Born: May 28, 1883; Halifax, Yorkshire, England
Died: September 28, 1964; Winchester, England
As a composer, George Dyson was almost too talented for his own good. He was sufficiently gifted to write music in a unique style that was also accessible, uplifting, and memorable; but he was also a teacher and administrator, an author, and he devoted much of his time to those activities. Dyson was born in Halifax in 1883 to a working-class family. He was a natural musician with a special affinity for the keyboard and was playing the organ atRead more his church at 13; he became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists three years later. Dyson entered the Royal College of Music at age 16 and in 1904, he won the Mendelssohn Scholarship and spent the next four years studying in Italy, Austria, and Germany. Dyson's early life and training were rooted in the late Romantic era and his early compositions strongly reflected the influence of Richard Strauss, Joseph Joachim, and other turn-of-the century composers. His symphonic poem Siena (now lost) was very Straussian and was performed under the baton of Arthur Nikisch. After returning to England, he devoted much of his attention to teaching, first at the Royal Naval College at Osborne and then at Marlborough College before joining the Army at the outbreak of World War I. During his Army service, Dyson authored a manual on the use of the hand grenade that became standard issue. He was appointed a professor at the Royal College of Music in 1921 and began teaching at Winchester College three years later. It was during this period that Dyson separated himself from the mainstream of English music; a passionate believer in the notion that music had to move forward, he felt that the Brahms-influenced music of Sir Edward Elgar, the folk song-inspired works of Ralph Vaughan Williams, and the Celtic romanticism of Sir Arnold Bax were all remnants of an era that had passed. Dyson abandoned his early compositions -- almost none of which survive -- and pursued teaching and writing during the early '20s. In 1928, Dyson emerged as a significant composer with In Honour of the City, a work for chorus and orchestra built on a series of verses attributed to William Dunbar, dating from the year 1500. The piece displayed a majesty reminiscent of Elgar and Sir Charles Hubert Parry and found immediate public and critical favor; but it was also written in a leaner, more modernistic style than would ever have come from either of those two composers. That piece led him directly to the work that is usually regarded as his crowning achievement, The Canterbury Pilgrims (1931), constructed around the work of Chaucer. Dyson was principally associated with choral music over the next decade, but his Symphony in G (1937) and his violin concerto (1941) gave him considerable credibility as an author of orchestral music, finding favor with audiences and critics. In 1938, Dyson assumed the job of director of the Royal College of Music; a knighthood followed in 1942 and he remained at the RCM for another decade. He continued composing new music in that curious style, modern yet tonal and melodic, right into the early '60s, though by that time even The Canterbury Pilgrims -- his most popular work -- had fallen out of the repertory of England's choral societies. In the mid-'90s, amid the growing interest in English music beyond the orbits of Elgar and Vaughan Williams, Dyson's work was rediscovered. A dozen of his major choral and orchestral works have been recorded by Chandos and other labels specializing in English and church music. Read less
Composer:
Ola Gjeilo,
Denis Bédard,
McNeil Robinson,
Gabriel Fauré
...
Conductor:
Maxine Thévenot
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Albuquerque St. John Cathedral Choir
Label: Naxos
Catalog: 8573770
Release Date: 11/10/2017
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
George Dyson
Performer:
Caitlin Hulcup,
Elizabeth Watts,
Joshua Ellicott,
Roderick Williams
Conductor:
David Hill
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Bach Choir,
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Label: Chandos
Catalog: 24153
Release Date: 07/31/2015
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
John Veale,
Arnold Bax,
George Dyson,
Sir Arthur Bliss
Performer:
Lydia Mordkovitch
Conductor:
Richard Hickox,
Bryden Thomson
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Symphony Orchestra,
London Philharmonic Orchestra,
City of London Sinfonia
...
Label: King's College Choir
Catalog: 4
Release Date: 03/10/2015
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Charles H. Parry,
Charles Villiers Stanford,
Edward Bairstow,
Percy Whitlock
...
Performer:
Stephen Cleobury,
Alison Balsom,
Stephen Cleobury
Conductor:
Stephen Cleobury
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cambridge King's College Choir,
Cambridge King's College Choir
Label: Chandos
Catalog: 24143
Release Date: 07/31/2012
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
George Dyson
Performer:
Yvonne Kenny,
Robert Tear,
Stephen Roberts
Conductor:
Richard Hickox
Orchestra/Ensemble:
London Symphony Orchestra,
London Symphony Chorus
Recommendation
Label: Griffin
Catalog: 4077
Release Date: 05/08/2012
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Henry Purcell,
George Frideric Handel,
Traditional,
Anonymous
...
Conductor:
Martin Neary
Orchestra/Ensemble:
English Chamber Orchestra,
London Brass,
Westminster Abbey Choir
Recommendation
Label: Brilliant Classics
Catalog: 9234
Release Date: 11/15/2011
Number of Discs: 5
Composer:
Giovanni Palestrina,
Gregorio Allegri,
Robert Ramsey,
Thomas Weelkes
...
Performer:
Jennifer Ward-Clarke,
Jonathan Brown,
Elizabeth Kenny,
Robert Howes
...
Conductor:
Timothy Brown,
Stephen Cleobury,
Christopher Robinson,
Matthew Best
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Clare College Choir,
Baroque Brass of London,
Cambridge King's College Choir
...
Label: Helios
Catalog: 55402
Release Date: 06/14/2011
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Tertius Noble,
Basil Harwood,
Herbert Murill,
Harold Edwin Darke
...
Performer:
Christopher Dearnley,
George Pooley,
Peter Hall,
Nigel Bevan
...
Conductor:
John Scott
Orchestra/Ensemble:
St. Paul's Cathedral Choir
Recommendation
Label: Philips
Catalog: 442530
Release Date: 02/21/2008
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Ralph Vaughan Williams,
Sir Edward Elgar,
Frederick Delius,
Percy Aldridge Grainger
...
Performer:
Julian Lloyd Webber,
John Birch,
John Lenehan
Conductor:
Sir Neville Marriner
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Recommendation
Label: Chandos
Catalog: 10439
Release Date: 11/06/2007
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
George Dyson
Performer:
Mark Padmore,
Neal Davies
Conductor:
Richard Hickox
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC Symphony Chorus,
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Recommendation
Label: Naxos
Catalog: 8557720
Release Date: 09/20/2005
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
George Dyson
Performer:
Duncan Riddell,
Helen Cox,
Stuart Green,
Timothy Walden
Conductor:
David Lloyd-Jones
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Recommendation
Label: Chandos
Catalog: 10061
Release Date: 05/20/2003
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
George Dyson
Performer:
Cheryl Barker,
Jean Rigby,
Philip Langridge,
Roderick Williams
Conductor:
Richard Hickox
Orchestra/Ensemble:
BBC National Orchestra of Wales,
BBC National Chorus of Wales,
Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama Chamber Choir
Label: Somm
Catalog: 14
Release Date: 10/17/2000
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
George Dyson
Performer:
Stephen Roberts,
Osian Ellis,
Richard Markham,
David Nettle
Conductor:
Sir David Willcocks
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,
Royal College of Music Chamber Choir
Recommendation
Label: Griffin
Catalog: 3050
Release Date: 06/28/2000
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Henry Purcell,
Herbert Howells,
William Henry Harris,
George Frideric Handel
...
Performer:
Andrew Crowley,
Martin [Choral Conductor] Baker,
Mark Bennett,
Thomas Sneddon
...
Conductor:
Martin Neary
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Westminster Abbey Choir,
English Chamber Orchestra,
London Brass
Label: Nimbus
Catalog: 5589
Release Date: 09/07/1999
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
John Tavener,
Henryk Mikolaj Górecki,
George Dyson,
Anthony Milner
...
Conductor:
Christopher Robinson
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cambridge St. John's College Choir
Recommendation
Label: Chandos Collect
Catalog: 6603
Release Date: 08/23/1994
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Johannes Brahms,
Georges Bizet,
George Dyson,
Ralph Vaughan Williams
...
Performer:
Gerald Gifford,
Timothy Farrell
Conductor:
Arthur Wills,
Douglas Guest
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Ely Cathedral Choir,
Westminster Choir,
Westminster Abbey Choir