Remembering Jeffrey Lewis

Dr Jeffrey Lewis 1942-2025

Jeffrey Lewis, who taught in the Department of Music at Bangor University for almost twenty years, has died, aged 83. He was born in Neath, South Wales, in 1942 and studied at Cardiff University before pursuing studies in composition in Poland with Bogusław Schaeffer. On the recommendation of Sir Michael Tippett he was awarded an Arts Council Bursary that allowed him to also study at Darmstadt with Karlheinz Stockhausen and György Ligeti, in London with Don Banks, and to spend some months in the spring of 1968 as pianist with the Paris Chamber Ensemble at the Centre de Musique in the French capital. His first teaching appointment was at the Leeds College of Music in 1969; he then moved to North Wales in January 1973 to lecture in composition, orchestration and twentieth century studies, where he explored the music of Debussy, Bartók, Berg and – especially – Messiaen with a generation of students. In tandem with his teaching commitments, for many years he also directed the University Contemporary Music Ensemble, and maintained a busy schedule as a composer.

As a student in Cardiff, he had received workshopped performances with the then BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra under John Carewe of Fanfares with Variations and the Chamber Concerto; early commissions came from the Cheltenham Festival (Epitaphium: Children of the Sun, 1967) and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (Mutations 1, 1969, conducted by Louis Frémaux), and throughout the 1970s and 80s he received commissions for orchestral works from the BBC – Aurora (1973), Praeludium and Scenario (both 1975), Memoria (1978) and Limina Lucis (1982). A Piano Concerto, written for Jana Frenklova, for whom he also wrote three solo piano works, was premiered at the Chelmsford Festival in 1989. Lewis was also drawn towards writing for smaller ensembles at this time; his Epitaph for Abelard and Heloise (1979) uses an ensemble of violin, cello, flute, clarinet, piano and percussion; he also enjoyed writing for unusual combinations of instruments, using a vibraphone and electric guitar in Stratos (1979) and harp, celeste, two piccolos and percussion in Litania (1993). A fine organist himself, Lewis composed several significant works for the instrument, including Momentum and Esultante, both premiered by Dame Gillian Weir in 1977. His background as a chorister when he grew up in Neath fed into a sequence of choral works culminating in a sequence of Eleven Sacred Chants, written between 2003 and 2006 for the Manchester-based Altèri Chamber Choir. In total, his worklist runs to some 120 pieces.

Jeff will be remembered by his many students as a lecturer with a deep knowledge of contemporary music, a keen sense of humour, and a delight in the often surreal world of music and musicians. Studying during a time of artistic experimentation and cross-fertilisation of the arts in the 60s and 70s informed his music and teaching at a fundamental level, and his fascination with our perception of the passage of time – clock time and musical time being very different things – led to his compositions often juxtaposing extremes of activity and stillness. His interests in cinema and psychology reflect that same impulse to interrogate the very act of listening. His attention to detail in his compositions was legendary and his handwritten scores are works of art in themselves. He demanded much of his performers, but no more than he demanded of himself, and he was a deeply inspiring teacher, pushing his students to the limits but always with encouragement and great generosity.

That same inspiration, encouragement and generosity was evident in his family life, too. He is survived by his children, Richard and Sarah, along with his four grandchildren – Aoife, Orla, Elis and Mari – whom he adored.

David Jones (BMus, 1986); Richard Lewis