Editing Harrison Birtwistle (section)

==Life and career==

===Early life===
Harrison Birtwistle was born in [[Accrington]], a mill town in Lancashire around 20 miles north of [[Manchester]].{{sfn|Hall|1984|p=4}}{{refn|Regarding his name, Birtwistle stated that "in some reference books my name is down as Harrison Paul, which it isn't, and never has been. I don't have a second name."{{sfn|Birtwistle|Maddocks|2014|p=10}} Many people close to Birtwistle knew him as "Harry"<ref name="NYT"/> or "Harri".<ref name="Hewett2022"/>|group=n}} His parents, Fred and Madge Birtwistle, ran a bakery, and his interest in music was encouraged by his mother.<ref name="NYT"/>{{sfn|Hall|1984|p=5}} She bought him a clarinet when he was seven and arranged for him to have lessons with the local bandmaster.{{sfn|Hall|1984|p=5}} He attended [[Accrington Grammar School]].<ref name="Tomlinson">{{cite web| last=Tomlinson | first=John | title='How that music was created remains to me a complete mystery': John Tomlinson on fellow Lancastrian Harrison Birtwistle | website=The Arts Desk | date=20 May 2022 | url=https://theartsdesk.com/node/88156/view | access-date=25 November 2024}}</ref> Much of his youth was spent roaming the countryside near his home, and his frustration with the disruption of the nature by modern technology would affect his later work profoundly.<ref name="Hewett2022">{{cite news |last=Hewett |first=Ivan |author-link=Ivan Hewett |date=18 April 2022 |title=Sir Harrison Birtwistle obituary |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/18/sir-harrison-birtwistle-obituary |access-date=18 April 2022 }}</ref> Other youthful activities included the construction of amateur theatrical sets, and the subsequent imagining of dramas taking place inside them.<ref name="Clements2022">{{cite news |last=Clements |first=Andrew |date=18 April 2022 |title=Harrison Birtwistle: an utterly distinctive composer who wrote music of delicate beauty |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/18/harrison-birtwistle-utterly-distinctive-music-of-delicate-beauty-andrew-clements |access-date=18 April 2022 }}</ref> Birtwistle became proficient enough to play in the local [[Concert band|military-style band]] and also played in the orchestra that accompanied [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] productions and the local choral society's performances of Handel's ''[[Messiah (Handel)|Messiah]]''. From around this time Birtwistle first composed, later describing his early pieces as "sub-[[Ralph Vaughan Williams|Vaughan Williams]]".{{sfn|Hall|1984|p=5}}

In 1952 he entered the [[Royal Northern College of Music|Royal Manchester College of Music]] in Manchester on a clarinet scholarship. While there he came in contact with contemporaries including [[Peter Maxwell Davies]], [[Alexander Goehr]], the pianist [[John Ogdon]], and the trumpeter [[Elgar Howarth]].<ref name="NPR" /> Between 1955 and 1957 he completed [[national service]] in the [[Royal Artillery]] (Plymouth) Band, based in [[Oswestry]].<ref>N. Wilkins, ''Musical Encounters'', London, 2018.</ref><ref>{{cite web | url= https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/18/arts/music/harrison-birtwistle-dead.html | title= Harrison Birtwistle, Fiercely Modernist Composer, Dies at 87 | work=The New York Times | first=David | last=Allen | date=18 April 2022 | access-date=25 May 2024}}</ref>

===Composing career===
Birtwistle served as director of music at [[Cranborne Chase School]] from 1962 until 1965, before continuing his studies at [[Princeton University]] on a [[Harkness Fellowship]], where he completed the opera ''[[Punch and Judy (opera)|Punch and Judy]]'' to a libretto by [[Stephen Pruslin]].<ref name="NPR" /> It was premiered at the [[Aldeburgh Festival]]; [[Benjamin Britten]] is said to have left during intermission.<ref name="Tilden">{{Cite news |last=Tilden |first=Imogen |date=18 April 2022 |title=Composer Harrison Birtwistle dies aged 87 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/apr/18/composer-harrison-birtwistle-dies-aged-87 |access-date=19 April 2022}}</ref> This work, together with ''Verses for Ensembles'' and ''[[The Triumph of Time (Birtwistle)|The Triumph of Time]]'', led to greater exposure for Birtwistle in the classical music world. The orchestral work ''The Triumph of Time'', inspired by a woodcut by [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder|Pieter Bruegel]], premiered in 1972.<ref name="Tilden"/>

In 1972, he wrote the music to the film ''[[The Offence]]'', starring [[Sean Connery]], his only film score.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070468/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ql_1|title=Full Cast and Crew list of the movie 'The Offence' provided by IMDb|publisher=[[IMDb]]}}</ref> In 1975, he became musical director of the newly established [[Royal National Theatre]] in London, a post he held until 1983.<ref name="Tilden" /> He received a [[knighthood]] (1988) and was made a [[Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour]] (2001). From 1994 to 2001 he was [[Henry Purcell]] Professor of Composition at [[King's College London]]. Birtwistle was the 1987 recipient of the [[University of Louisville]] [[Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition]]<ref name=grawemeyer.org>{{Cite web|url=http://grawemeyer.org/1987-harrison-birtwistle/|title=1987 – Harrison Birtwistle – Grawemeyer Awards|date=20 July 1987 |access-date=27 March 2022}}</ref> for his epic opera ''[[The Mask of Orpheus]]''.<ref name="NPR"/>

Though well-established in the classical music world, Birtwistle was relatively unknown to the general public until the mid-1990s, when two events increased his profile with the wider audience. In 1994 two anti-modernist musicians, [[Frederick Stocken]] and [[Keith Burstein]], calling themselves "The Hecklers", organised a demonstration at the first night of a revival of his opera ''[[Gawain (opera)|Gawain]]'' at the [[Royal Opera House]], London.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Lister|first=David|date=14 April 1994|title=First Night: Hecklers lose their first night joust: Gawain / The Hecklers Royal Opera House|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/first-night-hecklers-lose-their-first-night-joust-gawain-the-hecklers-royal-opera-house-1370068.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220509/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/first-night-hecklers-lose-their-first-night-joust-gawain-the-hecklers-royal-opera-house-1370068.html |archive-date=9 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=18 April 2022|website=The Independent|language=en}}</ref> The following year, Birtwistle's saxophone concertante work ''[[Panic (Birtwistle)|Panic]]'' was premiered in the second half of the [[Last Night of the Proms]], as the first piece of contemporary music ever,<ref name="Tilden" /> to an estimated worldwide television audience of 100 million.<ref>{{Cite web|date=9 August 2007|title=Panic at the Proms|url=http://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/aug/10/classicalmusicandopera.proms20071|access-date=18 April 2022|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> According to the ''[[The Daily Telegraph|Daily Telegraph]]'', it met with incomprehension from many viewers.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Hewett|first=Ivan|author-link=Ivan Hewett|date=14 July 2017|title=Harrison Birtwistle: the welcome return of a Proms maverick|language=en-GB|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/classical-music/harrison-birtwhistle-welcome-return-proms-maverick/|access-date=18 April 2022|issn=0307-1235}}</ref>

In 1995, he was awarded the [[Ernst von Siemens Music Prize]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.evs-musikstiftung.ch/preise/preise/archiv/hauptpreistraeger/sir-harrison-birtwistle.html|title=Sir Harrison Birtwistle|website=evs-musikstiftung.ch}}</ref> At the 2006 [[Ivor Novello Awards]] he criticised pop musicians at the event for performing too loudly and using too many [[cliché]]s.<ref>Nuala Calvi, [http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/12741/winning-composer-booed-off-ivors-stage-for "Winning composer booed off Ivors stage for criticising bands"], ''The Stage'', 26 May 2006. Retrieved 2 March 2011.</ref>

Among the musicians who performed his works are conductors [[Pierre Boulez]], [[Andrew Davis (conductor)|Sir Andrew Davis]], [[Daniel Barenboim]], [[Christoph von Dohnányi]], [[Oliver Knussen]]<ref name="NPR" /> and [[Simon Rattle]],<ref name="Clarke" /> violinist [[Christian Tetzlaff]], the soloist in the world premiere of his violin concerto in 2011, and pianist [[Pierre-Laurent Aimard]], the soloist in the first performance of his ''Responses'' for piano and orchestra in 2014.<ref name="NPR" />

=== Private life ===
Birtwistle had a low media profile,<ref>{{cite news |last=Maddocks |first=Fiona |date=3 May 2014 |title=Harrison Birtwistle: 'I don't think, with hindsight, I was a natural musician' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/may/03/harrison-birtwistle-hindsight-not-natural-musician-composers |work=[[The Observer]] |location=London |access-date=9 November 2017}}</ref> but occasionally gave interviews. In 2019, he was interviewed for ''[[Composer of the Week]]'' on [[BBC Radio 3]].<ref name="BBC">{{Cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009r3g |title=Composer of the Week}} BBC. Retrieved 19 April 2022.</ref> He married Sheila Duff, a singer, in 1958.<ref name="Hewett2022"/> The couple had three sons,<ref name="Hewett2022"/> two of whom, [[Adam Birtwistle|Adam]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp08148/adam-birtwistle |title=Adam Birtwistle – National Portrait Gallery |website=npg.org.uk |language=en |access-date=2 December 2019}}</ref> and [[Silas Birtwistle|Silas]], are artists.<ref name="NPR" /><ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.ifad.org/newsroom/press_release/tags/p77/y2016/36289916| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170202000200/https://www.ifad.org/newsroom/press_release/tags/p77/y2016/36289916| archive-date = 2 February 2017| title = Giant heads sculpted from fruit and vegetables draw attention to rural communities at biodiversity summit |website=ifad.org}}</ref> Sheila died in 2012.<ref name="Hewett2022"/>

Birtwistle had a stroke in 2021 and died at his home in [[Mere, Wiltshire]], on 18 April 2022, aged 87.<ref name="NYT"/><ref name="NPR">{{cite news |last=Tsioulcas |first=Anastasia |date=18 April 2022 |title=Harrison Birtwistle, an influential English composer, has died at age 87 |publisher=[[NPR]] |url=https://www.npr.org/2022/04/18/1093301810/harrison-birtwistle-composer-died |access-date=18 April 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url = https://www.thetimes.com/article/sir-harrison-birtwistle-obituary-mh9fjr57g|title = Sir Harrison Birtwistle obituary|date = 18 April 2022|access-date = 18 April 2022|work = [[The Times]]|url-access = subscription}}</ref>