Paul Drayton (composer)

Paul Drayton (born 28 December 1944) is a British composer, conductor, pianist, and teacher.

He was educated at High Wycombe Royal Grammar School from 1956 to 1962. He studied music at Brasenose College, Oxford, and was subsequently Director of Music at New College School, Oxford. He later taught and was composer-in-residence at Stowe School near Buckingham.

Many of his compositions are for choir. His piece entitled "Masterpiece" was sung by the King's Singers in their 2005 DVD release From Byrd to the Beatles.^[1][2] He is the author of a listeners' guide to music entitled Unheard Melodies or Trampolining in the Vatican (Athena Press 2008)

He now lives in Cornwall, and lectures on a part-time basis at Truro College, Truro on both A-Level and International Baccalaureate courses.

His opera The Hanging Oak, based on a story by M.R. James, was premiered in October 2009 in several church locations in the south-west of England.

He is the Musical Director of Duchy Opera.^[3]

Works

• New College Service (unaccompanied choral Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, written for New College, Oxford)
• Nero (cantata)
• Lotos-Land (SATB and piano; words by Tennyson)
• Pavane (organ)
• Choral Prelude and Fugue on "Nun Ruhen Alle Walder" (organ)
• Dance in a Desolate Place (organ)
• Ecce Ancilla Domini (choir)
• The World's Desire (SATB)
• This Starry Stranger (SATB and organ; words by Richard Crashaw)
• Jesu Dulcis Memoria (SSATTB)
• My Soul, There is a Country (SATB)
• The Spacious Firmament (SSATTBB)
• Templa Quam Dilecta (cantata SATB and orchestra; words from Psalm 84)
• Now Glad of Heart Be Everyone (SATB and organ)
• How Like an Angel (SATB and organ)
• Come Rejoicing (SATB)
• Love's Redeeming Work is Done (chorus)
• Corpus Christi Carol (unison)
• The Hanging Oak (opera)
• Masterpiece (choral ensemble)
• The Mermaid of Zennor (opera); based on the legend of the mermaid of Zennor

References

External links

• Duchy Opera