John Gerrard Williams (10 December 1888 – 7 March 1947), most commonly known as Gerrard Williams, was an English composer and arranger. Williams was born in London - his birth name was John Gerard Williams. He had no formal music education (other than some informal advice from Richard Henry Walthew), but learned through amateur performing in choirs and orchestras and through concert going. He trained and worked as an architect, though began composing in his spare time from around 1911. He gave up architecture after 1920, and began organising concerts of his music. These included a concert at the Pump Room in Bath on 2 February 1921. 16 of his songs were sung by the tenor Osmond Davis with the composer at the piano. A further concert of his chamber music, including the second string quartet, piano works and songs, was held at the Aeolian Hall on 27 March 1922. In 1924 the BBC broadcast an hour long programme of his chamber music, and another hour of orchestral and choral music in 1928, conducted by Stanford Robinson. His many compositions include a comic operetta for children ''The Story of the Willow Pattern Plate'' (1921), and the ballad opera ''Kate, The Cabin Boy'', based on traditional tunes and inspired by the success of the '' Beggar's Opera'' revival in 1920. It was produced by

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at the Kingsway Theatre in 1924. There are orchestral suites, incidental music for radio, chamber music, including two string quartets, choral works, solo piano pieces and songs. Much of his music could be classified as light music miniatures, but folk music is also an important component, while the influence of

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and

Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

is sometimes noted in connection with the piano works and chamber music. ''Pot-Pourri'', the orchestrated version of a piano suite with eight short movements titled after the names of flowers, was given at the

Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Ha ...

twice, in 1921 and 1922. Williams also wrote one of the movements of ''Captions: Five Glimpses of an Anonymous Theme'' (1923), a suite with other movements by Herbert Bedford,

Arthur Bliss Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss (2 August 189127 March 1975) was an English composer and conductor. Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army. In the post-war years he qu ...

, Eugene Goossens and

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. He was also a prolific arranger of folk-songs and folk-dance tunes, as well as adaptions of popular classics. His arrangements for military band in the 1930s include the

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' ''London Suite'' for Chappell & Co. He also arranged the suite from the 1937

ballet ''

Checkmate Checkmate (often shortened to mate) is any game position in chess and other chess-like games in which a player's king is in check (threatened with ) and there is no possible escape. Checkmating the opponent wins the game. In chess, the king is ...

'' for wind orchestra. In the 1930s Williams was living at Underhill, Stafford Road in Caterham. He died in Oxted, Surrey at the age of 58.

Selected works

Dramatic * ''Charming Chloe'', ballad opera * ''Kate, the Cabin Boy'', ballad opera (1923) *''The Story of the Willow Pattern Plate'', comic operetta for children (1921) *''Sweet Winter'', for children * ''The Tale of the Shoe'', for children Orchestra * ''Cortege on a Ground Bass'' * ''Elegiac Rhapsody, in Memoriam E.B.W.'' * ''Facets: Aspects of an Original Theme'' * ''Fantasy on Kalyani (an old Indian Song)'', for flute, oboe, clarinet and strings * ''Pot-Pourri'', eight fragments (originally piano) *''Ring Up the Curtain: A Harlequinade'' (originally piano) *''The Wings of Horus'' (1928), ballet Chamber *String Quartet No 1 (1915) *String Quartet No 2 (1919, published Curwen) Piano * ''Déjeuner dansant''recorded by

Richard Rodney Bennett Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (29 March 193624 December 2012) was an English composer of film, TV and concert music, and also a jazz pianist and occasional vocalist. He was based in New York City from 1979 until his death there in 2012. Zachary Wo ...

on ''Best of British'', Warner Classics Warner Classics 0289892 (2011) * ''Four Traditional Irish Tunes'' * ''Four Traditional Tunes'' (also orchestrated) * ''Poem'' for piano solo ('Questing') (1927) * ''Prunes and Prisms: Three Expressions'' * ''Side-shows'' * ''Three Miniatures after Shelley'' ('Dawn', 'The Isle', 'Time', Chester, 1919 - also orchestrated) * ''Three Preludes'': 'By Haworth Falls', 'Solitude' and 'Autumn' Songs * ''Aubade'' (text Frederick Wyville Home, Curwen, 1921) * ''The Crooning from Inisfail'' (text Leigh Henry, Curwen, 1921) * ''Dusk'' * ''Idyll'' * ''An Inconsequent Ballad'' * ''In the Bower'' (text

Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

) * ''Love's Secret'' (text Blake) * ''Moon'' * ''Mid-winter Madness'' * ''Playbox'', song cycle for children * ''Reflections'' (text Leigh Henry, Curwen, 1921) * ''Rondel'' (text

Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as '' Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition ...

) * ''Very Nearly'' (text

Queenie Scott-Hopper Queenie Scott-Hopper was the pen name of Mabel Olive Scott-Hopper (1881 – 6 February 1924), an English author of children’s stories, poetry, and devotional literature. Biography Mabel Olive Scott-Hopper was one of four children born to soli ...

, 1932) Choral * ''A Cycle of the Sea'' for eight part voices * ''Diaphenia'', part song * ''Lowland Lay'', part song * ''Sweet Kate'', part song * ''Three Sleeps'', part song * ''Tragic Fragment'', for wordless women's voices

References

External links

Gerrard Williams scores at IMSLP
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, John Gerrard 1888 births 1947 deaths English composers