William Lovelock

Though William Lovelock was born in London, his family were originally of Berkshire extraction and two of his great-uncles had emigrated to Australia in the 19th century, long before he did.Lovelock, Yann: Lovelocks in Counterpoint, Lovelock Lines 5, [http://lovelock.free.fr/l-lines/lovelock-lines-5th-ed.pdf p.14] He was educated at Emanuel School, Wandsworth, and started piano lessons at the age of six and organ lessons at twelve. At the age of sixteen, he won an organ scholarship to the Trinity College of Music, where he studied with C. W. Pearce and Henry Geehl. After service as an artilleryman in World War I, he returned to Trinity College and graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1922. He then joined the teaching staff and later obtained a doctorate in composition in 1932. As an organist, he served at St. Clements in Eastcheap from 1919 to 1923, then as Kapellmeister to Countess Cowdray from 1923 to 1926. He was also organist at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Carshalton from 1928 to 1930.

During the 1930s Lovelock wrote the first of his numerous popular textbooks for college music students. Later, as a roving examiner for the College, he spent a six-year stint in Asia, ending up in the Indian Army Ordnance Corps during the Second World War and reaching the rank of major in 1942. While stationed in Varanasi in 1945 he sketched the beginning of a concerto for piano, the first of the many concertos to come.

On his return to London in 1946, Lovelock rejoined the faculty at Trinity College and eventually became Dean of the Faculty of Music at the University of London in 1954. In 1956, he was appointed as the first Director of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane, Australia, but left in 1959 after disagreement over his teaching methods. However, he chose to stay on since, for the first time, he found that he had the time and freedom to compose seriously. Meanwhile, he supported himself as a free-lance teacher, adjudicator, and as chief music critic for The Courier-Mail in Brisbane.

In 1926, he had married Winifred Irene Littlejohn, by whom he had a son, Gregory (1931). After the death of his wife in 1981, Lovelock returned to England. He died in 1986 in Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire.The bulk of this information is drawn from the biographical note in Logan Place's doctoral dissertation on Lovelock's concerto for trumpet and orchestra, University of North Texas, 2008, [https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc9743/m1 pp.7–8]

Lovelock's career as a composer was overshadowed by his teaching duties. Among his earlier successes was the student work Autumn Moods ("poem for full orchestra") which was praised by Musical News and Herald when it was performed in 1922,[https://books.google.com/books?id=t262J2y8HSMC&dq=concerto+%22William+Lovelock%22&pg=RA2-PA528 9 December, 1922] and his Second suite for orchestra broadcast by the BBC in 1937.Alastair Mitchell, A Chronicle of First Broadcast Performances of Musical Works in the United Kingdom, 1923-1996, Routledge 2019, [https://books.google.com/books?id=RqWbDwAAQBAJ&q=William+Lovelock "1937"]

But it was during his residence in Australia that Lovelock wrote and had performed the bulk of his musical compositions, which range from large orchestral, choral and band works to teaching pieces for children, as well as 14 concertos.167 of these are listed at the Australian Music Centre and there are brief audio excerpts from some – http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/artist/lovelock-william Some of his works were intended especially for Australian performers, such as his Trumpet Concerto (1968) for John Robertson, then principal trumpetist of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, which remains his most performed piece. A number of others filled gaps in the repertoire of certain instruments, such as tuba, double bass, and xylophone. Only occasionally a demanding composer, Lovelock considered himself a romantic and believed that "one of the most important functions of music is to provide entertainment rather than coldblooded intellectual abstractions."Margaret Seares, Margaret: “Australian Music: A Widening Perspective,” in Australian Composition in the Twentieth Century, ed. Frank Callaway and David Tunley, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1978, p.228

Because his major music was written there, Lovelock is considered an Australian composer, although he himself commented: "I prefer to feel that I am an English composer who happens to live in Brisbane." Of his many textbooks on musical theory, history and composition, some still continue in use even beyond the English-speaking world.[https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL141395A/William_Lovelock There is a listing at]

;Orchestral

• An English Suite (dedicated to the Bombay Symphony Orchestra, 1957)Pleskun 2012
• Sinfonietta (1964)[https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/product/sinfonietta-for-orchestra Australian Music Centre]
• Divertimento for string orchestra (1965)Available on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31U3jJ48TjI YouTube]
• Hyde Park Shuffle (commissioned by the ABC, 1973)Pleskun 2012[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfK1wx0zZrs Performance on YouTube]
• Festive Overture (1975)Pleskun 2012
• Overture for a Cheerful Occasion: for full orchestra (1979)[https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/product/overture-for-a-cheerful-occasion-for-full-orchestra Australian Music Centre]

;Concertante

• Horn concerto[https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/workversion/lovelock-william-horn-concerto/20727 Australian Music Centre]
• Concerto for viola and orchestra (1960)A recording is available online at [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVwy6GHCINM YouTube]
• Concerto for flute and orchestra (1961)A performance on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v92k6aDKzJc YouTube] of a radio broadcast in Australia in 1971
• Concerto for piano and orchestra (1963)A performance by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dIF4YDrh34 YouTube]
• Concerto for saxophone and orchestra No. 1 (1963)A performance by Astra Chamber Orchestra on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlJa1sCH81c YouTube]
• Concertino for trombone and string orchestra (1965)[https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/workversion/lovelock-william-concertino-for-trombone-and-string-orchestra/431 Australian Music Centre]
• Symphony in C sharp minor (1966)Pleskun 2012
• Concerto for bass tuba and orchestra (1967)[https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/search?page=2&type=work&wfc Australian Music Centre]
• Symphony for trumpet and orchestra (dedicated to Sir Bernard Heinze, 1968)Pleskun 2012Logan Place, 2008An ABC Classics recording on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0W2sU4QpnNM YouTube]
• Sinfonia concertante for organ and orchestra (1968)An ABC Classics performance on YouTube of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi2TVWMBWVU movement 1], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mXKo_9ZcYI 2], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XGGDNoCSR8 3], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olYwvDbFDGg 4]
• Saxophone Concerto No. 2 (1973)A recording is available online at [http://www.abc.net.au/classic/australianmusic/stories/s2062928.htm ABC.net]
• Raggy Rhapsody for piano and orchestra (1976)[https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/product/raggy-rhapsody-for-pianoforte-and-orchestra Australian Music Centre]
• Rhapsody Concerto for harp and orchestra (1981)[https://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/workversion/lovelock-william-rhapsody-concerto-for-harp-and-orchestra/434 Australian Music Centre]

;Chamber music

• Miniature Suite for Brass Quintet (1967)A performance by the American Brass Quintet on YouTube, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jueXCBZUGk 1st movement], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V2sxvUlDzU 2nd], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8CopRv8fU0 3rd], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCR-hbbO618 4th]
• Suite for Brass Quintet (1969)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayW2nS1hseU Performance by the American Brass Quintet on YouTube]
• Brass Quintet #3 (1975)Pleskun 2012

;Instrumental

• Sketches for clarinet and piano (1928)Performances on YouTube, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtDhZIWOLXY Prelude], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KgoQ5RtsDk Valsette], [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBAxqkEkLeo Scherzo]
• Sonata for alto-saxophone and piano (1974)Michael Wade Lichnovsky, 2008

;Solo instruments

• Introduction and fugue for organ (1957) Pleskun 2012
• Cadenza for flute (1968)Pleskun 2012
• Autumn Winds (for piano)A performance on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thCVS5SlOLc YouTube]

;Choral

• The Counterparts, a poem by Ernest Briggs set for mixed choir and piano (1958)[https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/35729444 Trove]
• Motet for Communion, for mixed choir and organ (1972)Pleskun 2012

• Michael Wade Lichnovsky, Australian sonatas for alto saxophone and piano: New editions and performance guides for three works by major Australian composers, The University of Iowa Ann Arbor MI, 2008 [https://books.google.com/books?id=E320xw97YcsC Ch 2, pp. 26–49]
• Logan Place, [https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc9743/m1 An analysis and performance guide to William Lovelock's concerto for trumpet and orchestra], University of North Texas, 2008
• Stephen Pleskun, [https://books.google.com/books?id=uSR9IDxK0ykC A Chronological History of Australian Composers and Their Compositions Vol. 2], Xlibris 2012

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