A.J. Potter - Sinfonia De Profundis, Finnegan´S Wake, Variations, Etc

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A.J. Potter (1918-1980)

Sinfonia "De Profundis"
Finnegan's Wake
Variations on a Popular Tune
Fantasia Gaelach No.1
Overture to a Kitchen Comedy

Robert Houlihan - Ireland National Symphony Orchestra

"Potter's imaginative gift for enlivening folksongs might be compared to that of Grainger. But he also had the ability to work on a larger canvas, and his five movement Sinfonia de profundis is very impressive indeed…First-class performances and splendid recording make this CD unmissable." (The Penguin Guide)



A. J. Potter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Archibald James (Archie) Potter (1918 – July 5, 1980) was an Irish composer and teacher, who wrote hundreds of works including operas, a mass, and four ballets, as well as orchestral and chamber music.

Early years

Potter was born in Belfast to a Presbyterian family who, oddly, lived on the Falls Road, a republican stronghold. His father was a church organist and piano tuner who was blind since childhood. His mother was, in Potter's own words, "a raging alcoholic". The young Potter escaped a rather grim childhood when he went to live with an aunt in Kent, England.[1]

Possessed of a good voice and natural musical ability, Potter was accepted as a treble by the world-famous choir of All Saints, Margaret Street. In 1933, after four years as a chorister, he was sent to Clifton College, Bristol. From there he went to the Royal College of Music on a scholarship and studied composition under Vaughan Williams.[1]

World War II interrupted Potter's music education and he left college to serve with the London Irish Rifles in Europe and the Far East.[2] After the war Potter settled in Dublin, where he continued his studies at Trinity College, Dublin, gaining a Doctorate in Music in 1953.[1]

Life and career

In 1955 Potter was appointed Professor of Composition at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, where he became an effective administrator and inspiring teacher.[1]

Potter had already started composing chamber and vocal music before the war. Now, established in Dublin, he chose the orchestra as his principal means of expression. His early pieces, such as Rhapsody under the a High Sky and Overture to a Kitchen Comedy, showed that Potter had absorbed Vaughan Williams' pastoral style, and his love of folk music.

In the 1960s, Potter turned to ballet, writing four orchestral scores for the Cork ballet company. The first of these, Careless Love, became the composer's own favourite of all his compositions.[1] Several years later, following a successful battle with alcoholism, he wrote what some regard as his magnum opus, Sinfonia "de Profundis".[1] The première was given at the Gaiety Theatre, Dublin on March 23, 1969 in a performance by the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Albert Rosen.[3] The Irish Times referred to the concert as a "major national event". In December 1969, Potter received a Jacob's Award for the composition.

Potter's last substantial work, an opera entitled The Wedding, received its first public performance in Dublin in 1981, almost a year after the composer's untimely death.

Death

Dr. A. J. Potter died suddenly at his home in Greystones, County Wicklow at the age of 62. His body is buried in the nearby Redford cemetery.


1. Finnegan's Wake 2:49
2. Fantasia Gaelach No. 1
3. Variations on a Popular Tune
4. Overture to a Kitchen Comedy
5. Sinfonia "De Profundis": Moderato
6. Sinfonia "De Profundis": Tempo di Valse: Lento
7. Sinfonia "De Profundis": Adagio
8. Sinfonia "De Profundis": Vivace
9. Sinfonia "De Profundis": Epilogue