Bill Hopkins (composer)

Bill Hopkins
Born	George William Hopkins 1943
Died	1981
Era	20th Century

Bill Hopkins (5 June 1943 – 10 March 1981) was a British composer. He also published music criticism, mostly under the name G. W. Hopkins.

Biography

Hopkins was born in Prestbury, Cheshire, and educated at Hillcrest Grammar School and Rossall School, Lancashire; his mother's disability meant she was unable to look after him, and he was raised by aunts. Studies with Luigi Nono at Dartington Summer School consolidated his interest in serialism; subsequently he studied at Oxford University with Edmund Rubbra and Egon Wellesz.

In 1964 he went to Paris, ostensibly to study with Olivier Messiaen but with the prime objective of meeting and studying with Jean Barraqué. Returning to England, he supported himself as a music critic in London and then, after moving first to Tintagel, Cornwall and subsequently to Peel, Isle of Man, by translation and writing music criticism. He married Clare Gilbert in 1972. Subsequently, he taught at Birmingham University and University of Newcastle upon Tyne before succumbing to a heart attack, in Chopwell, near Newcastle, at the age of 37. His few pupils included the British composers Paul Keenan and Patrick Ozzard-Low.

He was upset at an under-rehearsed first performance of En Attendant in 1977 and this possibly discouraged him from composition for a while. He was working on an opera project, tentatively called Nes and later Play on Music, but little if any of this was completed.

Acknowledged Works

This listing is of HOpkins' completed and acknowledged works. For further information about other works, see Paul Griffiths' provisional catalogue.

• Sous-structures. Solo piano. 1964, first performed 1965 (publ. Universal Edition, UE17700)
• Two Pomes (James Joyce). Soprano, bass clarinet, trumpet, harp, viola. 1964, first performed 1968 (publ. Universal Edition, UE14204)
• Musique de l'indifférence, Ballet after Samuel Beckett. Orchestra, 1964–65, first performed 2019 (publ. Ricordi) Nkoda
• Sensation (Rimbaud, Beckett). Soprano, tenor sax, trumpet, harp, violin. 1965, first performed 1965. (publ. Schott)
• Etudes en série. Solo piano. 1965–72, first complete performance 1997. (publ. Schott)
• Pendant. Solo violin. 1969, rev 1973, first performed 1975. (publ. Universal Edition, UE17943)
• Nouvelle etude hors série. Solo organ. 1974, first performed 1993. (publ. Universal Edition, UE17303)
• Lindaraja by Claude Debussy, orchestrated by Hopkins. Orchestra. 1975, first performed 2019. (publ. Universal Edition, UE18459)
• En attendant. Flute, oboe, cello, harpsichord. 1976–77, first performed 1977. (publ. Schott)

The Bill Hopkins Collection at the Paul Sacher Foundation, Basel, holds Hopkins' manuscripts.

Recordings

His complete piano works have been recorded by Nicolas Hodges, (col legno, 2000). En Attendant, Two Pomes, Pendant and Sensation have been recorded by Music Projects/London and Richard Bernas, (NMC, 1992).

A new complete recording of his acknowledged works is in preparation.

Writings

• "The young composer at Oxford", Composer 13 (1964), 12
• "Le soleil des eaux", Tempo 68 (1964), 35
• "Luigi Nono", M+M xiv/8 (1965-6), 32, 61
• "The Brevity of Webern", M+M xiv/12 (1965-6), 20
• "Barraqué's Chant après Chant" [review of premiere], MT cvii (1966) 701
• "Jean Barraqué", MT cvii (1966) 952
• "Shostakovich's Ninth String Quartet", Tempo 75 (1966) 23
• "Robert Layton's "Sibelius"", Tempo 75 (1966)
• "Stravinsky's Chords", Tempo 76 (1966) 6, Tempo 77 (1966) 2
• "Donald Mitchell's "The Language of Modern Music"", Tempo 77
• "Schumann in Miniature", M+M xv/1 (1966-7), 28
• Bax LP review, MT cviii (1967), 714
• "Alan Walker's "An Anatomy of Musical Criticism"", Tempo 80
• "Stockhausen, form, and sound" [review of scores], MT cix (January 1968), 60-62
• "Debussy and Boulez", MT cix (1968), 710
• "Anthony Gilbert", MT cix (1968), 907
• "Schoenberg's "Fundamentals of Musical Composition"", Tempo 84
• "The Contemporary Problem", Tempo 85
• "Open form: open question" [review of Konrad Boehmer Zur Theorie der offenen Form in der neuen Musik, and Darmstaedter Beitraege zur neuen Musik X: "Form"], MT cx (1969), 380-83
• "Charles Daniel (ed.) "Musiques Nouvelles"", Tempo 90 [substantial]
• Letter to the Editor (Reply to Keller), Tempo 90
• "Frank Dawes's "Debussy Piano Music"", Tempo 91 (1969)
• Honegger/Messiaen LP review, MT cxi (1970), 285
• Boulez Pli selon Pli LP review, MT cxi (1970), 509
• Ravel/Poulenc/Francaix LP review, MT cxi (1970), 811
• Schmitt/Chausson/Duparc LP review, MT cxi (1970), 905-6
• Fauré LP review, MT cxi (1970), 1006-7
• Record Guide, Tempo 92 (1970), 37
• Record Guide, Tempo 93 (1970), 31
• Record Guide, Tempo 94 (1970), 31
• "Schoenberg and the "Logic" of Atonality", Tempo 94 (1970) 15
• Record Guide, Tempo 95 (1970-1), 37
• Record Guide, Tempo 96 (1971), 20
• Boulez Pelleas LP review, MT cxii (1971), 39-40
• Milhaud/Chabrier/Fauré/Ravel LP review, MT cxii (1971), 147
• Helffer Boulez 2/Berg (DG) LP review, MT cxii (1971), 560-1
• Debussy Chamber works (DG) LP review, MT cxii (1971), 673
• Fauré Chamber box (Erato) LP review, MT cxii (1971), 763-4 [longer]
• Boulez Debussy Nocturnes LP review, MT cxii (1971), 866
• Varese LP review, MT cxii (1971), 975-6
• "Barraqué's Piano Sonata", Listener (27 Jan 1972), 121
• Fauré LP review, MT cxiii (1972), 673
• Messiaen LP review, MT cxiii (1972), 781
• "Colin Scott-Sutherland's "Arnold Bax"", Tempo 106 (September 1973)
• Fauré LP review, MT cxv (1974), 44-5
• Satie LP review, MT cxv (1974), 575
• Recordings [review of Roger Woodward's Barraqué LP], Tempo 110 (September 1974) 48-50
• "Michael Nyman's Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond", Tempo 112 (March 1975)
• "Birtwistle Triumph of Time etc.", Tempo 115 (September 1975)
• Fauré LP review, MT cxvi (1975), 798
• "Joan Peyser's Boulez: Composer, Conductor, Enigma", Tempo 123 (September 1977)
• "Luigi Nono: the individuation of power and light", MT cxix (1978) 406
• "Oesterreichische Komponisten des XX. Jahrhunderts - volumes on Schreker, Schmidt, Webern and Zemlinsky", Tempo 127 (September 1978)
• "Barraqué and the Serial Idea", PRMA cv (1978-9) 13
• "Zemlinsky Lyric Symphony etc.", Tempo 129 (March 1979)
• "Nono ...sofferte onde serene ... etc.", Tempo 130 (June 1979)
• Paul Griffiths Boulez book review, MT cxx (1979), 827
• "Hans Keller's 1975", Tempo 132 (December 1979)
• "The Piano Music", in The Music of Alexander Goehr, ed. Bayan Northcott (London, 1980), 17
• "Boulez", The New Grove, (London, 1980)
• "Gilbert", The New Grove, (London, 1980)
• "Rands", The New Grove, (London, 1980)
• "Orchestration" (paras 4-5), The New Grove, (London, 1980)
• "Ravel", The New Grove, (London, 1980)
• "Dukas", The New Grove, (London, 1980)
• "Stockhausen", The New Grove, (London, 1980)

Bibliography

• Anon, "Musique Contemporaine à l'American Center", Le Monde, 4 December 1965. [Review of premiere of Sensation]
• Boivin, Jean, La Classe de Messiaen, (Paris, Christian Bourgois, 1995), pp.424-5
• Griffiths, Paul, "Bill Hopkins: A Provisional Catalogue of Compositions and Writings", Musical Times cxxii (1981), 600
• Griffiths, Paul, "Hopkins, Bill", in Sadie, Stanley (ed.) The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, Second Edition (2001), Vol. 11, pp. 698-9
• Hodges, Nicolas, "The Music of Bill Hopkins: A Preliminary Approach", Tempo No.186, September 1993

External links

• Composer's website
• Hopkins page at Universal Edition
• Bill Hopkins Collection at the Paul Sacher Foundation
• "Bill Hopkins (composer) (biography, works, resources)" (in French and English). IRCAM.