Wilfred Josephs

(b Newcastle upon Tyne, 24 July 1927). English composer. He studied with Nieman at the Guildhall School (1954-6) and Deutsch in Paris (1958-9). His large, varied output is fundamentally tonal, strongly willed and often in standard forms (nine symphonies, concertos, much chamber music). His largest works include the Jewish Requiem (1963), the oratorio Mortales (1969) and the opera Rebecca (1983).

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• Born: July 24, 1927, Newcastle, England
• Died: November 17, 1997, London, England
• Genres: Soundtrack

Biography

Wilfred Josephs was a composer whose career carried him from the concert hall to the movie and television soundstage. Born in Newcastle in 1927, he prepared for a career as a dentist but never abandoned an early and abiding interest in music. He continued to study music and compose even as he kept a dental practice going, and it was only in 1963, when his requiem won the first prize in the La Scala Competition in Milan, that he turned to music as an occupation at age 36. A prolific composer with a lyrical style that flew in the face of the atonalism and dissonance that was fashionable in academic circles, Josephs enjoyed a steady string of commissions from arts organizations throughout England and the former Empire, right into the late '90s. His output for the concert hall over the next 34 years included a dozen symphonies, 22 concertos, and a large body of concert overtures, songs, and chamber music, and he also authored several operas and ballets.

His style and prolificacy also made him ideal as a film and television composer. Although he came to the movie industry long after British film production had peaked, he worked on more than a dozen films from the early '60s through the mid-'80s; rock music fans may well have noted Josephs' score while watching the cult-thriller classic The Deadly Bees (1966) for the appearance of the British rock band the Birds. His work in television eventually came to include such high-profile, internationally distributed productions as I, Claudius and All Creatures Great and Small, both of which became hits in America on PBS' Masterpiece Theatre. His greatest exposure over time, however, may have been from one of the shortest-lived commercial television series in history -- The Prisoner, which was planned to run (and did run) only 17 episodes, but which has been reshown almost continuously since 1967. Josephs, in tandem with Ron Grainer and Albert Elms, was one of three composer/arrangers responsible for scoring the 17 episodes of the series.

He died in 1997 at the age of 60, after a period of declining health -- he never saw Silva Screen Records' three CDs of music from The Prisoner, which came out in 2002 and 2003 and gave Josephs as much exposure as any project of his career. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide

• Died: 1997 11
• Active: '60s-'70s
• Major Genres: Drama, Horror
• Career Highlights: All Creatures Great and Small, Callan, Robinson Crusoe
• First Major Screen Credit: Cash on Demand (1962)

Biography

Born in Newcastle in 1927, Wilfred Josephs had a deep and abiding interest in music as a boy, but hedged his bets by studying dentistry, as well, when he reached college. He continued to study music and composed in his spare time while maintaining a dental practice; his first film assignment, in 1961, from Hammer (for the thriller Cash on Demand), came while he was still spending most of his days treating people's teeth. In 1963, after winning First Prize in the La Scala Competition in Milan, he finally began pursuing music full-time, and was never lacking for commissions or film and television assignments over the next three and a half decades. Josephs' lyrical style made his music accessible to concert audiences and attracted the attention of movie and television producers alike. In between dozens of concert works, ballets, and operas, he also wrote numerous movie and television scores, from thrillers such as The Deadly Bees (1967) to high-profile television miniseries like I, Claudius and All Creatures Great and Small, though his most visible work may have been his contribution to the series The Prisoner, alongside Ron Grainer and Albert Elms. It was Josephs' music -- though ultimately replaced in the final released version -- that graced the "alternate version" of the series' second episode, "The Chimes of Big Ben," which was shown to overseas network and syndication representatives when the series was in production and still being sold by the producers for its first run. That music has been reissued several times on soundtrack LPs and CDs. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

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