Gerald Cockshott


Gerald Wilfred Cockshott was an English composer, librettist, writer and teacher.

Life and career

Cockshott was born in Bristol and educated at Taunton School and the University of Bristol where he received his BA in English. He was a friend of and influenced by the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams with whom he studied privately. A Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, he primarily composed choral music, much of it influenced by the English folk tradition, but also composed two operas and several instrumental works.
He had originally written the libretto for the chamber opera Apollo and Persephone for Vaughan Williams, but decided to compose the work himself before showing it to him. Vaughan Williams gave the work his blessing and it was premiered in London in 1954 by the Intimate Opera Company. Apollo and Persephone went on to multiple performances in Europe and North America in the ensuing years. His second opera, A Faun in the Forest, for which he also wrote the libretto premiered in 1959 in Westport, Connecticut.
From 1947 to 1964 Cockshott was the senior English master at Whittingehame College, a boarding school for boys in Brighton founded by the British Zionist Jacob Halevy. After leaving Whittingehame, he taught at Ifield Grammar School and later at Froebel College. He was also the founder of the Peter Warlock Society and served as its first chairman from 1963 to 1969. Cockshott died in West Sussex at the age of 63. His wife Irene died in 2018, and he is survived by two of his three children, his elder daughter having died in 2021.

Compositions

  • A Cargo of Fruit
  • A Carol for Christmas Morning
  • A Carol of Bethlehem
  • A Charming Country Life
  • A Child is born in Bethlehem
  • A Christmas Alleluia
  • Angels sang that Christmas morn
  • Apollo and Persephone, 1954
  • A Faun in the Forest, 1959
  • All in the Morning
  • A Shanty and Two Folk Songs from France
  • Aubade
  • Autumn twilight
  • Back from the Market
  • Balulalow
  • Blessed be the time
  • Can you plant a Brussel Sprout?
  • Canticle
  • Carol of the Crib
  • Carol of the Shepherds
  • Cherries and Plums
  • Come Away Death
  • Come Bid Farewell to Sorrow
  • Dance suite; six easy pieces for piano
  • Dancers of Auvergne
  • Danish Carol
  • Divertimento No. 1
  • Fishing off Iceland
  • Gloria in excelsis
  • Good People Hear the News I Bring
  • Gossips at the Wedding
  • Gone
  • Greenland Fishery
  • Haste to the Manger
  • Haymaker’s Dance
  • Here lies a most beautiful lady
  • I have no whiskers on my chin
  • Il était une bergère
  • In Bethlehem that fair city
  • In Celebration of Christmas
  • In Midwinter
  • In Praise of a Lady
  • In Worship of Christ’s Nativity
  • I saw three ships
  • I will be glad
  • Jillian of Berry
  • John and the cat
  • Johnny and Jenny
  • King Dagobert
  • King’s Carpenters
  • Ladybird
  • Le Charbonnier
  • Maddermarket Suite
  • Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis
  • May Carol
  • Merciless Beauty
  • My Blackbird
  • My Boy Billy
  • Now we go to Bethlehem
  • O John has found a wife
  • O this night is born
  • On a Midnight Long Ago
  • On Christmas Night
  • On the Shore by the River
  • On to Wakefield
  • Paper of Pins
  • Paul and the hens
  • Pirate Song
  • Planting the oats
  • Psalmus
  • Quand j’étais chez mon père
  • Sans Day Carol
  • Serenade
  • Sing Lullaby
  • Sing Noel
  • Somebody Fetch my Flute
  • Summer
  • Symphony in B minor
  • The Angel’s Tidings
  • The Apple Harvest
  • The Bagpiper
  • The Bellman’s Song
  • The Bird’s Song
  • The cherry tree
  • The Cobbler
  • The Crow
  • The Dancing Shoes
  • The Farmer’s Daughter
  • The Faun in the Forest
  • The Friendly Adviser
  • The Holly and the Ivy
  • The Journeyman Cobbler
  • The King of Spain's Daughter
  • The Knifegrinder
  • The Little Man and the Little Maid
  • The Miller
  • The Nervous Fox
  • The Nine Soldiers
  • The Prince and the Shepherdess
  • The Princess by the Water
  • The Shoemaker’s Son
  • The Silver Fleet
  • ''The Three Kings''

Articles

  • "A Note on Warlock's Capriol Suite", Monthly Musical Record, 70, 203-5.
  • "E. J. Moeran's Recollections of Peter Warlock", Musical Times, 96, 128-30.
  • "Some Notes on the Songs of Peter Warlock", Music & Letters, 21, 246-58.
  • "Warlock and Moeran", Composer, 33, 1, 3-4.