Trevor Hold

Trevor Hold (21 September 1939 – 28 January 2004) was an English composer, poet and author, best known for his song cycles, many of them setting his own poetry.

Biography Born in Northampton, Hold suffered an attack of polio at the age of seven, which affected his left arm. Piano lessons were used as therapy, and this led to an early interest in writing for the piano. He also began writing poetry in his teens. Hold was educated at Northampton Grammar School (1950–57), and went on to study at the University of Nottingham, where he completed a first class honours in music, followed by an MA.

He became Head of Music at Market Harborough Grammar School, and from 1963–65 assistant lecturer in music at Aberystwyth University. From there he moved on to a lectureship in music at Liverpool University (1965–70). For two decades he taught at the University of Leicester and became a central figure in the local music making of the East Midlands, composing and conducting for local choirs and orchestras, and teaching adult education classes. One of his students was the pianist David Owen Norris.

Hold took early retirement from Leicester in 1989 to concentrate on composing and writing. He died unexpectedly after contracting cancer in January 2004, aged 64.

Music An early success was the song cycle for soprano, baritone and chamber orchestra The Unreturning Spring (1962–3), setting seven poems by the wartime pilot- poet James Farrar, and showing the influence of Benjamin Britten. it was followed the next year by For John Clare (1964) for tenor and instrumental ensemble, the piece he considered to be his true opus 1. The chamber music includes two string quartets (1965, 1992), the Wind Quintet (1973–5), and the Clarinet Quintet (1983). The Symphony No. 2, Four Landscapes (1993-95), is a late example of a programme symphony.

Recordings Recordings of three of the song cycles - The Image Stays, River Songs and Voices from the Orchard - are available, performed by David Wilson-Johnson (baritone), Amanda Pitt (soprano) and David Owen Norris (piano). Ailish Tynan (soprano) and Roderick Williams (baritone) have recorded The Unreturning Spring with the BBC Concert Orchestra. There are also two discs of the piano music, performed by Peter Jacobs.

Poet and author Aside from music, Hold's main interest was in natural history, and this influence can be seen in both his music and in the English pastoral sensibility of his poetry. (Like Messiaen, Hold was fascinated by the relationship between birdsong and music). His four poetry collections - Time And The Bell (1971), Caught In Amber (1981), Mermaids And Nightingales (1991) and Chasing The Moon (2001) show the influence of John Clare and his description of the Northamptonshire landscape in local dialect.

In 1978 Hold produced The Walled-in Garden, a short study of the songs of Roger Quilter. Towards the end of his life he published a full length study of English Romantic song, Parry To Finzi: 20 English Song Composers (2002).