Reginald Smith Brindle

Reginald Smith Brindle (5 January 1917 – 9 September 2003) was a British composer and writer. He began learning the piano at the age of six, and later took up the clarinet, saxophone and guitar (and won a Melody Maker prize for his guitar-playing). Under pressure from his parents, he began to study architecture. At the time, he was interested in jazz, and played saxophone professionally for a while alongside his studies. On attending an organ recital at Chester Cathedral in 1937, however, he was inspired to take up both the organ and composition. He spent most of World War II serving in Africa and Italy as a captain in the Corps of Royal Engineers. It was during this period that he rekindled his interest in the guitar, an instrument for which he wrote an enormous amount of music. Notable orchestral works include two symphonies (1955 and 1989), Apocalypse, Creation Epic (world premiere at the Proms on 5 August 1964), Homage to H.G. Wells (1960), the Renaissance Suite (1956), Symphonic Variations (1957), and Via Crucis for strings (1966).

Smith Brindle taught from 1957 to 1970 at the University College of North Wales in Bangor, and from 1970 to 1981 at the University of Surrey. During his time at Surrey, he founded the prestigious Tonmeister course in Music and Sound Recording. } He continued to compose until 1998, being involved with the Chameleon group of composers in 1990s Croydon.

Books

Second edition 1987. (cloth); (pbk).