Helen Glatz

Helen Sinclair Glatz (née Hunter) (13 March 1908–15 June 1996) was an English composer and pianist, a pupil of Ralph Vaughan Williams, best known for her teaching at Dartington Hall and the Dartington International Summer School for over 40 years.

Life Helen Sinclair Hunter was born in the South Shields, Durham, England. She studied music under Dr. William Gillies Whittaker at Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. She was the first woman from northern England to win an open scholarship for composition to the Royal College of Music, where she studied under Vaughan Williams and Gordon Jacob. Her contemporaries there included Elizabeth Lutyens, Elizabeth Maconchy and Imogen Holst. She was a Cobbett Prize winner for her Phantasy Trio for strings in 1931.

During a composition scholarship in 1933, Hunter travelled to Vienna, Italy, and Budapest, where she studied under Zoltán Kodály and Sándor Vegh. She married linguist Wolf Glatz in Hungary and remained there during World War II until he could secure passage out of the country, fleeing as the Red Army took Budapest. Her pupils included bassoon and oboe player Lindsay Cooper, symphonic composer Philip Sawyers, Benjamin Britten's music assistant (after Imogen Holst) Rosamund Strode (1927-2010), and organist John Wellingham.

Glatz stayed at Dartington for the rest of her life, living in a cottage on the estate and receiving an honorary fellowship in 1995. She had one son, Christopher. She died in Totnes, Devon in 1996. Other works include three children's ballets (1954, 1956, 1958), a choral cantata and two psalm settings (1931, 1976).

Glatz would write Christmas music for Dartington every year. Her Five Carols Without Words for wind quintet gained some popularity after the 1958 Festival and became her best known work, and one of the few to be published. The only other work of hers to be recorded is her 1967 Fanfare.

The publisher Phylloscopus has more recently published some of her pieces, including the Five Carols Without Words, the Suite for bassoon and piano, and the Hungarian Folk Song Suite for two bassoons.

Works that can be reliably dated include: Viola Sonata (1929) Phantasy Trio for strings (1931) Scherzo and Trio for orchestra (1932) Septet (1932) String Quartet No 1 (1932) String Trio (1933) Phantasy String Quartet (1934) Essex Suite for brass band (1935) String Quartet No 2 (1936) Ballet Electric (1937) Concertino for flute and string orchestra (1948) Theme and Variations for orchestra (1949) Ballet Suite (1952) Suite of children's pieces for piano (1952) Two carols for women's choir, flute, and viola (1956) Five Carols Without Words for flute, oboe, clarinet and horn (1958) Prelude and Scherzo for flute (1958) Three Winter Songs (de la Mare) (1958) Two Latin Poems for women's choir and two flutes (1962) Two Latin Poems for women's choir and two flutes (1962) Three Songs on Cats for soprano and clarinet (1962) Suite for piano duet, based on Hungarian folk songs (1963) Concertino for trombone, strings and timpani (1965) Dance Rhapsody for harp and orchestra (1967) Elegy for string orchestra (1967) Flute Sonata (1971) Hall Sands for narrator, taped voice, spoken and sung choir, percussion and wind instruments (1971) Violin Sonata (1972)