Rachel Portman (b. 1960)

[doversoul1]

So depressing that the standards we've come to respect as one of the few remaining vital examples of a Radio 3 we once admired, and learned so much from, has now descended to such levels of banality.

Don’t despair. Haydn in London next week.

[Serial_Apologist]

I don't know about that but there's no shortage of female composers, albeit not all of film music, who merit such attention and whose output would fulfil such a brief; even the one whom I mentioned in my previous post without actually identifying her - and who wrote so little music because she lived so short a life - has sufficient to her name to justiy a week's worth in that ongoing series.

It suddenly occurred to me that Elisabeth Lutyens wrote a lot of very good film music, particularly for Hammer productions. Having recently obtained a DVD of documentaries from the 1950s made for London Transport, I was delighted to find her name there among credits which also included that of Humphrey Searle; but I'm certain neither would have rated these contributions on an equal level to that of their strictly concert works.

[Serial_Apologist]

Don’t despair. Haydn in London next week.

Thank goodness you're on hand to cheer me up, dovers!

[ahinton]

Indeed - and the Beeb agrees: Lili Boulanger was CotW just over three years ago.

Yes, I thought that she had been but wasn't quite sure and didn't have time to look it up!

[ahinton]

It suddenly occurred to me that Elisabeth Lutyens wrote a lot of very good film music, particularly for Hammer productions. Having recently obtained a DVD of documentaries from the 1950s made for London Transport, I was delighted to find her name there among credits which also included that of Humphrey Searle; but I'm certain neither would have rated these contributions on an equal level to that of their strictly concert works.

No, I'm sure of that, too. Humphrey S didn't really speak about that side of his work (not that he talked much about himself at all in my hearing), but they each did their fair share of this kind of thing; Richard Rodney Bennett did, too but, whilst he appreciated the disciplines that it involves (and no doubt the cheques that followed!); he referred to that aspect of his work as "journalism"...