Kenneth Leighton

Kenneth Leighton (1929-88) was one of the most distinctive voices in English music of the generation following Finzi and Howells. Unlike Benjamin Britten, Leighton was able to study in Europe, giving his music a modernist flavour that meets the legacy of Vaughan Williams in works that blend lyrical, often modal Englishness with more bracing serialist elements. Born in Wakefield, Leighton brings a Yorkshireman’s directness to music that, for all its technical and contrapuntal sophistication, retains a candour and improvisatory freedom. His grammar-school education and early training as a chorister set the working-class Leighton on the unexpected path to Oxford. Academic success coupled with important encounters (Finzi became a mentor) led to further studies in Rome and a career of significant posts at Oxford and Edinburgh Universities, where James MacMillan was among his students. Best-known today for his church music (including 10 Mass-settings and several popular carols and anthems), Leighton was also an accomplished pianist, a composer of three symphonies, an opera, many concertos and concert works.