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Graham Whettam (7 September 1927 – 17 August 2007) was an English post-romantic composer. ==Biography== Graham Whettam was born in Swindon, Wiltshire. He studied at St Luke's College, but he never undertook formal studies at a music school and was largely self-taught in composition. However, by his twenties, several of his compositions had already been performed by major orchestras and soloists : the ''Sinfonietta for Strings'' in 1951 at Kensington Palace ; the ''Symphony No. 1'' in the early 1950s by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Groves ; the ''Concertino for oboe and string orchestra'' at the 1953 Proms performed by the famous oboist Léon Goossens ; the ''Viola Concerto'' in 1954 at the Cheltentham Festival by violist Harry Danks and conducted by Sir John Barbirolli). Other of his works had been performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and by the London Symphony Orchestra, by conductors Basil Cameron, Meredith Davies, Sir Eugene Goossens, Willem van Otterloo and Sir Malcolm Sargent, and by the oboist Janet Craxton, the clarinettist Jack Brymer and the horn-player Dennis Brain.〔(Graham Whettam Obituary )〕 In 1959 the premiere of his first clarinet concerto was performed by Raymond Carpenter and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Charles Groves; this he considered his first mature work. He had married Rosemary Atkinson in 1948 but they divorced in 1958 and he moved to Coventry, where he married Janet Lawrence in 1959. It was in Coventry that he founded and directed his own publishing company, "Meriden Music". In 1962 he wrote his first "masterpiece", the powerful ''Sinfonia contra timore (Symphony Against Fear)'', which has been premiered three years later in 1965 by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hugo Rignold. His following symphonic works follow each other in rapid succession: ''Sinfonietta Stravagante'' (1964) performed by the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Herbert Sourdant ; ''Sinfonia Concertante'' (1966) performed by the Northern Sinfonia conducted by Bryden Thomson. Nonetheless Whettam never had as much success as in his youth, such that several of his works have been premiered/published only a long time after their composition (cf. below). Some of his late works (such as the ''Promethean Symphony'' and the ''Symphony No. 5'') still wait for a world premiere. Regarded as "a natural symphonist" by the Sunday Times,〔(Reviews of Graham Whettam's "Piano Music" CD )〕 his symphonies form the core of his output. Whettam composed nearly a dozen symphonies from his mid-twenties in the early 1950s until his death. They are supplemented by some large-scale concertos and several shorter orchestral (both symphonic and concertante) works. Nonetheless Graham Whettam's vast compositional output also includes numerous chamber and instrumental works (such as four string quartets and three solo violin sonatas) as well as a certain number of vocal and choral works. His music, labelled as "invariably dramatic"〔(Graham Whettam Obituary )〕 (which is reflected by his titles : ''Sinfonia Drammatica'', ''Concerto Drammatico'', ''Concerto Ardente'', ''Sinfonia Intrepida''...) features skilful construction and a deep sense of poignancy and atmosphere. Graham Whettam died on 17 August 2007 at Woolaston, Gloucestershire, aged 79. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Graham Whettam」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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