Godfrey Sampson (1902-1949)

 

 

Godfrey Sampson is best remembered for his church and choral music. From 1920 he studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music under Benjamin Dale, where he was Goring Thomas scholar in 1924, and where he also won a Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1927. In 1932 he became a professor of composition at the RAM.

 

He did compose a small corpus of orchestral music noteably a Symphony in D which was premiered at the Royal Academy in 1927 and repeated at the Henry Wood Proms in 1928, conducted by the composer.

 

Suite for Strings (1946)

 

This was composed in his later life three years before his death aged only 47. It's in three movements: 

1. Chaconne  

2. Passacaglia and Scherzo  

3. Finale.

 

The Finale is a rousing, spirited piece full of lively syncopation with frequent changes in time signature.

 

SAMPLE: Suite for Strings - Finale