Francis Routh

Francis John Routh (5 January 1927 – 27 November 2021) was an English composer and author.

Born in Kidderminster, Routh attended Malvern College and Harrow School before serving in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (1945-8).

With some colleagues from the Royal Academy, Routh began organising informal performances of new music during the 1950s.

He read Classics at King's College, Cambridge (where he also learned the organ) and from 1951 studied at the Royal Academy of Music for two years with William Alwyn (for piano) and Wesley Roberts (organ).

After that he took private composition lessons with Mátyás Seiber.

These took place in St Luke’s Church, Redcliffe Square, and (between 1957 and 1961) they evolved into the Redcliffe Festival.

As an author he has published Playing the Organ (1958), Contemporary Music: an Introduction (1968), Contemporary British Music (1945-1970) (1972), and Stravinsky (1975).

Routh died aged 94, on 27 November 2021.

A funeral service at St Peter's Church, Hammersmith was followed by committal at Mortlake Crematorium.

Instrumental (especially organ music) and orchestral works followed, including the massive Sacred Tetralogy for organ, composed between 1959 and 1974, as well as numerous concertos, such as the Violin Concerto (1965), Double Concerto (1970) and Cello Concerto (1973).

In all there are some 85 published works spanning 60 years, including three symphonies, chamber music, large scale solo piano and organ works and several song cycles.

Routh first came to notice as a composer in the early 1960s with the song cycles A Woman Young and Old (Yeats, 1962) and Four Shakespeare Songs (1963), using a chromatic, but still tonal style.

Out of this activity came the Redcliffe Concerts of British Music series, founded in 1963, with concerts held at the Arts Council, 4 St James's Square, moving to the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room in 1967.

A notable example was one of the earliest concerts of electronic music by British composers to be held in Britain, featuring the music of Tristram Cary, Delia Derbyshire, George Newson, Daphne Oram and Peter Zinovieff, at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 15 January 1968.

Routh taught music at Morley College from 1971.

He was editor of the magazine Composer (1980–87).

The series, supported by the Greater London Council, continued for 22 years until 1989.

In 1989 Redcliffe Records was formed for recordings, and Redcliffe Publishing for scores.

Routh promoted composers such as Alan Bush, Alan Rawsthorne, Priaulx Rainier, Graham Whettam and Samuel Wesley, as well as his own music.

He revised and edited the works of Wesley for performance.

Orchestral and concertante

Chamber and instrumental

Organ

Solo piano

Vocal

Late works included The Well Tempered Pianist, 24 preludes for piano (2009), performed and recorded by Charles Matthews, and the Symphony No 3 (2010–12), which incorporates and develops material from some of his previous compositions.

It remains unperformed.