Malcolm Williamson
Malcolm Benjamin Graham Christopher Williamson, AO, CBE (21 November 19312 March 2003) was an Australian composer. He was the Master of the Queen's Music from 1975 until his death. Biography. Williamson was born in Sydney in 1931; his father was an Anglican priest, Rev. George Williamson. He studied composition and horn at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. His teachers included Eugene Goossens. In 1950 he moved to London where he worked as an organist, a proofreader, and a nightclub pianist. In 1952 he converted to Roman Catholicism. From 1953 he studied with Elisabeth Lutyens and Erwin Stein . His first major success was with his Piano Concerto No. 1, premiered by Clive Lythgoe at the 1958 Cheltenham Festival to a standing ovation. Williamson was a prolific composer at this time, receiving many commissions and often performing his own works, both on organ and piano. In 1975, the death of Arthur Bliss left the title of Master of the Queen's Music vacant. The selection of Williamson to fill this post was a surprise, over other composers such as Benjamin Britten (whose compositional inactivity and terminal illness were not then publicly known), Michael Tippett and Malcolm Arnold, such that  William Walton had remarked that "the wrong Malcolm" had been chosen. In addition, Williamson was the first non-Briton to hold the post. He wrote a number of pieces connected to his royal post, including "Mass of Christ the King" (1978) (see below) and "Lament in Memory of Lord Mountbatten of Burma" (1980). However, controversy attended his tenure, notably his failure to complete the intended "Jubilee Symphony" for the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 1977. He became less prolific in "Royal" works during the last twenty years or so of his life, although he never completely ceased to  take interest in writing music for the Royal Family (see list of Royal works below). His overall compositional output slowed considerably due to a series of illnesses. He died in 2003 in a hospital in Cambridge. He was widely reported to have been an alcoholic. Williamson married an American, Dolores "Dolly" Daniel, in 1960 and they had one son and two daughters. Williamson had a number of relationships with both sexes, both before and after his marriage. After his marriage broke down in the 1970s, “a deep relationship with musician and publisher Simon Campion helped sustain him through the inevitably  stormy periods, both in Australia and in England, that characterised the final stages of his career.” He had a series of strokes that left him wheelchair-bound, and he spent his final months in hospital. His funeral was not attended by any representatives of the Royal Family. Honours. Williamson was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1976, and an honorary Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1987. Honorary awards of the Order of Australia are made only to people who are not citizens of Australia. It is not clear why Williamson did  not qualify for a substantive award, as there appears to be nothing on the public record to suggest he ever relinquished his Australian citizenship. The citation for the award read "For service to music and the mentally handicapped". He was the first Master of the Queen's Music in over a century not to be knighted. Williamson's music. Some of Williamson's early works use the twelve-tone technique of Arnold Schoenberg, but his greatest influence is often said to be Olivier Messiaen. He discovered Messiaen's music shortly before converting to Roman Catholicism in 1952. He was also  influenced by Benjamin Britten, as well as by jazz and popular music (this latter influence may have come in part from him working as a night club pianist in the 1950s). Williamson wrote seven symphonies; four numbered piano concertos (plus the Concerto for Two Pianos and Strings, the Concerto for Two Pianos and Wind Quintet, after Alan Rawsthorne, and the Sinfonia Concertante), concertos for violin, organ, harp and saxophone; and many other orchestral works. He wrote ballets, including "Sun into Darkness" and "The Display", many effective choral works, chamber music, music for solo piano, and music for film and television  including the prologue and main title of "Watership Down". His operas include "English Eccentrics", to a libretto by Edith Sitwell; "Our Man in Havana", after the novel by Graham Greene; "The Violins of Saint-Jacques", from Patrick Leigh Fermor's novel; and two adaptations of plays by August Strindberg, "Lucky Peter's Journey" after "", and "The Growing Castle" after "A Dream Play". Williamson's music for children includes the operas "The Happy Prince" (based on the story by Oscar Wilde) and "Julius Caesar Jones" as well as cassations, which are short operas with audience participation. The cassation "The Valley and  the Hill" was written for the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in 1977 and performed by 18,000 children. The composer's largest choral work, his "Mass of Christ the King", was commissioned by the Three Choirs Festival, also for the 1977 jubilee. It attracted attention partly because Williamson delivered it late. Scored for two sopranos, tenor, baritone; soprano, alto, tenor, bass (henceforth SATB) chorus; SATB echo choir; and large orchestra, the work received several performances over a few years, including a live BBC broadcast in 1981, but has more recently been overlooked. A recording of a performance at the  Perth Festival 1981 can be found on YouTube. Williamson became generally much less prolific in later life, although he had some very busy years. For example, in 1988 Williamson wrote a large-scale choral-orchestral work "The True Endeavour", the orchestral "Bicentennial Anthem", the "Fanfare of Homage" for military band, a ballet "Have Steps Will Travel" for John Alleyne and the National Ballet of Canada, "Ceremony for Oodgeroo" (Oodgeroo Noonuccal, formerly known as Kath Walker) for brass quintet, and also commenced work on a substantial new choral-symphony "The Dawn is at Hand" (to texts by Kath Walker), completed and  performed in Australia the following year. Other works include the "Requiem for a Tribe Brother" (another Australian work, completed in 1992), a third string quartet (1993), a fourth piano concerto (1994, for Marguerite Wolff) and a symphony for solo harp, "Day That I Have Loved" (1994). The orchestral song cycle on texts by Iris Murdoch, "A Year of Birds", premiered at The Proms in 1995. The same year also saw the premiere of an orchestral work "With Proud Thanksgiving", commissioned for the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, and dedicated to the memory of Williamson's long-time friend, the  UK Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Selected compositions. Australian works. Although Williamson lived in Britain for most of his life, he travelled widely and maintained a deep affection for his native country. He wrote many works specifically for or about Australia, and frequently set texts by Australian poets, such as James McAuley and Kath Walker. Williamson was also inspired to respond through music to political issues, such as Aboriginal rights (a matter close to his heart). Below is a select list of works with a specifically Australian connection.