Death of a quietly effective British composer, 76
mainScottish colleagues are sharing sad news of the death of the composer Martin Dalby, a prolific writer for many ensembles.
Head of Music for the BBC in Scotland from 1972 to 1991, Martin deepened and broadened the broadcast output without ever cheapening it. He is credited with saving the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra from the chop in 1980.
A fulltime composer on retirement, Martin became Chairman of the Composers’ Guild of Great Britain.
Sad. I always remember the amazing viola concerto he wrote for Fred Riddle for the 1973 Proms.
Martin Dalby was a genius as a composer and a wonderful friend and human being. I commissioned and premiered his Piano Sonata Number 3, which I most recently performed in Glasgow in January 2018. Martin was a towering figure in Scottish music, and I am devastated by his death. As André Previn said on learning of the death of Sir William Walton ‘Genius is never replaceable’.
depended = deepened?
This composer should be remembered for his more serious music (and not for his Gebrauchsmusik), like this sophisticated and virtuosic Schoenbergian variations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UygcznM39OI
(I don’t like it at all but I think it is really very good, all the painful harmonies are expressive; the mood is the one of Pierrot Lunaire.)