Lutyens, Elisabeth (1906-1983), an English composer, pioneered the introduction in the United Kingdom of the Austrian-born American composer Arnold Schoenberg’s 12-note method of composition. She began to write music in this style in 1939 with her Chamber Concerto No. 1. Lutyens became an expressive composer in the idiom, writing orchestral works, chamber music, compositions for the stage, choral works, piano pieces, songs, and music for films and radio. Lutyens’s most significant works include O saisons, o chateaux! (1946) for soprano and small orchestra, Concertante for Five Players (1950), the cantata De Amore (1957), Quincunx (1959) for orchestra and soprano and baritone, the opera The Numbered (1965-1967), and four pieces for one or two instruments called the Plenum series (1972-1974).
Agnes Elisabeth Lutyens was born on July 9, 1906, in London. Her father was Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, a noted British architect. She wrote an autobiography, A Goldfish Bowl (1972). Lutyens died on April 14, 1983.
