London Born Composers of Classical Music

[John H White]

I'm still pretty well unsung and I was born in the old London Borough of Battersea, now part of Wandsworth. Maybe, as an amateur, I don't count.

[Alan Howe]

No, you count, John. Chalk 'im up!

[giles.enders]

There is unsung and unheard of.  My list was of those who were deceased.  There were many others like the Opera composer who was born in Tottenham (can any one guess)Who I omitted because they were just too obscure.   Coleridge-Taylor was born in Theobolds Road, Bloomsbury but not only has the entire street been renumbered since then but where the house stood is now the middle of the road.

I will happily update the original list after two months and include only those who are deceased. Living composers should join The British Music Society and obtain publicity that way.

Now who is going to list those who died in London.  There are plenty of memorials to search out.  Hurlstone has a street named after him and is buried in Croydon cemetery,  Clementi is in Westminster Abbey and Medtner is in Hendon cemetery.

[Jimfin]

Oh yes, there were far more who came to London and never left, including foreigners and the foreign-born like Weber and Handel.

[Paul Barasi]

Whilst I see the logic of excluding living composers from a list of those who died in London, I can't see any for excluding them from a list of composers born in London. [It's hardly like Nearly Headless Nick trying to join the Headless Hunt.]

[Jimfin]

Sir Michael Tippett might count as a 'sung' London-born composer

[albion]

How about a list of composers who were conceived in London?

[Dundonnell]

I need hardly remind you that three eminent and distinguished composers were born in Northampton:

Edmund Rubbra(1901)
William Alwyn(1905)
Sir Malcolm Arnold(1921)

Given its size I think Northampton should win a prize

[Paul Barasi]

Arnold alone is more than what's required for Northampton to get a prize.

[albion]

Seconded!

[giles.enders]

The Northampton composers are 'sung'  what about the unsungs from there?

[Alan Howe]

Enough already! This thread is resolutely about London-born composers!

[giles.enders]

Quite!  Northampton can take care of itself.  I put the London list up in the hope that it would induce people, not just from our forum but any one researching 'London' to explore the unsungs.  These things get picked up by search engines.

Coach tour, anyone?

[hattoff]

Anyone else heard of Dennis (Gray) Stoll, 1912-1987? Born in Wandsworth. I met him while in hospital in Maidstone in 1978; he gave me a tape of some "Egyptian temple dancing music" he had written for a dance troupe, which I could upload? He was noticed in America in the 1940s and I believe he was also a writer.
The dance music is for wind and strings and does, rather, go on a bit.
Perhaps too obscure for the London list.

[giles.enders]

Did someone put him in hospital because of his music?