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

Life and career

Brian Bonsor was born in

Hawick Hawick ( ; sco, Haaick; gd, Hamhaig) is a town in the Scottish Borders council area and historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-south-east of Selkirk. It is one o ...

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

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

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

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 recorder player

Carl Dolmetsch Carl Frederick Dolmetsch (1911–1997) CBE was a French instrumentalist who specialised in the recorder. 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 ...

. Bonsor spent about 35 years in musical education, teaching in primary and secondary schools, including 17 years at

Hawick High School Hawick High School is a non-denominational secondary school in Hawick, in the Scottish Borders. As well as serving the town, it also takes in pupils from as far away as Newcastleton. History The first mention of educational provision in the a ...

. He taught further education classes and summer courses and later acted as Regional Education Advisor for the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lot ...

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 lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long an ...

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

Cats The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

'' 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 and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musica ...

, and

Strauss Strauss, Strauß or Straus is a common Germanic surname. Outside Germany and Austria ''Strauß'' is always spelled ''Strauss'' (the letter " ß" is not used in the German-speaking part of Switzerland). In classical music, "Strauss" usually r ...

's '' Emperor Waltz'' (1985). Bonsor was a musical director for the Society of Recorder Players from 1957. 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 qualificatio ...

's 05/06 grade 6 repertoire, the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

'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 For Descant, Treble Recorders & Piano 1959 * Second Beguine *Dreamy for Piano *Fiesta *Feelin' Good * Waltz for Mo * Serenata * Simple Samba *Willie Wagglestick's Walkabout *Rumba for Descant + Treble Recorders & Piano *Three into 5 for Recorders and Piano *Tig * Hoe-down * Valerie

References

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