Adrian Francis Cruft (10 February 192120 February 1987) was a British composer.
Career Cruft, the son of the double-bassist Eugene Cruft, was educated at Westminster Abbey Choir School (where he was head chorister) and Westminster School. He was a Boult conducting scholar at the Royal College of Music from 1938, completing his studies there briefly in 1946–1947 after service in World War II. He was a composition student of Gordon Jacob and Edmund Rubbra but also studied double bass with his father. From 1947 until 1969 he played double bass with all the major London orchestras. Cruft became chairman of the Composers' Guild of Great Britain 1966, and helped set up the British Music Information Centre at 10 Stratford Place.Roderick Swanston, "The Music of Adrian Cruft", The Musical Times, Vol. 132, No. 1777 (March 1991), pp. 119–123
Cruft, called a "performers' composer" by Roderick Swanston, was as a young chorister influenced by the revival of Tudor music, and later by the counterpoint of Bach. Hugo Cole described his music as "diatonic, firmly based in tradition and generally straightforward in idiom". He composed church music, including four cantatas, settings of the canticles, anthems and carols, as well as orchestral works, chamber music and pieces for children and amateurs.Hugo Cole, revised by John Cruft, 'Cruft, Adrian (Francis)', in Grove Music Online (2001)
Ruth Gipps composed the short orchestral work Ambarvalia in memory of Cruft.Ruth Gipps, Orchestral Works Volume 3 reviewed at MusicWeb International
Selected works Alma Redemptoris Mater, cantata An hymne of heavenly love, cantata A Bemerton Cantata (1970) Collegium Regale canticlesRecorded on Magnificat, Vol. 4, Choir of St John's College Cambridge, Signum SIGCD777 (2024) Concertino for clarinet and strings (1955) A Country Suite for school or amateur orchestra (1964) Divertimento for strings Dr Syn, opera in three acts The Eatanswill Election, opera Oxford Suite for orchestra Partita for orchestra Prospero's Island, orchestral overture (1962) Rex Tragicus, a passion cantata Suite for Strings (1957)
References
Further reading Denford, Jack (ed.) Adrian Cruft talking about his music, parts one and two. British Music Vol. 11 (1989) and Vol. 12 (1990) Rubbra, Edmund, "The Music of Adrian Cruft", The Musical Times, Vol. 110, No. 1518 (August 1969), pp. 822-825 Stevens, Bernard, 'Adrian Cruft', Composer, No. 19 (1966), p. 96
External links Adrian Cruft's papers are held in the archives of the Royal College of Music: Adrian Cruft's papers in the AIM25 database (Archives in London and the M25 area). Divertimento for String Orchestra, op. 43 (1963), London Philharmonic Orchestra