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Thomas Pitfield
Biography
Born in Bolton, Thomas Pitfield was obliged by his parents to leave school at 14 to take up his apprenticeship at an engineering factory, where he designed transmission machinery for the cotton industry. In his spare time he took lessons in piano and harmony, started composing (which led to meetings with Eric Fogg of the BBC, who gave advice and encouragement), wrote quantities of verse in the style of Shakespeare’s sonnets, and escaped to the countryside to sketch.
At 21, having saved enough money, he enrolled for a year’s course at the Royal Northern College of Musc. As a composer, however, he was largely self-taught.
Unable to afford a further year at college, he embarked on a precarious existence as a music teacher, composer, writer and artist, in which he steadfastly made his way in a variety of directions. In 1931 he gained a scholarship to the Bolton School of art, for a course in teaching art and cabinet work, and in the following years took a variety of teaching posts.
In the early 1930s, the music department of Oxford University Press published some of Pitfield’s earliest works, including a piano trio and his best known work Prelude Minuet and Reel for piano. For the same publisher he also produced a number of cover designs and book illustrations, adding the art of the woodcut to his accomplishments. He adopted pacifist principles and was a conscientious objector during the second world war; he wrote occasional music for the cause, including a song for the Peace Pledge Union.
In 1945, Pitfield was appointed as a composition teacher at the RNCM, where he remained until his retirement in 1973 - the college marked his 90th birthday with a CD of songs, piano music and chamber works. Students included John McCabe, David Ellis, John Ogdon and Ronald Stevenson.
After retiring in 1973 he continued to compose prolifically, usually for friends, as well as writing three volumes of autobiography, witty limericks, painting scenes of Cheshire, producing annual calendars and designing Christmas cards for friends.
Most of his many works are songs, short piano pieces and collections of miniatures, many written for children or amateurs. Larger works include a five movement Sinfonietta written at the request of Sir John Barbirolli for the Halle Orchestra, and concertos for piano, percussion and recorder. He also showed a growing concern in writing music for social or community purposes, notably choral pieces and music theatre works. His chamber music frequently used folk melodies, particularly English and Russian (an influence of his Russian-born wife, Alice). A speciality was composing for unusual instruments including works for accordion, clarsach, xylophone and harmonica. He even invented his own instrument, the “Patterphone”, to produce rain-like sounds.
Thomas Pitfield died on 11 November 1999.