Howard Skempton
English
composer, pianist, accordionist
before 1967 – present
Life[edit]
Skempton was born in Chester and studied at Birkenhead School and Ealing Technical College.[2] He started composing before 1967, but that year he moved to London and began taking private lessons in composition from Cornelius Cardew. In 1968 Skempton joined Cardew's experimental music class at Morley College, where in spring 1969 Cardew, Skempton and Michael Parsons organised the Scratch Orchestra. This ensemble, which had open membership, was dedicated to performing experimental contemporary music by composers such as La Monte Young, John Cage and Terry Riley, as well as by members of the orchestra itself. One of Skempton's early works, Drum No. 1 (1969), became one of the "most useful and satisfying" pieces in the repertory of the Scratch Orchestra.[3]
Through the Scratch Orchestra Skempton met numerous composers and performers, including Christopher Hobbs, John White and various Systems artists, and the pianist John Tilbury. However, tensions arose during the politicising of the Scratch Orchestra in the early 1970s, when Cardew and a number of other important members pushed the ensemble in a Maoist direction. Skempton, Hobbs, Parsons, White and many others refused to be associated with this political line, and the break-up of the Orchestra was accompanied by (in Parsons's words) "a split between its 'political' and 'experimental' factions".[4]
Since 1971 Skempton has been working as a music editor, performer (of his own compositions, on piano and accordion), and teacher.[2] He now teaches composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire.[5]
In 1974 Skempton and Michael Parsons formed a duo to perform their own works.[4] The 1980s saw an increase of interest in Skempton's music, which led to more commissions and permitted him to compose more for larger forces.[6] Lento, an orchestral work composed in late 1991, became one of Skempton's most widely recognised pieces. In the 1990s important recordings of his works started appearing, such as a disc of piano music recorded by his old friend and former Scratch Orchestra colleague John Tilbury, released on Sony Classical in 1996,[7] and Surface Tension, a recording of miscellaneous works released on Mode Records.[8]
Skempton was the winner in the Chamber Scale Composition category at the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards in 2005 for his string quartet Tendrils (2004).[9]