# Roger Sacheverell Coke

Roger Sacheverell Coke (/ˈkʊk/ ("cook"); 20 October 1912, Pinxton, nr Alfreton, Derbyshire – 23 October 1972) was an English composer and pianist.

## Life

Roger Sacheverell Coke was from a wealthy family. He inherited the family estate of Brookhill Hall, Pinxton at the age of two, when his father, Lieutenant Langton Sacheverell Coke, died at the Battle of Ypres in October 1914. Coke began composing when he was at Eton College, where he was taught by Henry Ley, and was influenced to take up the piano by hearing Benno Moiseiwitsch. Coke's musical interests were strongly supported by his mother and for his 21st birthday, she had outbuildings on the family estate converted to a large music studio and performance space, equipped with a Steinway piano, and with capacity for an audience of several hundred. He pursued his study of composition and the piano seriously. He took piano lessons in London with Mabel Lander (herself a pupil of Theodor Leschetizky and teacher of Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret) and was later a pupil of Alan Bush. He made his debut as a composer-pianist in 1932 with his first piano concerto, and formed the Brookhill Symphony Orchestra in 1940 to play his own and other neglected works.
Coke was homosexual, and a heavy cigarette smoker. Despite his freedom from financial concerns, he suffered from depression. However, in the safe isolation of his studio he composed a large corpus of works, with a strong emphasis on his own instrument, the piano. For the orchestra he wrote three symphonies, six piano concertos, two "vocal concertos" for soprano and orchestra and four symphonic poems. In the chamber music field there are sonatas for cello and for violin, as well as extended works for piano solo, notably the 24 Preludes and 15 Variations and Finale, and around 100 songs. Despite the failure of any publisher to take up his works, some were performed around Britain, and occasionally broadcast. Coke bore the cost of those of his compositions that were published, and often also the costs of performance. Some works were taken up by leading musicians, including pianists Charles Lynch and Moura Lympany, and he counted Moiseiwitsch and Sergei Rachmaninoff amongst his friends.
In November 1959, Coke's three-act opera The Cenci, to his own libretto based on Shelley's verse drama, was given a single performance at the Scala Theatre in London, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Eugene Goossens. The critics were unanimously hostile and dismissive and Coke became seriously depressed. Coke died of a heart attack in 1972. A revival of interest in his work began in 2012 with a performance of his first violin sonata at the English Music Festival in Dorchester Abbey on 2 June 2012. Many of his unpublished manuscripts are held at Chesterfield Library.

## Works

| Opus | Name | Year | Dedicatee |
| 1 | Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor | 1931 | |
| 2 | Romanza for piano trio | 1931 | Dorothy Coke |
| 3 | Fantasie for piano | 1931 | Frederick Lyne |
| 4 | Piano Concerto No. 2 in E minor | 1933 | Mabel Lander |
| 5 | Three String Pieces | 1933 | John Frederick Staton |
| 6 | Rhapsody for oboe, bassoon & piano | 1933 | A & I Winfield |
| 7 | Three Small Pieces for wind quartet | - | Gilbert Inglefield |
| 8 | Piano Quintet | - | Ethel Boileau |
| 9 | (not known) | - | - |
| 10 | Improvisata for violin & piano | - | - |
| 11 | (not known) | - | - |
| 12 | Piano Sonata No. 1 in D minor | 1935 | George Chavchavadze |
| 13 | Symphony No. 1 in E minor | 1934 | - |
| 14 | (not known) | - | - |
| 15 | Variations and Fugue for piano in D minor | 1935 | - |
| 16 | Elegy for a Dead Musician for contralto, violin and orchestra (or piano) | 1934 | Bridget Tallents |
| 17 | (not known) | - | - |
| 18 | (not known) | - | - |
| 19 | Six Songs for soprano or tenor | 1935 | - |
| 20 | Two Songs for soprano or tenor and strings (or piano) | 1935 | - |
| 21 | Variations and Fugue for piano in D minor | 1935 | Alan Bush |
| 22 | Symphony No. 2 in G minor | 1936 | Sergei Rachmaninoff |
| 23/3 | Waltz for piano | - | - |
| 24 | Cello Sonata No. 1 in D minor | 1936 | Dorothy Coke |
| 25 | Vocal Concerto No. 1 | 1934 | Barbara Welby |
| 26 | Piano Sonata No. 2 in G | 1936 | Charles Lynch |
| 27 | Ballade in C for piano | 1936 | Griselda Gould |
| 28 | Piano Sonata No. 3 in A minor | 1937 | - |
| 29 | Cello Sonata No. 2 in C | 1938 | Alan Morton |
| 30 | Piano Concerto No. 3 in E flat | 1938 | Charles Lynch |
| 31 | November Afternoon for soprano or tenor | 1939 | Natalia Satina |
| 32 | Elegiac Trio in C minor | 1938 | Bridget Jackson |
| 33 | Eleven Preludes for piano | 1938 | Dorothy Coke |
| 34 | Thirteen Preludes for piano | 1941 | Dorothy Coke |
| 35 | Sacred Concerto in A minor for soprano, cello, piano and oboe | 1939 | Princess Marina Chavchavadze |
| 36 | Poem for cello, piano and small orchestra | 1939 | Alan Morton |
| 37 | Fifteen Variations and Finale in C minor for piano | 1939 | Prince George Chavchavadze |
| 38 | Piano Concerto No. 4 in C sharp minor | 1940 | Eileen Joyce |
| 39 | Six Songs for soprano or tenor | 1939 | Guy Branch |
| 40 | Six Songs for contralto or bass | 1939 | Vera St. John |
| 41 | Prelude to 'The Cenci' for orchestra | 1940 | Richard Austin |
| 41 | The Cenci (opera in three acts) | 1940 | Richard Austin |
| 42 | Six Songs for contralto or bass | 1941 | Bridget Tallents |
| 43 | Eight Songs for soprano or tenor | 1941 | Barbara Welby |
| 44 | Cello Sonata No. 3 in A minor | 1941 | Kinkie Halswell |
| 45 | Symphonic Poem No. 1 'The Lotos Eaters' | 1941 | Brookhill Symphony Orchestra |
| 46 | Violin Sonata No. 1 in D minor | 1940 | Raymond Mosley |
| 47 | Vocal Concerto No. 2 | 1942 | Oliver Welby |
| 48 | Clarinet Sonata in C | 1942 | - |
| 49 | Six Songs for contralto or bass | 1942 | Marianne Mislap-Kapper |
| 50 | Four Songs for soprano or tenor | 1942 | Barbara Welby |
| 51 | Symphonic Poem No. 2 'Elegiac Ballade' | 1942 | The Pilots of the Royal Air Force |
| 52 | Variations on Rachmaninoff's Song, 'A Soldier's Wife' in G minor for piano | 1943 | - |
| 53 | Symphonic Poem No. 3 'Dorian Gray' | 1943 | Arnold Bax |
| 54 | Fourteen Songs, from Rhymes and Roundelayes for high voice | 1948 | Freda Orton |
| 55 | Violin Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor | 1943 | Jan Sedivka |
| 56 | Symphony No. 3 | 1948 | William Leak or Eugene Goossens |
| 57 | Piano Concerto No. 5 in D minor | 1947 | F. Orton |
| 58 | Thirty Songs for low voice | 1948 | Frances and Ronald Coke-Steel |
| 59 | Trio in G for flute, viola and piano | 1948 | Ortina |
| 60 | Viola Sonata in C minor | 1948 | Gordon Fox |
| 61 | Variations on 'Drink to Me Only With Thine Eyes' in B flat for piano | 1949 | Louis Kentner |
| 62 | Cello Sonata No. 4 in A | 1949 | - |
| 63 | Piano Concerto No. 6 in C minor | 1954 | John Williams (1965/66), Oliver Welby (1954/69) |
| 64 | (not known) | - | - |
| 65 | Piano Quintet | 1970 | Simon Holwell |
| 66 | String Quartet | 1971 | Clive Jones or the Alfreton Hall String Quartet |
| 67 | Six Songs for soprano or tenor | 1954 | Olive Wright |
| 68 | (not known) | - | - |
| 69 | (not known) | - | - |
| 70 | Six Songs for high voice | 1956 | Barbara Welby |
| 71 | Six Songs for high voice | 1956 | Cossack Shannon |
| 72 | Six Songs for high voice | 1957 | Doris |
| 73 | Variations in C sharp minor for piano | 1957 | Julie Marie Baud |
| 74/1 | Thule for soprano | 1958 | Barbara Welby |
| 75 | Cello Sonata | 1962 | - |
| 76 | (not known) | - | - |
| 77 | (not known) | - | - |
| 78 | (not known) | - | - |
| 79 | Piano Concerto No. 6 in C minor | 1954 | - |
| 80 | Violin Concerto | 1960 | Raymond Mosley |
| 81 | Four Songs | 1966 | Hugo Meynell |
| 81 | Three Songs for soprano | 1960 | Percy Young |
| 82 | Piano Quintet in F minor | 1967 | Patricia Hurst |
| 83 | Trio in G minor | 1960 | - |
| | Polichinelle & Inventions (in 2 parts) for piano | 1936 | Emanuel Yarovsky |
| | Berceuse for piano | 1936 | Griselda Brook |
| | Violin Sonata | 1953 | - |
| | Moment Musical for piano in D minor | 1954 | John Williams |
| | Song | 1964 | Julie |
| | Song | 1964 | Donald Grundy |
| | Piano Concerto in G minor | 1970 | - |
| | Piano Studies | 1971 | - |
| | Song for soprano or tenor | 1966 | Hugo Meynell |
| | Daffodils (song) | - | - |
| | Dearest Do Not You Delay Me (song) | - | - |
| | Isles of Greece (song) | - | - |

## Recordings

* Violin Sonata No 1 – Rupert Marshall-Luck (violin) and Matthew Rickard (piano) (EM Records, EMRCD018, 2013)
* 24 Preludes and 15 Variations and Finale for piano – Simon Callaghan (Somm Recordings, SOMMCD 0147, 2015)
* Piano Concertos No 3, No 4 and No 5 (surviving slow movement) – Simon Callaghan (piano), Martyn Brabbins, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (Hyperion Records, CDA68173, 2017)
* Cello Sonatas, Raphael Wallfisch (cello), Simon Callaghan (piano) (Lyrita SRCD.384, 2020)