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 network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

’s 1982 film ''

The Snowman ''The Snowman'' is a 1982 British animated television film based on Raymond Briggs's 1978 picture book '' The Snowman.'' It was directed by Dianne Jackson for Channel 4. It was first shown on 26 December 1982, and was an immediate success. It w ...

'', which includes the song "

Walking in the Air "Walking in the Air" is a song written by Howard Blake for the 1982 animated film '' The Snowman'' based on Raymond Briggs's 1978 children's book of the same name. The song forms the centrepiece of ''The Snowman'', which has become a seasonal fa ...

". 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 and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

. His mother played piano and violin, and his father sang

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

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 was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ...

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 Hastings Musical Festival is an annual festival of the performing arts held in the White Rock Theatre, Hastings, England. History The Festival has been running since the early 1900s when Dr Herman Brearley organised a festival "for the encour ...

Scholarship to the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire 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 first Duke ...

, where he studied piano with

Harold Craxton Thomas Harold Hunt Craxton (30 April 188530 March 1971) was an English pianist, teacher and composer. Born in London, and growing up in Devizes, Craxton began studying piano with Tobias Matthay and Cuthbert Whitemore in 1907, and made a name for ...

and composition with

Howard Ferguson George Howard Ferguson, PC (June 18, 1870 – February 21, 1946) was the ninth premier of Ontario, from 1923 to 1930. He was a Conservative member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1905 to 1930 who represented the eastern provinci ...

; however, 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 composing for films. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely r ...

, Blake began working as a keyboard player and arranger with veteran screen composer

Laurie Johnson Laurence Reginald Ward Johnson, (born 7 February 1927) is an English composer and bandleader who has written scores for dozens of film and television series and has been one of the most highly regarded arrangers of instrumental pop and swing ...

on music for the hit ITV television series '' The Avengers''. During the program'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 (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...

for about two months, "to get away from it all". Over an active career he has written numerous film scores, including ''

The Duellists ''The Duellists'' is a 1977 British historical drama film and the feature film directorial debut of Ridley Scott. It won the Best Debut Film award at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival. The basis of the screenplay is the Joseph Conrad short story "T ...

'' with Sir

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is a British film director and producer. Directing, among others, science fiction films, his work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style. Scott has received many accolades th ...

and

David Puttnam David Terence Puttnam, Baron Puttnam, CBE, HonFRSA, HonFRPS, MRIA (born 25 February 1941) is a British film producer, educator, environmentalist and former member of the House of Lords. His productions include ''Chariots of Fire'', which w ...

, which gained the Special Jury Award at the

Cannes Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films ...

in 1977; '' A Month in the Country'' with

Kenneth Branagh Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh (; born 10 December 1960) is a British actor and filmmaker. Branagh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has served as its president since 2015. He has won an Academy Award, four BAFTAs (plus ...

and

Colin Firth Colin Andrew Firth (born 10 September 1960) is an English actor and producer. He was identified in the mid-1980s with the " Brit Pack" of rising young British actors, undertaking a challenging series of roles, including leading roles in '' A M ...

, which gained him the British Film Institute Anthony Asquith Award for musical excellence in 1989; and ''

'', which was nominated for an Oscar after its first screening on

in 1982, and has won many other prizes internationally. From this, his famous song "

", for which he also wrote the lyrics, was the success that launched

Aled Jones Aled Jones, (born 29 December 1970) is a Welsh singer and radio and television presenter. As a teenage chorister, he reached widespread fame during the mid-1980s. Since then he has worked in television with the BBC and ITV, and radio (for ...

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 Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue in Clerkenwell, London, England located on Rosebery Avenue next to New River Head. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500-seat ...

at the Peacock Theatre in London. 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'' adv ...

'', in collaboration with

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

. He was given only 10 days to produce the results, and after completion fell ill with

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

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 BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cer ...

. It was, however, a disappointment to him that the makers of ''

'' did not use much of his score. 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. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, ...

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 King Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her ac ...

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 The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parli ...

; and the large-scale choral/orchestral work ''Benedictus'', championed by

Sir David Willcocks Sir David Valentine Willcocks, (30 December 1919 – 17 September 2015) was a British choral conductor, organist, composer and music administrator. He was particularly well known for his association with the Choir of King's College, Cambridge ...

and the

Bach Choir The Bach Choir is a large independent musical organisation founded in London, England in 1876 to give the first performance of J. S. Bach's '' Mass in B minor'' in Britain. The choir has around 240 active members. Directed by David Hill MBE (Ya ...

, which was given its London premiere in

Westminster Cathedral Westminster Cathedral is the mother church of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. It is the largest Catholic church in the UK and the seat of the Archbishop of Westminster. The site on which the cathedral stands in the City o ...

in 1989 with Cardinal

Basil Hume George Basil Hume OSB OM (2 March 1923 – 17 June 1999) was an English Catholic bishop. He was a monk and priest of the English Benedictine monastery of Ampleforth Abbey and its abbot for 13 years until his appointment as Archbishop of W ...

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 The Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) is an Edinburgh-based UK chamber orchestra. One of Scotland's five National Performing Arts Companies, the SCO performs throughout Scotland, including annual tours of the Scottish Highlands and Islands and S ...

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.

Filmography

Compositions

* Four Miniatures, Op 7 (1958)''British Celebration Vol 4'', Heritage HTGCD165 (2021)
/ref> * Symphony No 1 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 form with no fixed fo ...

'', 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) * '' Benedictus'', 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

Selected film scores

* ''An Elephant Called Slowly'' (1969) * '' Some Will, Some Won't'' (1970) * '' All the Way Up'' (1970) * ''

'' (1977) * '' The Odd Job'' (1978) * '' The Riddle of the Sands'' (1979) * ''

S.O.S. Titanic ''S.O.S. Titanic'' is a British- American 1979 drama disaster television movie that depicts the doomed 1912 maiden voyage from the perspective of three distinct groups of passengers in First, Second, and Third Class. The script was written by J ...

'' (1979) * ''

'' (1980) * ''

'' (1982) * '' Amityville 3-D'' (1983) * ''

The Lords of Discipline ''The Lords of Discipline'' is a 1980 novel by Pat Conroy that was later adapted in a 1983 film of the same name. The story centers on Will McLean, who is in his fourth year at the fictional Carolina Military Institute in Charleston, South ...

'' (1983) * '' The Hunger'' (1983) (Music director) * '' A Month in the Country'' (1987) * ''

Granpa ''Granpa'' is a British family-oriented animated film that adapts a picture book by John Burningham. Produced by TVS for Channel 4 Television in 1989, it was released on VHS by Universal Studios in 1994.

'' (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 the memoirs of Denis Forman, a British televisi ...

'' (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 British conductors (music) 20th-century British male musicians 20th-century classical composers 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century English composers 21st-century British conductors (music) 21st-century British male musicians 21st-century classical composers 21st-century classical pianists 21st-century English composers British male conductors (music) British male pianists Composers for piano English classical composers English classical pianists English conductors (music) English film score composers English male classical composers English male film score composers Fellows of the Royal Academy of Music Light music composers Living people Male classical pianists Officers of the Order of the British Empire Oratorio composers People educated at Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar School