Wiki: Norman Fulton - upcScavenger

Robert Norman Fulton (23January 19095August 1980) was an English-born composer, broadcaster and teacher of Scottish ancestry.Obituary, Daily Telegraph, 7 August 1980, p. 10

Life and career

Fulton was born in London but educated in Scotland at Glasgow High School. From 1929 until 1933 he studied harmony and composition with Norman Demuth at the Royal Academy of Music. He worked for the BBC from 1936 until 1960, composing much incidental music for radio features between 1937 and the early 1950s, including the music for Children's Hour throughout the 1940s. In 1953 he was appointed Head of West Regional Music. From 1963 until February 1967 he was the presenter of Music to Remember on the BBC Home Service. In 1966 he returned to the Royal Academy as professor of harmony and composition.Slonimsky, Nicholas (ed.). Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 7th edition (1984), p. 779

He married Olga Pett Ridge, daughter of the novelist William Pett Ridge, in 1936, and there were a son and a daughter. He lived at 55 Clarence Road, Bickley in Kent. Who's Who in Music and Musicians, Fifth Edition, Burke's Peerage Ltd (1969) Fulton died of lung cancer at Guy's Hospital on 5 August 1980, aged 71. His daughter Jill Pett Fulton had a successful career as a ballerina and married the conductor Karl Anton Rickenbacher. 'Fulton Data' at RootsWeb

Selected works

Fulton composed three symphonies. No. 1, the Sinfonia pastorale, was first heard in Bournemouth in 1951 The Times, 23 February 1951, p.8 and received its first London concert performance at the Proms in 1954. BBC Proms performance archive, 12 August, 1954 The Musette movement proved the most striking, and has been published separately. 'London Music', in The Musical Times, Vol. 95, No. 1340 (October, 1954), p. 554 There is also a 15-minute Serenade for Strings and the Waltz Rhapsody for piano and orchestra.

His chamber music includes a Piano Trio, the Introduction, Air and Reel for viola and piano (premiered by Watson Forbes in 1949), Radio Times, issue 1456, 7th October 1951, p. 33 and the Scottish Suite for recorder and keyboard (written for Carl Dolmetsch in 1954 and still frequently performed). Shine and Shade: English Twentieth Century Recorder Music, Red Priest RP010 (2013) There is a modern recording of the Sonata da camera for viola and piano, composed in 1952. English Music for Viola and Piano, Dutton Epoch CDLX 7390 (2021) For solo piano Fulton wrote the Prelude, Elegy and Toccata, which was broadcast by Kendall Taylor in 1956 and remained in his repertoire. Radio Times, issue 1686, 4 March 1956 There are around 50 songs and choral settings.Leach, Gerald. British Composer Profiles, 3rd. edition (2012), p. 89

Fulton wrote much incidental music for BBC radio, including a series of features written by D. G. Bridson, and scored several wartime and post-war British information film documentaries.

Concert music

Violin Sonata No 1 (1939) Radio Times issue 803, 19th February 1939, p. 34
Requiem for Strings (1941) Bradford Observer, 1 February 1941, p.3
Serenade for Strings (1944)
Piano Sonatina (1945)
Five Entertainments for small orchestra (1946)
Sonata da camera for viola and piano, written for Leonard Rubens (1946)
Waltz, Air, and Polka for two pianos (1947)
Introduction, Air, and Reel for viola and piano (1949) Heartache – An Anthology of English Viola Music, Guild 7275 (2004)
Overture for orchestra (1950)
Piano Trio (1950)
Symphony No. 1, Sinfonia pastorale (1950) Chester Music
Shakespeare in Arden, divertimento in seven movements for chorus and orchestra (1951) National Library of Scotland archives
Three Movements for Clarinet and Piano, dedicated to Jack Brymer and Henry Bronkhurst (1951)
Prelude, Elegy, and Toccata for piano (1954)
Scottish Suite for recorder and piano or harpsichord (fp. 7 May 1954) Schott Music
Symphony No. 2 in one movement, Op. 21 (1955)
Curtain Wells Sketches for small orchestra (1959)
Augury, ballet (I960)
Waltz Rhapsody for piano and orchestra (1961)
Oboe Sonatina (1962)
Little Suite for piano duet (1963)
Symphonic Dances (1965)
Fantasy on a Ground for piano (1969)
Night Music for flute and piano (1969)
Dance Miniatures for piano duet (1970)
Three Pieces for piano (1970)
Symphony No. 3, Mary Stuart (1971–73)

Songs

The Cakewalk, W.W.Gibson (1943)
Christ Keep the Hollow Land, William Morris (1953)
I am the Great Sun, Charles Causley
I walked where in their talking graves, Charles Causley
Never Look Back, Will Redgrave
Released by Love, W H Auden (1967)
See him ride the roaring air, Charles Causley
Songs in Arden, three Shakespeare songs for unaccompanied chorus (1958) Music & Letters, Vol. XXXIX, issue 3, July 1958
Songs in Solitude, Tennyson, Longfellow, Walter Scott, suite of three part songs, accompanied choral (1965)
This Bread I Break, Dylan Thomas (1938)
To the Moon, Thomas Hardy (1953)
Three Songs of Fiona McLeod, 'The War Song of the Vikings', 'The Valley of Silence', 'The Bells of Youth' (1962) Chris Sedergreen. Three Songs of Fiona McLeod
Two Christmas Songs ('No Room at the Inn' and 'Make We Merry') The Holy Boy: Christmastide in Albion, Prima Facie CD PFCD170 (2021)
Two Shakespeare Songs ('Come away, Death' and '0 mistress mine')
Two Songs of Thomas Lodge (Love in my Bosom', and 'Lament in Spring')
Willow song (Shakespeare)