Identity area
Reference code
GB GB1179 CR
Title
Thomas Pitfield material collected by Canon Ridgway
Date(s)
- c1951-c1975 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent and medium
10 items
Context area
Name of creator
(1903-1999)
Biographical history
Thomas Baron Pitfield was born Apr 5 1903 in Bolton. He was a music teacher, composer, 'cellist, pianist, engineer, inventor, artist, calligrapher, woodworker, cabinet maker, book binder, lino print maker,writer, essayist, pacifist, conscientious objector and vegetarian. In his teen years he worked in engineering on leaving school at 14. In 1924 he entered the Royal Manchester College of Music for a year. He taught at Tettenhall College from 1935-1945, becoming composition tutor at the Royal Manchester College of Music in 1947 and latterly the Royal Northern College of Music, retiring in 1973. His numerous compositions included works for orchestra, brass band, chamber ensembles, piano solo, and choral. Pitfield published 2 volumes of autobiography: No Song, No Supper (1986) and A Song After Supper (1991), and many other works. Fuller details of his life can be found in these volumes. He married Alice Astbury, a fellow student at the RMCM, on December 26 1934, and died in 1999.
Repository
Archival history
These items were donated to the RNCM archives by Audrey Ridgway (Canon Ridgway's widow) in May 2010
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Scores, letters and other papers mainly from Thomas Pitfield to Canon Ridgway. In the main the papers relate to Thomas Pitfield's morality play, 'Adam and the Creatures', which was published in 1968. It appears that Maurice Ridgway gave Pitfield advice on the work and the finished work has been dedicated to Ridgway by Pitfield.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Open
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
GB1179
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Final
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Davisom,10/05/2010