What is William Walton?
[[File:William Walton by Maurice Lambert 02.jpg|thumb|A bronze [[Statue|bust]] of William Walton]] [[Knight Bachelor|Sir]] '''William Walton''' [[OM]], (born [[Oldham]], 29 March 1902; died [[Ischia]], [[Italy]], 8 March 1983) was a [[United Kingdom|British]] [[composer]] and [[Conducting|conductor]]. He was one of the most important British composers of the mid-[[20th century]], a period that included [[Benjamin Britten]] and [[Michael Tippett]]. His music has very lively [[rhythm]]s which are often [[jazz]]y. == Early years == Walton’s family were musical but they had very little money. Both his parents sang, and Walton sang in the local church choir. His father would hit him if he made a mistake. This may be why in later life he was so careful about every note he wrote. At the age of ten he joined the [[choir]] of [[Christ Church Cathedral]] in [[Oxford]]. He learned the [[piano]] and [[violin]]. He was only 16 years when he went to [[University of Oxford|Oxford University]] where he was at [[Christ Church, Oxford]]. Most of what he knew about composing he taught himself. He studied the [[score (music)|scores]] of works by [[Igor Stravinsky]], [[Claude Debussy]], [[Jean Sibelius]] and others. He had some lessons from [[Hugh Allen]], the cathedral organist. At Oxford Walton became friends with two poets: [[Sacheverell Sitwell]] and [[Siegfried Sassoon]]. Most of the music he wrote when he was very young has been lost, but the choral anthem ''A Litany'', written when he was just fifteen, shows his musical talent with its modern [[harmony|harmonies]]. Walton left Oxford in 1920 without a degree, having failed his exams three times. He went to live with the Sitwell family, who introduced him to many important people, including the composer [[Constant Lambert]] and song writer [[Noel Coward]]. He also travelled with the Sitwells to [[Italy]]. In 1923, he set one of Edith Sitwell’s poems to music. The piece was called ''Façade''. The music was very jazzy and almost [[joke]]y, and it sounded very modern to many p