Elisabeth Lutyens

(Agnes) Elisabeth Lutyens, CBE (July 9, 1906–April 14, 1983)

Early Life and Education
Elisabeth Lutyens was an English composer, one of the five children of architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. At age nine she began to aspire to be a composer, which given the prowess of her father in architecture, and the domineering nature of her mother, allowed her to allude he parents attempt to live vicariously through their children. In 1922, Lutyens pursued her musical education at the Ècole Normale de Musique in Paris, and continued her education from 1926-30 at the Royal College of Music in London.

Compositional Style and Development
Lutyens disapproved of the “overblown sound” of Mahler and similar composers, instead she chose to develop her own type of serialism, consisting of a self-created fourteen note progression. Admittedly not a serialist in the traditional sense, she enjoyed composing music devoid of classical harmonic idioms, and absolutely despised cadences. She was very fond of the music of Debussy, whose musical influence can be distinctly perceived in her work. Descriptions of her music cite "extraordinary achievements, demonstrating a completely personal serial style and very original structures", arguing that even tough atonal, the notes in her music seem to have a natural and “precisely ordered place.” Her negative opinions of strict serialism caused an ideological rift between herself and her serialist colleagues. Together with Iris Lamarre, conductor, and Anne MacNaughton, violinist who formed a string quartet, she formed an extraordinarily influential trio. Their concerts proved to be a powerful force within the musical world of London, introducing composers such as Benjamin Britten, Elisabeth MacConchy, Grace Williams, and Alan Rawsthorne. Composition was not just a hobby for Lutyens, but rather a way of life. She spent hours everyday composing music that may or may not have been commissioned.

Later Years
By 1933, Lutyens married Ian Glennie, a singer, and bore him three children. The marriage was not happy, however, and in 1938 she left him for Edward Clark, a conductor. She composed in complete isolation, a process greatly impeded by the drinking and partying at the Clark flat, and the responsibilities of motherhood. She found success in 1947 with a piece setting Rimbaud’s poem O Saisons, O Chateaux, but the BBC refused to play it. Lutyens was also one of the models for Henry Reed's satirical depiction of Dame Hilda Tablet in a series of 1950s radio plays. In 1960 Elisabeth Lutyens revived the use of a Wagner tuba quartet in her Quincunx. Lutyens paid the bills by composing film scores for Hammer films’ horror movies including Don't Bother to Knock (1960), Dr Terror's House of Horrors ([[1965]), The Skull (1965), Theatre of Death (1966), and The Terrornauts (1967). In 1969 she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Her autobiography, A Goldfish Bowl, describing life as a female musician in London, was published in 1972.

An interesting character and a composer of ‘sensuously beautiful’ music, Elisabeth Lutyens has earned her place among the composers of classical twentieth century musical canon.

Works List
Concerto for Nine Instruments (1939)
Wittgenstein Motet (1952)
Music for Orchestra I (1955)
Music for piano and orchestra (1964)
The Valley of Hatsu-se (1965)
And Suddenly it's Evening (1966)
Essence of Our Happiness (1968)
Concert Aria for soprano and orchestra (1976)