Inglis Gundry

Inglis Gundry (8 May 1905 – 13 April 2000) was an English composer, novelist, musicologist, music pedagogue and writer. He is particularly remembered for his operas and for his numerous books; not only on music, but on a broad array of historical subjects. For five decades he lectured on music appreciation for WEA London and also taught on the music faculties at the University of Cambridge, the University of London, and the University of Surrey.

Born in Wimbledon to parents of Cornish descent, Gundry had a passion for Cornish culture and played an instrumental role in preserving Cornish folk songs and carols with the publication of Canow Kernow: Songs and Dances of Cornwall (1966). He had previously been named a bard of the Gorsedh Kernow in 1952.

Gundry was educated at Rokeby and Mill Hill School, where he was scholar. Following this, Gundry studied classics and philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford, law at Middle Temple, and worked for a few years as a barrister before pursuing music studies at the Royal College of Music in 1935 where he was a pupil of Gordon Jacobs (orchestration), R. O. Morris (counterpoint), and Ralph Vaughan Williams (composition). He achieved his first success as a composer in 1936 when his String Quartet was awarded the Cobbett Prize. His first of several novels, The Countess' Penny, was published in 1934.

In 1938 Gundry wrote his first opera Naaman, The Leprosy of War which remains unperformed. He went on to write 12 more operas, including The Logan Rock which premiered at the Minack Theatre on the cliffs at Porthcurno in 1956 with mezzo Edith Coates and conductor Marcus Dods. His eighth opera The Prince of Coxcombs won Morley College's opera composition contest in 1960. His final opera, Galileo, was written in 1996.

Gundry served in the Royal Navy during World War II and survived the torpedoing of the HMS Welshman (M84) on 1 February 1943. Later that year his orchestral suite Heyday Freedom from his opera Return of Odysseus was featured in a performance at The Proms. After the war, he worked as music advisor to the Admiralty's education department and edited The Naval Songbook.

During the second half of his life, Gundry became a committed Christian with what he described as "growing conviction". This interest informed some of his activities as both a writer and musician. In 1960 he co-founded the Sacred Music Drama Society in London with whom he conducted concerts of medieval dramas at Easter and Christmas into the 1980s. His last book, Composers by the Grace of God (1998), examined the role that Christianity played in the lives of many of Western music's greatest composers.

Gundry died in London at the age of 94 and is buried at St. Paul's Church, Mill Hill.