LLOYD, George

Born in St Ives, Cornwall, June 28, 1913
Died in London, July 3, 1998

“I never wrote 12-tone music because I didn’t like the theory. I studied the blessed thing in the early 1930s and thought it was a cock-eyed idea that produced horrible sounds. It made composers forget how to sing.”¹

– George Lloyd

• George Lloyd was an English composer and conductor who became an icon for anti-modernism in classical music.
• Lloyd studied at Trinity College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music. By his late teens/ early twenties, he had composed his first symphony (Symphony No. 1, 1932)and his first opera (Iernin, 1933-34).
• Lloyd was highly inspired by Verdi in his writing, particularly in his operas.
• During WWII, Lloyd served with the Royal Marines as a bandsman. During a shipping accident, the composer was one of only four survivors and suffered from oil ingestion and shell shock (not to mention trauma).
  • Following his recovery from the war, Lloyd intermittently composed while also working as a market gardener in Dorset. About 20 years later, in 1973, he moved to London and once again took up composing full-time, with great success. The last 20 years were seen as a renaissance for the composer.²

Learn More

Biography from the George Lloyd Society (lots of photos!)
Short biography from BBC Music Magazine

1. “George Lloyd (1913 – 1998),” The George Lloyd Society, accessed April 25, 2023, https://georgelloyd.com/george-lloyd/george-lloyd-biography.
2. Lewis Foreman, “Lloyd, George,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed April 25, 2023, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000016822.