Stephen Dodgson

Stephen Cuthbert Vivian Dodgson (17 March 192413 April 2013) was a British composer and broadcaster. Dodgson's prolific musical output covered most genres, ranging from opera and large-scale orchestral music to chamber and instrumental music, as well as choral works and song. Three instruments to which he dedicated particular attention were the guitar, harpsichord and recorder. He wrote in a mainly tonal, although sometimes unconventional, idiom. Some of his works use unusual combinations of instruments.

Biography

Stephen Dodgson was born in Chelsea, London in 1924, the third child of John Arthur Dodgson, who was a symbolist painter and nephew of Campbell Dodgson, and his wife, who was born Margaret Valentine Pease and also an artist. He was distant cousin of Lewis Carroll. He was educated at Berkhamsted School in Hertfordshire and at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire. In 1942, he was conscripted into the Royal Navy and took part in anti-submarine warfare escorting convoys in the Battle of the Atlantic.

On returning to London, he studied composition privately for a year with Bernard Stevens before enrolling at the Royal College of Music in 1946, officially to study the horn (under Frank Probyn), but in practice he was able to focus on composition under the guidance of R. O. Morris, Patrick Hadley and Antony Hopkins.

Recorder player John Turner remembers him as "Enthusiastic, ebullient and quick-witted... extremely voluble, with a strong, distinctive voice, an ever-present smile, much old-world courtesy, and an idiosyncratic gait." he may be the first since the eighteenth century to have written for baryton trio. He wrote concertos for instruments ranging from the viola da gamba to the bass trombone. His later works for the instrument include the Concerto Chacony (2000) with string orchestra, and a Capriccio Concertante No. 2 (2005) for the unusual combination of recorder, harpsichord and string orchestra. His orchestral output features a set of nine Essays for orchestra (five of which were recorded on a Dutton CD by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under David Lloyd Jones), Other commercial recordings of cycles of Dodgson's works include the seven piano sonatas played by Bernard Roberts and the eight string quartets performed by the Tippett String Quartet.

Style

In The Oxford Companion to Music, Paul Griffiths notes that Dodgson "proved adept at producing likable, well-crafted music to order, often for unusual chamber ensembles".

Selected works

Note: For more extensive listings of works by this prolific composer, see .

Opera

Cadilly (1969)
Nancy the Waterman (1969)
Margaret Catchpole (1979)

Choral

Te Deum, for soprano, tenor, bass, chorus, organ and orchestra (1972)
Magnificat, for soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, bass, chorus and orchestra (1974)

Song

Irishry (four poems of Joseph Campbell, 1949)
Tideways (four poems of Ezra Pound, 1950)
Four Poems of John Clare (1961)
Bush Ballads (first series, 1974)
Bush Ballads (second series, 1998)
Bush Ballads (third series, 2003)

Orchestral

Concerto No. 1 for Guitar and Orchestra (1956)
Russian Pieces for orchestra (1957)
Villanelle (1960)
Concerto for Viola da gamba and Chamber Orchestra (1961)
The Mikado (overture) (1962)
Concerto for Bassoon and Chamber Orchestra (1969)
Concerto No. 2 for Guitar and Orchestra (1972)
Last of the Leaves, for bass, clarinet and strings (1975)
Essay No. 1 (1980)
Essay No. 2 (1981)
Essay No. 3 (1982)
Essay No. 4 (1984)
Essay No. 5 (1985)
Symphony in One Movement (1988)
Sinfonia "Troia-Nova"
Duo Concerto for Violin, Guitar and Strings (1990)
Concerto for Flute and Strings (1991)
Concertino for 2 Guitars and Strings "Les Dentelles" (1998)
Concerto for Bass Trombone and Orchestra (1985)
Essay No. 6 (1991)
Essay No. 7, for string orchestra (1992)
The Rising of Job (1998)
Essay No. 8 (2000)
Essay No. 9

Incidental music

The Beaux' Stratagem by George Farquhar (1961)
Love for Love by William Congreve (1965)
The Legacy by Pierre de Marivaux (1965)
The Old Bachelor by Congreve (1966)
Mostellaria ("The Ghost of a Play") by Plautus (1969)
Perkin Warbeck by John Ford (1970)
Henry VI by William Shakespeare, in two parts (1970)
Le Morte d'Arthur by Thomas Malory (1970)
Women in Power by Aristophanes, translated by Patric Dickinson (1970)
Macbeth by Shakespeare (1971)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1971)
The Silent Woman by Ben Jonson (1974)
The London Cuckolds by Edward Ravenscroft (1974)

Wind band

Wind Symphony (1974)
The Eagle, a tone poem (1976)
Matelot: a Diversion for Wind Band (1977)
Capriccio Concertante for clarinet and wind orchestra (1984)
Arlington Concertante (1986)
Bandwagon (1991)
Marchrider (1990)
Flowers of London Town, a symphonic sequence after William Blake (1990)

Guitar ensemble

Personent Hodie (1981)
Divertissement (1983) for violin and guitar ensemble
Hymnus de Sancto Stephano (1983) for soprano and guitar ensemble
The Selevan Story (1992) for flute, violin, guitar duo and guitar ensemble
Watersmeet (2002)

Chamber

Sonata for viola and piano (1952)
Pastoral Sonata for flute, cello and guitar (1953; rev. 1959 & 1998)
Suite for brass septet (1957)
Duo for flute and harp (1958)
Four Poems of John Clare for voice and guitar (1962)
Sonata for brass quintet (1963)
Four Fancies for viola and piano (1964)
String Trio No. 2 (1964)
Piano Trio No. 1 (1967)
Duo Concertante for guitar and harpsichord (1968)
Suite in D for oboe and harpsichord (1972)
Piano Trio No. 2 (1973)
Quintet for guitar and string quartet (1973)
Duo for cello and guitar (1974)
Shine and Shade for recorder and harpsichord/piano (1975)
Dialogues for guitar and harpsichord (1976)
Bagatelles for four clarinets (1977)
London Lyrics for voice and guitar (1977)
Caprice after Puck for viola solo (1978)
Circus Pony (1978)
Follow the Star for three guitars (1979)
Capriccio for flute and guitar (1980)
Quatre rondeaux de Charles d'Orléans for soprano and harpsichord (1982)
Sonata for Three for flute, viola and guitar (1982)
In Search of Folly for flute and guitar (1986)
Fantasia for Six Brass (1987)
Promenade I for two guitars (1988)
Pastourelle for two guitars (1992)
Riversong for two guitars (1994)
Five Penny Pieces (1995)
Daphne to Apollo for voice and guitar (1997)
Echoes of Autumn for viola and guitar (1998)
High Barbaree for recorder, guitar and harpsichord (1999)
Piano Trio No. 3 (2000)
Venus to the Muses for soprano, recorder, bassoon and harpsichord (2002)
Warbeck Trio for recorder, bassoon and harpsichord (2002)

Solo guitar

Partita No. 1 (1963)
Studies (1965)
Fantasy-Divisions (1969)
Partita No. 2 (1976)
Legend (1977)
Merlin (1978)
Etude-Caprice (1980)
Partita No. 3 (1981)
Stemma (1988)
Three Attic Dances (1989)
Partita No. 4 (1990)
The Midst of Life (1994)

Piano

Sonata for piano duet (1949)
Tournament for Twenty Fingers, vols. 1 and 2 for piano duet (1952, 1954)
Eight Fanciful Pieces (1956)
Piano Sonata No. 1 (1959)
Three Impromptus (1962, revised 1985)
Four Moods of the Wind (1968)
Piano Sonata No. 2 (1975)
Piano Sonata No. 3 (1983)
Piano Sonata No. 4 (1987)
Piano Sonata No. 5 (1992)
Piano Sonata No. 6 (1994)
Piano Sonata No. 7 (2003)