Peter Fribbins

Who is Peter Fribbins?

Peter Fribbins is a British composer. He studied music at the Royal Academy of Music, Royal Holloway and Nottingham universities, and composition with Hans Werner Henze in London and Italy.

A number of his key works are literary-inspired, and much of his music is for strings, notable exceptions being the early wind quintet 'In Xanadu' from 1992, 'Porphyria’s Lover' for flute and piano, and the clarinet and piano '...That Which Echoes in Eternity'. Of his two string quartets, the first is subtitled 'I Have the Serpent Brought' after lines by John Donne from his poem 'Twicknam Garden', and the second commissioned by the Chilingirian Quartet, subtitled 'After Cromer' since much of the thematic material is derived from the English hymn of the same name. Other chamber works for strings include two piano trios - the first, more substantial one premiered in Vienna in 2004, and the latter, an evocative single-movement piece entitled 'Softly, in the Dusk...' after the poem 'Piano' by D. H. Lawrence - a Cello Sonata commissioned by Raphael Wallfisch and John York and the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings. There are also songs and various smaller instrumental works.