Buxton Daeblitz Orr (18 April 1924 – 27 December 1997) was a

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

-born

Anglo-Scottish Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British de ...

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 teacher.

Life

Originally trained as a doctor, Orr gave up medicine and switched to music in 1952, studying composition at the

Guildhall School of Music The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a music and drama school located in the City of London, England. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz along with dram ...

with

Benjamin Frankel Benjamin Frankel (31 January 1906 – 12 February 1973) was a British composer. His best known pieces include a cycle of five string quartets, eight symphonies, and concertos for violin and viola. He was also notable for writing over 100 film sc ...

and conducting with

Aylmer Buesst Aylmer Buesst (28 January 18833 January 1970) was an Australian conductor, teacher and scholar, who spent his career in the United Kingdom. He was mainly associated with opera and vocal music. He also wrote a work on the leitmotifs in Richard Wag ...

. Through Frankel's help and influence, Orr became active for a time composing film scores, and his first general recognition as a composer came from the high-profile production of Tennessee Williams' ''Suddenly Last Summer'' in 1959, starring

Elizabeth Taylor Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was an English and American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 19 ...

and

Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 – June 29, 2003) was an American actress whose Katharine Hepburn on screen and stage, career as a Golden Age of Hollywood, Hollywood leading lady spanned six decades. She was known for her headstrong ...

and directed by

Joseph L. Mankiewicz Joseph Leo Mankiewicz (; February 11, 1909 – February 5, 1993) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. A four-time Academy Award winner, he is best known for his witty and literate dialogue and his preference for voice-over ...

. His one-act opera ''The Wager'' was successfully staged at Sadler's Wells in 1961. With his return to the Guildhall School of Music as a professor in 1965, Orr soon gained a reputation as an energetic and influential teacher. He founded the Guildhall New Music Ensemble and also conducted the London Jazz Composers’ Orchestra between 1970 and 1980, the latter stimulating his particular interest in improvisation. His pupils included Deirdre Gribbin,

Barry Guy Barry John Guy (born 22 April 1947, in London, England) is an English composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of or ...

Gary Higginson Gary Higginson (born 1952) is a British composer. Higginson trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Edmund Rubbra, Patric Standford, Buxton Orr and Alfred Nieman then at Birmingham University under John Joubert. He is a member ...

Philip Sawyers Philip Sawyers (born 20 June 1951) is a British composer of orchestral and chamber music, including six symphonies. Sawyers was born in London. He began composing as a teenager, studying at Dartington College of Arts in Devon with Colin Sauer (v ...

and

Debbie Wiseman Debbie Wiseman, OBE (born 10 May 1963) is a British composer for film, television and the concert hall, known also as a conductor and a radio and television presenter. Biography Wiseman was born in Belsize Park, north west London, and attend ...

. Orr married Isabelle Roberts in 1955; that marriage was dissolved and in 1968 he married Jean Latimer, who died in . In 1990 Orr gave up regular teaching to devote more time to composition, and lived with his second wife Jean Latimer in the

Wye Valley The Wye Valley () is a valley in Wales and England. The River Wye () is the Rivers of Great Britain#Longest rivers in the United Kingdom, fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The upper part of the valley is in the Cambrian Mountains an ...

until his death. A new opera, ''The Alchemist'', was in the process of being orchestrated at his death. Buxton Orr was not related to the composer

Robin Orr Robert Kemsley (Robin) Orr (2 June 1909 – 9 April 2006) was a Scottish organist and composer. Life Born in Brechin, and educated at Loretto School, he studied the organ at the Royal College of Music in London under Walter Galpin Alcock, and pi ...

(1909–2006).

Music

Orr's music includes works in all genres, including songs, chamber music, works for brass and wind band, orchestral music, opera and music theatre as well as film scores. His style is notable for its interest in structures that evolve through continuous variation, often with his personal take on 12-tone serialism, using tonal intervals and octave doubling. The three Piano Trios (1982, 1986 and 1990), the orchestral ''Triptych'' (1977) and the substantial 40 minute orchestral ''Sinfonia ricercante'' (1987) are representative examples of this style. Several virtuoso instrumental fantasies on famous themes, such as the ''Carmen Fantasy'' for cello (1987 – also re-scored for orchestra), deconstruct familiar material to create new compositions. The others in this series are ''Portrait of the Don'' (theme from ''

Don Giovanni ''Don Giovanni'' (; K. 527; full title: , literally ''The Rake Punished, or Don Giovanni'') is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Its subject is a centuries-old Spanish legen ...

'', 1987), ''Catfish Row'' (theme from ''

Porgy and Bess ''Porgy and Bess'' ( ) is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play ''Porgy (play), ...

'', 1997) and ''Tales from Windsor Forest'' (theme from

Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays ''Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...

, 1997). Elements of jazz are present in some works, particularly those scored for brass band, such as the ''Caledonian Suite'' (often used as a band test piece), ''Tournament'' (1985) for brass tentet and ''Narration'' (1993) for symphonic wind ensemble. ''Refrains III'', written for the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra, develops Orr's interest in improvisation, even including the conductor as one of the different improvising groups within the total ensemble. It was first broadcast on 6 May 1975 on BBC Radio 3. (There are six ''Refrains'', all written for different forces. Each of them uses a recurrent idea to bind together a structure). His early film music included horror film scores such as ''

Grip of the Strangler ''The Haunted Strangler'' (also known as ''Grip of the Strangler'' and originally titled ''The Judas Hole'') is a 1958 British horror film directed by Robert Day (director), Robert Day and starring Boris Karloff, Jean Kent, Elizabeth Allan, and ...

'' (1958), ''

Corridors of Blood ''Corridors of Blood'' (aka ''Doctor from Seven Dials'')Tom Weaver, ''The Horror Hits of Richard Gordon'', Bear Manor Media 2011 p 80-95 is a 1958 British-American period drama film directed by Robert Day and starring Boris Karloff and Christ ...

'' (1958) and ''

Doctor Blood's Coffin ''Doctor Blood's Coffin'' is a 1961 British horror film directed by Sidney J. Furie from a screenplay co-written by Nathan Juran, and starring Kieron Moore, Hazel Court, and Ian Hunter. It follows young biochemist Dr. Peter Blood (Moore), wh ...

'' (1961). Some of his stock music was used in several ''Doctor Who'' serials in the 1960s. During the 1980s Orr composed three music theatre pieces: ''Unicorn'' (1981), ''The Last Circus'' (1984) and ''Ring in the New'' (1986), and a number of song cycles, including the "caustic" ''Ten Types of Hospital Visitor'' (1986), setting

Charles Causley Charles Stanley Causley CBE FRSL (24 August 1917 – 4 November 2003) was a Cornish poet, school teacher and writer. His work is often noted for its simplicity and directness as well as its associations with folklore, legends and magic, especi ...

.Kate Molleson: Buxton Orr: Songs review, in ''The Guardian'', 2 March 2017 Recordings
''Caledonian Suite'' (1980), ''Tournament'' (1985) and ''Narration'' (1993)
Royal Scottish Academy Of Music And Drama Wind Orchestra & Brass, Doyen DOY CD 118 (2001) * ''Celtic Suite'' for strings (1968) and ''Fanfare and Processional for strings'' (1968) on
The Land of the Mountain and the Flood: Scottish Orchestral Music
', ASV CDWHL21C (1999)
Chamber Music for Strings
includes String Quartet No 1 (1977) and No 2 (1985), String Trio (1996), Duo for Baroque Violin and String Bass (1994). Beethoven String Trio, Toccata TOCC0103 (2012)
Piano Trios No 1-3
York Piano Trio. Marco Polo MP 3842 (1996)
''Songs''
(includes the song cycles ''Canzona'' (1963), ''Ten Types of Hospital Visitor'' (1986), and ''Songs of a Childhood'' (1967). Delphian DCD 34175 (2017) * (with Barry Guy). The London Jazz Composers' Orchestra ''Ode'' (Incus, 1972) * ''Elegy'' (1994) and ''A Carmen Fantasy'' (1985) for cello and piano o
dialogo
Dagmar Spengler and Oliver Drechsel, Verlag Dohr DCD 017 (2002) Film music

References

External links

* * *
''Refrains II'', for clarinet, viola and piano (1971)
UTAS Conservatorium of Music recording {{DEFAULTSORT:Orr, Buxton 1924 births 1997 deaths English musicologists English people of Scottish descent Musicians from Glasgow Scottish composers 20th-century British classical musicians 20th-century English composers 20th-century Scottish musicians 20th-century British musicologists Scottish male composers Scottish film score composers British male film score composers