Patrick Piggott

English composer, pianist and musicologist Patrick Piggott was born in Dover on 15 June 1915, and studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London - piano with Harold Craxton and composition with Benjamin Dale. Later he studied with Emile Bosquet, Nadia Boulanger and Julius Isserlis.

His work as a musicologist and author included The Life & Music of John Field 1782-1837 Creator of the Nocturne, the BBC Music Guide on Rachmaninov Orchestral Music and The Innocent Diversion - Music in the Life and Writings of Jane Austen.

Piggott died in Bristol on 9 May 1990, practically forgotten as a composer. There are no commercial recordings featuring his reputed virtuosity as a pianist, and until Malcolm Binns' 2010 CD of Piggott's piano music on the British Music Society label, no recordings of the composer's music were available. Binns' disk (BMS430CD) features two piano sonatas, eight preludes and a postlude.

A selection of articles about Patrick Piggott

Ensemble. No Sense or Sensibility - George Balcombe dismisses Patrick Piggott's book about music in the life and writings of Jane Austen