Doctor Who?
While searching for something on Google one evening, I came across the following little anecdote quite by accident concerning British composer Humphrey Searle (1915 – 1982).
Fiona, Humphrey’s second wife, remembers a visit they made to friends at Gordon’s Bay, South Africa, in 1964. Sitting in the garden amidst the beautiful landscape overlooking the Indian Ocean, the composer appeared to go into a trance-like state for several minutes; as the party moved indoors for lunch, Searle quietly said to his wife, ‘I’ve got the Fifth Symphony!’. The work is dedicated to the memory of Webern: ‘possibly the beauty of the mountains encircling the bay had led me to think of him’ writes Searle, ‘for he had been a great nature-lover and had lived and walked among the mountains of Austria in his youth’.
One of the pioneers of serial music in the United Kingdom, he composed scores for television and film, including incidental music for a 1965 Doctor Who serial.
Can anybody corroborate this story? Please phone the Editor on 021 856 3792 or email me at lynnhb@mweb.co.za