Newspaper Article

Obituary: Denis ApIvor: Modernist composer, a friend of Constant Lambert and Dylan Thomas, he had a parallel career as a consultant anaesthetist

Johnson, David Hackbridge

2004

Overview

In 1937, [Denis ApIvor] met the critic Cecil Gray, who introduced him to the composer and conductor [Constant Lambert]: an important artistic friendship ensued. Lambert's influence can be seen in ApIvor's first major work, his 1939 setting of TS Eliot's The Hollow Men, a poem which ApIvor felt to be expressive of the impending European catastrophe. This affinity with certain types of poetry became clear in ApIvor's relationship to the work of [Dylan Thomas], whom he came to know personally. In the postwar years, he also met Roy Campbell, Louis MacNeice, fellow composer [Elizabeth Lutyens] and her husband Edward Clark. Lutyens's interest in Webern may have influenced ApIvor, who had been employing serial techniques as early as 1949. In the 1960s, he produced a series of highly innovative works including the orchestral Overtones, inspired by the paintings of Paul Klee, the second of his five symphonies and the opera Ubu Roi, based on the play by Alfred Jarry. He also made vital contributions to the 20th- century repertoire for guitar. My personal experiences of Denis ApIvor date from his final years. A chance discovery in a library basement of his Violin Sonata (1946) led to my performing it at ApIvor's home in Brighton. He spoke with passion of his friendships with Dylan Thomas, Constant Lambert and Edward Clark, and the disappointments of an artistic life governed by the fickle changes of musical fashion.

• Publisher: Guardian News & Media Limited
• Subject: ApIvor, Denis / Lambert, Constant / Lutyens, Elizabeth / Thomas, Dylan