Humphrey Searle
(1915-1982), Composer and writer on musicSitter in 2 portraits
Composer and writer on music, Searle studied at the Royal College of Music and the Vienna Conservatorium. A prolific writer and composer, his work was influenced by Liszt and Schoenberg and includes the operas Diary of a Madman (1958) and Hamlet (1968), and the orchestral work Labyrinth (1971). In 1950 he was a founder of the Liszt Society, with Constant Lambert, William Walton and the Sitwells. Searle wrote the seminal work on the composer Liszt, and other works include Twentieth Century Composers: Britain, Scandinavia and the Netherlands (1972). He was musical adviser to Sadler's Wells Ballet from 1951 to 1957 and Professor of Composition at the Royal College of Music from 1965.
by Michael Ayrton
pencil, 1965
NPG 6599
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