Giles Swayne (1946)

Giles Swayne

Giles Swayne, full name Giles Oliver Cairnes Swayne, is a British composer.

Swayne began composing music at an early age, receiving his musical training at Ampleforth College and the University of Cambridge, and then at the Royal Academy of Music. He wrote a series of relatively small pieces, mostly aimed at children or amateurs, which explored ways of conveying complex musical thought as simply as possible.

Swayne's stylistic approach to virtuosic simplicity is noted in his Symphony for Small Orchestra and Naaotwa Lala, his Mozart chamber opera The Wedding of Cherubino, written in 1984. Many other works in various genres followed, including "Silent Land" for cello and 40-part choir, Symphony No. 1 - "Small World," String Quartet No. 4 and others.