Douglas Cook

I was born in West Ham, London, studied piano at the James Ching Piano School in Manchester during the late 40s and after National Service in Egypt, music at Bretton Hall and composition with Anthony Milner. Largely self taught as a composer I soon found that the avant garde held no appeal and chose to develop a personal style based on melody, harmony, rhythmic interest and most importantly the musical heritage of past masters. An approach which is at last becoming fashionable again! I have always found form difficult to handle. Most of my music seems to develop organically and often takes a long time for even the simplest piece to fall into its final shape. Simplicity is the goal and I try to offer the listener something to enjoy "because they like the noise it makes". Much influenced by the mainstream early 20th century English school including Vaughan-Williams, Holst, Walton, Tippett and Britten as well as Early Music, modern French and Russian composers, my works include a number of solo piano pieces, (my own instrument), flute & piano and various other instrumental combinations, a number of songs, a Concertino for Cello and String Orchestra, Suite for Brass Quintet, 8 Variations for Recorder Consort, incidental music for a number of stage works as well as music for film and television. I moved to Cornwall in 1958 and remain there.