Cyril Scott

Cyril Scott

Born: September 27th, 1879
Died: December 31st, 1970
Country of origin: United Kingdom

Profile

The British composer Cyril Scott was born in Oxton (near Liverpool) in 1879 and died in Sussex on 31 December 1970.
At the age of 12, he went to
Germany for the first time to study piano with Lazzaro Uzielli (a pupil of Clara Schumann) and theory with Engelbert Humperdinck at the Hoch Conservatoire in Frankfurt.
Later he studied composition with Iwan Knorr and made the acquaintance of Roger Quilter, Percy Grainger and Balfour Gardiner who, like him, belonged to the so-called 'Frankfurt Group'.

In 1898 Scott returned to
Liverpool where he worked as a piano teacher, gave concerts as a pianist and undertook harmonic and rhythmic experiments as a result of his studies of oriental philosophy and theosophy.
Two years later his Symphony No. 1 was premiered in
Darmstadt. In 1913 Scott travelled to Vienna upon invitation of Alma Mahler. This trip was followed by a concert tour from Frankfurt and Cologne to the USA and Canada. In 1969 the 90-year-old Scott was given an honorary doctorate by the Chicago Conservatory of Music. His music is notable for its melodiousness and comparable to that of French Impressionism.