studied music in Rome with Terziani. He wrote 10 operas, at least fifty string quartets and six symphonies, as well as church music and songs.
1845? – Symphony No 1 in F, op 65 (fp London, Dec 11, 1849)
1845 – Symphony No 2 in D, op 66 (fp London 1847)
1857 – Symphony No 3 in D minor, op 120 “Waldsymphonie”
1857? – Symphony no 4 in E flat, op 126
1858 – Symphony No 5 in C, op 123
1858 – Symphony no 6 in E minor, op 127

David Ellis (b.1933)
Born in Liverpool, Ellis studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music between 1953-7 during the era of the New Music Manchester Group (Maxwell Davies, Birtwistle, Elgar Howarth, Alexander Goehr and John Ogdon). He worked as a producer at the BBC from 1964 until 1986. A prolific compose whose works include orchestral (including concertos for violin, cello, piano), string music (the Vale Royal Suite and chamber music (including three string quartets).
1948-50 – Sinfonietta (revised 1965)
1972-3 – Symphony No 1, op 38 (commissioned Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society)
1995 – Symphony No 2, op 52 (fp 22 October 2003 – BBC Philharmonic/Jason Lai)
1998 – Symphony No 3, op 59 (Images from Beyond Infinity)

Thomas Erskine (6th Earl of Kelly) (1732-1781)
Scottish composer born in Edinburgh, studied in Germany with Stamitz and a deciple of the Mannheim style. His Overture in Bb for The Maid of the Mill became very popular at Covent Garden in 1765. His surviving music includes nine trio sonatas and nine string quartets. Six of his three-movement “overtures” were published together in 1761.
1761 – Six Overtures in Eight Parts (No 1 in D, No 2 in C, No 3 in D, No 4 in Eb, No 5 in G, No 6 in F)

Robert Farnon (1917-2005)
Canadian composer best known for his light music, arrangements and film and TV music. He began his career conducting and arranging band music and as a jazz trumpeter in Canada. He moved to England at the end of the war and later to Guernsey, becoming highly regarded as an arranger. His famous light music pieces include “Jumping Bean” and “Westminster Waltz”. But Farnon also wrote two symphonies in the 1940s, and a third right at the end of his life.
1941 – Symphony No 1 in Db Major (prem: Toronto Symphony Orch)
1942 – Symphony No 2 in Bb Major “Ottawa”
2004 – Symphony No 3 “Edinburgh” (fp 14 May, 2005, Usher Hall)

Percy Fletcher (1879-1932)
Born in Derby, Fletcher made his name as the director of music for various London theatres, but is now mostly remembered for his brass band and military music. He wrote An Epic Symphony for the brass band National Championships of 1926.
1926 – An Epic Symphony for brass band

Benjamin Frankel (1906-73)
Born in London to Polish-Jewish parents, Frankel learned the violin from an early age and initially began making a living as a jazz violinist. In the 1930s he produced dance band arrangements for Henry Hall and wrote theatre and film music. After World War II he began to build his reputation as a serious composer with the Violin Concerto (1951), first performed by Max Rostal. He wrote over 30 film scores, a Viola Concerto, an opera, five string quartets, a solo violin sonata (also for Rostal) and other chamber and orchestral music. His later works encompassed 12 note composition.
1958: Symphony No 1, op 33
1962: Symphony No 2, op 38
1964: Symphony No 3, op 40
1966: Symphony No 4, op 44
1967: Symphony No 5, op 46
1969: Symphony No 6, op 49
1970: Symphony No 7, op 50
1971: Symphony No 8, op 53

Peter Racine Fricker (1920–1990)
After serving in the Royal Air Force as a radio operator, Fricker studied with Seiber at Morley College and taught composition at the RCM from 1955. Although early works such as the First Symphony and First Violin Concerto were well received, his music, influenced by Bartok, Hindemith and Schoenberg, soon fell out of fashion. He moved to California in 1964, where he was highly regarded, and stayed there for the rest of his life. Works include many orchestral pieces and concertos, chamber music (including four quartets) and large scale choral works such as The Vision of Judgment (1958).
1949 – Symphony No 1 (Cheltenham Festival, 1950)
1951 – Symphony No 2, op 14 (1950-51)
1961 – Symphony No 3
1966 – Symphony No 4 (1964-66)
1975 – Symphony No 5

Henry Gadsby (1842-1907)
Organist and composer, one of the first professors at the Guildhall School of Music. He wrote three symphonies, overtures, string quartets, instrumental music, choral music and songs.
???? – Symphony No 1 in C
1871 – Symphony No 2 in A (fp Crystal Palace, 11 Feb 1871)
1888 – Symphony No 3 in D major “Festal” (fp Crystal Palace, 3 Nov 1888)

Hans Gál (1890-1987)
Gál was born in Austria and established himself as a composer in Vienna before the first world war, writing works in all genres, but especially opera. He was influenced by Schumann and Brahms, but didn’t become a follower of the Second Viennese school. To escape the rise of Hitler (and after considerable persecution), Gal was forced to leave central Europe for the UK, where he lived and worked from 1938, mostly teaching in Edinburgh. He wrote cello and violin concertos, the three movement Triptych for Orchestra and much piano and chamber music, including four string quartets.
1927: Symphony No 1 in D major
1946: Symphony No 2 in F major (1942-43)
1952: Symphony No 3 in A major
1974: Symphony No 4 (Sinfonia Concertante) (fp 1975)

John Gardner (1917-2011)
Gardner studied at Exeter College, Oxford and was briefly music master at Repton School before enlisting in 1939. After the war he rejected his earlier pieces and started again with opus 1 (three songs for women’s chorus and piano). His 249 opus numbers include an opera, concertos for bassoon, flute, oboe, piano and trumpet, much chamber and instrumental music, as well as the songs and choral music he remains best known for. Gardner wrote three symphonies: the first in particular was well received at its Cheltenham Festival premiere in 1951.
1946-7 – Symphony No 1 in D minor, op 2 (fp 5 July 1951, Halle, Barbirolli, Cheltenham.
1984-5 – Symphony No 2 in E flat, op 166 (fp 12 July 1985, Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra, Adrian Brown, Fairfield Hall)
1989 – Symphony No 3 in E minor, op 189 (fp 6 March 1990, Morley College Orchestra, Southwark Cathedral)

Michael Garrett (b 1944)
Garrett was born in Leicestershire and studied at the Guildhall School of Music under Rubbra. During the 1960s and 70s he composed and performed jazz and experimental works, wrote the scores for two Ken Russell films (Women in Love and Savage Messiah). He worked with John Cale and moved to the USA to join experimental rock group The Velvet Underground. Garrett also directed music for Lindsay Kemp’s mime company (including David Bowie).
1966 – Sinfonia for piano and orchestra, op 7 (1965–1966)
1974 – A New Renaissance, Symphonie Concertante for woodwind, strings and percussion, op 9 (1973–1974)
1985 – Symphony No 2, op 37
1986 – Symphony No 3, op 46 for large orchestra with rock percussionist
1987 – Symphony No 4, op 56
1988 – Symphony No 5, op 61 in one movement
1989 – Symphony No 6, op 75
1990 – Symphony No 7, op 82
1998 – Symphony No 8, op 121 (1997–1998)
2002 – Symphony No 9, op 144 in one movement
2003 – Symphony No 10, op 148 (2002–2003)
2005 – Symphony No 11 with soprano, tenor and baritone soloists, in ten movements (2003-5)
2008 – Symphony No 12 “Le Retour du Printemps” in one movement, op 200
2009 – Symphony No 13, op 225

Edward German (1862-1936)
English composer of Welsh descent, best known for his light opera such as Merrie England (1902) and Tom Jones (1907), which filled something of a vacuum following the death of Arthur Sullivan in 1900. Edward German began composing both serious and light music in the mid-1880s. He became music director of the Globe Theatre in 1888 and wrote much incidental music for the theatre, including Nell Gwynn (1900). He wrote songs and piano music as well as orchestral music such as the Welsh Rhapsody (1904), orchestral suites, symphonic poems and two symphonies, as well as the Symphonic Suite in D minor. German all but ceased composing from 1912.
1887 – Symphony No 1 in E minor (revised 1890)
1893 – Symphony No 2 in A minor “Norfolk” (or “The Norwich”)
1895 – Symphonic Suite in D minor “Leeds”

Francis E Gladstone (1845-1928)
Church organist (Llandaff, Chichester and Norwich) and professor at the RCM. Studied with S S Wesley. Composed mostly church music and wrote a book on counterpoint. He was a cousin of the prime minister.
1899 – Symphony in G

Alexander Goehr (b 1932)
Born in Berlin, his father was the conductor Walter Goehr, a pupil of Schoenberg. A member of the “Manchester School” of composers (alongside Maxwell-Davies, Harrison Birtwistle and John Ogden). Goehr was influenced by Messiaen as well as Schoenberg – he conducted the UK premiere of the Turangalîla Symphony in 1953 and studied with Messiaen in 1955. He also became a friend of Boulez. He has written opera, chamber, vocal and orchestral works.
1963 – Little Symphony, op 15
1969 – Symphony in One Movement, op 29
1979 – Sinfonia, op 42
1986 – Symphony with Chaconne, op 48

David F Golightly (b 1948)
Golightly studied composition with Richard Steinitz and orchestration with Arthur Butterworth at Huddersfield University. His compositional style has been influenced by Shostakovich and Britten. Works include Moods for solo clarinet (1980, written for Roger Heaton), an opera The Eye (1993), choral works such as Rites of Passage (1993) and the St Petersburg Mass (1994), and the Piano Trio No 1 (“Letters of Regret”).
2000 – Symphony No 1 (Middlesbrough), recorded 2000, City of Prague Orchestra/Gavin Sutherland. UK premiere 2011, Northern Sinfonia/Tim Redmond
2013 – Symphony No 2 (ongoing revisions)

Adam Gorb (b 1958)
Welsh composer, studied with Hugh Wood and Robin Holloway at Cambridge. He is now head of composition at the Royal Northern College of Music. Best known for short, energetic pieces originally for wind band, such as Awayday (1996). There is also a ballet, Kol Simcha (1995), two string quartets and concertos for cello, clarinet, euphonium and trombone. The Symphony No 1 has thematic and structural links with Beethoven’s first symphony and there are quotes from other symphonies in the fourth movement.
2000: Symphony No 1 in C for wind ensemble

John Greenwood (1889-1975)
John Danforth Herman Greenwood studied at the RCM and is best known for the nearly 50 film scores he wrote between the 1930s and 1940s. But he also wrote a considerable amount of orchestral, operatic, choral and chamber music.
1935: Symphonic Movement (fp Jan 24 1938, cond. C Lambert)
1940: Symphony No 1 (in two movements, first movement may be identical with Symphonic Movement above)
1947: Symphony No 2
1958: Symphonic movement “Buonarotti” (1957-8)

Christopher Gunning (b 1944)
Gunning studied at the Guildhall School of Music under Edmund Rubbra and Richard Rodney Bennett, and became very successful as a composer of film and TV music (such as La Vie en Rose, 2007 and the Poirot series). Concert works include concertos for saxophone, clarinet, flute, oboe and piano, and a string quartet.
2002 – Symphony No 1 (recorded, Albany, 2004)
2003 – Symphony No 2 (awaiting performance/recording)
2005 – Symphony No 3 (recorded, Chandos, May 2009)
2007 – Symphony No 4 (recorded, Chandos, May 2009)
2009 – Symphony no 5 (recorded, Discovery, March 2013)
2010 – Symphony No 6 (recorded, Discovery)
2011 – Symphony No 7 (recorded, Discovery)

David Hackbridge Johnson (b 1963)
Prolific composer (over 500 works) of symphonies, tone poems, choral, vocal and chamber music (including seven string quartets and 12 piano sonatas), also active as a composer and arranger of jazz and popular music and as a classical violinist. For many years he was a member of Jazz Circus.  He was a friend of Denis ApIvor in his later years and has worked with the late Ronald Stevenson and with Michael Garrett.
1980-81 – Symphony No 1 in A minor, op 2
1987 – Symphony No 2 in F, op 6 No 1
1988-94 – Symphony No 3 in A, op 6 No 2
1994 – Symphony No 4 “Sinfonia Scientifica” op 21 No 1
1994-5 – Symphony No 5 “March of the Paradigms” op 21 No 2
2001-2 – Symphony No 6 in F# minor, op 105
2002 – Symphony No 7, op 115, for chamber orchestra
2002-3 – Symphony No 8 “On Byzantine Hymns” op 116
2012 – Symphony No 9 in C# minor, op 295 (in three movements)

Edward Harper (1941-2009)
Harper studied at Oxford, at the RCM with Gordon Jacob and then in Milan with Franco Donatoni. His 1970 Piano Concerto confirmed his modernist preferences. From the mid-1960s on he was associated with the University of Edinburgh as a lecturer and reader. He founded the New Music Group of Scotland in 1973 and directed it until 1991. He wrote operas (including Hedda Gabler, premiered by Scottish Opera in 1985), orchestral song cycles such as Homage to Thomas Hardy (1990) and two symphonies, beginning a third symphony before his death that remains uncompleted.
1979 – Symphony No 1
2007 – Symphony No 2 for Chorus and Orchestra (incomplete version premiered 2006)
2009 – Symphony No 3 (incomplete)

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Haydn, often credited as “The Father of the Symphony” spent most of his career as court musician for the Esterházy family in Austria. But late in life he was persuaded by German impresario Johnann Peter Salomon to travel, and his two visits to England (1791-2 and 1794-5) were a great success. The last 12 of his 104 symphonies are known as “The London Symphonies” – numbers 93-8 were composed (in London) during his first visit, and numbers 99-104 (composed in Vienna and London) for performance during the second visit.
1791 – Symphony No 93 in D major
1791 – Symphony No 94 in G major, “Surprise”
1791 – Symphony No 95 in C minor
1791 – Symphony No 96 in D major, “Miracle”
1792 – Symphony No 97 in C major
1792 – Symphony No 98 in B-flat major
1793 – Symphony No 99 in E-flat major
1794 – Symphony No 100 in G major, “Military” (1793-1794)
1794 – Symphony No 101 in D major, “Clock” (1793-1794)
1794 – Symphony No 102 in B-flat major
1795 – Symphony No 103 in E-flat major, “Drumroll”
1795 – Symphony No 104 in D major “London”

William Herschel (1738-1822)
Best known today as an astronomer, William Herschel was actually a professional musician and only an amateur astronomer. He wrote 24 symphonies, all in three movements, 18 of them for small orchestra between 1760 and 1762 and six for full orchestra between 1762 and 1764. Herschel also wrote 12 concertos, plus instrumental sonatas, organ works and choral anthems. His brother Jacob Herschel also published two symphonies
1760 – Symphony No 2 in D
1760 – Symphony No 4 in F minor
1761 – Symphony No 8 in C minor
1761 – Symphony No 12 in D
1762 – Symphony No 13 in D
1762 – Symphony No 14
1762 – Symphony No 15 in Eb
1762 – Symphony No 17 in C

Henry Holloway (1871-1948)
Born in Worcester but for many years associated with Bournemouth where he was an organist and chorus master. Holloway also conducted the Dorset Philharmonic. His light music compositions include Three Novelettes, an Egyptian Suite and Sea Fancies.
1909 – Symphony No 1 in E minor (fp (Bournemouth, March 1911)
1911 – Symphony No 2 in D minor

Alfred Holmes (1837-1876)
Violinist and composer, brother of Henry Holmes. He moved to Paris in 1864. As well as a series of programmatic symphonies he wrote an opera Inez de Castro, plus overtures, piano music and songs.
1867 – Symphony No 1, “Jeanne d’Arc,” for solo voices, chorus and orchestra (fp St. Petersburg, 1867)
???? – Symphony No 2, “The Youth of Shakespeare” (fp Paris)
1870 – Symphony No 3, “The Siege of Paris” (fp Paris, 1870)
1870 – Symphony No 4, “Robin Hood” (fp Paris, 1870)
???? – Symphony No 5, “Charles XII.”
???? – Symphony No 6, “Romeo and Juliet”

William Henry Holmes (1812-1885)
Pianist and composer, professor of piano at the RAM, where he taught Sterndale Bennett and George Macfarren. His compositions include symphonies (dates unknown), a ‘Jubilee’ piano concerto, a violin sonata and an opera The Elfin of the Lake.

Henry Holmes (1839-1905)
The younger brother of Alfred Holmes, Henry Holmes made his debut as a violinist at the age of eight, becoming Professor of Violin at the RCM in the 1860s. He wrote five symphonies, two string quartets, a violin concerto, chamber music and songs. After a scandal involving some of his pupils he moved to San Francisco.
1872 – Symphony No 1 in A (fp Crystal Palace, 24 Feb 1872)
???? – Symphony No 2
???? – Symphony No 3 in C “Boscastle” (fp St James Hall, 9 March 1887)
???? Symphony No 4 “Fraternity”
1887 – Symphony No 5, op 57 “Cumberland”

Gustav Holst (1874-1934)
Holst wrote a very early symphony in C minor, the Cotswold Symphony (the first orchestral work of his to be performed), and the Choral Symphony (1923-24) setting Keats. There are also fragments of a proposed second choral symphony setting George Meredith, and the Scherzo of a symphony he was working on at the time of his death. Some class The Planets (1914-16) as a symphony as the term “suite” is not really an adequate description.
1892 – Symphony in C minor (42 page score in British Library)
1900 – Symphony in F “Cotswold” op 8
1924 – First Choral Symphony op 41
1934 – Scherzo (from unfinished Symphony)

Wilfred Josephs (1927-97)
Josephs studied with Arthur Milner in Newcastle and later at the Guildhall School of Music, but also trained and worked as a dentist. He turned to full time composing after his Requiem won the La Scala composing competition in 1963. Josephs enjoyed considerable success through most of his career – nearly all of his numerous works were commissioned and performed. They include the opera Rebecca (1983), and over 20 concertos, as well as chamber music and songs. He’s best known for his television and film work, including the score for I Claudius (1977). But broadcasts and recordings were scarce, and by the end of his life Josephs felt neglected. The fifth symphony was recorded in Australia.
1955 – Symphony No 1 op 9 (revised 1957-8, 1974-5) (fp7/12/55, RFH, Goossens)
1964 – Symphony No 2 op 42 (fp 5/7/65 Cheltenham Festival, BBC Midland, Hurst)
1967 – Symphony No 3 “Philadelphia” op 59 (fp15/4/69, RFH, RPO, Peter Eros)
1970 – Symphony No 4 op 72 (1967-70) – with alto soloist (fp26/5/83, BBC broadcast)
1971 – Symphony No 5 “Pastoral” op 75 (fp 25/11/71, Hull Philharmonic)
1974 – Symphony No 6 op 83 with voices (soloists and chorus) (1972-4)
1976 – Symphony No 7 “Winter” op 96 (fp 14/12/78, Bournemouth Sinfonietta)
1977 – Symphony no 8 “The Four Elements” op 98 (fp 13/8/77, Harrogate Festival)
1980 – Symphony No 9 “Sinfonia Concertante” for small orchrestra (fp 11/2/81, Warrington)
1985 – Symphony No 10 “Circadian Rhythms” (fp 9/10/85 Norwich, LPO, Handley)
1992 – Symphony No 11 “Fireworks” for wind orchestra (fp 30/8/92, Dartington)
1995 – Symphony No 12 “Sinfonia Quixotica” (with violin and double bass solos)

John Joubert (b 1927)
Born and educated in South Africa, Joubert took private lessons with English composer W H Bell before moving to London in 1946 to study at the RAM with Howard Ferguson and Alan Bush. He subsequently taught music at Hull and Birmingham before retiring in 1986 to concentrate on composition. Some of his carols (ie Torches) and choral music is widely known, but he has written over 60 works, including seven operas (including Under Western Eyes, 1968), violin, piano, oboe and bassoon concertos, three string quartets, three piano sonatas, and two symphonies.
1955 – Symphony No 1 (fp City Hall, Hull, 1956)
1962 – Sinfonietta op 38
1970 – Symphony No 2 op 68 ((In memory of those killed at Sharpeville 21/3/60)) (Dutton recording)

Iain Kendell (1931-2001)
Born in London, Kendell first became known as a concert pianist and conductor, and also worked in music education. He started composing in 1957 but only turned to full time composition in 1985, living in Dorset. He wrote many works for children including a series of large scale cantatas, including Music of the Earth (1982). His chamber works include a string quartet, seven piano sonatas and two books of piano preludes.
1963: Hymn of Light: A choral symphony for children’s choir and chamber orchestra
2000: Symphony No 1 (strings and percussion)

Oliver King (1855-1923)
A chorister under Joseph Barnby at St Andrew’s, Wells Street in London, King went to study in Leipzig, then returned to England as a concert pianist and professor at the Royal Academy of Music, and precentor at St Marylebone Parish church. Although forgotten almost completely now, King published a lot of orchestral, church and vocal music, including the Prelude for Lent (recorded by Hyperion), Among the Pines (1883 – won Philharmonic Society prize for best overture) and a piano concerto (1885, St James’ Hall). He visited the US as a composer, conductor and solo pianist, and his one symphony (Night) was performed in Boston in October 1880, and published four years later by Novello.
1880 – Symphony in F major “Night” op 22

Frederic Lamond (1868-1948)
Scottish musician best known as a virtuoso pianist who studied with Liszt and Brahms. Lamond was living in Prague when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia in 1938. He was forced to return to London where he continued performing during the Second World War, dying in 1948 at the age of 80 in Stirling. Although best known as a performer he wrote an opera, several overtures (including the concert overture From The Scottish Highlands) and some chamber and instrumental music, all around the turn of the century. His symphony has been recorded on Hyperion by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Malcolm Brabbins.
1893 – Symphony No 1 in A Major, op 3

Henry Leslie (1822-1896)
Composer, conductor, and supporter of amateur choral musicians. He founded the Henry Leslie Choir and a number of music schools, including the predecessor of the Royal College of Music. Works include church music, the anthem Let God Arise, as well as oratorios, operettas and many part songs. Leslie’s second symphony “Chivalry” was the only major composition of his later years.
1848 – Symphony No 1 in F (fp Amateur Musical Society cond. Balfe)
1881 – Symphony No 2 in D minor “Chivalry” (fp Crystal Palace 17 Dec 1881))

George Lloyd (1913-98)
Lloyd grew up in St Ives, Cornwall and studied violin with Albert Sammons and composition with Frank Kitson and Harry Farjeon at Trinity College, London. He wrote his first symphony at the age of 19 and conducted its first performance by the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra in 1933. By 1938 he had written two operas, Iernin and The Serf, both of which had successful runs in London. But Lloyd suffered trauma while serving as a Royal Marines bandsman in World War II. He resumed composition in 1946, but his physical and mental health declined, as did interest in his mostly tonal music from the BBC and others. For 20 years his main activity was working as a market gardener in Dorset. But there was a revival of interest, and Lloyd began actively composing again from 1972 until his death. His works include three operas, four piano concertos, a cello concerto, chamber music and large scale choral works such Pervigilium Veneris, A Litany and A Symphonic Mass.
1932 – Symphony No 1 in A minor (in one movement) (fp Bournemouth 29 Nov 1933)
1933 – Symphony No 2 in E (fp Eastbourne March 1934)
1933 – Symphony No 3 in F (fp BBC SO/Lloyd, London 29 Nov 1935)
1946 – Symphony No 4 (1945-6) (fp Cheltenham Festival, 13 July 1981, Philharmonia/Downes)
1948 – Symphony No 5 (fp BBC broadcast 6 July 1979, Philharmonia/Downes)
1956 – Symphony No 6 (in three movements) (fp BBC Manchester broadcast, 31 Dec 1980, BBC NSO/Downes)
1959 – Symphony No 7 (1957-9) (orchestrated 1974) (fp Manchester 1979. BBCNSO/Downes)
1961 – Symphony No 8 (orchestrated, 1965) (fp Manchester, 4 July 1977, BBC NSO, Downes)
1969 – Symphony No 9 (fp Manchester, Dec 1982, BBCNSO/Downes)
1981 – Symphony No 10 (for brass only) (fp Manchester, Oct 1982, BBC Northern Brass Ensemble/Downes)
1985 – Symphony No 11 (fp Troy Music Hall, New York 31 Oct 1986, Albany SO/Lloyd)
1989 – Symphony No 12 (in one movement) (fp Troy Music Hall, New York 30 March 1990, Albany SO/Lloyd)
1993 – Symphonic Mass

Richard Harvey Löhr (1856 -1927)
Studied at the RAM under Prout (where his manuscripts are held). Works include two piano concertos, the oratorio Queen of Sheba, a choral work The Border Raid, the opera Kenilworth (1906) and Coronation March (1910).
1901 – Symphony No 1 in D minor
1905 – Symphony No 2 in A
1908 – Symphony No 3 in E minor “Life, Death and Resurrection”
1910 – Symphony No 4 in D minor

John McCabe (1939-2015)
Composer, pianist and teacher known for championing British music (particularly Bax and Rawsthorne) and for his complete recordings of the Haydn piano sonatas. He wrote thirteen symphonies before he was eleven, but there are seven in the official catalogue. He has also written seven string quartets (along with much other chamber and piano music), a flute concerto, three piano concertos, a concerto for orchestra and the ballet Edward II (1995). His publisher describes his characteristic style as “dramatic post tonalism with vivid orchestration”.
1964 – Symphony for 10 Wind Instruments
1965 – Symphony No 1 “Elegy”
1971 – Symphony No 2
1978 – Symphony No 3 “Hommages”
1994 – Symphony No 4 “Of Time and the River”
1997 – Six Minute Symphony (for strings)
1998 – Symphony No 5 “Edward II”
2006 – Symphony No 6 “On a Pavanne”
2007 – Symphony No 7 “Labyrinth”

George Macfarren (1813-87)
Composer and musicologist, studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Cipriani Potter from 1829, aged 16. He taught at the Academy from 1834 and succeeded William Sterndale Bennett as its principal from 1876 (He was also professor of music at Cambridge University from 1875). Macfarren had suffered from poor eyesight since childhood, and by 1860 had become totally blind. Wagner described him as “a pompous, melancholy Scotsman”. As well as nine symphonies he wrote concertos (for piano, flute and violin) and many choral and operatic works. His music is generally considered conservative for its time.
1828 – Symphony No 1 in C major
1829 – Symphony No 2 in D minor
1831 – Symphony No 3 in E minor
1833 – Symphony No 4 in F minor
1835 – Symphony No 5 in A minor
1836 – Symphony No 6 in B flat major
1840 – Symphony No 7 in C sharp minor
1845 – Symphony No 8 in D major
1874 – Symphony No 9 in E minor

John Marsh (1752-1828)
Although a lawyer by training, and an authority on astronomy and philosophy, Marsh was also a very prolific composer of at least 350 works including 39 symphonies, starting in the 1770s – numbers 30 to 39 were written after 1800. He lived in Chichester from 1787 until his death, and organized the subscription concerts there for 35 years. Only nine of the symphonies in his own catalogue (the ones that were printed) are extant, along with three one movement finales.

G W L Marshall-Hall (1862-1915)
George Marshall-Hall was London-born and studied (for a short while) with Stanford and Parry at the RCM, but at the age of 30 he emigrated to Australia, where he became Professor of Music at the University of Melbourne, gaining prominence as an Australian composer, perhaps the first substantial one. He became known as an eccentric. He wrote operas, orchestral works and chamber music. After his death his scores were purchased from his widow by Percy Grainger.
1892 – Symphony in C minor
1903 – Symphony in Eb (first London performance, Proms 20 Aug 1907, H Wood)

Carlo Martelli (b 1935)
Martelli studied at the RCM under Bernard Stevens and wrote an early first symphony (now lost). His “Opus 1” is the first String Quartet, written when he was seventeen. The Symphony No 2 followed shortly afterwards, along with a second string quartet and the Serenade for Strings. After the RCM Martelli became a viola player with the RPO under Beecham. He wrote mostly firm music in the 1960s, particularly for Hammer. But he all but ceased composing during the 1970s, returning to compose light orchestral works in the 1980s (including a series of arrangements for string quartet) and several operas in the 1990s.
1955-6 – Symphony No 2 op 5 (Dutton recording)

David Matthews (b 1943)
Matthews studied composition with Anthony Milner and was encouraged by Nicholas Maw. He then became closely associated with the Aldeburgh Festival, working with Benjamin Britten. He has written 12 string quartets (between 1969 and 2010) and eight symphonies (between 1978 and 2014, with a ninth in the works). Other works include two violin concertos and concertos for piano, cello and oboe, as well as symphonic poems, large orchestral works such as Chaconne (1986-7) and the song cycle The Golden Kingdom (1983). He is the older brother of the composer Colin Matthews.
1975 – Symphony No 1, op 9 (rev. 1978, 2007, fp 8 Oct 1975, Stroud)
1979 – Symphony No 2 op 17 (1976-9 – fp 13 May 1982 St John’s Smiths Sq)
1985 – Symphony No 3 op 37 (fp 27 Sept 1985, Sheffield)
1990 – Symphony No 4 op 52 (fp 28 May 1991, Barbican)
1996 – Sinfonia op 67 (1995-6)
1999 – Symphony No 5 op 78 (1998-9 (fp 17 Aug 1999 Proms)
2007 – Symphony No 6 (fp 1 August 2007, Proms)
2009 – Symphony No 7 (fp 24 April 2010, Manchester)
2014 – Symphony No 8 (fp 17 April 2015, Manchester)

Wilfrid Mellers (1914-2008)
Best known as a writer on music (on subjects ranging from Bach to The Beatles, including Music in a New Found Land on American music) and as the founding professor of music at the University of York, Mellers studied with F R Leavis and was a contributor to Scrutiny. He started composing incidental music for theatres in the Midlands during the 1940s. His interest in a wide range of musical styles is reflected in compositions such as Yeibichai (1969), a fusion of folk music, jazz, orchestra and tape, opera and scat singers. He also wrote several operas, including The Tragicall Historie of Christopher Marlowe(1950-52) and The Borderline (1958), choral and vocal works.
1953 – Symphony

Robin Milford (1903-1959)
Milford was born in Oxford and studied at the RCM under Host, Vaughan Williams and R O Morris. He earned his living as a teacher and became friendly with Gerald Finzi while living in Berkshire. Although best known today for his small scale pieces and songs, Robin Milford did in fact write many large scale works, including the Violin Concerto In G minor (1937) an oratorio A Prophet in the Land (1931) and an opera, The Scarlett Letter. Vaughan Williams apparently thought highly of Milford’s Symphony – but it was perhaps never performed and Milford withdrew it in 1956.
1933 – Symphony

R O Morris (1816-1948)
Reginald Owen Morris became famous as a teacher (Rubbra, Finzi, Tippett, Lambert, Milford, Milner and Stevens were among his pupils) and for his text books on counterpoint.But he was also a composer of chamber music and orchestral works. Finzi claimed his one masterpiece was the series of six fugal string pieces Canzoni Recertati.
1929 – Sinfonia in C major
1933 – Symphony in D major

Michael Nyman (b 1944)
Nyman may have coined the word “minimalism” while a music critic. He studied at King’s College and the RAM under Alan Bush. He became famous though film soundtracks such as The Draughtman’s Contract (1982) and The Piano (1993), but had been composing concert works from 1963 onward. Works include the opera The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1986), four string quartets (between 1885 and 1995 and a Violin Concerto (2003). More recently he began to plan a series of 19 symphonies, some of them re-using themes and material from earlier works – the first of these (nos 5 and 6) received their premiers in 2013. He tours with his own performing group, The Michael Nyman Band.
2013 – Symphony No 2 (fp 30 April 2014, RPO, Royal Festival Hall)
2013 – Symphony No 5 (fp 2 May 2013, Spain)
2013 – Symphony No 6 “Ahae” (fp 6 Sept 2013, LSO)
2014 – Symphony No 3 “Symphony of sexual songs”
2014 – Symphony No 11 “Hillsborough” (fp 5 July 2014, Liverpool PO)
2014 – Symphony No 12

Arthur O’Leary (1834-1919)
Studied in Dublin and Leipzig and (from 1852) at the RAM under Potter and Sterndale Bennet. As a professor at RAM he taught Stanford and Sullivan. He composed church music, orchestral works and piano music.
1865 – Symphony

Andrezej Panufnik (1914-1990)
Born in Warsaw, Panufnik studied at the Conservatory there before continuing his studies in Vienna, with visits to Paris and London. During world War II he formed a piano duo with his friend Witold Lutoslawski, which performed in Warsaw cafes. He was arranging and composing at this time, but fled Warsaw in 1944 just before the Uprising. Returning a year later he found all his manuscripts had been destroyed. He defected to the UK in 1954 and took out British citizenship. From 1963 he was settled in a house near the Thames in Twickenham and could focus full-time on composition. He wrote many orchestral and concertante works, chamber music and vocal works.
1939 – Symphony No 1 (lost 1944, reconstructed 1945 but then withdrawn and destroyed)
1941 – Symphony No 2 (original second symphony, lost 1944)
1948 – Sinfonia Rustica (fp Krakow Phil. Panufnik, 1949), rev. 1955
1951 – Symphony of Peace (fp Warsaw Phil, Panufnik, May 1951) – withdrawn, later revised as the Sinfonia Elegiaca (1957)
1957 – Symphony No 2, Sinfonia Elegiaca (fp Houston Symphony Orch, Stokowski, Jan 1957)
1963 – Sinfonia Sacra
1973 – Symphony No 4, Sinfonia Concertante, for flute, harp and 12 solo strings (fp Belgian Chamber Orchestra, QEH, 20 May 1974)
1975 – Symphony No 5, Sinfonia di Sfere (fp LSO, David Atherton, April 1976)
1977 – Symphony No 6, Sinfonia Mistica (fp Northern Sinfonia, Christopher Seaman, Middlesborough, 1978)
1978: – Symphony No 7, Metasinfonia, for solo organ, timpani and string orchestra (fp Manchester International Organ Festival, 1978)
1981 – Symphony No 8, Sinfonia Votiva (fp Boston SO, Ozawa, 1982) (rev. 1984)
1986 – Symphony No 9, Sinfonia della Speranza (rev. 1990)
1988 – Symphony No 10 (fp Chicago SO, Panufnik, 1 Feb 1990)

Charles Hubert Parry (1848-1918)
English composer and teacher, best known for the hymn Jerusalem and choral works such as I was glad and Blest Pair of Sirens. With Stanford, Parry was one of the originators of the English Musical Renaissance through his teaching of pupils such as Frank Bridge, John Ireland, Gustav Holst and Vaughan Williams. He succeeded George Grove as head of the Royal College of Music in 1895.
1882 – Symphony No 1 in G major
1883 – Symphony No 2 in F major “Cambridge”(revised 1887, 1895)
1889 – Symphony No 3 “The English” (revised 1895)
1889 – Symphony No 4 in E minor “Finding the Way” (revised 1910)
1897 – Symphonic Variations
1912 – Symphony No 5 in B minor “Symphonic Fantasia”

Montague Phillips (1895-1969)
Composer, church organist and professor at the Royal Acadamy of Music, Phillips was best known for his light music, including many ballad songs. His best known work was the operetta The Rebel Maid (1921), but there were also many light orchestral pieces. Phillips wrote a “light” symphony in C minor, composed between 1908 and 1911 and first performed at the Queens Hall in May 1912. The score was subsequently lost in Germany during the Great War, but the composer re-constructed the Scherzo and Adagio in 1924-5 (as A Spring Rondo and A Summer Nocturne). Lewis Foreman has indicated that orchestral parts are still extant for the other two movements.
1911 – Symphony in C minor op 15 (lost, two movements reconstructed)
1943 – Sinfonietta in C minor op 70

Phillip Cipriani Potter (1792-1871)
A composer and pianist who went to Vienna in 1817 where he met Beethoven and studied with Aloys Forster. He returned to London in 1819 and was very active as a soloist and conductor, premiering many Mozart, Beethoven and Mendelssohn works in England. He taught at the Royal Acadamy of Music from 1832. Most of his works were written before 1837. Nine symphonies survive, although he wrote 10. (The current numbering scheme is not Potter’s own).
1819 – Symphony No 1 in G minor (revised 1824/6)
1821 – Symphony No 2 in Bb major (revised 1839)
1826 – Symphony No 3 in C minor
1826 – Symphony No 4 in F major
1828 – Symphony No 5 in E flat major (revised with new slow movement 1846)
1832 – Symphony No 6 in G minor
1833 – Symphony No 7 in D major
1834 – Symphony No 8 in C minor
1834 – Symphony No 9 in D major

Anthony Powers (b 1953)
Powers studied privately with Elisabeth Lutyens and Harrison Birtwistle, then with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and David Blake and Bernard Rands in York. As an academic he has taught at Dartington and Cardiff. Powers has written over 60 works including two piano sonatas, four string quartets, and concertos for cello and horn. Other notable works include the orchestral Stone, Water, Stars (1987), choral works A Picture of the World (2001) and Airs and Angels (2003), and the chamber suite Another Part of the Island (1980, rev. 1994).
1996 – Symphony No 1 (written 1994-6, premiered at Proms, 1996)
2002 – Symphony No 2 (fp London, June 2002)

Oliviera Prescott (1842-1919)
Studied at the Royal Academy of Music with Lindsay Sloper and George Macfarren, acting as the latter’s amanuensis when he went blind. Her works include partsongs and anthems, a Magnificat, four overtures, the Piano Concerto in A minor, the orchestral suite “In Woodland” and concert piece “Bright October”, and two string quartets. Her ‘Alkestis’ Symphony won third prize at the famous Alexandra Palace symphony competition of 1876 – but the manuscripts of both symphonies have been lost (along with virtually all of her works).
1876 – Symphony No 1 in B flat “Alkestis”
1903 – Symphony No 2 in D minor

Ebenezer Prout (1835-1909)
An academic, critic and editor, Prout is still known for his edition of Handel’s Messiah and other works, and for his music theory texts. His music, including cantatas and chamber music as well as the four symphonies, is generally regarded as old fashioned and conservative. However, the third movement intermezzo a l’espagnol of Symphony No 3 is sometimes still played separately as a piece of light music.
1873 – Symphony No 1 in C (fp Crystal Palace, 28 Feb 1874)
1876 – Symphony No 2 in G min (fp Crystal Palace, 1 Dec 1877)
1885 – Symphony No 3 in F op 22 (fp Birmingham Festival 26 Aug 1885)
1886 – Symphony No 4 in D (fp Oxford, June 1886)

Karl Rankl (1898-1968)
Rank studied in Vienna with Schoenberg and Webern and established himself as an opera conductor before escaping to the UK in 1939. After the war he became musical director of the Covent Garden Opera Company and built it up to international status, despite opposition from Beecham. He was also a conductor for the Scottish National Orchestra and for the Elizabethan Theatre Trust opera company. He composed mostly during the war (when unable to get a work permit for conducting) and towards the end of his life. As well as his symphonic cycle he wrote an opera Deirdre of the Sorrows (1951), a string quartet and around 60 songs.
1938 – Symphony No 1 (three movements, with three female voices, 2nd mvt) (fp 29 January 1938, Liverpool PO/Rankl)
1941 – Symphony No 2 (three movements)
1944 – Symphony No 3 (1943-44) (three movements)
1952 – Symphonic March for large orchestra
1953 – Symphony No 4 (1952-53) (three movements) (fp Vienna, 20 Jan 1954, Vienna SO/Rankl)
1954 – Symphony No 5 (fp Edinburgh, 25 Jan 1957, Scottish National Orch/Swarowsky)
1957 – Sinfonietta No 1 (one movement)
1961 – Symphony No 6 (1959-61)
1961 – Sinfonietta No 2 (three movements)
1962 – Symphony No 7
1963 – Symphony No 8

Alan Rawsthorne (1905-1971)
Trained as a dentist before studying at the Royal Manchester College of Music in 1925, studying cello and piano. He became a freelance composer in 1934, but only found more widespread recognition in 1938 with the Theme and Variations for Two Violins and the Symphonic Studies. His other works include two piano concertos, two violin concertos, violin, viola and cello sonatas, three string quartets, the ballet score Madame Chrysanthème and Practical Cats, for speaker and orchestra.
1938 – Symphonic Studies
1950 – Symphony No 1
1959 – Symphony No 2 (A Pastoral Symphony)
1964 – Symphony No 3

Cyril Rootham (1875-1938)
Cambridge composer and academic who taught Arthur Bliss. He wrote orchestral, choral and chamber music, including two string quartets. The second symphony was written during Rootham’s last illness and broadcast by the BBC from Maida Vale Studios on St Patrick’s Day, 1939. It has three movements, including a choral finale.
1932 – Symphony No 1 in C minor (recorded Lyrita, 1979)
1938 – Symphony No 2 (orch. Patrick Hadley)

Edmund Rubbra (1901-1986)
Born in Northampton, began composing while still at school, formed early friendship with William Alwyn and championed the music of Cyril Scott, who subsequently took Rubbra on as a pupil. He then studied at University College, Reading and at the RCM, where he was taught by Holst. In the 1950s he became a lecturer at Oxford and from 1968 he taught at the Guildhall. Rubbra wrote piano, violin, viola and cello concertos as well as much instrumental, chamber music, choral works and songs.
1937 – Symphony No 1, op 44 (1935-7)
1937 – Symphony No 2 in D, op 45 (fp Cheltenham Festival, 1946) (revised 1950)
1939 – Symphony No 3, op 49 (1938-9) (fp 15 Dec 1940, Halle, Sargent)
1942 – Symphony No 4, op 53 (1940-42) (fp Proms, 14 Aug 1942, Rubbra)
1948 – Symphony No 5 in B-flat, op 63 (1947-8) (fp 26 Jan 1949, BBC SO, Boult)
1954 – Symphony No 6, op 80 (1953-4) (fp 17 Nov1954, BBC SO, Sargent)
1957 – Symphony No 7 in C, op 88 (1956-7) (fp 1 Oct 1957, Birmingham, Panufnik)
1968 – Symphony No 8 “Hommage à Teilhard de Chardin”, op 132 (1966-8) (fp 5 Jan 1971, Royal Liverpool PO, Groves)
1972 – Symphony No 9 “Sinfonia Sacra” (aka “Resurrection”), op 140 (1961-72) (fp 20 Feb 1973, Royal Liverpool SO, Groves)
1974 – Symphony No 10 “Sinfonia de Camera”, op 145 (fp 8 Jan 1957, Northern Sinfonia)
1980 – Symphony No 11 “à Colette”, op 153 (fp Proms, 20 Aug 1980)
1986 – Sinfonietta for large string orchestra, op 163

Godfrey Sampson (1902-1949) studied at the Royal Academy of Music and later became professor of composition there. During the war he worked in intelligence. He later taught at Milbourne Lodge School near Claygate, Surrey.
1928 – Symphony in D Major (played at the Proms in 1928)

Philip Sawyers (b 1951)
Studied violin and composition at Dartington College (under Helen Glatz) and then at the Guildhall School of Music. He then went on to play in the Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Garden, between 1973 and 1997. He began composing as a teenager and received guidance from Buxton Orr, Patric Standford and Edmund Rubbra. Early works include the Violin Sonata (1969) and Four Poems for Flute and String Orchestra (1972). there are also four string quartets and a Cello Concerto (2010) He has been particularly successful in the US. A third symphony has been commissioned by the English Symphony Orchestra.
1972 – Symphonic Music for Strings and Brass
2004 – Symphony No 1 (fp 2005, commissioned by the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra)
2008 – Symphony No 2

Cyril Scott (1879-1970)
Scott studied in Germany and was part of the Frankfurt Group. He had his first symphony performed in Germany at the age of 20. He was an exceptional pianist, and also a writer and poet. He wrote over 400 works, 200 of them short piano pieces and songs, but also oratorios, three operas and many concertos, quartets, sonatas and trios. The two mature symphonies (No 3 and 4) were not performed until the 21st century
1900 – Symphony No 1
1902 – Symphony No 2 in A minor (lost, but revised as Three Symphonic Dances, op 22, 1907)
1939 – Symphony No 3 “The Muses” (with choral finale)
1952 – Symphony No 4

Humphrey Searle (1915-82)
Searle studied with Ireland, Gordon Jacob and R O Morris at the RCM and then for six months as a private pupil with Webern in Vienna. He was one of the earliest advocates of serial music in the UK. His 1951 Piano Sonata was heavily influenced by Liszt, on whom he also wrote a book, The Music of Franz Liszt. Works include chamber music, three operas (including The Diary of a Madman, 1958), ballet scores, orchestral/choral works, often including speakers (such as Gold Coat Customs based on Edith Sitwell texts and Riverrun based on Joyce), as well as film and television music.
1953 – Symphony No 1, op 23
1958 – Symphony No 2, op 33 (1956-58)
1960 – Symphony No 3, op 36
1962 – Symphony No 4, op 38
1964 – Symphony No 5, op 43

Alice Mary Smith (1839-1884)
Also known under her married name, Alice Mary Meadows White – the first woman in Britain to have written and had performed a symphony. She studied with William Sterndale Bennett and George Macfarren and wrote a wide range of works, including songs, chamber music and choral works. The second symphony was written for the Alexander Palace competition of 1876, but not submitted. Both symphonies have been recorded by Howard Shelley and the London Mozart Players for Chandos.
1863 – Symphony No 1 in C minor (fp Musical Society of London)
1876 – Symphony No 2

Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)
Irish composer, teacher and conductor, with Parry credited as helping to seed the English Musical Renaissance of the early twentieth century. He studied at Cambridge (and later, in Germany), was one of the founding professors of the Royal College of Music, and became professor of music at Cambridge in 1887. Holst and Vaughan Williams were amongst his pupils. Stanford wrote choral and church music, but also much chamber music and orchestral works. Of his seven symphonies, the third “Irish” was by far the most popular in his lifetime.
1876 – Symphony No 1 in B-flat major
1882 – Symphony No 2 in D minor “Elegiac”
1887 – Symphony No 3 in F minor, op 28 “Irish”
1888 – Symphony No 4 in F major, op 31 (fp Crystal Palace, 23 Feb 1889)
1894 – Symphony No 5 in D major, op 56 “L’Allegro ed il Penseroso”
1905 – Symphony No 6 in E-flat major, op 94 “In Memorium G F Watts”
1911 – Symphony No 7 in D minor, op 124

Robert Still (1910-1971)
London born composer who studied at Eton and Trinity College, Oxford, and later at the RCM with Gordon Jacob (and later still Hans Keller). He returned to Eton to teach music and to conduct the Windsor Operatic Society. During the war he conducted the classical orchestra of the Royal Artillery. After the war he moved to Bucklebury in Berkshire. His compositions include three concertos (violin, viola, piano), four string quartets and a light opera, Love and Learning.
1954 – Symphony No 1 in C
1956 – Symphony No 2
1960 – Symphony No 3 in C
1954 – Symphony no 4 (Sinfonia)

Joseph Street (1841-1908)
Composer of two piano concertos, an overture “Two Gentelmen of Verona”, six piano sonatas and chamber works. Friend of Liszt. Lived in Surrey.
1857 – Symphony No 1 in Eb, op 4
1862 – Symphony No 2 in D major, op 14

Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900)
Best known, of course, for his comic operas written in collaboration with W S Gilbert, Sullivan also composed orchestral and choral works. His Irish Symphony, first performed at the Crystal Palace in March 1886 conducted by August Manns, was boosted by the sponsorship of singer Jenny Lind, who sang in the first half of the concert, attracting a large audience. Stanford and Hamilton Harty also went on to compose “Irish” symphonies.
1886 – “Irish Symphony”

Frank Tapp (1885-1953)
Studied at the RCM under Stanford and Wood. Conductor of regional orchestras in Bath (1910-1919). His Rhapsody on Tipperary for piano and orchestra was premiered and toured by Welsh pianist Marie Novello. Tapp also wrote three symphonies but I can only find full details of the first, which was premiered in Bath by the Pump Room Orchestra (conducted by the composer) in December 2013, and repeated in Bournemouth on the 17 December, 1914). It was said to be a full 70 minutes long.
1913 – Symphony No 1 in E (“The Tempest”)
Symphony No 2 in D
Symphony No 3 in E flat

Matthew Taylor (b 1964)
Conductor and composer, studied at Cambridge under Robin Holloway, and later with Robert Simpson and Malcolm Arnold. His largest body of work is chamber music, including seven string quartets, but he has also written five concertos (for piano, clarinet, horn, double bass and viola) and three symphonies and works for string orchestra.
1985 – Symphony No 1 (Sinfonia Brevis) Op 2
1991 – Symphony No 2, Op 10 (revised 1997 and 2008)
2004 – Symphony No 3, Op 33

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Educated at Charterhouse and the RCM (under Stanford, and later Parry). A friend of Holst. Vaughan Williams took an early interest in folk songs and hymns from the early 1900s and scored his first big success in 1909 with the Tallis Fantasia. As well as his central symphonic cycle and much other orchestral music he composed choral music, film scores, chamber music and opera.
1906 – Norfolk Symphony (1905-6) (part lost, Norfolk Rhapsodies survive)
1910 – A Sea Symphony
1913 – A London Symphony (rev. 1915, 1920, 1934) (fp March 27 1914, Geoffrey Toye)
1921 – Symphony No 3 “Pastoral” (fp Jan 26 1922, Queen’s Hall, Boult)
1934 – Symphony No 4 in F minor (fp 10 April 1935)
1943 – Symphony No 5 in D major (1938-43) (fp June 1943, Albert Hall, VW)
1947 – Symphony No 6 in E minor (1944-47) (fp 21 April 1948)
1952 – Symphony No 7 “Sinfonia Antarctica” (fp 14 Jan 1953, Halle, Barbirolli)
1955 – Symphony No 8 (fp 2 May 1956, Halle, Barbirolli)
1958 – Symphony No 9 in D minor (1956-57, rev 1958) (2 April 1958, Sargent)

John Veale (1922-2006)
Educated at Oxford but largely self-taught, Veale took some lessons from Egon Wellesz, Thomas Armstrong and the American composers Roger Sessions and Roy Harris. He wrote a violin concerto (Panorama), a clarinet concerto and various other orchestral works, including Apocolypse for chorus and orchestra. He also wrote film scores for the British film industry during the 1950s. Veale’s tonal music fell into neglect in the 1960s and he all but ceased composing, resuming again in the 1980s.
1944-7 – Symphony No 1 (fp Cheltenham Music Festival, 1955, Barbirolli)
1965 – Symphony No 2
1997 – Symphony No 3

Egon Wellesz (1885-1974)
Wellesz studied with Schoenberg in Vienna and was already established as a composer and academic when forced to escape to the UK in 1938. He took up an offer from Lincoln College, Oxford to lecture, and became a Fellow there. He only began his cycle of nine symphonies in 1945 at the age of 60, inspired while on holiday in the Lake District. The influence of Mahler alongside his own brand of serialism is evident in his music, which also include of nine string quartets and many operas, orchestral and chamber music works. All the symphonies have been recorded.
1945 – Symphony No 1, op 62
1948 – Symphony No 2, op 65
1951 – Symphony No 3, op 68 (fp Vienna, 2000)
1953 – Symphony No 4  “Austriaca” op 70
1956 – Symphony No 5, op 75
1965 – Symphony No 6, op 95
1968 – Symphony No 7, op 102 (1967-8)
1970 – Symphony No 8, op 110
1971 – Symphony No 9, op 111

Samuel Wesley (1766-1837)
Composer, violinist, organist, conductor and lecturer, sometimes called “The English Mozart”. Son of the hymn composer Samual Wesley and father of Samuel Sebastian Wesley, he wrote much church music. Wesley completed six symphonies in all, the first (D major) in 1781. The final symphony of 1802 (the only one of the six that falls within our time period) shows considerable musical development compared to the earlier works, possibly under the influence of Haydn’s London symphonies, which were written between 1791 and 1795.
1781 – Symphony in D major ‘Sinfonia obligato’
1781 – Symphony in A major (mostly lost)
1784 – Symphony in A major (‘1784 or after’)
1784: Symphony in D major
1784: Symphony in E flat major
1802 – Symphony in Bb major

Graham Whettam (1927-2007)
A self-taught musician, Whettam was born in Swindon and studied English at St Luke’s College, Exeter. He began composing in his 20s – the Sinfonietta for Strings made a splash at the Festival of Britain. Other early successes included the Concertino for Oboe (1953), the Violin Concerto (1954) and the Clarinet Concerto (1959). As well as symphonic works and large scale concertos, Whettam wrote chamber pieces including four string quartets and three solo violin sonatas.
1951: Sinfonietta for Strings
c1951: Symphony No 1 (withdrawn, but recorded by Groves, Bournemouth SO)
1962: Sinfonia contra timore (rev 1997)
1964: Sinfonietta (Sinfonia) Stravagante
1966: Sinfonia Concertante for small orchestra
1976: Sinfonia Intrepida (Symphony No 2)
1978: Sinfonia Drammatica (Symphony No 3)
1999: Sinfonia Prometeica (Promethean Symphony) (Symphony No 4)
2001: Symphony No 5 for small orchestra

John White (b 1936)
One of the so-called “English Experimental” school (along with Howard Skempton, Cornelius Cardew and Gavin Bryars), John White was influenced by Messiaen and studied with Bernard Stevens and Elisabeth Lutyens at the RCM, where he later became professor of composition. He plays (and writes frequently for) the piano and the tuba. He has written over 170 piano sonatas. White has also written 26 symphonies, but none of them for conventional orchestral forces. It’s hard to track the details of them down – here’s all I know about so far.
1961 – Symphony in Five Movements (in memory of Ch. V Morhange [aka Alkan]) – for piano, this piece is itself the fifth movement of the Piano Sonatina No 8.
1965 – Symphony for Organ and Six Tubas
(unknown date) – Symphony No 13 for computer (cassette recording)
(unknown date) – Symphony No 15 (UK premiere, Schotts recital room, London, November 30, 2013)
(unknown date) – Symphony No 19 for computer (cassette recording)

Philip Wilby (b 1949)
Studied music at Oxford and taught music at the University of Leeds from 1972. Although he has written works for a variety of ensembles, he is best known for his brass band music, such as the Paganini Variations and Dove Descending.
1985 – Little Symphony for Brass Band
1986 – Symphony No 1 “Symphonia Sacra” – In Darkness Shine
1992 – Symphony No 2 “Voyaging” for large orchestra and children’s choir
1995 – Revelation – Symphony for Double Brass on a theme of Purcell

Grace Williams (1906-1977)
She studied with Vaughan Williams at the RCM (where her fellow students included Elisabeth Maconchy and Elisabeth Lutyens) and later with Egon Wellesz. Unusually, Williams began composing works on a larger canvas early in her career, and works such as the Fantasia on Welsh Nursery Tunes (1939-40) and Sea Sketches for string orchestra (1944) gained here wider attention. Rhiannon Mathias credits Williams’ Symphony No 1 as being “the first modern symphony to be written by a composer from Wales”. There has been a recent revival of interest in her works, with modern performances of the Violin Concerto (1950) and Missa Cambrensis for soloists, chorus and orchestra (1971).
1943  – Symphony No 1 (1942-3)
1956  – Symphony No 2 (revised 1975)

Malcolm Williamson (1931-2003)
Williamson was born in Australia but moved to London in 1950 and studied with Elisabeth Lutyens from 1963. He became Master of the Queen’s Music in 1975, succeeding Arthur Bliss. Works include an operatic adaptation of Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana and a violin concerto for Yehudi Menuhin. He wrote seven numbered symphonies between 1957 and 1984, the fourth “Jubilee” was famously left unfinished at the 1977 Silver Jubilee celebrations.
1957 – Symphony No 1 (“Elavimini”)
1962 – Sinfonia Concertante
1964 – The Display (a dance symphony in four movements)
1965 – Sinfonietta
1965 – Symphonic Variations
1969 – Symphony No 2 (fp Bristol, 1969)
1972 – Symphony No 3 (“The Icy Mirror”) for choir and orchestra
1977 – Symphony No 4 (“Jubilee”) (three movements)
1979-80 – Symphony No 5 “Aquero” (fp Brent Town Hall, April 23, 1980
1981-2 – Symphony No 6
1984 – Symphony No 7 (fp August 1985, Melbourne)
1988 – Symphony for voices (fp BBC Proms, 1988)

Thomas Wilson (1927-2001)
Born in Colorado, USA, but grew up in Glasgow and studied music at Glasgow University, where he taught from 1957. His music includes the opera Confessions of a Justified Sinner (Scottish Opera, 1974) five symphonies, several concertos, and a wide range of choral, chamber and instrumental works.
1955 – Symphony No 1
1965 – Symphony No 2 (fp BBC Scottish Orchestra, BBC Radio, 29 Nov 1965)
1967 – Sinfonietta for Brass Band (fp National Youth Brass Band of Scotland, Madras College, St Andrews, 14 Jul 1967)
1979 – Symphony No 3 (fp Scottish National Orchestra/ Alexander Gibson, Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow, 22 Sep 1979)
1988 – Symphony No 4 “Passeleth Tapestry” (fp Scottish National Orchestra / Bryden Thomson, Paisley Abbey, 06 Aug 1988)
1990 – Chamber Symphony (fp Paragon Ensemble, RSAMD, Glasgow, 28 Jan 1990)
1998 – Symphony No 5 (fp Scottish Chamber Orchestra/ Joseph Swensen, Queens Hall, Edinburgh, 08 Oct 1998)

Thomas Wingham (1846-1893)
A composer and pianist, Wingham studied at the RAM under William Sterndale Bennett. He became professor of piano at the RAM in 1817 and (from 1882) was choirmaster at the Brompton Oratory. He completed four symphonies as well as other orchestral, instrumental (two string quartets), an opera, and choral works including two masses, a Te Deum and Elegy on the death of Sterndale Bennett. Dan Godfrey later revived the second Symphony (which was published in piano duet form by Lamborn Cock) twice at Bournemouth, in 1902 and 1908.
1869 – Symphony No 1 in D minor
1872 – Symphony No 2 in B flat, op 6 (fp Crystal Palace 23rd March 1872)
1873 – Symphony No 3 in E minor (with choral finale)
1883 – Symphony No 4 in D (fp Crystal Palace, 28th April 1883)

William Wordsworth (1908-1988)
A descendant of the poet, Wordsworth studied with organist and composer George Oldroyd, and later with Donald Tovey in Edinburgh. Wordsworth move to Scotland in 1961 and helped found the Scottish Composer’s Guild. He wrote over 100 works in a tonal, romantic style, including six string quartets, concertos and choral works.
1944 – Symphony No 1 in F minor, op 23
1948 – Symphony No 2 in D, op 34 – 1947-48 (fp Edinburgh, 1950)
1950-1 – Symphony No 3 in C (fp Cheltenham Festival, 1953)
1953 – Symphony No 4 in E flat, op 54
1959-60 – Symphony No 5 in A minor, op 68
1977 – Symphony No 6 “Elegaica”, op 102
1980 – Symphony No 7 “Cosmos”, op 107
1985 – Symphony No 8, op 117

Wright, Christopher (b 1954)
Wright worked as a teacher before becoming a full-time composer in 1993. He studied composition with Richard Arnell and lives in Suffolk. He has written orchestral music, including concertos for violin and for oboe, and chamber music, including four string quartets.
Symphony (fp 25 May 2018, English Music Festival, Dorchester)

David Wynne (1900-1983)
Welsh composer who worked at the coalface between the ages of 14 and 25 until he began his musical studies (at Cardiff and Bristol). He was a music master at Lewis School, Pengam between 1929 and 1961, with little time to compose. Following the success of his String Quartet No 1 in 1944 he composed  mostly chamber works as well as the symphonies, four concertante works and choral music. The first and (incomplete) Fourth symphonies are still unperformed.
1952: Symphony No 1
1956: Symphony No 2 (fp 1956 Aberdare Royal National Eisteddfod, LSO cond. Hermann Scherchen.
1963: Symphony No 3 (fp 1963 Caerphilly Festival, Bournemouth SO, cond. Sir Charles Groves – also broadcast, Bryden Thomson).
1983: Symphony No 4 (incomplete at composer’s death)

(Dates uncertain – further research required)

Thomas Anderton(1836-1903): Symphony (before 1903, probably with a Birmingham connection)
Algenon Ashton (1859-1937): Symphony No 5 – date unknown
Ernest Austin (1874-1947): Symphony, date unknown
Howard Carr (1880-1960): Symhony No 1; Symphony No 2 (both before 1912)
Sonja Grossner Symphony No 1 (No 2 is dated 2002)
Roger Sacheverell Coke (1912-72): three symphonies (No 1 1935)
Harry Farjeon: Symphony in D (circa 1900-1910?)
Bryony Jagger (b 1948) – two symphonies (unperformed)
Alan Ridout: Wind Symphony “The Adoration of the Magi”
Leopold Stokowski: Symphony (between 1896-99, or 1906-1909, premiered (RCM) May 7th 2009. BBC recording and broadcast, 2013.
Walter Gaze Cooper (1895-1981) – six symphonies? No 2 “Serenade” op 50; No 4 (op 41 – includes “The West Wind”); No 6 “A Symphony of War” op 59
Ian Whyte (1901-61) four symphonies (1st, 1947, others ?)
Peter Wishart: Symphony in Eb (1970s?)

 

 

 

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