9. Elizabeth LuytensVarious Piano Works
She did the Hammer horror film soundtracks, and she was a formidable composer. I know we’ve got a lot of appreciation for Daphne Oram and other female composers in the UK, but I don’t think Lutyens gets enough. She punched down through the class system: she was upper class, and was having none of being ousted by serialist composers. She was like “Fuck it, I’ll do my own shit.” She was cracking out these scores to feed her kids, and she wore green nail varnish, and she swore like a sailor.
These are beautiful piano works, and my first instrument is the piano. When I was young, I played a lot of Beethoven, Bach, Bartók, Liszt and Chopin, then got into Duke Ellington. I discovered Elizabeth Lutyens when I was at university, and got hold of some of her piano pieces. There’s just something really beautiful in them – it’s her being her, and it is music made out of love for the instrument. There’s something very intimate and personal in these pieces.
