Ian Venables

Ian Venables (born 1955) is a British composer of songs and chamber music.

Contents

Biography

Ian Venables was born in Liverpool in 1955 and was educated at Liverpool Collegiate Grammar School. He studied music with Professor Richard Arnell at Trinity College of Music, London and later with Andrew Downes, John Mayer and John Joubert in Birmingham. His compositions encompass many genres, and in particular he has added significantly to the canon of English art song. Described as ‘…one of the finest song composers of his generation…’, he has written over 50 works in this genre, which includes six song-cycles, - Venetian Songs - Love’s Voice Op.22 (1995); Invite to Eternity Op.31 (1997) for tenor and string quartet; Songs of Eternity and Sorrow Op.36 (2004) for tenor, string quartet and piano; On the Wings of Love Op.38 (2006) for tenor, clarinet and piano; The Pine Boughs Past Music Op.39 (2010) for baritone and piano and Remember This Op.40 (2010) - Cantata for soprano, tenor, string quartet, and piano. Other songs for solo voice and piano include, Two Songs Op.28 (1997) and Six Songs Op.33 (1999-2003) as well as ‘A Dramatic Scena’ for counter-tenor and piano - At the Court of the poisoned Rose Op. 20 (1994). His songs have been performed by national and internationally acclaimed artists that include: Andrew Kennedy, Roderick Williams, Patricia Rozario, Ian Partridge, Howard Wong, Nathan Vale, Peter Wilman and Nicholas Mulroy. His many chamber works include a Piano Quintet Op.27 (1995) - described by Roderic Dunnett in the Independent as ‘…lending a new late 20th Century dimension to the English pastoral…’ and a String Quartet Op.32 (1998), as well as smaller pieces for solo instruments and piano. He has also written works for choir - Awake, awake, the world is young Op.34 - organ - Rhapsody Op.25 (1996), brass and solo piano. He is an acknowledged expert on the 19th century poet and literary critic John Addington Symonds, and apart from having set five of his poems for voice and piano, he has contributed a significant essay to the book John Addington Symonds - Culture and the Demon Desire (Macmillan Press Ltd, 2000). He is President of The Arthur Bliss Society, as well as being the Chairman of the Ivor Gurney Society. His continuing work on the music of Gurney has led to orchestrations of two of his songs (2003) - counterparts to the two that were orchestrated by Herbert Howells - and newly edited versions of Gurney’s War Elegy (1919) and A Gloucestershire Rhapsody (1921), with Philip Lancaster. His works have been recorded on the Signum, Somm, Regent and Naxos labels.

His music is published by Novello and Co.

Works list

Orchestral
Chamber music
Organ
Piano
Choral
Vocal
  1. Fortunate Isles
  2. The Passing Stranger
  3. Invitation to the Gondola (also for baritone and piano)
  4. Love's Voice
  1. Born upon an Angel's Breast
  2. An Invite to Eternity
  3. Evening Bells
  4. I Am
  1. The Way Through
  2. It Rains
  3. Vitae summa brevis
  4. November Piano
  5. Break, Break, Break
  6. The Hippo (also for voice and string quartet)
  1. Easter Hymn
  2. When Green Buds Hang
  3. Oh, Who Is That Young Sinner
  4. Because I Liked You Better
  1. Love Lives Beyond
  2. Friendship
  1. Ionian Song
  2. The Moon Sails Out
  3. Sonnets of Love, No XI
  4. Animula Vagula, Blandula
  5. Reluctance
  6. When You Are Old
  1. The Wind
  2. Soft Rain
  3. My Heart Makes Songs on Lonely Roads
  4. In Memoriam – Ivor Gurney

Ivor Gurney

Ian Venables is chairman of the Ivor Gurney Society and is currently working to achieve the publication of some previously unpublished works by Gurney. (Source- see below)

External links/ Sources