James Brian Bonsor (21 August 192622 February 2011) was a Scottish-born composer and teacher specialising in the

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Life and career

Brian Bonsor was born in

Hawick Hawick ( ; ; ) is a town in the Scottish Borders council areas of Scotland, council area and counties of Scotland, historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-south-east o ...

Roxburghshire Roxburghshire or the County of Roxburgh () is a historic county and registration county in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. It borders Dumfriesshire to the west, Selkirkshire and Midlothian to the northwest, and Berwickshire to the north. T ...

on August 21, 1926. Following war service he studied at Moray House in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

, London, to become a music teacher. He studied briefly with the

player

Carl Dolmetsch Carl Frederick Dolmetsch (1911–1997) CBE was an Anglo- French recorder player. Life The son of Arnold Dolmetsch, he was born in Fontenay-sous-Bois on 23 August 1911 but lived in England from 1914. After three years in Hampstead he lived in H ...

. Bonsor spent about 35 years in musical education, teaching in primary and secondary schools, including 17 years at Hawick High School. He taught further education classes and summer courses and later acted as Regional Education Advisor for the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

in the 1970s. He was awarded an MBE in 2002 for services to teaching music, in particular the recorder. ''Enjoy the Recorder'', written by Bonsor, is used to teach the recorder in schools. His

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestr ...

s for recorders include

Percy Grainger Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who moved to the United States in 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long and ...

's ''Mock Morris'' (1985), ''

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'' by

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948) is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End theatre, West End and on Broadway theatre, Broad ...

, and

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's '' Emperor Waltz'' (1985). Bonsor was a musical director for the Society of Recorder Players from 1967. Bonsor wrote the piano piece ''Dreamy'', which was featured in Trinity Guildhall's 2012–2014 Grade 6 repertoire. His piece ''Feelin' Good'' was included in the

ABRSM The ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) is an examination board and registered charity based in the United Kingdom. ABRSM is one of five examination boards accredited by Ofqual to award graded exams and diploma qualificat ...

's 05/06 grade 6 repertoire, the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music (RCM) is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including pe ...

's grade 7 repertoire and the

Australian Music Examinations Board The Australian Music Examinations Board (AMEB) is a federated, privately funded corporation which provides a program of examinations for music, speech and drama in Australia. The organisation had its beginnings at the Universities of Melbourne ...

's grade 6 Old Syllabus and ''Willie Wagglestick's Walkabout'' for the ABRSM's 07/08 grade 7 repertoire and AMEB's grade 7 Old Syllabus. Bonsor died in Hawick on 22 February 2011.

List of compositions

* Bagatelle * Beguine, 2 recorders, piano * Second Beguine, 2 descant recorders, 2 treble recorders, 2 violins, piano and percussion * By the brook, recorder, piano * Calliope, 3 recorders * Carebbean, recorder, piano * Carriage and pair, 3 recorders, piano * Celebration time!, 6 recorders, piano * Dreamy, piano * Easy Jazzy duets, 2 recorders * Fiesta, 3 recorders, piano * Feelin' Good, 2 recorders * Happy - go - lucky, 3 recorders * Happy whistler, 3 recorders * Here we go, 2 recorders * Hoe down, 2 recorders, piano * Jemina, recorder, piano * Little clock, 2 recorders * Nice and easy, recorder, piano * On parade, recorder, piano * Over to you, 2 recorders * Rumba, 2 recorders, piano * Scherzino, recorder, piano * Serenata, recorder, piano * Simple Samba, 2 recorders, piano * Summer afternoon, recorder, piano * Sunny island, 3 recorders * Swing your partners, recorder, piano * Tango, 3 recorders, piano * Three into 5, recorders (SAT, divisi, 3 or 5 Recorders), piano * Time to tango, 2 recorders * Tig, 3 recorders * Valerie, 2 recorders, piano * Waltz for Mo, recorder, piano * Willie Wagglestick's Walkabout, piano

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonsor, Brian 1926 births 2011 deaths 20th-century British classical composers 21st-century British classical composers British music educators British recorder players Members of the Order of the British Empire People from Hawick Scottish classical composers Scottish male classical composers 20th-century Scottish musicians 20th-century British male musicians 21st-century British male musicians 20th-century British flautists 21st-century British flautists