Biography
Composer Elizabeth Poston gained recognition for her contributions to hymns, carols, and incidental scores written for both cinema and radio. She produced additional works in the song and chamber genres while earning acclaim through her work as a radio presenter and through her role overseeing multiple music collections released by Penguin Books.
Born on October 24, 1905, in Stevenage within England’s Hertfordshire county, Poston passed part of her youth at the historic Rooks Nest House, the childhood residence of novelist E.M. Forster that later appeared in his book Howard’s End. She received piano instruction from Howard Samuels at Queen Margaret’s School before enrolling at London’s Royal Academy of Music, where Julius Harrison guided her composition studies. Ralph Vaughan Williams and Peter Warlock also offered her support during this period. After completing her studies in 1925, she saw her Violin Sonata aired on BBC radio three years later, and several of her songs appeared in print toward the end of the decade. Drawn to the growing emphasis on folk elements within British music, Poston joined collecting trips across various nations throughout the 1930s. She continued performing on keyboard instruments, introducing Walter Leigh’s Concertino for harpsichord and strings in 1934.
From 1939 to 1945, with a further appearance in 1947, Poston became a regular presence on BBC broadcasts, directing musical programming that aided wartime objectives. She supplied incidental music for the BBC 3 service launch ceremonies featuring John Milton’s masque Comus. In the years after the war she created numerous scores for radio dramas, among them works by poet Dylan Thomas, along with several pieces intended for the screen. Between 1955 and 1961 she served as president of the Society of Women Musicians. Among her lasting choral pieces are the still frequently heard carols The Boar’s Head Carol, composed in 1960, and Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, written in 1967, as well as larger-scale vocal compositions. She prepared or shared editorial duties on the two volumes of The Penguin Book of Christmas Carols and on The Penguin Book of American Folksongs alongside Alan Lomax, and she also prepared the 1970 edition of The Cambridge Hymnal. Poston died at Rooks Nest House on March 18, 1987. Although many of her roughly three hundred compositions remain little explored, the St. Albans Cathedral Girls Choir released an album titled Carols and Anthems on the Naxos label in 2023.
Born on October 24, 1905, in Stevenage within England’s Hertfordshire county, Poston passed part of her youth at the historic Rooks Nest House, the childhood residence of novelist E.M. Forster that later appeared in his book Howard’s End. She received piano instruction from Howard Samuels at Queen Margaret’s School before enrolling at London’s Royal Academy of Music, where Julius Harrison guided her composition studies. Ralph Vaughan Williams and Peter Warlock also offered her support during this period. After completing her studies in 1925, she saw her Violin Sonata aired on BBC radio three years later, and several of her songs appeared in print toward the end of the decade. Drawn to the growing emphasis on folk elements within British music, Poston joined collecting trips across various nations throughout the 1930s. She continued performing on keyboard instruments, introducing Walter Leigh’s Concertino for harpsichord and strings in 1934.
From 1939 to 1945, with a further appearance in 1947, Poston became a regular presence on BBC broadcasts, directing musical programming that aided wartime objectives. She supplied incidental music for the BBC 3 service launch ceremonies featuring John Milton’s masque Comus. In the years after the war she created numerous scores for radio dramas, among them works by poet Dylan Thomas, along with several pieces intended for the screen. Between 1955 and 1961 she served as president of the Society of Women Musicians. Among her lasting choral pieces are the still frequently heard carols The Boar’s Head Carol, composed in 1960, and Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, written in 1967, as well as larger-scale vocal compositions. She prepared or shared editorial duties on the two volumes of The Penguin Book of Christmas Carols and on The Penguin Book of American Folksongs alongside Alan Lomax, and she also prepared the 1970 edition of The Cambridge Hymnal. Poston died at Rooks Nest House on March 18, 1987. Although many of her roughly three hundred compositions remain little explored, the St. Albans Cathedral Girls Choir released an album titled Carols and Anthems on the Naxos label in 2023.