Awards & Press
AWARDS AND PRESS TRIBUTES
1968 COURAGE LIGHT BRIGADE
Score by Howard Blake awarded TV Mail Best Soundtrack Award
1975 HOKUSAI
BAFTA for best short factual film (score by Howard Blake)
1977 THE DUELLISTS
1. Score by Howard Blake awarded Ivor Novello Best Score Nomination
2, Film directed by Ridley Scott awarded Special Jury Prize Cannes Film Festival
1980 FLASH GORDON
Score by Howard Blake awarded joint BAFTA nomination with 'Queen'
1981 VICTOR/VICTORIA
Orchestration of 'Le Jazz Hot' and other numbers by Howard Blake on a score by Henry Mancini.
Oscar for Best Adaptation of Score, award to Henry Mancini
1982 THE SNOWMAN ANIMATED FILM (score, song and lyrics by Howard Blake)
1. OSCAR nomination Best Short Film
2. BAFTA TV Nomination Best Children's Programme
3. TAMPERE INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
Grand Prix
1986 'A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY'
Score by Howard Blake awarded Anthony Asquith Award for Musical Excellence by The British Film Institute
1986 'GRANPA'
SCORE, SONGS AND LYRICS BY HOWARD BLAKE
Awarded Prix Jeunesse Internationale
HOWARD BLAKE PIANIST COMPOSER AND CONDUCTOR
GROVE DICTIONARY OF MUSIC AND MUSICIANS
Main entry
Howard Blake (b.London, 28 October 1938). English composer.He studied at the RAM with
Harold Craxton (piano) and Howard Ferguson (composition). While serving as a
projectionist at The National Film Theatre his enthusiasm for cinema led him to make a
film himself. He began his career in London as composer, arranger, session
keyboard player and conductor, gaining experience in radio, television, and film.
As a pianist in recordings for film he worked for major composers including Quincy Jones,
Bernard Herrmann and Henry Mancini. His meeting with Laurie Johnson resulted in his
being commissioned to compose music for 'The Avengers' television series (1968-9).
In 1970, already with numerous assignments in film and television, he spent five
years away from the commercial scene in order to develop his own style of concert music
which remains broadly conservative in the interest of accessibility to a non-specialist
audience. His major choral work, the dramatic oratorio 'Benedictus' (1979 rev.1985),
has been widely performed. His concert music includes the comic opera 'The Station'
(1987 rev. 1992), the ballets 'The Annunciation' (1979) and Eva (1995), several
concertos, vocal works and chamber music. Music from 'The Snowman' (1982) for
narrator, boy soprano and orchestra first achieved enormous popularity through its
use in a short animated film (1982) of the same name.
GROVE DICTIONARY OF MUSIC AND MUSICIANS
A garland of British light music composers
Howard Blake has achieved fame as pianist, conductor and composer. He has written
concertos for clarinet, piano and violin, a piano quartet, and two trios, one for flute,
clarinet and piano, the other for piano, violin and cello, but all these, indeed all of
his output, is so fluently lyrical that he may properly be regarded as an heir to the
English light music tradition. In any event much of Blake's music is categorisable as
''light'' on any terms: the instrumental items 'Burlesca' for violin and piano, the
'Eight Character Pieces' and the suite, 'Party Pieces', both for piano, the orchestral
'Concert Dances' and some very attractive film music, eg for 'The Riddle of the Sands',
'Agatha' (about Agatha Christie's disappearance, though incredibly Blake's score was
not used) and of course 'The Snowman'.