Antoinette Kirkwood

Antoinette Kirkwood (26 February 1930 - 28 January 2014) was an English composer born in London, with Irish family connections. She studied with Claud Biggs at the Irish Academy of Music and then piano and composition with Dorothy Howell and cello with Paul Tortelier at the Royal Academy of Music. She often accompanied her mother, the soprano Rome Lindsay. Radio Éireann broadcast her Symphony, op 8, composed in 1953. This "very notable achievement", said one unidentified reviewer, established that Kirkwood "can write a memorable tune in a definite key and can hold the listener’s interest for a considerable time".
Kirkwood was the founder and conductor of the St Columba's Orchestra (associated with the London church) from 1957 until 1961. For four years beginning in 1969, she was a member of the executive committee of the Composers' Guild of Great Britain.
She married the writer Richard Phibbs (1911-1986, author of Buried in the Country, 1947) in 1961 at St Columba's. Her marriage, three children and caring for her mother and husband through their terminal illnesses, led to a complete cessation in her composition activity between 1961 and the late 1980s. During that period they were living at 56 Sutherland Street, London SW1.
On her husband's death in 1986 she raised money to re-publish two of his books (Cockle Button, Cockle Ben, for children, and Harmony Hill, four short stories), as well as resuming her own career as a composer. She died on 28 January 2014, aged 84.
Works
Kirkwood composed orchestral concert works, theatre music and two ballet scores, as well as instrumental and chamber pieces (including a cello sonata and the Rapsodie for harp) and many songs. Marie Fitzpatrick identifies a development in her style from the three folksong based orchestral Fantasies (1958-61), through the six Intermezzos for piano of 1959, showing the influence of Bartok, and also including more technically demanding explorations, such as the Soliloquy for guitar (1985). Her publishers are Curlew & Andresier and Bardic Edition. Selected works include:
Orchestral
Symphony No. 1, op. 8 (1953, recording at the British Music Collection
Alessandro, op. 12 - (1957, music drama after the book by Gerard McLarnon)
Musa the Saint, op. 16 - (1958, ballet after the book by Antoinette Kirkwood)
Fantasia No. 1 for orchestra, op. 13 (1958)
Fantasia No. 2, op. 14 (on an old Irish reel)
Fantasia No. 3, op. 18 (1961, on a old Sligo tune)
Suite for String Orchestra, op. 5 (1960)
The Empty Stable, op. 10 - Incidental music
Unhallowed, op. 4 - Incidental music
Chamber and instrumental
Cello Sonata, op. 6 (1950)
Six Intermezzi for piano (1959)
Petite Suite, op. 20 No. 2 for Guitar
Rapsodie No. 1, op. 21 No. 4 for Viola and Guitar
Soliloquy, op. 19 No. 3 for Guitar (1985)
Largo, op. 17 No. 1 for Flute and Piano
Rapsodie, op. 19 No. 2 for Harp solo
Sleepy Waters in the Moonlight, for 2 Violins and Violoncello
Sonatina, op. 2 No. 1, piano (1946)
Nocturne, op. 2 No. 2, piano
Vocal
Carol, SATB and piano
The Fly, op. 7 No. 1 (William Blake)
The Barrel Organ, op. 7 No. 5 (Michael Ashe)
Must she go?, op. 9 No. 1 (James Forsyth)
Morning in Bengal, op. 9 No. 2 (Anthony Hayward)
The Tourney, op. 9 No. 3 (Anthony Hayward)
Remorse, op. 9 No. 4 (Michael O'Hagan)
The Song of the Fisherman of Cacru, op. 11 No. 3 (James Forsyth)
The Oyster-Catcher’s Song, op. 11 No. 4 (James Forsyth)
Der Schiffbrüchige, op. 15 (Heinrich Heine)
Krönung, op. 17 No. 2 (Heinrich Heine) High Voice and Strings
A few of her works have been recorded and issued on media, including:
Six Intermezzi
Sonata for Violoncello and Piano
Women Composers - Vol. I CD
Women Composers - Vol. II CD
References
Further reading
Finding Antoinette Kirkwood, by Leah Broad, 7 May 2022
1930 births
2014 deaths
20th-century classical composers
Women classical composers
English classical composers
Composers from London
20th-century English composers
20th-century English women musicians
20th-century women composers