Gordon Langford

Gordon Langford ( MAY 1930 in Edgware / London as Gordon Colman ) is a British composer and arranger.

Life and work

Gordon Langford was already impressed at the early age of the music. At the age of nine years, his first composition was performed in public. At age eleven, he appeared for the first time with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K. 488, publicly. At age 17, he won the Middlesex Fellowship from the Royal Academy of Music, after which he studied music in piano, trombone and composition there. He spent his military service in the Royal Artillery Band in Woolwich. With this orchestra, there was also his first BBC broadcast live as a solo pianist in 1951. In the 1960s, Langford worked as pianist, arranger and composer for the BBC.

In 1971 he won an Ivor Novello award for his March from the Colour Suite ( 1970).

Langford wrote several original compositions for brass band and for the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. Often he was also with the orchestration of film scores such as Indiana Jones - Raiders of the Lost Ark or Superman II - commissioned Alone against all (both original compositions by John Williams), and other great composers like Henry Mancini or Jerry Goldsmith.

He now lives in East Devon.

Works (selection)

• Divertimento for Saxophone Quartet
• London Miniatures for Brass Ensemble
• A Secret Serenade for Violin, Piano and Cello
• A French Folk Song Suite for String Quartet and String Orchestra
• Four Scottish Impressions for Clarinet and Piano