19 Facts About Geoffrey Bush

1.

Geoffrey Bush was a British composer, teacher and music scholar.

2.

Geoffrey Bush edited and arranged the works of other composers.

3.

Geoffrey Bush was a popular broadcaster on BBC music programmes, and the author of several books.

4.

Geoffrey Bush's parents separated at around the time of his birth, and he never knew his father.

5.

Geoffrey Bush began piano lessons at the age of seven, and the following year became a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral choir school, where he remained until 1933, studying under Walter Alcock and acquiring a lasting love of traditional English church music.

6.

Mus degree in 1940, but his Oxford studies were then interrupted by the Second World War As a pacifist and conscientious objector, Geoffrey Bush served between 1941 and 1945 as assistant warden in the Hostel of the Good Shepherd, a children's home in Tredegar, Wales.

7.

Geoffrey Bush began his teaching career in 1947, as an extramural lecturer at Oxford.

8.

Geoffrey Bush was largely responsible for the development of the London University External Diploma in the History of Music.

9.

Geoffrey Bush was a visiting professor at King's College, London from 1969 to 1989, and was made a Fellow of University College, Wales in 1986.

10.

Geoffrey Bush served on a number of public bodies, including the Composers Guild of Great Britain, where he was the Guild's delegate on a visit to the USSR in 1964, the Performing Rights Society, and the Arts Council.

11.

Geoffrey Bush was musical adviser to the John Ireland Charitable Trust.

12.

Geoffrey Bush maintained his pacifist credentials, as a supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship.

13.

Alongside his teaching, Geoffrey Bush composed a large number of works, including orchestral pieces, operas, choruses and songs.

14.

Geoffrey Bush wrote two symphonies in the 1950s, the first of which was first performed at the 1954 Cheltenham Festival, and at the Proms in 1958.

15.

Geoffrey Bush edited volumes of songs by Hubert Parry and Stanford, and provided the orchestration for Stanford's Third Piano Concerto.

16.

Geoffrey Bush's writings included several published books, including Musical Creation and the Listener ; Left, Right and Centre ; and An Uncertain Education.

17.

Geoffrey Bush edited several editions of Musica Britannica, and was a regular and popular broadcaster of BBC music programmes.

18.

Geoffrey Bush was a polished pianist, and was organist at St Luke's Church, Chelsea, where he succeeded Ireland.

19.

Geoffrey Bush composed across a wide variety of genres, including orchestral, chamber and keyboard works, choral works for accompanied and accompanied choirs, operas, and many songs with either piano or instrumental accompaniment.