Robert Simpson (1921-1997) was a composer whose thinking was sometimes alarmingly uncompromising. In times when avant-garde' forms were considered to be of central importance to the progress of music, he continued his beliefs of a continuous tradition unwaveringly. He was undoubtedly one of the core figures in the creation of both symphonies and string quartets during the second half of the 20th century, his uvre still offers ample opportunity for musicians, audience and scholars alike to uncover hitherto hardly known treasures. The present book offers contributions by some of the most eminent Simpsonians, including Ed Green, Hans Keller, Malcolm MacDonald, John McCabe, Simon Phillippo, John Pickard, Lionel Pike, Martin Ratcliffe, Jurgen Schaarwachter and Harold Truscott. In their various approaches they cover most areas of Robert Simpson's compositional activities, with special focus on some of the Symphonies and String Quartets. Jurgen Schaarwachter obtained his doctorate at the University of Koeln in 1995 with his award-winning thesis "Die britische Sinfonie 1914-1945". He was Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Birmingham and researched in 1997-8 British symphonism from its beginnings to 1914 as research scholar of the German Research Foundation. Since 1999 he has been research fellow at the Max Reger Institute, Karlsruhe. He has published extensively both on Reger and related topics, on music from the 18th to the 20th century with special emphasis on British music. He is European Contact for the Havergal Brian Society since 1999, German representative of the British Music Society since 2001 and Chairman of the Robert Simpson Society since 2007.
