Anthony Burgess

Anthony Burgess was an English writer and composer known for his 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange. His style as a composer is often described as angular, dissonant, and reminiscent of Paul Hindemith and Gustav Holst. He was born in Manchester in 1917, and his parents were successful shopkeepers that specialized in alcohol and tobacco products. Additionally, his father also played the piano in pubs and for silent films, and his mother was a singer and theater actress. After his mother and older sister passed away from respiratory illnesses in 1918, Burgess was sent to live with his maternal aunt and two cousins. In 1922, he rejoined his father, who had married the landlady of his shop. Burgess became interested in music after hearing a radio broadcast of Debussy’s Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, which was a profound experience. When he revealed his interest in composing to his parents, they rejected the idea because they didn’t think it was a viable career. Regardless, he began teaching himself to play the piano in his teens, and he attended the catholic Xaverian College until 1937. After his graduation, he wanted to study music at the Victoria University of Manchester, but his application was denied because of his poor grades in physics. However, he was accepted as a student of English language and literature, and he earned his BA in 1940. This was also where he met Llewela Isherwood Jones, and they were married two years later. A few months after he completed his studies in Manchester, he joined the British Army for six years, but his distaste for authority figures led to several behavioral incidents. Army intelligence eventually noticed Burgess’ aptitude for linguistics, and he was later promoted to the rank of sergeant major. After completing his service in 1946, he began teaching speech and drama in Wolverhampton, Preston, and at Birmingham University. He traveled to Malaya in 1954 with the British Colonial Service, and he taught at the Malay College Kuala Kangsar. He was fascinated by the Malayan folk music that he heard there, which inspired his Sinfoni Melayu and the novels that form The Malayan Trilogy. Four years later, he accepted a teaching position at the Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin College in Brunei. It was around this time that he was erroneously diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, and he was told that he only had a year to live. He returned to England in 1959 and he quickly completed five novels in an effort to provide an income for his wife, whom he thought would soon become a widow. By 1960, he had consequently become an established author, and he received a medical diagnosis of good health. Burgess completed A Clockwork Orange in 1962, and he continued to write and compose for television, film, and theater through the '70s. The successful debut of his Symphony No. 3 in 1975 boosted his confidence and he composed prolifically in many genres thereafter. By the time of his death from lung cancer in 1993, his worklist contained over 250 compositions. His music can be heard on several albums including Anthony Burgess: The Bad-Tempered Electronic Keyboard - 24 Preludes and Fugues, and Anthony Burgess: Complete Guitar Quartets.
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