Archibald James (Archie) Potter (1918 – July 5, 1980) was an Irish composer and teacher, who wrote hundreds of works including operas, a mass, and four ballets, as well as orchestral and chamber music.
Potter was born in Belfast to a Presbyterian family who, oddly, lived on the Falls Road, a republican stronghold. His father was a church organist and piano tuner who was blind since childhood. His mother was, in Potter's own words, "a raging alcoh...
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Archibald James (Archie) Potter (1918 – July 5, 1980) was an Irish composer and teacher, who wrote hundreds of works including operas, a mass, and four ballets, as well as orchestral and chamber music.
Potter was born in Belfast to a Presbyterian family who, oddly, lived on the Falls Road, a republican stronghold. His father was a church organist and piano tuner who was blind since childhood. His mother was, in Potter's own words, "a raging alcoholic". The young Potter escaped a rather grim childhood when he went to live with an aunt in Kent, England.
Possessed of a good voice and natural musical ability, Potter was accepted as a treble by the world-famous choir of All Saints, Margaret Street. In 1933, after four years as a chorister, he was sent to Clifton College, Bristol. From there he went to the Royal College of Music on a scholarship and studied composition under Vaughan Williams.
World War II interrupted Potter's music education and he left college to serve with the London...
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