Edward Percival "Percy" Code (3 July 1888 – 16 October 1953) was an Australian classical

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and musician, specialising in

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. There is also a soprano cor ...

and

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

. He is best known for his compositions for

brass band A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting primarily of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands (particularl ...

, including many solo works.

Biography

Percy Code was born in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, growing up in a musical family. His father, Edward Thomas Code, was a trumpeter who led his own ensemble, Code's Melbourne Brass Band. Percy learnt to play cornet and violin from his father, and played in his band. Aged 22 in 1910, he won the solo championship at the Royal South Street Competition in

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) () is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Ballarat had a population of 111,973, making it the third-largest urban inland city in Australia and the third-largest city in Victoria. Within mo ...

. This saw him invited to England to play principal cornet with the

Besses o' th' Barn Band Besses o' th' Barn Band is an English Brass band (British style), brass band that has been in existence in the Besses o' th' Barn area of Whitefield, Greater Manchester since at least 1818. A junior section, Besses Boys' Band, was established in ...

, where he played professionally for the next few years. After returning to Australia, he conducted community bands in cities such as Ballarat. He married Elsie Maude Miller in 1915, but the couple never had children, and lived apart for many years. In 1921 Code moved to the United States, where he performed as a trumpeter with the

San Francisco Symphony Orchestra The San Francisco Symphony, founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley neighborhood. The San Franci ...

under the direction of Alfred Hertz. In San Francisco he also worked as a film composer and theatre pit musician. He returned to Australia in 1924, working as a radio music presenter, in addition to continuing to conduct and write music. From 1929 he worked as a conductor with the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

until retiring in 1951. Percy Code died in

in 1953.

Legacy

Code's compositions are not well known outside the brass band community. However, amongst brass band music enthusiasts, he remains a respected figure, with his works featured in a Percy Code Memorial Solo contest held at multiple Australian brass band competitions. His collected works were first recorded in their entirety by

euphonium The euphonium ( ; ; ) is a tenor- and baritone-voiced valved brass instrument. The euphonium is a member of the large family of valved bugles, along with the tuba and flugelhorn, characterised by a wide conical bore. Most instruments have thr ...

player and music academic Matthew van Emmerik in 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Code, Percy 1888 births 1953 deaths 20th-century Australian classical composers Musicians from Melbourne