John Lambert (composer)
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John Lambert (15 July 1926 – 7 March 1995) was a British music composer and teacher.


Biography

John Arthur Neil Lambert was born at
Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England. It lies on the southwestern bank of the River Thames, which at this point forms the border with Buckinghamshire. In the 2021 Census, ...
. After obtaining a post at the Royal College of Music, he lived at
Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
for the rest of his life, where he shared a house with organist Timothy Bond. He died in
Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
from
liver cancer Liver cancer, also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy, is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary in which the cancer starts in the liver, or it can be liver metastasis, or secondar ...
.


Music career

Lambert studied at the
Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...
, and then at 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 ...
. He studied with
Nadia Boulanger Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher, conductor and composer. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organis ...
privately in Paris; that study ended in 1953. In 1958 Lambert was named Music Director at the
Old Vic Old or OLD may refer to: Places *Old, Baranya, Hungary *Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...
theatre; he retained that post until 1962, when he accepted a post as Professor of Composition at 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 ...
. At the Royal College he established a dedicated experimental music group. Lambert taught many students who went on to become noted in their own right, including
Oliver Knussen Stuart Oliver Knussen (12 June 1952 – 8 July 2018) was a British composer of contemporary classical music and conductor. Among the most influential British composers of his generation, his relatively few compositions are "rooted in 20th-cen ...
, Antony Cooke,
Mark-Anthony Turnage Mark-Anthony Turnage (born 10 June 1960) is an English composer of contemporary classical music. Life and career Mark-Anthony Turnage was born in Corringham, Essex on 10 June 1960. Turnage was the eldest of three children. His parents were lov ...
,
Simon Bainbridge Simon Bainbridge (30 August 1952 – 2 April 2021) was a British composer. He was also a professor and head of musical composition, composition at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and visiting professor at the University of Louisville, Kentu ...
, Gabriel Jackson and
Julian Anderson Julian Anderson (born 6 April 1967) is a British composer and teacher of composition. Biography Anderson was born in London. He studied at Westminster School, then with John Lambert at the Royal College of Music, with Alexander Goehr at Cambr ...
. He also taught Javier Álvarez, Gary Carpenter, David Fanshawe, Jonathan Lloyd, Carlos Miranda
Oswaldo González
and Barrington Pheloung. The striking thing about this list is the musical diversity which is represented therein. Lambert retired from teaching in 1990.


Teaching style

Lambert was a gifted composer and an effective and influential teacher, and was widely regarded as "self-effacing". For his entire teaching career, Lambert maintained an intense curiosity and openness to the latest trends in music. He stated that his musical development had been stinted by the lack of musical openness in mid-century England, and he hoped that his students would not suffer a similar deprivation. He exhibited this openness in his own curriculum; he regularly invited noted musical influences. He encouraged musical students to develop an "analytical ear" - the ability to spot an interesting sound or phrase, then dissect it and sense its potential. He taught this technique in his ''Experimental Music Group'', an improvisation seminar which he assembled each week from 1970 until 1990. This involved students both from the college and elsewhere, combining music with live electronics, theatre, dance, film and animation; a forum in which one could try out the most unexpected, even bizarre things and, if they did not come off, that was as important a discovery as if they did.


Musical compositions

Lambert was most productive in his later years. He progressed most rapidly after taking the Music Director post at the Old Vic, where he worked with noted musicians of the period, such as
Franco Zeffirelli Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli (; 12 February 1923 – 15 June 2019) was an Italian stage and film director, producer, production designer and politician. He was one of the most significant opera and theatre directors of the post–World War II e ...
. He composed music for a range of productions, but also commissioned music from other composers such as
Thea Musgrave Thea Musgrave Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 27 May 1928) is a Scottish composer of opera and classical music. She has lived in the United States since 1972. Biography Born in Barnton, Edinburgh, Barnton, Edinburgh, Mus ...
and
Michael Tippett Sir Michael Kemp Tippett (2 January 1905 – 8 January 1998) was an English composer who rose to prominence during and immediately after the Second World War. In his lifetime he was sometimes ranked with his contemporary Benjamin Britten as o ...
(whose music for The Tempest, 1962, was one of the most striking products of this era). Possibly Lambert's most imposing composition during his Old Vic period was his ''Organ Mass'', composed in a five-year stretch (1964-1968). After that he produced happier, more direct music, such as ''Formations and Transformations'' (1973), and an opera, ''Family Affairs'', which premiered at the 1988 Brighton Festival. Lambert's later works include a choral work, ''Scale'' (1988), and string quartets. His ''Second String Quartet'' (1986) revealed a more intimate side. The most ambitious project was the cycle ''Sea-Change'' (1978–94), five contrasting works for ensemble and electronics.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lambert, John 1926 births 1995 deaths 20th-century British classical composers 20th-century British composers 20th-century British male musicians British male classical composers British music educators