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Howard Ferguson, 1908-1999 |
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Obituary |
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Howard Ferguson, composer, pianist,
teacher, editor and Vice-President of SIUK, died in his adopted home
of Cambridge on November 1 1999, aged 91.
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He was born in Belfast in 1908, the
youngest of five children of the managing director of the Ulster
Bank. His talents were first noticed by the distinguished pianist
Harold Samuel, who was the adjudicator for a piano prize at the
Belfast Musical Competition in 1922. Ferguson was taken to London by
Samuel, and lived with him until the latter's death in 1937. After a
period at Westminster School, Ferguson entered the Royal College of
Music, where he held a scholarship for composition. Amongst his
teachers were Samuel, R.O. Morris and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
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He was never a prolific composer, and
turned to performing chamber music for a livelihood. He formed a
piano trio with Eda Kersey and Helen Just, which was later expanded
into the Ensemble Players. He served in the RAF as a musician during
the war, after which he taught composition at the Royal Academy of
Music. During this period he continued to perform and composed until
1959 when he decided that he was 'composed out'. His achievements as
a composer were acknowledged by an honorary doctorate from Queen's
University, Belfast.
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His best known work is perhaps his
Octet for two violins, viola, cello, double bass, clarinet, bassoon
and horn, which made his mark as a composer in 1933. Other works
include Five Pieces for clarinet and piano, Two Ballads for baritone
and orchestra, and two large-scale works for chorus and orchestra,
Amore langueo and The Dream of the Rood.
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After he stopped composing, Ferguson
turned to editing, and produced a number of meticulously researched
editions of keyboard music. These included all of Schubert's solo
piano music (except the dances), which he produced during the 70s
and 80s for The Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music.
These are models of their kind, with Ferguson going to great lengths
to get sight of all the original manuscripts, but are nevertheless
still very practical volumes, as he insisted on also producing the
fingering and textual and performing notes. He also wrote the
introduction to a beautifully produced
facsimile edition of
the Piano Sonata in G major, D894, produced by the British
Library, and a fine book on Keyboard Interpretation (Oxford
University Press, 1975), which gives detailed coverage to
performance issues in music from the 14th to 19th centuries.
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He never married and will be sadly
missed by his professional colleagues and wide circle of friends.
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| Richard Morris 1999 |
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