Pitfield Collection

Music, artwork, writings & other output of Thomas Pitfield covering virtually his entire creative life. Also correspondence and photographs.

Order imposed in 13 series, as follows: 1 - Notebooks 2 - Music 3 - Writings 4 - Art on paper 5 - Three-dimensional art/crafts 6 - Scrapbooks and other items collected for reference 7 - Early education and other related material 8 - Journals 9 - Reviews, programmes and exhibitions of work 10 - Correspondence 11 - Photographs 12 - Alice Pitfield 13 - Miscellaneous items.

Donated by Alice Pitfield, 2000.Given by John Turner, April 2004; previously with John Golland scores (acc. no. RNCM-2004-4) at Portsmouth: con moto Publications.

Much material was apparently destroyed by Pitfield during the late 1990s, at the instigation of his wife.

Pitfield was born Apr 5 1903 in Bolton, and worked in engineering on leaving school in 1917. 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 RMCM in 1947 and latterly the RNCM, 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.