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Richard Anthony Sayer Arnell
Richard Anthony Sayer Arnell (15 September 1917 – 10 April 2009) was an English composer of classical music. Arnell composed in all the established genres for the concert stage, and his list of works includes six completed symphonies (a seventh was realised by Martin Yates) and six string quartets.[1] At the Trinity College of Music, he "promoted a pioneering interest in film scores and electronic music" and jazz.
Life and career
Arnell was born in Hampstead, London, the son of Hélène Marie (Scherf) and Richard Sayer Arnell.[2] In contrast to his grandpa, who played the violin in the Hastings Municipal Orchestra, his father was the architect and builder of the 28-acre Kingsway and Aldwych project, which was completed in 1905.[3] Arnell studied at the Royal College of Music in London from 1935 to 1939, and was taught there by John Ireland (composition) and St John Dykes (piano). He was awarded the Farrar Prize for composition during his final year at the college. At the outset of the Second World War, attending the New York World Fair, Arnell (along with other English composers, e.g. Arthur Bliss) was stranded in New York, and stayed on until 1947, thereby finding himself in the position of having an established reputation in the US, but remaining relatively little known in his homeland. During his American sojourn, Arnell was the Music Supervisor for the BBC in North America, and was commissioned to compose (to a text by Stephen Spender) a cantata, The War God, in celebration of the opening of the United Nations, as well as a fanfare to greet Winston Churchill's arrival in New York.