Alistair Hinton

Alistair Hinton (born 6 October 1950) is a Scottish composer.

Hinton began studying music at the age of 12; with the advice of Benjamin Britten, he studied at the Royal College of Music, where Humphrey Searle was among his teachers. Although he began composing at an early age, he later destroyed most of his pre-1985 output.

Hinton's Op. 1 was a piano sonata (1962), now partly lost. His other compositions include sonatas, variations and other works for piano, a violin concerto (dedicated to Jane Manning), songs (amongst them settings of Rabindranath Tagore, Hinton's Opp. 9 and 12), works for the organ, a string quintet (for two violins, viola, cello, double-bass and soprano, and lasting for 2 hrs 45 mins in performance), and a Sinfonietta. They include homages to Karol Szymanowski (Szymanowski-Etiud, Op. 32, for 18 wind instruments), Richard Strauss (Passeggiata Straussiana, for euphonium and piano, Op. 39), and Charles-Valentin Alkan in the Piano Sonata no. 5, which has a substantial passage marked "Alkanique". The latter influenced Marc-André Hamelin in composing his own Étude no. 4.

Amongst those who have performed and recorded Hinton's works are Donna Amato, Jonathan Powell, Yonty Solomon and Kevin Bowyer. Information on his works, together with a listing and discography, may be found at http://www.sorabji-archive.co.uk/hinton/scores.php .

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