A. J. Potter

Archibald James (Archie) Potter (1918 – July 5, 1980) was an Irish composer and teacher, who wrote hundreds of works including operas, a mass, and four ballets, as well as orchestral and chamber music.

Early years

Potter was born in Belfast to a Presbyterian family who, oddly, lived on the Falls Road, a republican stronghold. His father was a church organist and piano tuner who was blind since childhood. His mother was, in Potter's own words, "a raging alcoholic". The young Potter escaped a rather grim childhood when he went to live with an aunt in Kent, England."The Irish Times", "Dr. A. J. Potter - An Appreciation", July 17, 1980]

Possessed of a good voice and natural musical ability, Potter was accepted as a treble by the world-famous choir of All Saints, Margaret Street. In 1933, after four years as a chorister, he was sent to Clifton College public school in Bristol. From there he went to the Royal College of Music on a scholarship and studied composition under Vaughan Williams.

World War II interrupted Potter's music education and he left college to serve with the London Irish Rifles in Europe and the Far East. ["The Irish Times", (p. 4), February 23, 1952] After the war Potter settled in Dublin, where he continued his studies at Trinity College, Dublin, gaining a Doctorate in Music in 1953.

Life and career

In 1955 Potter was appointed Professor of Composition at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, where he became an effective administrator and inspiring teacher.

Potter had already started composing chamber and vocal music before the war. Now, established in Dublin, he chose the orchestra as his principal means of expression. His early pieces, such as "Rhapsody under the a High Sky" and "Overture to a Kitchen Comedy", showed that Potter had absorbed Vaughan Williams' pastoral style, and his love of folk music.

In the 1960s, Potter turned to ballet, writing four orchestral scores for the Cork ballet company. The first of these, "Careless Love", became the composer's own favourite of all his compositions. Several years later, following a successful battle with alcoholism, he wrote what some regard as his magnum opus, "Sinfonia "de Profundis". The première was given at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin on March 23, 1969 in a performance by the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Albert Rosen. [ [http://www.cmc.ie/library/work_detail.cfm?workID=1342 Contemporary Music Centre web site] ] "The Irish Times" referred to the concert as a "major national event". In December 1969, Potter received a Jacob's Award for the composition.

Potter's last substantial work, an opera entitled "The Wedding", received its first public performance in Dublin in 1981, almost a year after the composer's untimely death.

Death

Dr. A. J. Potter died suddenly at his home in Greystones, County Wicklow at the age of 62. His body is buried in the nearby Redford cemetery.

Recordings

*"Sinfonia "de Profundis", "Finnegan's Wake", "Fantasia Gaelach No. 1", "Variations on a Popular Tune", "Overture to a Kitchen Comedy", (2001) Marco Polo 8.225158
*"Romantic Ireland" (features "Rhapsody under the a High Sky"), (2004) Marco Polo 8.223804
*"Ceol Potter" (features arrangements of traditional Irish tunes), (2006) Gael Linn CEFCD 034
*"Dreaming" (features "Nocturne in A Minor" for piano), Anew NEWD 406

ources

Further references

* [http://www.cmc.ie/composers/composer.cfm?composerID=104 Contemporary Music Centre profile of A. J. Potter, including full list of compositions]