Thomas Pitfield

Thomas Baron Pitfield (5 April 190311 November 1999) was a British polymath, primarily remembered as a composer, but also a poet, artist, engraver, calligrapher, master craftsman, furniture builder and teacher.

Life He was born at 57 New Road Bolton to elderly parents whose strict Victorian values and lack of support for his creative interests led to his being withdrawn from school at 14 for a seven-year engineering apprenticeship with Hick, Hargreaves & Co. Ltd. His designs for transmission machinery for the cotton industry survive as do his ink and watercolour paintings of railway engines.

Although he was essentially self-taught as a composer, he did study piano, cello and harmony at the Royal Manchester College of Music, where his teachers were Thomas Keighley, Kathleen Moorhouse, Frank Merrick and Carl Fuchs. He also received early advice on composition from Eric Fogg. and also wrote more than 260 poems. His collection The Poetry of Trees combines poetry and illustration. In 1957 he designed his house, ‘Lesser Thorns’, in Bowdon near Manchester, and made its furnishings.

His autobiographical writings - including a fourth volume, Incidents from a Sixty Year Holiday Diary (1998) - as well as worklists and appreciations were published in 2024.

Composition As a composer Pitfield was influenced by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Percy Grainger and Frederick Delius. He was prolific, and his compositions are typically "light-hearted and small scale", referencing folk music and often including irregular rhythms. There are also collections of miniatures for students and amateurs and solo works for accordion, clarsach, and harmonica. He also invented an instrument called “patterphone” to produce rain-like sounds.

His music was published by more than 50 publishers. Hubert J. Foss of the Oxford University Press published many of his compositions, illustrations, frontispieces and cover-designs, which he made for various publications, including the one for Benjamin Britten's Simple Symphony.

Selected works Orchestral Sinfonietta (1947) Piano Concerto No. 1 in E major (1947) Concert Overture (1950) Fantasia on an Old Staffordshire Tune (1950) Theme and Variations for string orchestra (pub. 1951) Fantasia for violin and orchestra (1953) Overture on North-Country Tunes (1953) Concerto Lirico for violin and orchestra (1958) Piano Concerto No. 2, The Student (1960) Concertino for percussion and orchestra (1961) Divertimento for oboe and string trio (1966/1967) Epitaph for string orchestra (1981) Recorder Concerto, with string orchestra and percussion (1985-6) Lyric Waltz for string orchestra (1988) Bucolics: Folk Song Studies (undated)

Chamber and instrumental Piano Trio No 1 in C major (1930) Prelude, Minuet and Reel for piano (1932) Violin Sonata No. 1 in A (1939) Cello Sonata in D minor (1937/1938, publ. 1949) The Circle Suite for piano (1938) Sonatina for cello and piano (1945) Sonatina for viola and piano (1947) Oboe Sonata in A Minor (1948) Piano Trio No 2 in F minor, Lyric) (1948/1949) Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano (1952) Novelette in F for piano (1953) Toccata for piano (1953) Trio for flute, oboe and piano (pub. 1953) Diversions on a Russian Air for piano (1959) Conversation Piece for clarinet and piano (1960) Sonata for Accordion (1963) Sonatina for clarinet and piano (1964) Studies on an English Dance Tune for piano (1964) Sonatina for percussion (1969) Three Nautical Sketches for recorder and piano (1982) Sonata for timpani (1985) Xylophone Sonata (1987) Epigraph for violin, cello and piano (undated) Sonatinas for piano, Nos. 1, 2 and 3

Vocal and Choral The Rhyming Shopman for baritone soloist, choir and orchestra (1940) Night Music for unaccompanied chorus (1941) A Sketchbook of Men, choral cantata (1953) A Sketchbook of Women, choral cantata (1953) A Sketchbook of Animals, choral cantata (1954) The Hills, chorus and orchestra (1960) By the Dee, song cycle for soloist and chamber ensemble (1962) A Shropshire Lass, soprano and orchestra (1987) Three Miniatures for soprano and violin (pub. 1989) Selected Songs, (pub. Forsythe, 1989) Carol Lullaby for soprano, recorder, and harp (undated)

Dramatic The Elm-Spirit, ballet (perf. 1934) The Rejected Pieman, ballet (perf. 1936) Maid of Hearts, ballet (perf. 1937) The Devil in White, morality play with music (1939) The Hallowed Manger, nativity play (1950–51) The Barnyard Singers, children’s opera (1954) Tansy, children's opera (1958) Adam and the Creatures, morality play with music (1968) Coney Warren, children's comic opera (1971) St Columba in Iona, morality play with music (1981–82)

Writings Musicianship for Guitarists (1959) Musicianly Scale Practice (1962) The Poetry of Trees (1944) No Song, No Supper: an Autobiography (London, 1986) Song after Supper, autobiography, part two (1990) A Cotton Town Boyhood, autobiography, part three (1995) Sixty Year Holiday Diary, autobiography, part four (1998)

Recordings Concerto Lirico for violin and orchestra, Dutton Epoch CDLX 7221 (2009) Divertimento, Three Nautical Sketches, on Pitfield: His Friends & Contemporaries, Divine Art DDX 21246 (2024) Oboe Sonata, Violin Sonata No 1, Eight Songs, on Thomas Pitfield: Chamber Music, Heritage HTGCD210 (2015) Orchestral Music. Sinfonietta, Fantasia on an Old Staffordshire Tune, Lyric Waltz, Bucolics, Folk Song Studies, Concerto Lirico, Epitath. Toccata Classics TOCC0765 (2025) Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2, Xylophone Sonata, Naxos 8.557291 (2005) Piano Music. Diversions on a Russian Air, Three Bagatelles, Sonatina No.2, Prelude, Minuet and Reel etc. Heritage Records HTGCD132 (2025) Piano Trios Nos. 1 and 2, Cello Sonata, Sonatina, on Pitfield: String Chamber Music, Divine Art DDX 21137 (2024) Recorder Concerto, on English Recorder Music, Naxos 8.572503 (2010) Songs, The Songs of Thomas Pitfield, Divine Art DDX 21119 (2024) Theme and Variations for strings, on British Music for Strings IV, CPO 555 452-2 (2025) Violin Sonata No 1 in A, Lyrita SRCD359 (2017)