Philip Christian Darnton (1905–1981), now known principally as the author of the handbook You and Music, has long remained one of the more shadowy figures in the British musical renaissance. His tantalisingly brief and infrequent appearances in studies of other composers almost give him the status of a ‘contemporary legend’ (to borrow the subtitle of his opera, Fantasy Fair). My doctoral thesis was the first full-scale attempt to establish Darnton’s place in his own time and ascertain his position in the twentieth century as a whole. His extraordinary life encompassed contributions to left-wing theatre, contemporary propaganda, British and Canadian documentary films, a creative partnership with the poet Randall Swingler, a number of literary portrayals in the works of Nigel Balchin and a working relationship with many of the most significant composers of the last century, including Berners, Britten, Alan Bush, Lambert, Lutyens, Rawsthorne and Stravinsky.

In addition to rare material generously made available by Darnton’s immediate family and the pivotal holdings of the British Library, other material has also come to light from international collections and I hope to publish these findings in due course. However, a substantial number of Darnton’s manuscripts are lost, destroyed or otherwise unavailable, while several more are incomplete, existing in only short score at best. Very few of his works were published, while performances and broadcasts were never frequent, since his political views often prevented further dissemination. I shall always be delighted to hear from anyone with personal reminiscences of the composer or other relevant information, since I am sure that other manuscripts of his are still extant —  somewhere.

The quotation on the website banner is taken from Darnton’s incidental music for a puppet-play, Polyphemus (c.1944): the score is both amusing and outrageous and includes a fugue for three owls.