Trevor Hold (21 September 1939 – 28 January 2004) was an English composer, poet and author, best known for his song cycles, many of them setting his own poetry.
Hold was educated at Northampton Grammar School (1950–57), and went on to study at the University of Nottingham, where he completed a first class honours in music, followed by an MA.
After Liverpool, Hold settled with his family at Dovecote House in the village of Wadenhoe, East Northamptonshire, where he lived for over thirty years.
[4] An early success was the song cycle for soprano, baritone and chamber orchestra The Unreturning Spring (1962–3), setting seven poems by the wartime pilot- poet James Farrar, and showing the influence of Benjamin Britten.
Although he generally made little effort to promote himself as a composer outside of his local area, contact with the BBC in Birmingham led to a series of broadcasts of his song cycles with leading performers, including Gathered from the Field (words John Clare, 1977) and cycles setting his own words such as The Image Stays (1979), River Songs (1982) and Book of Beasts (1984).
The broadcast premiere of his Symphony No 1 on 8 April 1988 by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Odaline de la Martinez gave him a rare moment on the national stage.
[10] His four poetry collections - Time And The Bell (1971), Caught In Amber (1981), Mermaids And Nightingales (1991) and Chasing The Moon (2001) show the influence of John Clare and his description of the Northamptonshire landscape in local dialect.