operas including The Sofa (1957), The Departure (1961), The Three Strangers (1967)
And Death Shall Have No Dominion for choir and brass (1969; setting of Dylan Thomas)
Ariadne for soprano and orchestra (1970)
Prayer Before Birth (1971; setting of Louis MacNeice)
Biography
Elizabeth Maconchy was one of Britain’s foremost composers of the twentieth century. Born in Broxbourne of Irish parents, she entered the Royal College of Music at 16, studying there with Vaughan Williams. Her orchestral piece “The Land” was premiered by Henry Wood in 1930. She is most famous for her cycle of fourteen string quartets, the earliest of which show the influence of Bartók, in contrast to the “pastoral” style of other British composers such as Elgar and Parry. Luckily for her posthumous reputation as a composer, she survived a severe attack of tuberculosis in the 1930s. Maconchy died in 1994, at the age of 87.
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