Deryck Cooke (14 September 1919 – 26 October 1976International Music Guide 1978
/ref>) was a British musician,

musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some m ...

, broadcaster and

Gustav Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

expert.

Life

Cooke was born in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

to a poor, working-class family; his father died when he was a child, but his mother was able to afford piano lessons. Cooke acquired a brilliant technique and began to compose. From Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys he won an organ scholarship to

Selwyn College, Cambridge Selwyn College, Cambridge (formally Selwyn College in the University of Cambridge) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1882 by the Selwyn Memorial Committee in memory of George Augustus Selwyn ( ...

, where he was taught by Patrick Hadley and Robin Orr. His undergraduate studies were interrupted by the Second World War, during which he served in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

and took part in the invasion of Italy. Towards the end of the war he became pianist in an army dance band. Back in Cambridge, a number of his compositions were successfully performed, but he was insecure about their unfashionably conservative idiom, and eventually destroyed most of his works. After graduating in 1947 Cooke joined the BBC; apart from an interlude (1959–65) working as a freelance writer and critic, he worked for the corporation for the remainder of his life. His job involved writing and editing scripts for the music department and broadcasting for radio and television, where his thoughtful, unaffected manner made him an ideal communicator. In 1959 his first book, ''

The Language of Music ''The Language of Music'' is a 1959 book about music by the critic and musician Deryck Cooke. Reception Robert M. Wallace reviewed ''The Language of Music'' in ''The Nation''. ''The Language of Music'' is an often cited representative of the ex ...

'', argued that music is essentially a language of the emotions, and showed that composers throughout history had tended to choose the same musical phrases to express similar feelings or dramatic situations. Beginning in the run-up to the Mahler centenary in 1960, Cooke (in association with

Berthold Goldschmidt Berthold Goldschmidt (18 January 190317 October 1996) was a German Jewish composer who spent most of his life in England. The suppression of his work by Nazi Germany, as well as the disdain with which many Modernist critics elsewhere dismissed ...

) made his first attempt at producing a 'performing version' of the unfinished draft of Mahler's 10th Symphony. Originally a lecture demonstration broadcast by the BBC in 1960, the first full (continuous) version was premièred on 13 August 1964 at

the Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

by the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

under the baton of Goldschmidt. Revised editions followed, with the composers David Matthews and

Colin Matthews Colin Matthews, OBE (born 13 February 1946) is an English composer of contemporary classical music. Noted for his large-scale orchestral compositions, Matthews is also a prolific arranger of other composer's music, including works by Berlioz, ...

assisting Cooke and Goldschmidt in the attempt to produce an authentically Mahlerian orchestration. Finally seen into print by Cooke and his collaborators in 1976, the work has now become a part of the repertoire. Cooke's last years were marred by ill health, and he died prematurely of a cerebral haemorrhage in 1976, at the age of 57. During the final years of his life he had worked on a large-scale study of Wagner's massive operatic tetralogy ''

Der Ring des Nibelungen (''The Ring of the Nibelung''), WWV 86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from Germanic heroic legend, namely Norse legendary sagas and the '' Nibe ...

''. However, only part of the first volume, dealing with the text, was finished; it was published after his death as ''I Saw the World End''. A collection of Cooke's essays and talks was also published after his death as ''Vindications''. Cooke's archive is held at

Cambridge University Library Cambridge University Library is the main research library of the University of Cambridge. It is the largest of the over 100 libraries within the university. The Library is a major scholarly resource for the members of the University of Cambri ...

(CUL MS Cooke & MS Add 10045).

Books

* ''

'',

OUP Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

(1959) * ''Gustav Mahler (1860–1911): A Companion to the BBC's Celebrations of the Centenary of his Birth'' (BBC, 1960); republished in an edition revised and expanded by Colin and David Matthews (Faber, 1980; CUP, 1988). * Ed. Deryck Cooke: ''Thematic Patterns in Sonatas of Beethoven'', by Rudolph Reti (London, Faber, 1967) * (incomplete; text published by Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1979) * ''Vindications: Essays on Romantic Music'' (posthumous collection of essays and broadcast scripts), Faber, 1982; reprinted 2008

Recordings

* ''An Introduction to Richard Wagner's "

"'' (audio, with extracts from the Solti version and some specially recorded demonstrations). Recorded 1967; released on LP 1968; re-packaged and re-released 1969; remastered and re-released on CD 1995
Transcript of Cooke's Introduction

Articles by Cooke

* 'Ernest Newman (1868–1959)', ''Tempo'', No.52, Autumn 1959, 2–3 * 'Anton Bruckner', in R. Simpson (ed.), ''The Symphony, Vol.1: Haydn to Dvořák'' (Harmondsworth, 1966). *'The Measure of Mahler', '' The Listener'', 7 December 1967, 761. * '

The Bruckner Problem Josef Anton Bruckner (; 4 September 182411 October 1896) was an Austrian composer, organist, and music theorist best known for his symphonies, masses, Te Deum and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-Germa ...

Simplified', '' Musical Times'', Vol.CX, 20–22 (Jan '69), 142–4 (Feb '69), 362–5 (Apr '69), 479–482 (May '69); reprinted in a revised version (1975) as a booklet by 'The Musical Newsletter' in association with Novello & Co. Ltd; revised version reprinted in ''Vindications: Essays on Romantic Music'' (Faber and Faber, London, 1982). * 'The Language of Mahler: David Holbrook's Interpretation', in ''Musical Times'', November 1976, 899. * 'Bruckner, (Joseph) Anton', in S. Sadie (ed.), ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', iii, 352; reprinted in S. Sadie (ed.), ''Late Romantic Masters: Bruckner, Brahms, Dvořák'' (London, 1985).

Bibliography

* Victor Zuckerkandl: Review of ''The Language of Music'', in ''Journal of Music Theory'', Vol.IV(1) (1960), 104–109.

External links

*
Recording (incomplete) of Deryck Cooke's original 1960 radio broadcast on 'Mahler's Unfinished Tenth Symphony'

1976 conversation with Deryck Cooke about Mahler’s Tenth Symphony

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooke, Deryck 1919 births People educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge BBC people British Army personnel of World War II 1976 deaths English musicologists Royal Artillery soldiers 20th-century British musicologists Mahler scholars Classical musicians associated with the BBC