Howard David Blake (born 28 October 1938) is an English composer, conductor, and pianist whose career has spanned more than 50 years and produced more than 650 works.
Blake's most successful work is his soundtrack for
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
’s 1982 film ''
The Snowman'', which includes the song "
Walking in the Air". He is increasingly recognised for his classical works including concertos, oratorios, ballets, operas and many instrumental pieces.
Early life
Howard Blake was born in London and grew up in
Brighton
Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
. His mother played piano and violin, and his father sang
tenor
A tenor is a type of male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. Composers typically write music for this voice in the range from the second B below m ...
in the church choir. At
Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School for Boys,
from the age of 11 he sang lead roles in
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) and to the works they jointly created. The two men collaborated on fourteen com ...
operas and was recognised as a good pianist, but few were aware that he was also writing music.
At the age of 18, he won the
Hastings Musical Festival Scholarship to the
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...
, where he studied piano with
Harold Craxton and composition with
Howard Ferguson
George Howard Ferguson (June 18, 1870 – February 21, 1946) was the ninth premier of Ontario, from 1923 to 1930. He was a Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1905 to ...
, but he found himself at odds with his contemporaries in regard to musical style. He virtually stopped composing, instead becoming interested in film, and on leaving the Academy briefly worked as a film projectionist at the
National Film Theatre.
Music career
Missing music, Blake played the piano in pubs and clubs for a couple of years until being discovered and signed by
EMI to make a solo album and work as a session musician on many recordings. This led to work as an arranger and a composer, employment that gradually became his full-time occupation.
In the late 1960s, on the recommendation of
Bernard Herrmann
Bernard Herrmann (born Maximillian Herman; June 29, 1911December 24, 1975) was an American composer and conductor best known for his work in film scoring. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely regarde ...
, Blake began working as a keyboard player and arranger with veteran screen composer
Laurie Johnson on music for the hit
ITV television series ''
The Avengers''. During the programme's sixth and final season in 1968–1969, Johnson was commissioned to write the soundtrack music for the feature film ''
Hot Millions''; to enable him to work on the film score, Johnson recruited Blake to take over composing duties for him, and Blake composed the incidental music for ten complete episodes of that series. In 1970, shortly after the series finished, he lived in a beach hut in
Cornwall
Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...
for about two months, "to get away from it all".
Over an active career he has written numerous film scores, including ''
The Duellists'' with
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. He directs films in the Science fiction film, science fiction, Crime film, crime, and historical drama, historical epic genres, with an atmospheric and highly co ...
and
David Puttnam
David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, HonFRSA, HonFRPS, MRIA (; born 25 February 1941), is a British-Irish film producer, educator, environmentalist and former member of the House of Lords. His productions include '' Chariots of Fire' ...
, which gained the Special Jury Award at the
Cannes Festival in 1977; ''
A Month in the Country'' with
Kenneth Branagh
Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh ( ; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Reading, Berkshire, Branagh trained at RADA in London and served as its president from 2015 to 2024. List of award ...
and
Colin Firth
Colin Andrew Firth (born 10 September 1960) is an English actor and producer. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Colin Firth, several accolades, including an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Aw ...
, which gained him the British Film Institute Anthony Asquith Award for musical excellence in 1989; and ''
The Snowman'', which was nominated for an Oscar after its first screening on
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
in 1982, and has won many other prizes internationally. From this, his famous song "
Walking in the Air", for which he also wrote the lyrics, was the success that launched
Aled Jones in 1985 (although Jones only recorded the song three years after the release of the film, while the song on the soundtrack is sung by the St Paul's chorister
Peter Auty. Blake's concert version of ''The Snowman'' for narrator and orchestra is now performed worldwide, as is the full-length ballet of the same name, launched in 1997, which in 2013 celebrated its 16th consecutive Christmas season for
Sadler's Wells at the
Peacock Theatre
The Peacock Theatre (previously the Royalty Theatre) is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, located in Portugal Street, near Aldwych. The 999-seat house is owned by, and comprises part of the London School of Economics and Political ...
in London.
Blake has composed many concert works, including the Piano Concerto commissioned by the
Philharmonia Orchestra
The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI Classics, EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Rich ...
for the 30th birthday of
Princess Diana
Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997), was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William ...
in 1991, in which he also featured as soloist; the Violin Concerto to celebrate the centenary of the City of Leeds in 1993; the cantata to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations in 1995, performed in the presence of the Royal Family in
Westminster Hall
Westminster Hall is a medieval great hall which is part of the Palace of Westminster in London, England. It was erected in 1097 for William II (William Rufus), at which point it was the largest hall in Europe. The building has had various functio ...
; and the large-scale choral/orchestral work ''Benedictus'', championed by
Sir David Willcocks and the
Bach Choir, which was given its London premiere in
Westminster Cathedral
Westminster Cathedral, officially the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Most Precious Blood, is the largest Catholic Church in England and Wales, Roman Catholic church in England and Wales. The shrine is dedicated to the Blood of Jesus Ch ...
in 1989 with Cardinal
Basil Hume
George Basil Hume (born George Haliburton Hume; 2 March 1923 – 17 June 1999) was an English Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Westminster from 1976 until his death in 1999. A member of the Benedictines, he was made a cardinal i ...
as narrator, and which has been widely performed ever since.
More recent works are ''Lifecycle'' – 24 pieces for solo piano – recorded for ABC Classics in 2003; ''Songs of Truth and Glory'', the Elgar Commission for the
Three Choirs Festival in 2005; and a first recording of ''The Land of Counterpane'' a song-cycle to words by
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...
, recorded at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, with the
Scottish Chamber Orchestra in March 2007, which he conducted.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music and, in 1994, received the OBE for services to music. On 20 October 2010 Blake was presented a
BASCA Gold Badge Award for outstanding work within the music industry.
Collaboration with Queen
In 1980, Blake was commissioned to write an orchestral music score for ''
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' ...
'', in collaboration with rock band
Queen
Queen most commonly refers to:
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen (band), a British rock band
Queen or QUEEN may also refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Q ...
who were to record the
soundtrack album
A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( ...
. He was given ten days to produce the results, and after completion fell ill with
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...
brought on by exhaustion. He recovered, and he and Queen were jointly nominated for a
BAFTA Award
The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs or BAFTA Awards, is an annual film award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to f ...
. It was, however, a disappointment to him that the makers of ''Flash Gordon'' did not use much of his work.
Filmography
Compositions
* Four Miniatures, Op 7 (1958)
[''British Celebration Vol 4'', Heritage HTGCD165 (2021)]
/ref>
* Symphony No 1, ''Impressions of a City'', Op. 42 (1967)[
* '']Violin Sonata
A violin sonata is a musical composition for violin, often accompanied by a keyboard instrument and in earlier periods with a bass instrument doubling the keyboard bass line. The violin sonata developed from a simple Baroque music, baroque form wi ...
'', Op. 586 (1973/2007)
* ''Piano Quartet
A piano quartet is a chamber music composition for piano and three other instruments, or a musical ensemble comprising such instruments. Those other instruments are usually a string trio consisting of a violin, viola and cello.
Piano quartets for ...
'', Op. 179 (1974)
* ''Penillion for violin & piano'', Op. 571 (1975/2005)
* ''Jazz Dances for violin & piano'', Op. 520a (1976/2008)
* '' The Song of Saint Francis'', Op. 248 (1977) cantata for chorus and orchestra
* ''Benedictus
Benedictus, Latin for "blessed" or "a blessed person", may refer to:
Music
* "Benedictus" (canticle), also called the "Canticle of Zachary", a canticle in the Gospel of Lukas
* Part of the "Sanctus", a hymn and part of the eucharistic prayer in W ...
'', Op. 282 (1980) dramatic oratorio
* ''Sinfonietta for brass'', Op. 300 (1981)
*''Four songs of nativity'' (1990)
* ''Suite for strings – A Month in the Country'', Op. 446(1992)
* ''Lifecycle'', Op. 489 (1996) 24 piano pieces in all 24 major and minor keys
* ''The Passion of Mary'', Op. 577 (2006) dramatic oratorio
* ''Flute Quintet for flute, two violins, viola and cello''
Selected film scores
* '' An Elephant Called Slowly'' (1969)
* ''Some Will, Some Won't
''Some Will, Some Won't'' is a 1970 British comedy film directed by Duncan Wood, starring an ensemble British cast including Michael Hordern, Ronnie Corbett, Dennis Price, Leslie Phillips and Arthur Lowe. It is a remake of ''Laughter in Paradise ...
'' (1970)
* '' All the Way Up'' (1970)
* '' The Duellists'' (1977)
* '' The Odd Job'' (1978)
* '' The Riddle of the Sands'' (1979)
* '' S.O.S. Titanic'' (1979)
* ''Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' ...
'' (1980)
* '' The Snowman'' (1982)
* '' Amityville 3-D'' (1983)
* '' The Lords of Discipline'' (1983)
* '' The Hunger'' (1983) (music director)
* '' A Month in the Country'' (1987)
* '' Granpa'' (1989)
* '' The Bear'' (1998)
* ''My Life So Far
''My Life So Far'' is a 1999 film about a year in the life of a ten-year-old Scottish boy. It was directed by Hugh Hudson, with screenplay by Simon Donald. The film is set in 1927 and is based on ''Son of Adam'', the memoirs of Denis Forman, ...
'' (1999)
Concertos
*Clarinet Concerto (commissioned by Thea King and premiered by her and the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by the composer 1984)
*Violin Concerto "The Leeds" (commissioned for the 100th anniversary of the City of Leeds, premiered Edinger/Daniel/ENP 1993)
*Piano Concerto (commissioned by The Philharmonia to celebrate the 30th birthday of Diana Princess of Wales, composer as soloist 1991)
*Diversions for cello and orchestra (a cello concerto in 8 movements with a cello part edited with Maurice Gendron 1985)
*Flute Concerto (for flute and string orchestra commissioned by Gabrielle Byam Grounds 1996)
*Toccata (a celebration of the orchestra) commissioned by The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for their 30th anniversary 1976
*Oboe Concerto (for oboe and string orchestra, composed for David Powell 1971)
*Heartbeat (for tenor saxophone, big band and orchestra, commissioned by the BBC and first performed with soloist Ian Dixson 1990)
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blake, Howard
1938 births
20th-century English classical composers
20th-century English classical pianists
20th-century English conductors (music)
20th-century English male musicians
21st-century English classical composers
21st-century English classical pianists
21st-century English conductors (music)
21st-century English male musicians
Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music
Composers for piano
English contemporary classical composers
English film score composers
English light music composers
English male classical composers
English male classical pianists
English male conductors (music)
English male film score composers
Fellows of the Royal Academy of Music
Living people
Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Oratorio composers
People educated at Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School