Denis ApIvor

The modernist British composer (Trevor) Denis ApIvor was born to Welsh parents in County Westmeath, Ireland, on 14 April 1916. He studied composition with Alan Rawsthorne and Patrick Hadley.

Successful early works include a setting of T S Eliot's The Hollow Men (1939), an opera Yerma and several ballets.

ApIvor is well-known to guitarists, with works such as the Variations of 1959, Discanti from 1970 and Saeta (1972). In about 1960 ApIvor succumbed to the serialist movement, but returned to diatonic composition in the late 1980s. He died on 27 May 2004.