Fricker, Peter Racine (1920-1990), was the leading English composer to emerge after the end of World War II in 1945. Fricker’s style absorbed characters of such modern European composers as Bela Bartok, Alban Berg, Paul Hindemith, and Arnold Schoenberg. Fricker used counterpoint and serial techniques but wrote music with a strong emotional impact. His major works include a Wind Quintet (1947), the orchestral Prelude, Elegy and Finale (1949), Symphony Number 1 (1950), Violin Concerto Number 1 (1951), Symphony Number 2 (1951), and the oratorio The Vision of Judgment (1958). Fricker also wrote solo vocal music, works for keyboard instruments, and compositions for stage, radio, and motion pictures.
Fricker was born on Sept. 5, 1920, in London. He studied at the Royal College of Music from 1937 to 1941. He traveled widely as a conductor and was a member of the music faculty at the University of California at Santa Barbara from 1964 to shortly before his death on Feb. 1, 1990.
