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John Herbert Foulds ( November 2 1880 – April 25 1939 ), was a British Composer of Classical Music from England . A successful composer of Light Music and theatre scores, his principal creative energies went into more ambitious and exploratory works that were particularly influenced by Indian Music . Suffering a setback after the decline in popularity of his '' World Requiem '' (1919–1921), he left London for Paris in 1927, and eventually travelled to India in 1935 where, among other things, he collected Folk Music , composed pieces for Traditional Indian Instrument ensembles, and worked for a radio station. Foulds was an adventurous figure of great innate musicality and superb technical skill. Among his best works are ''Three Mantras'' for orchestra and wordless chorus (1919–1930), ''Essays in the Modes'' for piano (1920–1927), the piano concerto ''Dynamic Triptych'' (1927–1929), and his ninth string quartet ''Quartetto Intimo'' (1931–1932). BIOGRAPHY The son of a Bassoon ist in the Hallé Orchestra , John Foulds was born in Hulme , Manchester , England , on 2 November 1880 . Largely self-taught as a composer, he was one of the most remarkable and unjustly forgotten figures of the "British Musical Renaissance". Though prolific from childhood, Foulds himself joined the Hallé as a Cellist in 1900, having already served an Apprenticeship in Theatre and Promenade Orchestra s in England and abroad. Hans Richter gave him conducting experience; Henry Wood took up some of his works, starting with ''Epithalamium'' at the 1906 Queen's Hall Proms . In some respects ahead of his time (he started using Quarter-tones as early as the 1890s, while some of his later works anticipate Messiaen and Minimalism ) Foulds was in others an intensely-practical musician. He became a successful composer of Light Music (his ''Keltic Lament'' was once a popular favourite) and wrote many effective theatre scores, notably for his friends Lewis Casson and Sybil Thorndike . Perhaps the best known was the music for the first production of George Bernard Shaw 's '' Saint Joan '' (Foulds conducted a Suite from it at the Queen's Hall Proms in 1925). However his principal creative energies went into more ambitious and exploratory works, often coloured by his interest in the Music Of The East , especially India . (''c.''1903) (with an inset of the Albert Memorial ), where Foulds' '' World Requiem '' (1919–1921) was performed annually from 1923 to 1926.]] Foulds moved to London before World War I , and in 1915 during the war he met and married the Violinist Maud MacCarthy , one of the leading Western authorities on Indian Music . His gigantic '' World Requiem '' (1919–1921), in memory of the dead of all nations, was performed annually, conducted by Foulds, under the auspices of The Royal British Legion on Armistice Night , November 11 , in the Royal Albert Hall from 1923 to 1926 by up to 1,250 Instrumentalists and Singer s; the latter were called the Cenotaph choir. These performances constituted the first Festivals Of Remembrance . When interest in the work lapsed Foulds suffered a grave setback and in 1927 left for Paris, working there as an accompanist for silent films. In 1934 he published an immensely-stimulating book on contemporary musical developments, ''Music To-day''. In 1935 he travelled to India , where he collected Folk Music , became Director of European Music for All-India Radio in Delhi , created an orchestra from scratch, and began to work towards his dream of a musical synthesis of East and West, actually composing pieces for ensembles of Traditional Indian Instruments . He was so successful that he was asked to open a branch of the station in Calcutta . Tragically, within a week of arriving there, he died suddenly of Cholera on 25 April 1939 . Foulds' most substantial compositions include String Quartet s, Symphonic Poem s, Concerto s, Piano pieces and a huge "concert Opera " on Dante 's '' The Divine Comedy '' (1905–1908), as well as a series of "Music-Pictures" exploring the affinities between music and styles of Painting .See 1 (Henry Wood introduced one of them at the 1913 Proms.) Few of these works were performed and fewer published in his lifetime, and several, especially from his last period in India, are lost. (The missing scores included a ''Symphony of East and West'' for Oriental instruments and Western Symphony Orchestra .) Foulds' daughter deposited some of the surviving manuscripts by her father in the British Library .2 REVIVAL Foulds became a footnote to English music after his death, but from 1974 Malcolm MacDonald, editor of the music journal '' Tempo '' under the alias Calum MacDonald , conducted an often lonely campaign for Foulds after he came across the Foulds scores deposited in the British Library. MacDonald tracked down Foulds' daughter, who took him to a garage and showed him two coffin-sized boxes full of sketches and manuscripts she had been left by her mother. Unfortunately, many of the manuscripts were damaged: apparently, rats and ants had got at them while they were in India, where Foulds' wife stayed after his death. An acclaimed recording of Foulds' string quartet music, including the previously-unperformed ''Quartetto Intimo'', by the Endellion Quartet in the early 1980s began to reawaken interest in him, and this was sustained in the early 1990s by Lyrita Recorded Edition 's decision to issue some of Foulds' works including ''Three Mantras'' and ''Dynamic Triptych'' on CD . A Proms performance of ''Three Mantras'' in 1998 was well received, and soon after the Finnish Conductor Sakari Oramo began to champion Foulds' work in concerts with the City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO), to huge critical acclaim.34 In November 2005, the CBSO, with Peter Donohoe , gave the first live performance for more than 70 years of Foulds' Piano Concerto , the ''Dynamic Triptych'' (1927–1929). The orchestra has issued two well-received CDs of Foulds' music. On Armistice Night, 11 November 2007 , the Royal Albert Hall will stage the first performance for 81 years of the ''World Requiem'' under the auspices of the BBC , with Leon Botstein as conductor. BBC Symphony Orchestra press release dated 25 July 2007 ; see also 5 Foulds' ''Keltic Lament'' has once again become popular due to its regular playing on Classic FM . LEGACY It is difficult to assess Foulds' achievement, or even to classify a composer who was master of a bewildering variety of styles. But he was clearly an adventurous figure of great innate musicality and superb technical skill. Such pieces as the ''Three Mantras'' for orchestra and wordless chorus (1919–1930), the ''Essays in the Modes'' for piano (1920–1927), the piano concerto ''Dynamic Triptych'' (1927–1929), and his ninth string quartet ''Quartetto Intimo'' (1931–1932) represent a powerful and individual contribution to the music of their time. PERSONAL LIFE Before marrying Maud McCarthy in 1915, Foulds was previously married in 1909 to Maud Woodcock. They had a son, Raymond, in 1911. He later had a son, Patrick, and a daughter, Marybride, with Maud McCarthy, who had a daughter, Joan, by her previous marriage. SELECTED WORKS Music for soloists, chorus and orchestra
Music for voice and orchestra
Music for solo instrument and orchestra
Orchestral music
Light orchestral music
Chamber music
Piano music
Songs
Choral works without orchestra
Incidental music for plays
Arrangements
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