Geoffrey Bush

Geoffrey Bush (23 March 1920 – 24 February 1998) was a British composer, teacher and music scholar. Largely without formal training in composition, he produced a wide range of compositions across different genres, including many songs and works for choirs. He also edited and arranged the works of other composers. Most of his teaching was within the framework of the Extramural Departments at Oxford University and London University. He was a popular broadcaster on BBC music programmes, and the author of several books. Life Early life Bush was born in Kilburn, London, on 23 March 1920, the son of Christopher Bush, a schoolmaster and writer, and his wife Winifred, née Chart (John Warrack's ODNB biography gives the father's forenames as "Charles Christmas"). Bush's parents separated at around the time of his birth, and he never knew his father. He began piano lessons at the age of seven, and the following year became a chorister at Salisbury Cathedral choir school, where he remained until 1933, studying under Walter Alcock and acquiring a lasting love of traditional English church music. He began composing at the age of ten. In 1933 he went to Lancing College, where his early compositional efforts were subject to harsh criticism; this led him to destroy his early works, an action that he later regretted. While at Lancing, Bush met the composer John Ireland, who gave him lessons in composition; the association would last until Ireland's death in 1962. Encouraged by Ireland, Bush entered Balliol College, Oxford in 1938, on a Nettleship scholarship. He took his B.Mus degree in 1940, but his Oxford studies were then interrupted by the Second World War As a pacifist and conscientious objector, Bush served between 1941 and 1945 as assistant warden in the Hostel of the Good Shepherd, a children's home in Tredegar, Wales. During this period he composed a considerable number of works, including his first attempt at opera, The Spanish Rivals, later withdrawn. He returned to Oxford in 1945, where in 1946 he took an MA degree in Classics, and a D.Mus.