Howard Skempton Catalogue

Howard Skempton
‘Howard’s music is elegant, British, civilised, with
a touch of anarchy. I see him as a gentleman in a
bowler hat, a briefcase - and sandals.’ —BBC Music
Magazine
‘I can’t wait to hear more of Skempton’s music. It’s
quite refreshing.’ —American Record Guide
‘The simple truth about this quietly miraculous
piece is that it contrives to sound completely
timeless: once heard, it’s music you’ve always
heard.’ —Calum MacDonald (on Lento)
Howard Skempton was born in Chester in 1947, and
has worked as a composer, accordionist, and music
publisher. He studied in London with Cornelius
Cardew from 1967 which helped him to discover a
musical language of great simplicity. Since then he has
continued to write undeflected by compositional trends,
producing a corpus of more than 300 works.
His catalogue is as diverse as it is long, ranging from
pieces for solo cello to the Concerto for Hurdy-Gurdy
and Percussion, Concerto for Accordion and Oboe,
and perhaps his best-known orchestral work, Lento,
premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and later
performed at the 2010 BBC Proms. Skempton has
been awarded two British Composer Awards, and his
Tendrils for string quartet was awarded the prize for ‘best
chamber-scale composition’ by the Royal Philharmonic
Society.
Recent work includes a setting of Coleridge’s The Rime
of the Ancient Mariner and also D H Lawrence’s Man
and Bat—both written for baritone Roderick Williams
and ensemble; a Piano Concerto for John Tilbury,
commissioned by the BBC; and a new setting of Ave
Maria for Nottingham Cathedral Choir.
Many of Skempton’s compositions have been recorded,
most recently Only the Sound Remains and The Rime of
the Ancient Mariner, performed by BCMG on the NMC
label, and recordings of his choral music by Paul Hillier’s
choir Ars Nova Copenhagen. Both were released in 2017
to great critical acclaim.
† - Title made available individually from an anthology in digital format only.
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