- John Veale
John Douglas Louis Veale (
June 15 1922 -November 16 2006 ) was an Englishclassical composer .He was born in
Shortlands ,Bromley ,Kent . He was educated atRepton andCorpus Christi College, Oxford , alongsideKenneth Tynan . As a composer, he was largely self-taught, but took some lessons fromEgon Wellesz ,Thomas Armstrong ,Roger Sessions andRoy Harris (the latter's only English pupil).He served as film correspondent with the "Oxford Mail" (1966 - 1980) and as copy editor at
Oxford University Press (1968 - 1987).His compositions include three symphonies (No. 1 was written 1944-47, and premiered by
Sir John Barbirolli at theCheltenham Music Festival in 1952; No. 2 written in 1965; No. 3 in 1997), a clarinet concerto (1954), a violin concerto, 'Panorama' (an orchestral evocation ofSan Francisco premiered bySir Adrian Boult in 1951), 'Metropolis' concert overture (1955 premiered by SirCharles Groves ), numerous other orchestral and ensemble pieces including 'Apocalypse' for chorus and orchestra, and a number of film scores including "Purple Plain ", "The Spanish Gardener ","No Road Back ", "Portrait of Alison " and "High Tide at Noon ". Some of his film scores were later destroyed by the film studios.He wrote in a tonal idiom and suffered under the avant garde musical regime at the
British Broadcasting Corporation headed by its Director of MusicWilliam Glock and almost ceased composition in the 1960s. Following his re-discovery in the 1980s he resumed composing.His Violin Concerto is available on the
Chandos CD label, played by Lydia Mordkovitch withRichard Hickox conducting theBBC Symphony Orchestra . It is coupled with the Violin Concerto ofBenjamin Britten .John Veale died in
Bromley ,Kent (a south-eastern suburb ofLondon ) onNovember 16 2006 from cancer. He was divorced and had several children, one daughter having died at the age of five.
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