Patrick Gowers obituary
Composer renowned for his film and TV scores
He was not on the list.
A composer’s study might be expected to contain artefacts designed to encourage the muse, but you would be hard pressed to find a greater variety than those of Patrick Gowers, who has died aged 78. Music scores of every period, CDs of jazz, Bach cantatas and the French impressionists Debussy and Ravel, mathematical tomes, computers, the Bible, poetry, partially dismantled synthesisers and a battered Bechstein upright piano; this incomplete list reveals only some of Patrick’s eclectic passions, from which he picked certain elements and produced music of great originality.
It made its biggest impact through film and TV scores, from the late 1960s onwards. An early break was Hamlet (1969), directed by Tony Richardson and starring Nicol Williamson. The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970) followed, with an impressive cast that included Franco Nero, Joanna Shimkus and Honor Blackman. Patrick’s ability to create atmosphere and drama through spare but arresting textures was welcomed by directors not wanting the bland or ordinary; he could adapt his style to a children’s film, as in The Boy Who Turned Yellow (a collaboration with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1972), but could also deal with tragic drama, as in Children of Rage (1975), set amid the Palestinian crisis.
In 1978, Stevie, centred on the poems of Stevie Smith and featuring the guitarist John Williams, was the subject of the BBC documentary How to Score, and the music then grew into a guitar concerto. Thérèse Raquin (1980), starring Kate Nelligan, with intense music for a small string ensemble, was the first of several collaborations with the director Simon Langton. Bread Or Blood (1981), a five-part series directed by Peter Smith, dealt with riots in East Anglia. In 1983 Patrick won a Bafta for original music for Smiley’s People, The Woman in White and I Remember Nelson.
The following year he embarked on music for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Jeremy Brett, to be followed by three further series over the next 10 years. With its romantic violin solos, often performed by his daughter Katharine, the theme music was key, and Patrick composed some of his most imaginative incidental music for the 40 episodes. He also worked on many other television productions, including My Cousin Rachel (1983), with Geraldine Chaplin; Anna Karenina, starring Jacqueline Bisset, Christopher Reeve and Paul Scofield (1985); and Mother Love, featuring Diana Rigg (1989).
Patrick was born in Islington, north London, the son of a solicitor, Richard Gowers, and his wife, Stella (nee Pelly). He was the grandson of Sir Ernest Gowers, civil servant and author of the guide to English usage Plain Words, and great-grandson of the neurologist Sir William Gowers. He went to Radley college, Oxfordshire, and while he was studying music at Cambridge displayed his quirky humour when collaborating on a revue with Bamber Gascoigne and Keith Statham called Share My Lettuce (1957). This transferred to the West End for more than 300 performances, with Maggie Smith and Kenneth Williams heading the cast, and by 1959 he was writing for the Cambridge Footlights with John Bird and Peter Cook, while for Dudley Moore he wrote a jazz piano concerto. He also taught composition, was a jazz critic for the Financial Times and assistant conductor of Bill Russo’s London Jazz Orchestra, played for the New Swingle Singers and in 1964 was music director of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Marat/Sade.
In 1961 he married Caroline Maurice, a fellow musician and piano teacher; three children helped to fill a rambling house in Clapham, south London. His continuing musical studies eventually resulted in a PhD (1966). Though he continued to pursue a love of scholarship, his approach was never drily academic.
The sheer quantity of his music might imply that he was able to churn it out, but in fact he would agonize over tiny details and found composing against deadlines extremely stressful.
Patrick expressed his convictions concerning contemporary music in his quietly persuasive way. Suspicious of atonality, he found his own form of “extended tonality”, developed principally from jazz harmony and 20th-century French music. The results could be striking, nowhere more tellingly so than in his concert and church music.
His Toccata, commissioned by Simon Preston and composed in 1970, is one of the most flamboyant and blisteringly difficult works in the organ repertoire. A fugue was added in 1986, and other works for organ include the quietly remote Adagio, and the witty Occasional Trumpet Voluntary, which mixes something akin to Widor’s Toccata with Jeremiah Clarke’s piece. Meanwhile, having always been interested in electronic instruments, he set up an electronic studio at Dartington Hall, Devon, where he often taught.
For the consecration of Richard Harries as bishop of Oxford in 1987, Patrick was commissioned to compose Viri Galilaei, with its dramatic core but beautifully mystical opening and closing. The large-scale Cantata (1991), for chorus, orchestra and organ, harks back to Purcell and JS Bach, achieving a sense of intense meditative timelessness. Holy, Holy, Holy and Aveto Augustine are among other anthems expressing Patrick’s mystical approach to spirituality. In 1990, the first performance of his Suite for solo violin and chamber orchestra, commissioned by the Prince of Wales in honour of the Queen Mother’s 90th birthday, was given at Buckingham Palace by the English Chamber Orchestra under Raymond Leppard, with José-Luis García as soloist.
Throughout the 80s and 90s, Patrick devoted huge amounts of energy to the Association of Professional Composers, working assiduously to improve the lot of composers. He then became a director of the Performing Right Society, where his intellect and ingrained sense of justice ruffled feathers but brought welcome changes. To those who did not know him, Patrick could appear somewhat aloof; to those who did, you could not find a more kindly, sympathetic soul.
He is survived by Caroline and their three children, Katharine, Rebecca and Timothy.
Composer
Comic Act (1998)
Comic Act
4.9
Composer
1998
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1994)
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
8.6
TV Mini Series
Composer
1994
6 episodes
Francesca Annis in Headhunters (1994)
Headhunters
6.9
TV Series
Composer
1994
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1991)
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
8.7
TV Series
Composer
1991–1993
9 episodes
John Alderton and Pauline Collins in Forever Green (1989)
Forever Green
8.0
TV Series
Composer
1989–1992
18 episodes
Mother Love (1989)
Mother Love
8.4
TV Mini Series
Composer
1989
Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke in The Case of the Abbey
Treasure (1988)
The Case of the Abbey Treasure
8.8
Video
Composer (uncredited)
1988
Jeremy Brett in The Hound of the Baskervilles (1988)
The Hound of the Baskervilles
7.8
TV Movie
Composer
1988
The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1986)
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
8.7
TV Series
Composer
1986–1988
11 episodes
Screen Two (1984)
Screen Two
6.4
TV Series
Composer
1988
1 episode
Jeremy Brett, Kiran Shah, and John Thaw in The Sign of Four
(1987)
The Sign of Four
7.9
TV Movie
Composer
1987
Whoops Apocalypse (1987)
Whoops Apocalypse
6.0
Composer
1987
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
8.7
TV Series
Composer
1984–1985
13 episodes
Anna Karenina (1985)
Anna Karenina
6.3
TV Movie
Composer
1985
Peter Chelsom and Richard Pasco in Sorrell and Son (1984)
Sorrell and Son
7.9
TV Mini Series
Composer
1984
6 episodes
The Odd Job Man (1984)
The Odd Job Man
4.6
TV Series
Composer
1984
3 episodes
Shades of Darkness (1983)
Shades of Darkness
7.6
TV Series
Composer (music composed by)
1983
1 episode
Geraldine Chaplin in My Cousin Rachel (1983)
My Cousin Rachel
6.7
TV Mini Series
Composer
1983
4 episodes
The Spanish Civil War (1983)
The Spanish Civil War
8.2
TV Mini Series
Composer (music by)
1983
6 episodes
Alec Guinness in Smiley's People (1982)
Smiley's People
8.5
TV Mini Series
Composer
1982
6 episodes
Month of the Doctors
TV Mini Series
Composer
1982
2 episodes
Alan Badel and Jenny Seagrove in The Woman in White (1982)
The Woman in White
7.7
TV Mini Series
Composer
1982
5 episodes
Kenneth Colley in I Remember Nelson (1982)
I Remember Nelson
7.6
TV Mini Series
Composer
1982
4 episodes
Malcolm Storry in Bread or Blood (1981)
Bread or Blood
7.9
TV Series
Composer
1981
5 episodes
The Energy Brokers
Short
Composer
1980
Brian Cox and Kate Nelligan in Thérèse Raquin (1980)
Thérèse Raquin
7.0
TV Mini Series
Composer
1980
3 episodes
Black Island (1979)
Black Island
6.3
Composer
1979
Planet Water
Short
Composer
1978
Glenda Jackson and Mona Washbourne in Stevie (1978)
Stevie
6.9
Composer
1978
The Shetland Experience (1977)
The Shetland Experience
6.3
Short
Composer
1977
The Amazing Years of Cinema (1976)
The Amazing Years of Cinema
TV Mini Series
Composer (music by)
1976
The Early Americans
Short
Composer
1975
Children of Rage (1975)
Children of Rage
6.1
Composer
1975
Broad Spectrum
Short
Composer
1974
David Hockney in A Bigger Splash (1973)
A Bigger Splash
5.8
Composer
1973
Lotte Tarp in Farlige kys (1972)
Farlige kys
5.0
Composer
1972
The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970)
The Virgin and the Gypsy
6.0
Composer
1970
Ulf Pilgaard in Giv gud en chance om søndagen (1970)
Giv gud en chance om søndagen
5.7
Composer
1970
Marianne Faithfull, Michael Pennington, and Nicol Williamson
in Hamlet (1969)
Hamlet
7.0
Composer
1969
Balladen om Carl-Henning (1969)
Balladen om Carl-Henning
6.3
Composer
1969
Povl Dissing in Thomas er fredløs (1967)
Thomas er fredløs
Composer
1967
Music Department
Geraldine Chaplin in My Cousin Rachel (1983)
My Cousin Rachel
6.7
TV Mini Series
conductor
1983
4 episodes
Alec Guinness in Smiley's People (1982)
Smiley's People
8.5
TV Mini Series
conductor
1982
6 episodes
Alan Badel and Jenny Seagrove in The Woman in White (1982)
The Woman in White
7.7
TV Mini Series
conductor
1982
2 episodes
The Boy Who Turned Yellow (1972)
The Boy Who Turned Yellow
5.6
electronic music
1972
The Virgin and the Gypsy (1970)
The Virgin and the Gypsy
6.0
conductor
1970
Marat/Sade (1967)
Marat/Sade
7.5
composer: title music
musical director
1967
Soundtrack
Billy West in The Ren & Stimpy Show (1991)
The Ren & Stimpy Show
7.5
TV Series
music: "Balow, My Babe"
music: "Cut and Thrust" (uncredited)
1994–1995
2 episodes
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1984)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
8.7
TV Series
performer: "221b Baker Street"
writer: "221b Baker Street"
1984–1985
Self
The British Academy Awards (1983)
The British Academy Awards
TV Special
Self - Winer
1983
How to Score... a Movie
Short
Self
1978
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