Truscott, Harold

[Sydney Grew]

Harold Truscott was born in London in 1914.

By the age of fifteen his strong urge to compose was interpreted by his working-class father as a sign of madness and, finding a psychiatrist to endorse this view, had his son committed to an asylum in Romford, from which he emerged after twenty weeks with resolve undimmed.

During the 1950s he performed many broadcast recitals for the B.B.C., and some of his own compositions were broadcast by such notable artists as John Ogdon.

As a composer, Truscott perfected an expanded tonal idiom of contrapuntal intricacy and sometimes terse, no-nonsense expression, but a mystical streak also emerges, as in the finale to his only completed Symphony. Much of his work has an astonishing intensity.

What he left us:

Symphony in E major (1950)

Elegy for string orchestra (1944)

Fantasia for string orchestra (1961; originally entitled "A window on infinity")

Piano Quintet (c. 1930)

String Quartet no. 1 (1944)

String Quartet no. 2. (1945)

22 Piano Sonatas (1940–1982)

[gurnemanz]

The name rang a bell. Not as a composer but as contributor to the Pelican guide, The Symphony, edited by Robert Simpson. 2 vols acquired at 8/6 and 7/6 respectively pre-decimal. Just retrieved off shelf: He did Haydn, Schubert, Mahler, Sibelius, Franz Schmidt and Havergal Brian.

[Serial_Apologist]

Harold Truscott was born in London in 1914.

He died in 1992.

I remember hearing some of his music broadcast in the 1960s and '70s, and not particularly liking it. It struck me as being as dreary as the place of his birth! That may have been more born of my preference for music in the serial and post-serial lineage at the time, and it would be nice were Radio 3 to remind us of what his music was actually like.