Deryck Cooke

about

Deryck Cooke (14 September 1919 – 27 October 1976) was a British musician, musicologist and broadcaster. Cooke was born in Leicester to a poor and working class family; his father died when he was a child, but his mother was able to afford piano lessons. Cooke acquired a brilliant technique and began to compose. He won an organ scholarship to Selwyn College, Cambridge, where he was taught by Patrick Hadley and Robin Orr. His undergraduate studies were interrupted by the Second World War, during which he served in the Royal Artillery and took part in the invasion of Italy. Towards the end of the war he became pianist in an army dance band. Back in Cambridge, a number of his compositions were successfully performed, but he was insecure about their unfashionably conservative idiom, and eventually destroyed most of his works. After graduating in 1947 Cooke joined the BBC; apart from an interlude (1959-65) working as a freelance writer and critic, he worked for the Corporation for the remainder of his life. His job involved writing and editing scripts for the music department and broadcasting for radio and television, where his thoughtful, unaffected manner made him an ideal communicator. In 1959 his first book The Language of Music argued that music is essentially a language of the emotions, and showed that composers throughout history had tended to choose the same musical phrases to express similar feelings or dramatic situations. Beginning in the run-up to the Gustav Mahler

top songs

albums

Mahler: Symphony No. 10

Mahler: Symphony No. 10 (arr. D. Cook, R. Stevenson and C. White)

Mahler: Symphony No. 10 in F-Sharp Minor (Completed D. Cooke, 1976)

Mahler: Symphony No. 10 in F-Sharp Minor (Completed D. Cooke, 1976) [Live]

Mahler: Symphony No. 10 in F-Sharp Major

An Introduction to Der Ring des Nibelungen

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An introduction to 'Der Ring Des Nibelungen'

Mahler: Complete Symphonies

Wagner: An Introduction to Der Ring des Nibelungen

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150th Anniversary Box - Mahler

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Horenstein - Rossini: Semiramide Overture - Mahler: Symphony No. 6 - Nielsen: Symphony No. 5

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An Introduction to Der Ring Des Nibelungen - Deryck Cooke 1967

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