Editing Robert Simpson (composer) (section)

==Biography==
Simpson was born in [[Royal Leamington Spa|Leamington]], Warwickshire.<ref name="independent">{{cite web |last1=Anderson |first1=Martin |title=Obituary: Robert Simpson |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-robert-simpson-1296069.html |website=The Independent |access-date=5 June 2021 |language=en |date=24 November 1997}}</ref> His father, Robert Warren Simpson, was a descendant of Sir [[James Young Simpson]], the Scottish pioneer of anaesthetics; his mother, Helena Hendrika Govaars, was the daughter of [[Gerrit Govaars]], founder of the {{lang|nl|[[Leger des Heils]]}}, the Dutch arm of the Salvation Army. Simpson studied at [[Westminster City School]]. He was intended for a medical career and studied in London for two years before his determination to be a musician gained the upper hand. A [[conscientious objector]] in [[World War II]], he served with an [[ARP warden|ARP]] mobile surgical unit during the London [[The Blitz|Blitz]], while taking lessons from [[Herbert Howells]]. Howells persuaded him to take the [[Durham University]] [[Bachelor of Music]] degree, and in 1952 he gained the further degree of [[Doctor of Music]] from that university, the submitted work being his First Symphony. After the war Simpson lectured extensively and founded the Exploratory Concerts Society; in 1951 he joined the music staff of the [[BBC]] and became one of its best-known and most respected music producers, remaining with the corporation for nearly three decades. Simpson was a great champion of [[Havergal Brian]]'s music, and under the BBC's auspices he produced many broadcasts featuring Brian's works. These included the mammoth [[Symphony No. 1 (Brian)|"Gothic" Symphony]] in 1966 under Sir [[Adrian Boult]], and in 1973 the 28th Symphony under [[Leopold Stokowski]] who, at the age of 91, was premiering a work written by a 91-year-old composer.{{Citation needed|date=June 2021}}

In the latter part of his career as a BBC producer Simpson frequently clashed with the management of the organisation. In the 1970s he was one of those&nbsp;– [[Hans Keller]] and [[Deryck Cooke]] were others – who started the (unsuccessful) revolt against the report ''Broadcasting in the Seventies'' and its plan for "generic broadcasting" (i.e. separate networks for pop, classical and speech). A decade later Simpson was energetic in his opposition to a cost-cutting reorganisation that ultimately proposed the decommissioning of five of the eleven BBC orchestras. During the ensuing musicians' strike (which caused the cancellation of the first several weeks of the 1980 BBC [[The Proms|Promenade Concerts]]) Simpson chose to disregard BBC staff regulations and discuss the matter with a national newspaper; he then resigned from the corporation, publicly alleging a "degeneration of traditional BBC values in the scramble for ratings". ([[Hans Keller]] later described these criticisms as "demonstrable fact".)<ref>Hans Keller, 'An Untainted Mass Medium', ''The Spectator'', 20 December 1980</ref> Had Simpson remained silent for a few more months he would have been able to retire with a full pension, but his feeling was that such a course would have compromised his principles. Abominating the ethos of [[Margaret Thatcher|Thatcherite]] Britain, in 1986 he moved to the [[Republic of Ireland]], settling on [[Tralee Bay]] in [[County Kerry]]. In 1991, he suffered a severe stroke during an English lecture tour, which caused damage to the [[thalamus]] and left him in debilitating pain for the remaining six years of his life. He died in [[Tralee]] in 1997, aged 76.<ref name="guardian">{{cite news |last1=MacDonald |first1=Calum |title=Symphony for sceptics |work=The Guardian |date=24 November 1997}}</ref><ref name="independent" />

Simpson married Bessie Fraser in 1946; she died in 1981, and the following year he married Angela Musgrave, a fellow BBC employee and relative of composer [[Thea Musgrave]]. His other great passions, outside music, were [[astronomy]] (he was a member of the [[British Astronomical Association]] and – unusually for an amateur – was made a Fellow of the [[Royal Astronomical Society]]) and [[pacifism]], specifically addressed in the title of his Tenth String Quartet, ''For Peace''. He was awarded many honours, including the [[Carl Nielsen]] Gold Medal, 1956 (for his book ''Carl Nielsen, Symphonist'', published in 1952), and the Medal of Honor of the [[Anton Bruckner|Bruckner]] Society of America, 1962. He refused appointment as a [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] in 1980. In his letter of rejection, he wrote: "While I am most appreciative of the intended honour, it could not properly be accepted by a determined republican in whom memory of the [[British Empire]] arouses no nostalgia."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Macauley|first=Donald|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/849194820|title=The power of Robert Simpson : a biography|date=2013|isbn=978-1-4797-9437-9|location=United States|pages=143|oclc=849194820}}</ref><ref>{{Cite podcast|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09kfv0b|title=Robert Simpson (1921-97)|website=Composer of the Week|publisher=[[BBC Sounds]]|host=Donald Macleod|date=4 June 2021|time=49:00|access-date=5 June 2021}}</ref> Politically, he was a lifelong [[Socialism|socialist]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Robert Simpson, Composer and Writer, 1921 – 1997 |url=https://leamingtonhistory.co.uk/robert-simpson-composer-and-writer-1921-1997/ |website=Leamington History Group |access-date=5 June 2021 |date=2 April 2015}}</ref>