PREFACE: written in by musicologist, orchestrator, author and critic, Christopher Palmer OBE , a great friend and insightful supporter to whose memory this autobiography is affectionately dedicated. One of two things generally happened to these composers: either they gave up composing their 'own' music altogether, or - more often- the one career ran parallel to the other.
What was almost unheard of was for a composer deliberately to abandon a flourishing career in media-music, in mid-course, in order to devote himself exclusively to his 'own' or 'real' music. Yet this is what Howard Blake did.
What is even more unusual is that far from disowning his alter ego, the kind of musician he was and the kind of music he produced for the first ten years of his professional life, he found in them the mainspring of a remarkable personal renaissance. Much of the raw material of his most significant works -the Toccata for Orchestra and the Piano Concerto- derive from this source, but so refined, processed, enhanced, sublimated, as to be scarcely recognisable.
The end product has a deceptive simplicity not unlike that of Mozart. I mention Mozart advisedly since the classical qualities implicit in scores like 'The Snowman' and the 'Diversions for Cello' are on full frontal display in the 'Piano Concerto'.
There is a child-like exuberance and spirit of delight Much of this is due to a strong feeling for line, and not just melody. Counterpoint is far more the essence of Blake's music than harmony. To cast a full-scale concert work in a simple diatonic style with no sense of deja vu is a considerable achievement.
