Lived 1934 –
Mostly in Accrington, Manchester, France, Wiltshire
Best Known For Punch and Judy, Earth Dances, Gawain, Secret Theatre, Minotaur
Similar To Peter Maxwell Davies, Alexander Goehr

Harrison BirtwistleHarrison Birtwistle

He has been director of music at the National Theatre and Henry Purcell professor of composition at King’s College, London; he has had major operas premiered at the Coliseum, Covent Garden and Glyndebourne; he was knighted in 1988 and made a Companion of Honour in 2001. He is Sir Harrison Birtwistle CH – an honoured figure, one might think, in the very heart of the British Establishment. In it, perhaps, but emphatically not of it, for there is little one could ever describe as conformist about the man or his music – or the way in which he became a composer.

“He wore a small hat with a feather in it, and had a fishing fly in his pocket,” composer...