Robin Milford
Robin Humphrey Milford (22 January 1903 – 29 December 1959) was an English composer. Biography. Milford was born in Oxford, son of Sir Humphrey Milford, publisher with Oxford University Press. He attended Rugby School from 1916 where his musical talent for the piano, flute and theory was first recognised by Arthur Peppin, the director of music. From 1921 until 1926 he studied at the Royal College of Music where his composition teachers were Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams, and he studied harmony and counterpoint under R. O. Morris. He also studied organ. In 1927, he married. Realising that  he would not be able to make a living solely as a composer he worked for a time with the Aeolian Company correcting Duo-Art pianola rolls until 1930. He also taught part-time at Ludgrove School (where his pupils included the music enthusiast George Lascelles, later 7th Earl of Harewood) and at Downe House School. In 1929 he had met fellow-composer Gerald Finzi, with whom he found he had much in common, personally and musically, and the two formed a lifelong friendship. His early compositions met with some success, his "Double Fugue" Op. 10 winning a Carnegie Trust  award, being published in the Carnegie Collection of British Music series and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under Ralph Vaughan Williams. In September 1931 his oratorio "A Prophet in the Land" Op. 21 was performed in Gloucester Cathedral as part of the Three Choirs Festival - the work was somewhat overshadowed by the splash made by William Walton's "Belshazzar's Feast" performed the same year. In 1937 a performance of his "Concerto Grosso" Op. 46 was directed by Malcolm Sargent, and his "Violin Concerto" Op. 47 was broadcast by the BBC in early 1938. At the outbreak of the  Second World War Milford volunteered for the army, and was posted to the Pioneer Corps. After just one week, he suffered a breakdown, and after treatment he and his family moved to Guernsey. His depression was deepened by the death of his mother in 1940. He returned to England, to teach and compose, but soon afterwards his five-year-old son, Barnaby, was killed in a road accident. His grief at this tragedy prompted him to attempt suicide; sent back to hospital after this, he tried to kill himself yet again while a patient there. In 1946, he had recovered  sufficiently to resume teaching (at Badminton School) and to undertake musical activities. He continued composing throughout this period. After the death of his father in 1952, he was prescribed occasional shock therapy. He did continue to enjoy successes: his "Overture for a Celebration" Op. 103 was performed under John Barbirolli at the 1955 Cheltenham Music Festival. He also continued to receive moral and material support from his friends, Finzi (who led a performance of "Fishing by Moonlight" Op 96 in 1956) and Vaughan Williams (who arranged a performance of the "Concertino" Op 106 in 1958, and gave financial help). The  deaths of Finzi (1956) and Vaughan Williams (1958) affected Milford deeply, aggravating the effects of his physical decline, which involved loss of vision and impaired balance. He died by his own hand, taking an overdose of aspirin in December 1959. Music. It has been observed that Milford's writing shows strongly the influence of Vaughan Williams, as might be expected. His use of diatonic melodies, often harmonised with gentle discords, and with false relations occurring occasionally, has led Erik Blom (1942) to crystallise these musical traits (also shown by other English composers of the period) as ""musical Englishry"". Vaughan Williams  once wrote to Adrian Boult, "If I wanted to show the intelligent foreigner something worth doing which could only possibly come out of England, I think I would show him something of the work of Milford…" Despite the tragic events of Milford's life, and his resultant depression, he seems to have had a capacity for incidental enjoyment and his music is by no means gloomy. Indeed, a factor contributing to Milford's depression was that his brand of English music, as handed down from Vaughan Williams and Holst, was going out of fashion, and his music was not appreciated  in a musical scene which was increasingly modernist even while Milford's own music was becoming more conservative. As well as large scale works, Milford also wrote smaller pieces, for example organ pieces suitable for playing as church voluntaries (he was himself a village church organist) and piano works. Milford was able to show the character of a song setting with just a few notes, for example in the very brief piano introduction to "If it's ever Spring Again". Recordings of his music are few, although some of his music - some songs, his "Mass for five voices" Op. 84 , "Concertino" Op. 106 and a selection of pieces including "Fishing by Moonlight" Op. 96 - are available. Milford's Suite for Oboe and String Orchestra, a composition of extraordinary beauty, was recorded by Cameo Classics with British oboist John McDonough and the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Michael Laus in 2011. The CD of premiere recordings (CC9032CD) is available from distributors, Nimbus Records. Notable compositions. A more complete list may be found in Copley (1984). Milford's compositions include