born July 15, 1934, Accrington, Lancashire, Eng.
British composer.
He began as a clarinetist, shifting to composition in his 20s. He cofounded the Pierrot Players with Peter Maxwell Davies (1967) but felt limited by the group's size. He concentrated on exploring large-scale time structures; his music's form is controlled by complex cyclical principles that he declined to discuss. His works include the theatre pieces Punch and Judy (1966–67), The Mask of Orpheus (1973–86), and Gawain (1991), and the orchestral works The Triumph of Time (1972), Silbury Air (1977), and Secret Theatre (1984).