Music and Vinyl: David Morgan

British composer David Morgan (1933-1988) studied at the Royal Academy of Music, and later at the Prague Academy of Music. Not a lot has been written about him, but this useful piece on the Unsung Composers Forum is a great introduction:

"David Morgan was born in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, in January 1933. His family were opposed to a musical career but he nevertheless in 1961 gained a Country Major Award which enabled him to begin studies at the Royal Academy of Music where his principal tutors were Alan Bush (composition) and Leighton Lucas (orchestration). Between 1961 and 1965 he was awarded ten composition prizes (including the Eric Coates Prize) and in his final year at the RAM (1965) became the first student to have an entire concert devoted to his music.

"That same year he received a British Council Scholarship to study at the Academy of Music in Prague under Vaclav Dobias. During this period he wrote his Violin Concerto (which was premiered at the Dvořák Hall) and married his first wife. On returning to England in 1967 he struggled to find an outlet for his music, but the award of the Eric Coates Prize gave him the opportunity to have a number of lighter pieces (including the orchestral Partita) produced through the BBC Light Music Department. The death of his wife after only two years of marriage affected him deeply.

"His big chance came in 1974 when Erich Gruenberg played the Violin Concerto with the RPO conducted by Sir Charles Groves at the Royal Festival Hall. In 1975, in the same venue, Groves and the RPO gave the premiere of what is perhaps Morgan's masterpiece the Sinfonia da Requiem (written between 1971 and 1972). Following the success of this work, other commissions and performances began to materialise. Also at this time, two major works were recorded by Lyrita at Kingsway Hall on 28th April 1976 - the Violin Concerto (with Erich Gruenberg) and Contrasts performed by the RPO conducted by Vernon Handley.

"In 1981 Morgan moved to Canada with his second wife and daughter and established himself as a noted composer for symphonic wind band, also continuing to receive commissions from Britain, including one for an orchestral set of Variations on a Theme of Walton. He died at his home in Belleville, Canada, of a heart attack following a bout of pneumonia on 21st May 1988."

It falls to a blog "British Classical Music: The Land Of Lost Content". to provide much needed information on Morgan's Contrasts for Orchestra, which is the piece in this video - the recording referred to above, made in the wonderful acoustic of London's Kingsway Hall in 1976. The sleeve notes of the Lyrita issue are, as always erudite and informative (click on the scan below).