Gerard Victory was a prolific Irish

Irish people

The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, writing over two hundred works across many genres and styles including tonal

Tonality

Tonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center", or tonic. The term tonalité originated with Alexandre-Étienne Choron and was borrowed by François-Joseph Fétis in 1840...

, serial

Serialism

In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...

, aleatoric

Aleatoric music

Aleatoric music is music in which some element of the composition is left to chance, and/or some primary element of a composed work's realization is left to the determination of its performer...

 and electroacoustic music

Electroacoustic music

Electroacoustic music originated in Western art music during its modern era following the incorporation of electric sound production into compositional practice. The initial developments in electroacoustic music composition during the mid-20th century are associated with the activities of composers...

.

Biography

Victory was born in Dublin, Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 in 1921. After schooling, he read Celtic Studies

Celt

The Celts were a diverse group of tribal societies in Iron Age and Roman-era Europe who spoke Celtic languages.The earliest archaeological culture commonly accepted as Celtic, or rather Proto-Celtic, was the central European Hallstatt culture , named for the rich grave finds in Hallstatt, Austria....

 at University College, Dublin and Music at Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin

Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...

, earning a doctorate in 1972. In terms of composition, Victory was mostly self-taught, although he received some formal training from John Larchett, Alan Rawsthorne

Alan Rawsthorne

Alan Rawsthorne was a British composer. He was born in Haslingden, Lancashire, and is buried in Thaxted churchyard in Essex.-Career:...

 and Walter Beckett. He also attended the "International Summer Courses for New Music" in Darmstadt

Darmstadt

Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

.

Victory's career was primarily in music administration, serving as Director of Music for Ireland's national broadcasting station RTÉ

Raidió Teilifís Éireann

Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...

 from 1967 to 1982. He was a president of UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

's International Rostrum of Composers

International Rostrum of Composers

The International Rostrum of Composers is an annual forum organized by the International Music Council that offers broadcasting representatives the opportunity to exchange and publicize pieces of contemporary classical music...

, a Fellow of the Royal Irish Academy of Music

Royal Irish Academy of Music

The Royal Irish Academy of Music is a linked college of Dublin City University located in Dublin, Ireland.It was founded in 1848 by a group of music enthusiasts and moved to its present address in Westland Row in 1871. The following year it was granted the right to use the title "Royal"...

 and a recipient of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

The Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...

 and German Bundesverdienstkreuz

Bundesverdienstkreuz

The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany is the only general state decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has existed since 7 September 1951, and between 3,000 and 5,200 awards are given every year across all classes...

. .

A few years before his death, Victory was asked the old question of which one work he would choose to survive his others. He chose his Symphony No. 3 (1984), which as of 2006 had been published but not recorded commercially.

He died in Dublin aged 73, on 14 March 1995.

Orchestral

1991	Eblana	45'
1988	Symphony No. 4	21'
1984	Symphony No. 3	40'
1982	Five Inventions	14'
1981	Six Epiphanies of the Author	30'
1980	Three Irish Pictures	12'
1973	From Renoir's Workshop	18'
1970	Cyrano de Bergerac Overture	7'
1966	Favola di Notte	13'

Ensemble

1990	Moresca	violin, cello, harp	9'
1985	Commedia	2 trumpets, horn, trombone, tuba	13'
1982	String Trio	violin, viola, cello	22'

Solo piano

1979	Verona Preludes	22'
1966	Cinque Correlazioni	10'
1965	Three Masks	9'
1962	Prelude and Toccata	8'

Vocal

1994	The Wooing of Éadaoin	children's opera	20'
1991	Responsibilities	SATB choir	13'
1991	Seasons of Eros	baritone, piano	25'
1989	The Rendezvous	soloists, orchestra	60'
1984	Songs from Lyonnesse	SATB choir	23'
1978	Seven Songs of Experience	soloists, SATB choir	23'
1975-1981	Ultima Rerum	soloists, two choirs, orchestra	82'
1975	Cinq Chansons de Rimbaud	soprano, piano	18'
1970	The Magic Trumpet	speaker, ensemble	15'
1968	Civitas Nova	soloists, SATB choir, organ	12'
1967	Kriegsleider	tenor, SATB choir, trumpet, percussion	14'
1962	Le Petit Cerf	soprano, SATB choir	6'

Operas

1972	Eloise and Abelard	opera
1970	Chatterton	opera
1964	The Music hath Mischief	opera
1956	Iomrall Aithne	opera
1953	An fear a phós balbhán	opera
1949	Once upon a Moon	opera
1944	Nita	opera

Mixed media

1973-1975

Processus

mixed choir, brass, percussion, pianos, tape

14'

Recordings

Three Irish Pictures
Songs from Lyonnesse
Ultima Rerum