Frederick Thomas Durrant (1895 - died before 1980), typically known as F.T. Durrant, was an organist, musical academic and composer, long resident in Harrow.

Durrant was born at Beer in Devon and was a chorister at Exeter Cathedral.[1] He attended the Royal Academy of Music, where he won the Battison Haynes Prize in 1921 and the Charles Lucas Medal in 1923. He married his wife Gladys Louise (1891-1975, also born in Beer) in 1922 and they moved to Harrow-on-the Hill, at 71 Whitmore Road, where they stayed the rest of their lives.[2] Durrant received his D.Mus. from the University of London in 1929, where he later became Dean of the Facility of Music.[2] He was a professor at the Royal Academy from 1931, teaching harmony and composition.

From around 1937 he was organist at St Augustine's, Kilburn, moving on to become director of music at St Mark's Church, St John's Wood in 1947.[3][4] He was also choirmaster and organist at Pinner Parish Church from 1954 until 1957, and after that moved to an organist appointment in Ruislip.[5]

His compositions included the Clarinet Quintet in E flat, inaugural winner of the Clements Memorial Prize in 1938, which was broadcast by the Whinyates String Quartet with soloist Pauline Juler on 22 July 1941,[6] and subsequently performed at Conway Hall (also by Juler) in 1946.[7] The Quintet was revived by Peter Cigleris at Conway Hall in 2019.[8] His six part madrigal Requiescat won the Madrigal Society's 1947 prize.[9] A slow march, scored for military band, won a Liverpool Philharmonic Society competition in 1952, and was performed on 25 June that year.[4] Most of his compositions were choral and organ pieces for church use.[10][11]

Durrant survived his wife Gladys, who died in 1975, aged 84.[2] There were a son and a daughter. Until 1976 he was still contributing concert reviews for the local papers in Harrow.[12] The memorial Durrant Prize was awarded for the first time in July 1980 by the Royal College of Organists.[13]

References

  1. ↑ 'Dr. F.T. Durrant', Biographical Dictionary of the Organ
  2. 1 2 3 Gladys Louise Durrant obituary, Harrow Observer, 4 April 1975, p. 2
  3. ↑ 'New Organist for St Mark's', Hampstead News, 3 April 1947, p. 5
  4. 1 2 'Slow March for Liverpool', in The Liverpool Echo, 6 May 1952, p. 5
  5. ↑ 'Resignation of Pinner Organist', in The Harrow Observer, 10 October 1957, p. 16
  6. ↑ Radio Times, Issue 929, 20th July 1941, p. 17
  7. ↑ Frank V Hawkins. The Story of 2,000 Concerts (1969)
  8. ↑ Michael White. 'Rare clarinet treat at Conway Hall', Islington Tribune, 19 September 2019
  9. ↑ 'Prize Madrigal', Hampstead News, 20 May 1948, p. 3
  10. ↑ 'F.T. Durrant' at Presto Music
  11. ↑ Short Setting of the Office for Holy Communion in E flat (1932), reviewed in 'Church Music', The Musical Times, Vol. 73, No. 1069, March 1932, p. 232
  12. ↑ For instance: 'Musical Variety in the Concert', Harrow Observer, 14 June 1974, p. 25
  13. ↑ 'Royal College of Organists', in The Musical Times, Vol. 121, No. 1650 (August 1980), p. 524
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