Reginald Smith Brindle

Reginald Smith Brindle(b Bamber Bridge, 5 Jan 1917). English composer and writer on music. His first professional training was in architecture, but this was cut short by war service, which took him to Africa and then to Italy.

He won first prize in the Rome Army Arts Festival of 1946 with his Fantasia passacaglia. From 1946 to 1949, unable to find a place on a degree course in architecture, he studied music at the University College of North Wales, Bangor. He pursued his studies in composition in Italy, with Pizzetti at the Accademia di S Cecilia and with Dallapiccola, and felt drawn to the school of Florentine 12-note composers, which included such figures as Bartolozzi, Bussotti and Berio. He spent much of his time in that country during the following years, also working for Italian radio. He returned to Bangor to take up a university teaching appointment in 1967 and remained there until 1970, when he became professor of music at the University of Surrey, retiring in 1985.