Editing Gordon Jacob (section)

==Life and career==
Jacob was born in [[Upper Norwood]], London, the seventh son and youngest of ten children of Stephen Jacob, and his wife, Clara Laura, ''née'' Forlong. Stephen Jacob, an official of the Indian Civil Service based in Calcutta, died when Gordon was three.<ref name=dnb>Wetherell, Eric. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-31281 "Jacob, Gordon Percival Septimus (1895–1984), composer"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 30 October 2018 {{ODNBsub}}</ref> One of his older brothers was [[Archibald Jacob (musician)|Archibald Jacob]], choral composer, arranger and author of ''Musical Handwriting'' (OUP, 1937).<ref>Matthew William Fay. ''[https://diginole.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu:254338/datastream/PDF/view Gordon Jacob: A Background and Study of His Works for Wind Octet]'', Florida State University thesis (2010)</ref>

Jacob was educated at [[Dulwich College]], and enlisted in the [[Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey)]] at the outbreak of the First World War.<ref name=who/><ref name=grove>[[Eric Wetherell|Wetherell, Eric]]. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000014035 "Jacob, Gordon"], Grove Music Online, Oxford University Press, 2001. Retrieved 2 November 2018 {{subscription required}}</ref> He was taken POW in 1917 after being one of 60 survivors from a battalion of 800.<ref>Farcas, Ruth (Webmaster) [http://www.gordonjacob.net/bio_summary.html] "Biographical Summary"</ref> In the prison camp he studied a harmony textbook in the camp library and began composing. He wrote for an orchestra of his fellow prisoners, with assorted instruments. After the war he studied journalism before turning to music. He took a correspondence course, gained an [[ARCM]] diploma and was accepted as a full-time student at the [[Royal College of Music]] (RCM) in 1920. There, he was a pupil of [[Charles Villiers Stanford]] and [[Ralph Vaughan Williams]] (composition), [[Herbert Howells]] (music theory) and [[Adrian Boult]] (conducting), from whom he learned the "economy and decision" of his podium technique.<ref name=dnb/><ref>"Promenade Concerts", ''The Times'', 25 September 1926, p. 12</ref> 	

At the end of his student course in 1924, Gordon became a teacher of music, briefly at [[Birkbeck, University of London|Birkbeck]] and [[Morley College|Morley]] Colleges, and then at the RCM, where he remained until his retirement in 1966.<ref name=bh>[http://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main?composerid=2871&ttype=BIOGRAPHY "Gordon Jacob"], Boosey and Hawkes. Retrieved 2 November 2018</ref> He was professor of music theory, composition and orchestration.<ref name=who>[https://doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U165726 "Jacob, Gordon (Percival Septimus)"], ''Who's Who and Who Was Who'', Oxford University Press, 2007. Retrieved 2 November 2018 {{subscription required}}</ref> Among his students at the RCM were [[Malcolm Arnold]], [[Ruth Gipps]], [[Imogen Holst]], [[Cyril Smith (pianist)|Cyril Smith]], [[Philip Cannon (composer)|Philip Cannon]], [[Pamela Harrison (composer)|Pamela Harrison]], [[Joseph Horovitz]], [[Bernard Stevens]] and [[John Warrack]].<ref name=grove/>

In addition to his teaching commitments he was a regular examiner for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, and from 1947 to 1957 he was editor of [[Penguin Books|Penguin]] Musical Scores.<ref name=who/> He contributed articles to musical journals and to ''[[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians|Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'' and wrote four books: ''Orchestral Technique, a Manual for Students'' (1931); ''How to Read a Score'' (1944); ''The Composer and his Art'' (1955); and ''The Elements of Orchestration'' (1962).<ref name=who/>

In 1959 [[Gordon Jacob (film)|a BBC television documentary about Jacob]] was directed by [[Ken Russell]]; in the following years, under its controller of music [[William Glock]], the BBC was seen as increasingly hostile to living composers who wrote [[tonality|tonal]] music. It was always denied that Glock had a blacklist,<ref>Morley, Christopher. [http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/1999/09/boulez.htm "McCabe in Conversation"], Music and Vision, 1999. Retrieved 2 November 2018</ref> but music by non avant-garde composers, including [[Edmund Rubbra]], [[Arnold Bax]], [[John Ireland (composer)|John Ireland]] and even [[William Walton]], was demonstrably out of favour with the BBC during the 1960s.<ref>Kennedy, p. 200</ref> By this decade a large proportion of a composer's income came from royalties for broadcasts, and like others of his generation, Jacob suffered from the BBC's disinclination to play his music. He was fortunate in having a steady stream of commissions from the US, where his music was popular with university [[wind band]]s.<ref name=dnb/> He never retired from composing, and went on writing until shortly before his death.<ref name=web/>

Jacob was twice married, first in 1924 to Sydney Gray, elder daughter of the Rev Arthur Gray of Ipswich. She died in 1958, and the following year he married Margaret Sidney Hannah Gray, the niece of his first wife. There were a son and daughter of the second marriage.<ref name=who/>

Jacob died at his home in [[Saffron Walden]], Essex, in 1984, aged 88.<ref name=dnb/>

===Awards and honours===
While a student at the RCM Jacob won the [[Arthur Sullivan]] composition prize. 
He was awarded a doctorate (DMus) by the [[University of London]] in 1935, and the John Collard Fellowship by the Worshipful Company of Musicians in 1943. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal College of Music in 1946, and was made an honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music the following year. In 1968 he was appointed [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]].<ref name=who/>