Harvey, Jonathan Dean (1939– )

English composer. His use of avant-garde and computer synthesis techniques is allied to a tradition of visionary Romanticism in works such as Inner Light II (1977) for voices, instruments, and tape music and Mortuos plango, vivos voco/I Mourn the Dead, I Call the Living (1980) for computer-manipulated concrete sounds, realized at IRCAM. Later works include the opera Inquest of Love (1993) and the orchestral work Calling Across Time (1998).

He studied at Cambridge and Glasgow universities, and was appointed professor at Sussex University in 1980. He has worked with Karlheinz Stockhausen and Milton Babbitt.

Works Opera Passion and Resurrection, church opera (performed Winchester, 1981), opera Inquest of Love (1993).

Orchestral symphony (1966), Persephone Dream (1973), Madonna of Winter and Spring (1986), Lightness and Weight for tuba and orchestra (1986), cello concerto (1990), Calling Across Time (1998).

Chamber and instrumental Smiling Immortal for chamber orchestra and tape (1977), Easter Orisons for strings (1983), Mortuos plango, vivos voco for computer-processed concrete sounds (performed Lille, 1980), Modernsky Music for two oboes, bassoon, and harpsichord (1981; title from one of Schoenberg's three satires Op. 28, in which Stravinsky is mocked as ‘Modernsky’, for apparently following musical fashion), Curve with Plateaux for cello (1982), Valley of Aosta for 13 players (1988), Scena for violin and ensemble (1992), Chant for viola (1992).

Vocal ten cantatas for soloists and various instrumental combinations (1965–76), Hymn for chorus and orchestra (composed 1979 for the 900th anniversary of Winchester Cathedral).