Born in
Sutton Coldfield in 1939, Jonathan Harvey won a scholarship from Repton to St.
John's College, Cambridge. He studied with Erwin Stein, after whose death he
continued composition and analysis with Hans Keller, obtaining a PhD. At
Cambridge he was preoccupied with mystical ideas while becoming acquainted with
procedures in medieval and renaissance music that were later to influence his
own compositions. During the 1960s, Jonathan Harvey composed freely, responding
to a wide variety of musical and religious experiences in his settings of
medieval texts. Schoenberg, Berg, Messiaen and Britten were also early
influences, and a broader base was achieved through the guidance of Hans
Keller.
During a period of postgraduate study at Glasgow University, Harvey played as a
deputy cellist with the BBC Scottish Orchestra. In 1964 he joined the Music
Department of Southampton University. It was at this time that the power of
Stockhausen's music first had a profound effect on Harvey, inspiring him to
explore and develop his own complex and personal musical language. As a
Harkness Fellow at Princeton (1969-70) he came into contact with Milton Babbit.
In the early 1980s Jonathan Harvey was invited by Boulez to work at IRCAM, a
connection that has resulted in many new commissions in recent years.
His works are now being increasingly played abroad, including his large scale
orchestral piece, Inner Light 3
(1975), which was commissioned by the BBC, and first performed by the BBC
Symphony Orchestra in 1976 at the Festival Hall, conducted by Michael Gielen. Another
work dating from this period, Persephone
Dream (1972), is acknowledged as a work of outstanding imagination and
lucidity, demonstrating again this composer's remarkable skills in orchestration.
The transcendental quality of Harvey's music does not lose its force when he
focuses on the more intimate genre of chamber music. Among his most telling
smaller-scale pieces are Transformations
of 'Love Bade me Welcome' 1968 (clarinet and piano), Four Images after Yeats 1969 (piano), Correspondances (1975) (mezzo-soprano and piano) and Angel Eros 1973 (high voice and string
quartet).
Jonathan Harvey has honorary doctorates from the universities of Southampton
and Bristol and is a member of Academia Europaea. He is currently Visiting
Professor of Music at the Imperial College, London (a post which was devised in
collaboration with Sinfonia 21 with whom he has a long-standing relationship)
and is Honorary Professor at Sussex University.
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