Raymond Henry Charles Warren"Warren, Prof. Raymond Henry Charles"
''Who's Who'' (online edition, University of Oxford, December 2018). Retrieved 18 November 2018. (7 November 1928 – 4 June 2025) was a British composer and university teacher. Warren studied at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, and taught at

Queen's University Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

, where he was the first person in the UK to be given a personal chair in composition in 1966, before becoming

Hamilton Harty Sir Herbert Hamilton Harty (4 December 1879 – 19 February 1941) was an Irish composer, conductor, pianist and organist. After an early career as a church organist in his native Ireland, Harty moved to London at about age 20, soon becoming a ...

Professor of Music in 1969. He was

Stanley Hugh Badock Professor of Music The Stanley Hugh Badock Professorship of Music was established in 1946 at the University of Bristol, and named after Sir Stanley Badock (died 1945), who had been Pro-Chancellor of the University. List of Stanley Hugh Badock Professors * 1947– ...

at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

from 1972 until his retirement in 1994. His works include a choral Passion, a Violin Concerto, three Symphonies, a Requiem, the oratorio ''Continuing Cities'', six operas and an extensive amount of music for children, young people and community music making.

Biography

Raymond Warren was born in

Axbridge Axbridge is a town in Somerset, England, on the River Axe, near the southern edge of the Mendip Hills. Its population according to the 2011 census was 2,057. History ''Axanbrycg'' is suggested as the source of the name, meaning a bridge over ...

, Somerset on 7 November 1928. His mother was Gwendoline C. Warren, née Hallett. Warren studied at

Bancroft's School Bancroft's School is a co-educational private day school in Woodford Green, London. The school has around 1,100 pupils aged between 7 and 18, around 250 of whom are pupils of the Preparatory School and 850 of whom are pupils of the Senior Sch ...

and

Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Corpus Christi College (full name: "The College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary", often shortened to "Corpus") is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. From the late 14th c ...

(1949–52), reading mathematics at first and then changing to music under

Boris Ord Boris Ord (born Bernhard Ord), (9 July 1897 – 30 December 1961) was a British organist and choirmaster of King's College, Cambridge (1929-1957). During World War II he served in the Royal Air Force. He is best known for his choral setting of ...

and

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 ...

. Later he studied privately with

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 ...

(1952–60),

Lennox Berkeley Sir Lennox Randal Francis Berkeley CBE (12 May 190326 December 1989) was an English composer. Biography Berkeley was born on 12 May 1903 in Oxford, England, the younger child and only son of Aline Carla (1863–1935), daughter of Sir James ...

(1958) and

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten of Aldeburgh (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, o ...

(1961). From 1955 to 1972 he taught at

Queen's University, Belfast The Queen's University of Belfast, commonly known as Queen's University Belfast (; abbreviated Queen's or QUB), is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. The university received its charter in 1845 as part of ...

, where from 1966 he held a personal Chair in composition. While in Belfast, an association with the Lyric Players theatre company involved writing music for many of the plays of

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

. For the years 1966–72 he was Resident Composer to the

Ulster Orchestra The Ulster Orchestra is a full-time professional orchestra in Northern Ireland. Based in Belfast, the orchestra plays the majority of its concerts in Belfast's Ulster Hall and Waterfront Hall. It also gives concerts across the United Kingdom ...

, writing for them a number of orchestral works and also conducting the Orchestra in a series of Sunday afternoon concerts of contemporary music. In 1972 he was appointed Professor of Music at the

, a post from which he retired in 1994. Following retirement he composed to commission for a wide variety of performers notably the Brunel Ensemble (Symphony No.3, ''In My Childhood'') and the

London Children's Ballet London Children's Ballet (LCB) is a registered charitable trust created in 1994. LCB is both a performance company and a registered charity, producing and staging one new ballet in London’s West End each year and running outreach work through ...

(''Ballet Shoes'', 2001). He collaborated with many other artists of note including the poets John Reed,

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish Irish poetry, poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is ''Death of a Naturalist'' (1966), his first m ...

Michael Longley Michael George Longley (27 July 1939 – 22 January 2025) was a Northern Irish poet. In his later years Longley observed: "It's a mystery where poems come from. If I knew where poems came from I would go there ... When I write a poem I am movi ...

and

Charles Tomlinson Alfred Charles Tomlinson, CBE (8 January 1927 – 22 August 2015) was an English poet, translator, academic, and illustrator. He was born in Penkhull, and grew up in Basford, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Life After attending Longton High S ...

, the choreographer Helen Lewis and the founders of the Lyric Theatre, Belfast, and wrote for performers including

Peter Pears Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears ( ; 22 June 19103 April 1986) was an English tenor. His career was closely associated with the composer Benjamin Britten, his personal and professional partner for nearly forty years. Pears' musical career started ...

Julian Bream Julian Alexander Bream (15 July 193314 August 2020) was an English classical guitarist and lutenist. Regarded as one of the most distinguished classical guitarists of the 20th century, he played a significant role in improving the public perc ...

, Eric Gruenberg,

Cecil Aronowitz Cecil Aronowitz (4 March 19167 September 1978) was a British viola player, a founding member of the Melos Ensemble, a leading chamber musician, and an influential teacher at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music. ...

Janet Price Janet Price (born 5 February 1938) is a Welsh soprano particularly associated with the 19th-century Italian bel canto repertory. Born in Pontypool, Wales, she studied piano and singing at Cardiff University with Olive Groves, Isobel Baillie an ...

Christopher Austin Christopher Austin (born 14 November 1968) is a British conductor, and an arranger and orchestrator of film and television scores. Austin originally intended to become a composer. He studied at the University of Bristol with Adrian Beaumont ...

, Jeremy Huw Williams, David Ogden and the Dartington String Quartet.. As a teacher, Warren's students included a number of composers and musicians who have gone on to have significant careers including:

, Eibhlis Farrell,

Philip Hammond Philip Hammond, Baron Hammond of Runnymede (born 4 December 1955) is a British politician and life peer who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2016 to 2019 and Foreign Secretary from 2014 to 2016, having previously served as Defence ...

, David Byers and

Will Todd Will Todd (b 14 January 1970) is an English musician and composer. He is a pianist, who performs regularly with others in his own works. Biography and work Todd was born in County Durham, attended Durham School and joined the choir of St Oswald' ...

. Warren died on 4 June 2025, at the age of 96.

Music

Major works include the oratorio ''The Passion'' (1962), Symphony No.1 (1964), the Violin Concerto (1966), ''Songs of Old Age'' (1968), Symphony No.2 (1969), the oratorio ''Continuing Cities'' (1989), Symphony No.3 (1995), ''In My Childhood'' (1998) and ''Cello Requiem'' (2018) as well as his six operas. Four of the operas were written for children. Two of them, ''Let My People Go'' and ''St. Patrick'', were commissioned by the Liverpool Education Authority and first performed by the Liverpool Schools Symphony Orchestra. Aside from the operas, works for children and young people include ''Songs of Unity'' (1968) written for Methodist College, Belfast and several pieces written for youth orchestras including ''Ring of Light'' (2005), ''A Star Danced'' (2009) and ''Variations on a Gloucester Chime'' (2012). Chamber music includes two Piano sonatas, a Violin sonata, three String quartets and the Piano trio ''

Burnt Norton ''Burnt Norton'' is the first poem of T. S. Eliot's ''Four Quartets''. He created it while working on his play ''Murder in the Cathedral'', and it was first published in his ''Collected Poems 1909–1935'' (1936). The poem's title refers to Bu ...

Sketches'' (1985), which were later orchestrated by

(1999). Peter Jacobs has recorded the ''Monody'' movement from Warren's Second Piano Sonata (1977), which consists of a single line of melody with decoration. Song cycles include ''Spring 1948'' (1956), ''The Pity of Love'' (1966), ''Songs of Old Age'' (1968), the orchestral song cycle ''In My Childhood'' (1998), ''Another Spring'' (2008) and ''The Coming'' (2010). His shorter choral works include the cantata ''The Death of Orpheus'' (1953 revised 2009), the motet ''Salvator Mundi'' (1976), ''The Starlight Night'' (1990), the evening canticles written for Bristol Cathedral: ''The Bristol Service'' (1991) and ''Celtic Blessings'' (1996). Music for dance includes two notable collaborations with Helen Lewis, ''There is a Time'' (1970) and the

, ''Ballet Shoes'' (2001). Warren worked closely with several poets, providing instrumental music to complement spoken words, including ''Lares'' (1972) with

and ''The Sound of Time'' (1984) with

. The first of these was with his contemporary

, ''A Lough Neagh Sequence'' (1970). Warren wrote: Heaney made a recording of this version of his poetry with Warren's music in 2011.''The Next Ocean'', reviewed at ''MusicWeb International'' by Nick Bernard
/ref> Many of his shorter works are among his most powerful including the solo cantata for flute, piano and mezzo soprano, ''Drop, Drop Slow Tears'' (1960) and the ''Song for St. Cecilia’s Day'' (1967) scored for tenor, flute, viola, guitar and first performed by

, Richard Adeney,

and

. His best selling work as a recording is the orchestral suite ''Wexford Bells'' (1970).

Selected works

''(Impulse Music has a complete list)''List of Compositions by Raymond Warren, Impulse Music
/ref>

Discography

*
Bristol Service
', Bristol Cathedral Choir, Priory PRCD 528 * ''In My Childhood'', ''A Lough Neagh Sequence'', ''Piano Sonata No 2'', on
The Next Ocean
. Raymond Warren and Seamus Heaney (reader), Philip Mead (piano), Olivia Robinson (soloist), University of Hertfordshire Chamber Orchestra conducted by Robin Browning. UH Recordings (2011) * ''Golden Rings'', ''Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis'' and ''Salvator Mundi''
Bristol Graduate Singers conducted by Edward Davies

Symphony No 3, ''Pictures with Angels''
The Brunel Ensemble conducted by Christopher Austin (1996) * ''Monody; Chaconne''. Peter Jacobs (piano)
Severnside Composers' Alliance Inaugural Piano Recital
Dunelm Records (2005) *

', Royal Ballet Sinfonia, Gavin Sutherland, on

, ASV CD WHL 2126 (2000)

Publications

* Warren, Raymond: ''Opera Workshops: Studies in Understanding and Interpretation'' (Brookfield, 1995) * Warren, Raymond: ''The Composer and Opera Performance'' in Thomas, W. (ed.), ''Composition – Performance – Reception: Studies in the Creative Process in Music'', Ashgate, 1998, * Davies, Edward. ''Raymond Warren: A Study of His Music''. Work in preparation.

References

External links

Composer's Website
*
'Shepherds' Dance', from ''Wexford Bells'', Royal Ballet Sinfonia, conducted by Gavin Sutherland

Impulse Music Consultants, listening page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warren, Raymond 1928 births 2025 deaths 20th-century British classical composers Academics of Queen's University Belfast Academics of the University of Bristol British opera composers British male opera composers Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge 20th-century British male musicians