Anthony Francis Dominic Milner[1] (13 May 1925 – 22 September 2002) was a British composer, teacher and conductor.
Milner was born inBristol, and educated atDouai School, Berkshire. He was awarded a bursary to attend theRoyal College of Music, where he studied piano withHerbert Fryer and theory withR. O. Morris. He studied composition privately withMátyás Seiber. Milner's own teaching career began atMorley College,London, where he taught music theory and history from 1948 to 1964. He was lecturer in music atKing's College London, from 1965 to 1971, when he moved toGoldsmiths' College as senior lecturer, becoming principal lecturer in 1974. In 1980 he was appointed full-time principal lecturer at the Royal College, where he had taught part-time since 1962.[2] He remained in this post until his retirement in 1989.[3]
Milner had close academic ties withNorth America. Beginning in 1964, he gave frequent summer lecture tours in theUSA andCanada. Milner's teaching interests centred on twentieth-centuryBritish music and on sacred andliturgical music. He was Composer-in-Residence at the Summer School of Liturgical Music atLoyola University New Orleans in 1965 and 1966, and the first director ofSpode Music Week, an annual residential Music school that places particular emphasis on the music of the Roman Catholic liturgy.[citation needed]
In 1985Pope John Paul II appointed Anthony Milner aKnight of St. Gregory, in recognition of his work for Catholic liturgical music.[4]
Milner's early compositions were influenced byMichael Tippett, who was Morley College's music director at the time of his appointment to the staff. As he developed his own voice, he continually sought new ways of expressing himself within an essentially tonal style. Contrapuntal rigour and the influence of plainsong are evident in most of his works.[5] Choral works with religious texts are central to his output.The Water and the Fire a dramatic oratorio, was premiered at the 1964Three Choirs Festival in Hereford. A commission for the Leicestershire Schools Music Festival in 1967 resulted in aTe Deum, first performed by theLeicestershire Schools Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in May 1967 under the direction of the composer. But there are also orchestral works, including theVariations for Orchestra (1959) and three Symphonies (1972, 1978 and 1986), and some chamber music.[5]
From 1954 to 1965 Milner was director and harpsichordist of the London Cantata Ensemble, with whom he gave the first broadcast performances in the UK of manyBuxtehude cantatas as well as frequently conducting performances of his own music.[citation needed]
Milner was homosexual but non-practising due to his Catholic faith.
Milner was diagnosed withmultiple sclerosis in his 40s. As the illness progressed, composition became an increasingly difficult activity. His last work, the Oboe Concerto, was completed in 1994. He spent the last two years of his life in Spain and died there on 22 September 2002.[6]
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