Ways of living abroad: The foreign composer in Britain after World War II

Abstract

The situation for emigre composers in Britain during World War II and afterwards was extremely complicated. British attitudes towards foreigners were highly ambivalent, and this was reflected institutionally, as the policies of the BBC at the time clearly show. This article reflects on the lives and legacy of five foreign composers, all very different from each other, who were, remarkably, discussed by Francis Routh in a book on British music he published in 1972. I attempt to situate these composers over the course of a longer period of time and ask whether such attitudes have in fact truly changed.