Patrick Gowers (born 1936) has never been a typical 20th century composer, much more moved by jazz and later inspired to write stage, film and TV music alongside people like Dudley Moore. In 1976 he was commissioned to write Holy, Holy in memory of a friend and in 1982 he won the BAFTA original TV music award for his scores for Smiley’s People, I Remember Nelson and The Woman in White. In the mid-1980s he met Richard Harries, who commissioned Viri Galilæi for his consecration as Bishop of Oxford at Ascensiontide 1987. This led to Gowers’s Cantata and Advent Sequence being commissioned for the Southern Cathedrals Festival. Patrick was half way through writing a large-scale work for the Three Choirs Festival at Gloucester in 2001 when he was struck down by a severe stroke. He survived but was left unable to compose any more.
Patrick Gowers: Choral & Organ Music
