Harold Truscott
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Harold Truscott (23 August 1914 – 7 October 1992) was a British composer, pianist, broadcaster and writer on music. Largely neglected as a composer in his lifetime, he made an important contribution to the British piano repertoire and was influential in spreading knowledge of a wide range of mainly unfashionable music.


Life

Born into a working-class family in
Seven Kings Seven Kings is an area of Ilford in Greater London, England, part of the London Borough of Redbridge. Situated approximately two miles from Ilford town centre, Seven Kings forms part of the Ilford post town. Historically part of Essex, it was p ...
, east London, Truscott was largely self-taught. By the age of 15 his strong native urge to compose was interpreted by his father as a sign of mental illness and, finding a psychiatrist to endorse this view, he had his son committed to an asylum in
Romford Romford is a large List of places in London, town in east London, east London, England, located northeast of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Havering, the town is one of the major Metropolitan centres of London, metropolitan centr ...
. Truscott emerged after 20 weeks with his resolve undimmed. Later he did attend 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 ...
(1934), where he studied piano with
Orlando Morgan Robert Orlando Morgan (16 March 1865 – 16 May 1956) was an English music teacher, composer and musicologist. He is best remembered as an influential teacher at the Guildhall School of Music in London, where he taught for 64 years, from 1887 to ...
, and 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 ...
(1943–45) in London on a part-time basis; at the latter he studied piano with Angus Morrison, horn with Frank Probin and received instruction in composition from
Herbert Howells Herbert Norman Howells (17 October 1892 – 23 February 1983) was an English composer, organist, and teacher, most famous for his large output of Anglican church music. Life Background and early education Howells was born in Lydney, Gloucest ...
. Truscott spent much of his subsequent career teaching music, and eventually became principal lecturer in Music at
Huddersfield Huddersfield is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confl ...
Polytechnic College. He benefited from his friendship with the composer and broadcaster Robert Simpson, and during the 1950s he performed many broadcast recitals for the BBC, and some of his own compositions were broadcast by notable artists such as
John Ogdon John Andrew Howard Ogdon (27 January 1937 – 1 August 1989) was an English pianist and composer. Biography Career Ogdon was born in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire; his family moved to Manchester when he was eight. He attended the M ...
.


Writings

After the change in BBC music policy initiated by Sir
William Glock Sir William Frederick Glock, CBE (3 May 190828 June 2000) was a British music critic and musical administrator who was instrumental in introducing the Continental avant-garde, notably promoting the career of Pierre Boulez. Biography Glock was b ...
in the late 1950s, Truscott's music ceased to receive attention, but he remained active as a copious giver of broadcast talks and contributor to journals on a wide range of subjects. He had an encyclopaedic range of knowledge and enthusiasms, ranging from the central composers of the Classical tradition to marginalised figures of the 19th and 20th centuries who were then deeply unfashionable. His advocacy of
Granville Bantock Sir Granville Ransome Bantock (7 August 186816 October 1946) was a British composer of classical music. Biography Granville Ransome Bantock was born in London. His father was an eminent Scottish surgeon.Hadden, J. Cuthbert, 1913, ''Modern Music ...
,
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,
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,
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, Franz Schmidt,
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and others was as sincere, and informed by an acquaintance with the music as close, as his discussions of
Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; ; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a List of compositions ...
's piano sonatas or Haydn's string quartets. His principal writings include books on Beethoven's Late String Quartets (Dobson, 1968) and Franz Schmidt's Orchestral Music (Toccata Press, 1984), as well as important contributions to ''The Symphony'' edited by Robert Simpson (Penguin Books, 1966). Unfinished at his death were a volume on Schmidt's chamber music, a study of the music of
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, another of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and a near-complete book on Schubert and the piano. He also left an unfinished autobiography entitled ''Laughter in the Dark.''


Music

As a composer, Truscott perfected an expanded tonal idiom of contrapuntal intricacy and sometimes terse, no-nonsense expression, but a mystical streak sometimes emerges, as in the finale to his only completed
Symphony A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning c ...
, and his ''Elegy'' for string orchestra, composed in 1944 and never performed in his lifetime, is an utterance of astonishing romantic intensity. Beethoven, Schubert, Medtner and Nielsen are among obvious influences which were subsumed into an individual musical language. He wrote a fairly small amount of vocal and orchestral music, though apart from the Symphony in E major several other symphonies were either lost or remained unfinished. He also composed some notable chamber music, including
sonatas In music a sonata (; pl. ''sonate'') literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cantare'', "to sing"), a piece ''sung''. The term evolved through the Music history, history of music, designating a variety of ...
for clarinet and piano, cello and piano, and a set of sonatas for solo violin. But the bulk of his output was for his own instrument, the piano, and this includes no less than 22 sonatas, some of epic length and others of pithy concision. He also made completions of several of Schubert's unfinished piano sonatas.


Selected list of works

Orchestral: *''Grasmere'' Symphony (1938; lost) *Elegy for string orchestra (1944) *Symphony in E major (1949–50) *Symphony in E minor (1951; unfinished, inscribed 'for
Harry Newstone Harry may refer to: Television * ''Harry'' (American TV series), 1987 comedy series starring Alan Arkin * ''Harry'' (British TV series), 1993 BBC drama that ran for two seasons * ''Harry'' (New Zealand TV series), 2013 crime drama starring Oscar K ...
', 60pp of full score) *Fantasia for string orchestra (1961; original titled ''A window on infinity'') *Prelude, for winds and double bass (1965, from an unfinished suite) *Suite in G major (1966) Chamber: *Piano Quintet (c.1930) *2 String Quartets (1944, 1945) *Trio in A major for flute, violin and viola (1950) *3 Sonatas for clarinet and piano (1959, 1965, 1966) *3 Sonatas for violin and piano *Sonata(s) for violin unaccompanied (1946) *Sonata for oboe and piano (1965) *Sonata for horn (or cor anglais) and piano (1975–81) *Sonata for cello and piano (1982–87) Piano: *22 Piano Sonatas (1940–1982) *3 Suites for piano (1949–1966) *2 Preludes and Fugues (1957) *Variations and Fugue in B minor on an original theme (1967) Organ: *Toccata in A minor (1956) *Trio-Sonata in E flat major (1971)


Selected list of writings

*'The Importance of Hans Pfitzner: I – The ''Palestrina'' Preludes', Music Survey no. 1, Autumn 1947, pp. 13–15 *'The Importance of Hans Pfitzner: II – The Chamber Music', Music Survey no. 2, Winter 1948, pp. 37–42 *'The Music of Edmund Rubbra', ''Listener'', 9 July 1964, p. 70 *'Beethoven's Late String Quartets', (Dobson, 1968) *'Franz Schmidt’s Orchestral Music', (Toccata Press, 1984)


External links

*Article on Truscott's music by Guy Rickard

*Brief Biography and Discograph

*Composer webpage with catalogue of Truscott works, by Guy Rickard

*Article by Harold Truscott on Algernon Ashton *New Oxford DNB article: Richard Stoker, ‘Truscott, Harold (1914–1992)’, first published Sept 2004, 1040 words. *Havergal Brian As I Knew Him, by Harold Truscot

{{DEFAULTSORT:Truscott, Harold 1914 births 1992 deaths People from Ilford Musicians from the London Borough of Redbridge Writers from the London Borough of Redbridge English writers about music 20th-century English non-fiction writers 20th-century British classical musicians 20th-century English composers Alumni of the Royal College of Music Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama