Marcus Blunt

{{Short description|British composer (1947–2022)}}

{{Use British English|date=August 2022}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}}

Marcus Blunt (31 December 1947 – 21 July 2022) was a British composer.

Born in Birmingham, Blunt studied composition and clarinet at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, graduating in 1970. After a variety of jobs he settled in Derby from 1976 as a teacher of woodwind instruments. In 1990 he and his wife Maureen moved to Dumfriesshire where he focused on composing full time.[https://britishmusiccollection.org.uk/composer/marcus-blunt Biography, British Music Information Centre]

His music, mostly instrumental, has been performed in Britain and internationally. His influences range from Scarlatti to Scriabin and Tippett, but he also developed his own distinct harmonic language, based on an ascending series of pitches. This is most evident in his Piano Sonata No 3 The Life Force of 1988 (taken up by performers such as Kathryn Stott,[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/48b773194f9a4311a4214d028d6d232c First broadcast performance, BBC Radio 3, 30 June 1992] John Lenehan and Murray McLachlan), and in the Piano Concerto (1992-5, but not premiered until 2005).[https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid06HKtBQkhFfNNhRnmYvGxp9HG6kDKHYYXtHpA2EmA5hSSBGAJL68gm9uVfZZSnRcul&id=100010918749192 Murray McLachlan on Facebook] He also uses diminishing interval chords in the Piano Preludes and elsewhere.[https://www.jstor.org/stable/40496242 Colin Clarke. Tempo, Vol. 64, No. 251 (January 2010), pp. 93–94] The prizewinning Fantasy on SCRiABin for piano (1995), is one of three Fantasies composed using themes based on the initials of named influences.[http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Jan07/Blunt_Aspirations_DRD0269.htm Marcus Blunt, Piano Works, reviewed at MusicWeb International]

The two symphonies took a while to find their final form. No 1 was composed between 1989 and 1997. No 2 started life in 1991 as the Octet The Throstle-Nest in Spring, was refashioned as a symphony for a modest sized orchestra in 2002, and was further revised in 2016.[http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2018/Mar/Blunt_orchestral_MSV28570.htm Marcus Blunt, Orchestral Works, reviewed at MusicWeb International]

Recordings include the solo piano music, including the three piano sonatas, seven preludes and three Fantasies, played by Murray McLachlan (2006, reissued by Divine Art, 2014),[https://divineartrecords.com/recording/aspirations-piano-music-by-marcus-blunt/ Divine Art, DDV 24148][http://theclassicalreviewer.blogspot.com/2014/02/piano-works-of-real-depth-and-substance.html The Classical Reviewer, 19 February, 2014] the Two Serenades (2009) for violin, clarinet, cello & piano (Nimbus, 2012),[https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/NI%206195 Nimbus NI6195] and the Symphony No. 2, Piano Concerto, Bassoon Concertino (2016) and Aspects of Saturn (1989, revised 2016) for string orchestra (Divine Art, 2018).[https://divineartrecords.com/recording/marcus-blunt-orchestral-works/ Divine Art, MSV 28570]

Blunt died after a long illness on 21 July 2022, at the age of 75.[https://slippedisc.com/2022/07/death-of-a-retiring-british-composer-75/ 'Death of a Retiring Composer, 75' at Slipped Disc] His publishers are Modus Music and Emerson Edition.