Maurice Sibley Blower (27 September 1894 - 4 July 1982) was an English musician, pianist and composer.

Life

Blower was born in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

, and was a choirboy in London.Leach, Gerald. ''British Composer Profiles'', 3rd. edition (2012), p. 34 He 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 ...

. Before World War One he worked for a time at the National Bank of India. During the war he served with the

East Surrey Regiment The East Surrey Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1959. The regiment was formed in 1881 under the Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 31st (Huntingdonshire) Regiment of Foot, the 70th ( ...

, and in 1917 was taken prisoner at St Quentin. After the war he received further musical training at the RAF School of Music (attached to 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 ...

and directed by Henry Walford Davies), the

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

School of Music, and with

Harold Darke Harold Edwin Darke (29 October 1888 – 28 November 1976) was an English composer and organist. He is particularly known for his choral compositions, which are an established part of the repertoire of Anglican church music. Darke had a fifty-ye ...

Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassi ...

, where he received his music doctorate in 1929.Thomas Blower and Peter Craddock. Notes to Lyrita CD REAM 2139 (2018), p. 8-13
/ref> For his D.Mus. he submitted two choral works: ''The Lady of Shallott'' and ''Message of the March Wind''. Blower was long associated with

Petersfield Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth. The town has its own Petersfield railway station, railway station on the Portsmouth Direct line, the mainline rai ...

in Hampshire, where he gave piano lessons, directed choirs and acted as secretary to the Petersfield Music Festival for five decades. He married Rosalind Hill (née Liddell, 1902–1985) in St Luke's Church,

Milland Milland is a village and civil parish in the Chichester (district), Chichester Districts of England, district of West Sussex, England. It is situated north of the A272 road on the border with Hampshire. In the 2001 census the parish covered an ...

in 1938 and they moved to the nearby village of

Rake Rake may refer to: Common meanings * Rake (tool), a horticultural implement, a long-handled tool with tines * Rake (stock character), a man habituated to immoral conduct * Rake (poker), the commission taken by the house when hosting a poker game ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

, on the border of Sussex and

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, where he taught at a local school. They stayed there for the rest of their lives. Their address in the 1940s was Little Langley Farm, Rake, where their son Thomas was born in 1946. Blower died in Petersfield at the age of 88. His wife Rosalind died three years later.

Music

The music published in his lifetime was mostly songs and brief choral works. But there were also orchestral works, such as the Symphony in C, composed in 1939, the three movement ''Eclogue'' for Horn and Strings (1950) and the Horn Concerto (1951). These three pieces were recorded on the Cameo label in 2014 and have since been re-issued on Lyrita. Both horn works were premiered by

Dennis Brain Dennis Brain (17 May 19211 September 1957) was a British French horn, horn player. From a musical family – his father and grandfather were horn players – he attended the Royal Academy of Music in London. During the Second World War he served ...

, the first in Petersfield, May 1951, repeated in London two years later, and the second in 1953, also in Petersfield. The symphony was only recovered in 2002, and it was re-constructed by his son Thomas Blower and the conductor Peter Craddock, who conducted the first performance at Ferneham Hall,

Fareham Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufac ...

on 29 March 2008 with the

Havant Havant ( ) is a town in the south-east corner of Hampshire, England. Nearby places include Portsmouth to the south-west, Southampton to the west, Waterlooville to north, Chichester to the east and Hayling Island to the south. The wider borough ...

Symphony Orchestra. His other works include a Concertino for bassoon and orchestra (1956), the Two Pieces for small orchestra, the ''Romantic Suite'' for strings, and the orchestral impression ''On the Wicklow Hills''. His arrangement of

Purcell Henry Purcell (, rare: ; September 1659 – 21 November 1695) was an English composer of Baroque music, most remembered for his more than 100 songs; a tragic opera, ''Dido and Aeneas''; and his incidental music to a version of Shakespeare's ...

's ''

Come Ye Sons of Art Come Ye Sons of Art, Z.323, also known as Ode for Queen Mary's Birthday, is a musical composition by Henry Purcell. It was written in 1694, and is one of a series of odes in honour of the birthday of Queen Mary II of England. The text of the ode ...

'' (for SSA and piano or string accompaniment) remains in print.''Come, Ye Sons of Art'' (arr. Blower), Novello & Co
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blower, Maurice 1894 births 1982 deaths 20th-century English classical composers Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music