Benjamin Burrows

Dr Benjamin Burrows (20 October 1891 – 28 January 1966 in Leicester, England) was an English composer of art songs and instrumental music.

Burrows was born in Leicester, England. He was the son of organist Benjamin Harper Burrows, and brother of violinist and orchestra conductor Grace Burrows. He studied organ with H. P. Ellis and music theory with Charles Kitson. He worked as music teacher at Leicester University, but also had skills as a precision engineer and horologist. He is noted for his development of a system for music typography and founded his own publishing house, Bodnant Press, to publish his music and teaching monographs. Among his prominent music students is the composer Joyce Howard Barrell.

Burrows is best known for his art songs. Under the influence and friendship of Jane Vowles, a soprano to whom he taught theory, he composed 93 songs in 21 months. After her parents insisted on her abandoning studies with him, Burrows wrote only one more song (in 1953). His songs have been compared with those by Ivor Gurney and Peter Warlock. They include settings of poetry by A. E. Housman, Rossetti, Herrick, de la Mare, Robert Frost, and Emily Dickinson, several of which have been recorded.

He also composed several instrumental works. Between 1929 and 1935 composed a string quartet and sonatas for violin, viola, violoncello, and piano., In later years he concentrated on church music, for his own use at Leicester church where he was organist from 1929 to 1955.

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