Michael Hurd
The English composer, writer, lecturer, broadcaster, conductor and administrator Michael Hurd died on 8 August 2006, aged 77, in Petersfield, Hampshire, an area where he was deeply involved in music-making. Born in Gloucester on 19 December 1928, Hurd studied at Gloucester's Crypt Grammar School and, after national service with the Intelligence Corps in Vienna, read music at Pembroke College Oxford, as a student of Thomas Armstrong and Bernard Rose. He also studied privately with Lennox Berkeley. As a composer he is known principally for his choral music, such as the choral symphony Shepherd's Calendar (1975), the unaccompanied Five Spiritual Songs (1996) and a series of 'pop' cantatas including Swingin' Samson (1973) and Hip Hip Horatio (1974). His three operas are The Widow of Ephesus (1971), The Aspern Papers (1995) and The Night of the Wedding (1998). His eighteen published books include The Ordeal of Ivor Gurney (OUP 1978), Vincent Novello and Company (Granada 1981) and Rutland Boughton and the Glastonbury Festivals (OUP 1993). He was co-editor of Letters of Gerald Finzi and Howard Ferguson (Boydell Press 2001). He travelled widely as conductor, lecturer and adjudicator, on behalf of the British Council, and was involved in founding the Port Fairy Music Festival in Australia in 1990.
Posted: 31 August 2006
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