Burgon, Geoffrey

views updated

Burgon, Geoffrey (b Hambledon, 1941). Eng. composer. Played tpt. in jazz groups and orchs. Original and imaginative user of all the influences and procedures at the disposal of the 20th-cent. composer. High reputation as composer of incid. music for television, e.g. Brideshead Revisited and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Works incl.:OPERA: Hard Times ( Dickens) (1991).MUSIC THEATRE: Epitaph for Sir Walter Raleigh (1968); Joan of Arc (text by Susan Hill) (1970); The Fall of Lucifer (1977); Mirandola (1980–1); Orpheus, sop., ten., bar., bass, male ch., orch. (1982).BALLETS: The Golden Fish (1964); Ophelia (1964); The Calm (1974); Running Figures/Goldberg's Dream (1975); Step at a Time (1976); Persephone (1979); Songs, Lamentations and Praises (1979); Chamber Dances (1982); Mass (1984); The Trial of Prometheus (1988).INCID. MUSIC.: Blood Wedding ( Lorca) (1988).ORCH.: conc. for str. (1963); 5 Pieces for Str. (1967); Gending (1968); Alleluia Nativitas (1970); Cantus Alleluia (1973); Brideshead Variations (1982); tpt. conc. (1993); The Turning World, tpt., perc., str. (1993).VOICE(S) AND ORCH.: Acquainted with Night, counterten., str., harp, perc. (1965); Think on Dredful Domesday (1969); Magnificat (1970); The Golden Eternity (1970); Requiem, sop., counterten., ten., ch., orch. (1976); Veni Spiritus, sop., bar., ch., and orch. (1978–9); Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, 2 sop., tpt., org., str. (1979); Hymn to St Thomas of Hereford, ch., orch. (1981); The World Again, sop., orch. (1982–3); Revelations, sop., ten., bar., ch., orch. (1984); Title Divine, sop., orch. (1986); A Vision, ten., str. (1991).VOICE(S) & PIANO or ENSEMBLE: Cantata on Mediaeval Latin Texts, counterten., fl., ob., bn. (1964); Hymn to Venus, mez. and pf. (1966); 5 Sonnets of Donne, sop., mez., fl., ob., cl., hn., pf., timp., vc. (1967); Songs of Mary, mez., va., pf. (1970); At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners, sop., tpt., org. (1971); Worldës Blissë, counterten. and ob. (1971); Threnody, ten., pf., hpd. (1971); This Endris Night, ten., female vv., brass (1972); Dira vi amores terror, counterten. (1973); Canciones del Alma, 2 counterten. and 13 solo str. (1975); The Fall of Lucifer, ten., bar., counterten., ch., and ens. (1977); Lunar Beauty, counterten, lute (1986); Nearing the Upper Air, counterten., rec., vc., hpd. (1988).CHORAL: 3 Elegies (1964); Short Mass (1965); Farewell Earth's Bliss, 6 solo vv. (1966); 5 Allelluias, 6 solo vv. (or brass) (1970); A Prayer to the Trinity (1972); The Fire of Heaven, triple ch. (1973); Dos Coros, 12 solo vv. (1975); But Have Been Found Again, sop., alt., ch. (1983); The Names of the Hare, ch. (1985); The Song of the Creatures, ch., org. (1987); Prayer to St Richard, ch. (1989); Songs of the Creation, ch., org. (1989).CHAMBER MUSIC: ob. qt. (1980); Sanctus Variations, 2 tpts., org. (1980); Chamber Dances (1981–2); Little Missenden Variations, cl., ca., hn., bn. (1984).