Arnold Cooke

Arnold Atkinson Cooke (4 November 1906 – 13 August 2005) was a British composer, a pupil of Paul Hindemith. He wrote a considerable amount of chamber music, including five string quartets and many instrumental sonatas, much of which is only now becoming accessible through modern recordings. Cooke also composed two operas (still unperformed), six symphonies and several concertos.

Education Cooke was born at Gomersal, West Yorkshire, into a family of carpet manufacturers. As a child, Cooke learned to play the piano, and later the cello, and began composing by the age of 7 or 8. He was educated at Streete Preparatory School, Repton School and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he read history, taking Part 1 of his Tripos in 1927, earning his B.A. He changed to read music with his composition teacher E. J. Dent. At Cambridge, Cooke continued to play the cello in the CUMS orchestra and in a string quartet. He was President of the Cambridge Musical Society from 1927 to 1928.

In 1929, he gained his Music degree and went to Berlin where he studied composition and piano at the Berlin University of the Arts under Paul Hindemith. Hindemith's composition class also included Harald Genzmer, Oskar Sala and Franz Reizenstein, the latter remained a lifelong friend and kept Cooke's Piano Concerto in his repertoire.

He later became musical director of the Festival Theatre at Cambridge, and in 1933 was appointed a professor at the Royal Manchester College of Music (now merged into the Royal Northern College of Music). In 1948, through the recommendation of E. J. Dent, he obtained a doctorate from Cambridge, submitting as his composition portfolio his Symphony No. 1 (1946–47), Piano Concerto (1939–40) and Sonata for viola and piano (1936–37).

Career Cooke moved to London in 1938 to further his career. In the 1930s, he carved out a reputation for himself as a promising young composer, and his music was taken up by leading interpreters. The harpist Maria Korchinska introduced his Harp Quintet in 1932; Sir Henry Wood conducted his Concert Overture No. 1 at the 1934 Promenade Concerts and the Griller Quartet premiered his String Quartet No. 1 in 1935. In 1936 Havergal Brian singled out for praise a cantata, Holderneth, a setting of a text by the American poet Edward Sweeney. which he had completed just before his call-up in 1941. The concerto had been commissioned by the South African pianist Adolph Hallis in 1939 but the outbreak of WWII meant that Hallis had to return to South Africa. Kentner gave the first performance in a BBC studio broadcast on 11 November 1943. The work received subsequent broadcast performances from Franz Reizenstein with the BBC Northern Orchestra under Clarence Raybould in 1952 and Eric Parkin with the BBC Northern Orchestra under Brian Priestman in 1972.

During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Navy, first in the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, and subsequently as a liaison officer in a Norwegian escort vessel and a Dutch tug that took part in the D-Day Landings. After demobilisation he returned to London in 1946, becoming a founder member of the Composers' Guild of Great Britain. From 1947 until his retirement in 1978, he was Professor of Harmony and Composition at Trinity College of Music in London. After a stroke in 1993, he virtually ceased to compose, but lived to the age of 98, dying at his nursing home in Five Oak Green in Kent in 2005. He composed six symphonies and several concertos, including two Clarinet Concertos (1956 and 1982), the first recorded.

His output of chamber music is copious, including a clarinet quintet, five string quartets, many instrumental sonatas, and some important vocal music. The Clarinet Quintet is available on Hyperion. The Pleyel Ensemble and MPR Records have issued a series of four CDs of chamber music recordings, the fourth of which was released in September 2020. Most of the works are recorded for the first time. The Bridge Quartet has recorded all five quartets. The organ music has been recorded by Tom Winpenny on Toccata.

Selected works

Opera Mary Barton, op.27 (1949–1954) The Invisible Duke (1976)

Ballet Jabez and the Devil, op.50 (1959) (Concert Suite: 1961) Five Songs of William Blake for baritone, treble recorder and piano (1987)

Orchestral music Concert Overture No. 1 (1934) Passacaglia, Scherzo and Finale for string orchestra (1937) Piano Concerto, op.11 (1940) Four Shakespeare Sonnets for Soprano and string orchestra (1941) Song for Tenor and small orchestra (1945) Concert Overture No. 2, Processional (1945) Symphony No. 1 (1947) Concerto in D major for string orchestra (1948) York Suite for Recorders, string orchestra, timpani and percussion (1972) Cello Concerto (1973) Symphony No. 4 (1974) Symphony No. 5 (1979) Clarinet Concerto No. 2 (1982) Symphony No. 6 (1983–1984) Repton Fantasia (1984) Concerto for Orchestra (1986)

Chamber music Octet for string quartet and woodwind, op.1 (1931) Suite for brass sextet (1931) Harp Quintet, op.2 (1932) String Quartet No. 1 (1933) Sonata for Two Pianos (1937, published OUP) Sonata No. 1 for Cello and Piano (1941) Piano Trio in C (1941–1944, published A-AMP) Variations on an Original Theme for String Quartet (1945) Alla Marcia for Clarinet and Piano, D38 (1946) Sonata for Oboe and Piano (1957, published Novello) Little Suite for Flute and Viola (1957) Suite for three B♭ Clarinets (1958) Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (1959) Divertimento for Treble Recorder and String Quartet (1959) Wind Quintet (1961) Suite for Treble Recorder and Piano (1961) Clarinet Quintet (1962) Sonata for Oboe and Harpsichord (1962) Suite for Recorder Quartet (1965) Serial Theme and Variations for Solo Recorder, op.65 (1966) String Quartet No. 3 (1967) Suite in C major for Piano (1943, rev. 1963) Scherzo for Piano (1957) Dance of the Puppets and Pastorale for Piano (1957) Prelude, Intermezzo and Finale for Organ (1962) Postlude for Organ (1962–1964) Fantasia for Organ (1964) Toccata and Aria for Organ (1966) Impromptu for Organ (1966) Fugal Adventures for Organ (1967) Piano Sonata No. 2 (1965) Intermezzo and Capriccio for Harpsichord (1970–1971) Sonata No. 1 in G for Organ (1971) Suite No. 2 for Piano (1975) Interlude for Organ manual (1976) Sonata No. 2 for Organ (1980) Suite No. 3 for Piano (1982) Arietta for Piano (1986) Tudeley Prelude for Organ (1989) Suite in G for Organ (1989)