Birtwistle, Harrison (1934- )

English avant-garde composer. In his early career he wrote much for chamber ensemble, for example, his chamber opera Punch and Judy (1967) and Down by the Greenwood Side (1969). Birtwistle's early music was influenced by the Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky, by the medieval and Renaissance masters, and particularly by the book On Growth and Form by the biologist D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson (1860-1948). For many years he worked alongside Peter Maxwell Davies.

His operas include The Mask of Orpheus (1986, with electronic music realized by Barry Anderson (1935-1987)) and Gawain (1991), a reworking of the medieval English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This was followed by The Second Mrs Kong (1994), in which the composer returned to the myths of Orpheus, and The Last Supper (2000), inspired by the Bible story.

He studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music and later at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

His orchestral works include The Triumph of Time (1972) and Silbury Air (1977). His tape composition Chronometer (1971, assisted by Peter Zinovieff (1934- )) is based on clock sounds.

Works Stage Punch and Judy, opera in one act (1967), Monodrama for soprano, speaker, and instrumental ensemble (1967), Down by the Greenwood Side, dramatic pastoral (1969), incidental music for National Theatre production of Hamlet (1975) and The Oresteia (1981), Frames, Pulses and Interruptions, ballet (1977), Bow Down, music-theatre (1977), The Mask of Orpheus, opera (1973-75, 1981-84; produced 1986), Yan Tan Tethera, TV opera (1986), Gawain (1991), The Second Mrs Kong (1994).

Orchestral Chorales (1960-63), Three Movements with Fanfares (1964), Nomos (1968), An Imaginary Landscape (1971), The Triumph of Time (1972), Grimethorpe Aria for brass band (1973), Melencolia 1 (1976), Silbury Air for small orchestra (1977), Still Movement for 13 solo strings (1984), Earth Dances (1985), Endless Parade for trumpet and strings (1987), Ritual Fragment (1990), Gawain's Journey (1991), Antiphonies for piano and orchestra (1993), The Cry of Anubis (1995), Panic for saxophone, drums, and orchestra (1995).

Vocal Monody for Corpus Christi for soprano and ensemble (1959), Narration: a Description of the Passing Year for chorus (1963), Entr'actes and Sappho Fragments for soprano and ensemble (1964), Carmen paschale for chorus and organ (1965), Ring a Dumb Clarion for soprano, clarinet, and percussion (1965), Cantata for soprano and ensemble (1969), Nenia on the Death of Orpheus for soprano and ensemble (1970), The Fields of Sorrow for two sopranos, chorus, and ensemble (1971-72), Meridian for mezzo, chorus, and ensemble (1970-71), Epilogue: Full Fathom Five for baritone and ensemble (1972), .... agm .... for 16 solo voices and three instrumental ensembles (1979), On the Sheer Threshold of the Night for four solo voices and 12-part chorus (1980), Songs by Myself for soprano and ensemble (1984), Words Overheard for soprano, flute, oboe, and strings (1985), Four Songs of Autumn for soprano and string quartet (1987); An die Musik (1988), White and Light (1989), and Four Poems by Jaan Kaplinski (1991), all for soprano and ensemble.

Instrumental Refrains and Choruses for wind quintet (1957), The World is Discovered for chamber ensemble (1960), Tragoedia for ensemble (1965), Verses for Ensembles (1969), Ut heremita solus, arrangement of Jean d'Ockeghem (1969), Hoquetus David, arrangement of Guillaume de Machaut (1969), Medusa for ensemble (1970, revised 1980), Chronometer for eight-track tape (1971), Chorales from a Toyshop (1967-74), Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum for ensemble (1977), For O for O, the Hobby Horse is Forgot for six percussion (1976), clarinet quintet (1980), Pulse Sampler for oboe and claves (1981), Duets for Storab for two flutes (1983), Secret Theatre for string quartet and ensemble (1984), and Pulse Shadows for string quartet and soprano (1993).