Robert Crawford
Professional
Biography
Robert Crawford began to compose at the age of 15 while still at school without any technical training, though he had played the violin from the age of five. His studies as a composer were undertaken seriously at the end of the last war, when he attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where Benjamin Frankel had just joined the staff as Professor of Composition. Four valuable years were spent there, after which he returned to Edinburgh to spend as much time as he could composing. He soon wrote his first String Quartet and several pieces of chamber music. This quartet won the Scottish Arts Council's prize for a chamber music work, during the Festival of Britain in 1951. It was performed at the ISCM Festival at Frankfurt-a-Main that same year.
Some 37 years later, Conrad Wilson wrote in The Scotsman, "Most of Scotland's leading composers have produced at least one string quartet, and the Edinburgh Quartet is presenting a selection of these works, some of them new to the modern Scottish repertoire, but one of them - yesterday's - arguably its fountainhead. This was Robert Crawford's Quartet Op. 4, the first of his two works in the form."
In 1956 he wrote his Second String Quartet in response to a commission from Glasgow University under the terms of the McEwen Bequest. This work has been performed and broadcast many times around the world. David Johnson, writing in The Glasgow Herald in 1983, said of it, "Crawford's piece is one of the finest quartets of the second half of the 20th century, and I don't mean merely among those composed in Scotland."
Crawford was a Music Producer with the BBC in Glasgow from 1970-1985, and the bulk of his output has been written since he retired in 1985, when for the first time he was able to devote his attention fully to composition. Ian Robertson wrote in The Times Educational Supplement on 22/5/87, "To give up composition entirely is far easier than to return to it after such a long interval. Mr Crawford's former virtues of high craft and musical integrity are thoroughly intact on the evidence of this concise but substantial new work. All in all, a courageous return and a worthy achievement made this unusual premiere especially significant." He was referring to the Octet which was his second commission from the McEwen Bequest in 1987.
Crawford completed "Hammered Brass" for Brass Quintet and percussion in early August 1995 as the result of a commission from ECAT (Edinburgh Contemporary Arts Trust) to be performed by the Wallace Collection. George Wilson, writing in The Scotsman after its first performance on 9th November 1995, said, "The thrill of the evening was, however, the premiere of Robert Crawford's "Hammered Brass". Percussion and brass instruments sang and intermingled seamlessly. Crawford's foot-sure sense of possibilities never seemed to restrain his imagination and we were eager for more.
Crawford's method of working tends to be slow, and he can retain musical ideas in his head for a long time. As an example, "A Saltire Sonata" had been in his mind for almost 30 years before he was pressed into completing it as the result of a commission from Peter Seivewright. Likewise, the completion of a Viola Concerto has been contemplated for almost 10 years and could be completed in a year or two along with a third String Quartet which has also been started.
It is not unusual for him to be working on ideas for two works at the same time, as most of the process of composition takes place in his head and is already fairly complete when the appropriate stimulous forces the decision on which one to complete on paper, usually relatively quickly done.
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Performances |
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- String Quartet No.1 (1949)
26 minsString Quartet No. 2 (1957)
18 mins
- Octet: "Ricercare" (1987)
[cl . hn . bsn . str 4et . bass]
14 mins
- A Saltire Sonata (1991)
for piano
15 mins
- Sonata Breve (1991)
for piano
5 mins
- Clarinet Quintet (1992)
20 mins
- Variations on a Ground (1993)
for treble recorder and piano
5 mins
- Variations on an original theme (1993)
for two pianos
18 mins
- Hammered Brass (1995)
for brass quintet and percussion
17 mins
- Symphonic Study for Orchestra: "Lunula" (1997)
[2222.4231.Timp.2 perc.strings]
10 mins
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