Endless Fascination brings together Thomas Pitfield’s most significant autobiographical writings, new critical essays reappraising his work, and the recollections of family, friends, pupils and colleagues. It is illustrated with portraits, musical examples and over 100 reproductions of his art and craft works, supplemented by a CD of music by the composer and his acquaintances.
Thomas Pitfield (1903-1999) was born in Bolton, Lancashire, into a conventional and narrow-minded working-class family. Drawn to music and driven by a compelling urge to compose, he overcame initial setbacks and lived according to principles he worked out for himself, maintaining a modest and honest lifestyle directed by the precepts of vegetarianism and pacifism, and keeping faith with his innate gifts to make a living and a home for himself and his like-minded wife Alice. He became a notable and prolific composer who enjoyed numerous performances and broadcasts of his works, especially in the North West region of England, some by leading artists such as John Barbirolli, Vilém Tauský, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, John McCabe, and Ronald Stevenson. His music, often written for specific occasions or performers, was typically light-hearted and small-scale, with frequent reference to folk-music; larger-scale pieces included two piano concertos, concertos for violin, cello and recorder, and more than a dozen stage works. He was also an artist, craftsman and poet (with an enthusiasm for nonsense verse), whose work reflects the revival of interest in the arts and crafts during the first half of the 20th century. Running as a thread though everything he did was his unswerving love for the natural world and in particular the beauty of trees.
