Patrick John Morris

Who is Patrick John Morris?

Patrick John Morris was a British composer, musician, and songwriter.

He was educated at Highgate School, Guildhall School of Music, the Royal Academy of Music, and University College London, where he obtained a degree in philosophy.

Disillusioned with contemporary classical music in the style of Stockhausen and Boulez, he developed a style that one critic has called "residual", a label he accepted. He described his main musical influences as Erik Satie and Brian Eno, whom he rated as the most important composers of the twentieth century.

He placed his works into three groups, piano music, instrumental pieces and songs. For the songs he set poems to music and sang them, verses by A. E. Housman, W. E. Henley, Walter de la Mare and other well-known poets, and particularly the Australian-born poet Vicki Raymond. From about 1990 he wrote and sang his own songs, mysterious poems evoking an atmosphere of mortality, lonely, marginalised characters, and wistful melancholy.

He gave regular concerts in St Michael's Church, Highgate. His music has been played on Radio 3, he has performed in Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.