Ronald Stevenson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ronald Stevenson (born March 6, 1928 in Blackburn) is a British composer, virtuoso, pianist, and writer about music.

He studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music (which is now incorporated in the Royal Northern College of Music), graduating with distinction in 1948. He was instrumental in reviving the works of Ferruccio Busoni, and corresponded with Percy Grainger. Among his many compositions, one of the most notable is his 'Passacaglia on DSCH for solo piano, written between 1960 and 1962, based on the musical motif D, E-flat, C, B derived from the German transliteration of Dmitri Shostakovich's name. The work takes more than an hour and a quarter to perform and is extraordinary in its scope, the range of its reference to historic events, and the musical influences absorbed. The work includes a Sonata form first section, a suite of dances (incorporating a Sarabande, Jig, Minuet, Gavotte and Polonaise), a transcription of a Scottish bagpipe Pibroch, a section entitled To Emergent Africa, and the work is inscribed In memoriam the six million (a reference to the victims of the Holocaust of World War II) at the start of one of its fugal sections. The composer presented a copy of the score to Shostakovich, its dedicatee, at the 1962 Edinburgh Festival, and the work has been recorded by Stevenson's friends John Ogdon and Mark Gasser.

Stevenson's other works include two piano concertos, the second of which was first performed at a Prom in 1972, a violin concerto commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin, and a cello concerto in memoriam Jacqueline du Pré. He has also written many songs and works for solo piano.

Stevenson is noted as a teacher. He was senior lecturer in composition at the University of Cape Town in the mid 1960s, delivered seminars at the Juilliard School in New York, and was responsible for a course entitled The Political Piano at the University of York in the early 1980s. His daughter Savourna Stevenson (born 1961) has recorded many works on the Scottish harp.