Humphrey Searle (26 August 1915 – 12 May 1982) was an Englishcomposer and writer on music. His music combines aspects of lateRomanticism andmodernistserialism, particularly reminiscent of his primary influences,Franz Liszt,Arnold Schoenberg andAnton Webern, who was briefly his teacher.[1] As a writer on music, Searle published texts on numerous topics; he was an authority on the music of Franz Liszt, and created the initial cataloguing system forhis works.[2]
Searle was the son of Humphrey and Charlotte Searle and, through his mother, a grandson ofSir William Schlich. He was born inOxford where he was a classics scholar before studying—somewhat hesitantly—withJohn Ireland at theRoyal College of Music in London, after which he went to Vienna on a six-month scholarship to become a private pupil ofAnton Webern, which became decisive in his composition career.[2]
Searle was one of the foremost pioneers ofserial music in the United Kingdom, and used his role as a producer at theBBC from 1946 to 1948 to promote it. He was General Secretary of theInternational Society for Contemporary Music from 1947 to 1949. He accepted this post with the encouragement of the new president,Edward Clark. For Clark, he composed the Quartet for Clarinet, Bassoon, Violin and Viola, Op. 12, a musicalpalindrome.[3]
Gold Coast Customs, Op. 15, was his first large scale serial work. It is a setting of the jazz-influenced poem byEdith Sitwell, scored for speakers, male chorus and orchestra, and the first of a trilogy of pieces for speaker and orchestra, to be followed byRiverrun, Op. 20 (1951, words byJames Joyce) andThe Shadow of Cain, Op. 22 (1952, words again by Edith Sitwell). The premiere ofGold Coast Customs took place at BBC Broadcasting House on 17 May 1949, with Edith Sitwell andConstant Lambert as the speakers.[4]
Searle wrote his Piano Sonata, Op. 21 for a recital at theWigmore Hall on 22 October 1951, given by the Australian pianistGordon Watson to celebrate the 140th anniversary of the birth ofFranz Liszt. (Watson also performed the completeTranscendental Études on that occasion.[5]) The Sonata was loosely based on Liszt'sSonata in B minor and has been described as "probably, both the finest and most original piano work ever produced by a British composer".[6]
Other works of note include aPoem for 22 Strings (1950), premiered atDarmstadt, aGogol opera,The Diary of a Madman (1958, awarded the first prize at UNESCO'sInternational Rostrum of Composers in 1960), and five symphonies, the first of which was commercially recorded by theLondon Philharmonic Orchestra in 1960, conducted bySir Adrian Boult. Writing in 1994,Ottó Károlyi described the Symphony No. 5 as "a biographical programmatic symphony that sets out to depict, by purely musical means, highlights of Webern's life from his youth to his untimely death".[7] All five symphonies have since been recorded by the Scottish Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Alun Francis.[8]
He also composedfilm scores, including music forThe Baby and the Battleship (1956),Beyond Mombasa (1956),Action of the Tiger (1957),The Abominable Snowman (1957),Law and Disorder (1958),Left Right and Centre (1959),October Moth (1960) andThe Haunting (1963), as well the 1965Doctor Who serialThe Myth Makers.[9]
Searle also contributed humorous compositions to some of theHoffnung Music Festivals, including a setting ofYoung Lochinvar and a parody ofserialism,Punkt Kontrapunkt.[10]
Searle taught throughout his life; his notable students includedHugh Davidson,Brian Elias,Michael Finnissy,Jonathan Elias,Nicola LeFanu,Alistair Hinton,Geoffrey King, andGraham Newcater andWolfgang Rihm.[2] See:List of music students by teacher: R to S#Humphrey Searle.
Searle wrote the monographsTwentieth Century Counterpoint andThe Music of Franz Liszt. He also developed the most authoritative catalogue ofLiszt's works, which are frequently identified using Searle's numbering system, abbreviated as "S.".
Searle married Fiona Nicholson in 1960. He died in London in 1982, aged 66.[11][12]
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