{{Short description|British musical arranger and choirmaster (1931–2021)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}} {{Use British English|date=June 2021}} {{Infobox person/Wikidata|fetchwikidata=ALL|noicon=on|dateformat=dmy}}
'''Gwyn Arch''' {{postnom|country=GBR|MBE}} (4 May 1931 – June 2021) was a British musical arranger, composer, and choir director.<ref name="k809"/>
==Early life== Arch was born in Southampton on 4 May 1931, to a Welsh father.<ref name="Hebu">{{cite web |title=Gwyn Arch {{!}} composer |url=https://www.hebu-music.com/en/musician/gwyn-arch.38834/ |website=www.hebu-music.com |access-date=8 June 2021}}</ref> He grew up in Birmingham and then Ipswich, where he attended secondary school.<ref name="Hebu" /> His mother was a poet, and his father worked as a missionary to deaf and dumb people.<ref name="k809">{{cite news| title=Gwyn Arch — April 5, 1931-June 6, 2021 | work=Henley Standard|first=Liz|last=Harrison | date=5 July 2021 | url=https://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/sonning-common/163531/gwyn-arch-april-5-1931-june-6-2021.html | access-date=13 October 2025}}</ref><ref name="k910">{{cite magazine | title=In celebration of Gwyn Arch, MBE|work=Caversham Bridge|page=16| url=https://rga-artists.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/CB_September_2021_Edition-compressed.pdf | access-date=13 October 2025}}</ref> After national service he studied English at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge.<ref name="HS1">{{cite news |title=The man who made music come alive |url=https://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/music/70627/The-man-who-made-music-come.html |access-date=8 June 2021 |work=Henley Standard}}</ref><ref name="GM">{{cite web |title=Gwyn Arch |url=https://www.goodmusicpublishing.co.uk/composer/gwyn-arch |publisher=Good Music |access-date=8 June 2021}}</ref> He played in jazz bands there and at Wadham College, Oxford,<ref name="GM" /> where he took a postgraduate diploma in education.<ref name="k809"/><ref name="k910"/><ref name="HS1" />
==Career== Arch taught English at Rickmansworth Grammar School for nine years, studying musical composition at Trinity College London in his spare time.<ref name="GM" /> He was director of music at Bulmershe College from 1964 to 1985.<ref name="HS2">{{cite news |title=Our boy's the musical star of Strictly but hates fame |url=https://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/sonning-common/103360/our-boy-s-the-musical-star-of-strictly-but-hates-fame.html |access-date=8 June 2021 |work=Henley Standard}}</ref><ref name="Singers">{{cite web |title=Gwyn Arch - arranger, choral director biography |url=https://www.singers.com/arrangers/Gwyn-Arch/ |website=Singers.com |access-date=8 June 2021}}</ref> In the 1960s he arranged music for BBC Home Service radio programmes for schools, and in the 1970s, he made several appearances, as a conductor, on the BBC Television programme ''Seeing and Believing''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gwyn Arch |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?adv=0&q=Gwyn%20Arch+&media=all&yf=1923&yt=2009&mf=1&mt=12&tf=00%3A00&tt=00%3A00#search |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210608204338/https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?adv=0&q=Gwyn%20Arch+&media=all&yf=1923&yt=2009&mf=1&mt=12&tf=00:00&tt=00:00#search |url-status=dead |archive-date=8 June 2021 |website=BBC Genome |access-date=8 June 2021}}</ref>
In 1969 the publishers B. Feldman asked Arch to contribute to the ''Pop Cantata'' school music genre established by its rival Novello and Co., in works such as ''The Daniel Jazz'' (by Herbert Chappell) and ''Jonah-man Jazz'' (by Michael Hurd). Setting a text by his colleague Patrick Rooke, Arch composed ''Creation Jazz'', a lively account of how God created the world. It is a fifteen minute work of seven songs linked by recitative sections. It was broadcast by BBC Television on 1 February 1970.<ref name=dc>David Chandler. 'Appalling Popularity! The Daniel Jazz and the Cultural Phenomenon of the Pop Cantata, 1960-1971', in ''British Music'', Vol 47 (2025), pp. 11-26</ref>
He was musical director of the South Chiltern Choral Society for almost 50 years, retiring in 2014.<ref>{{cite news |title=Fond farewell to retiring musical director of the South Chiltern Choral Society |url=https://www.getreading.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/fond-farewell-retiring-musical-director-7410946 |access-date=8 June 2021 |work=BerkshireLive |date=2014-07-11 }}</ref> In 1971 he established the Reading Male Voice Choir and served as the choir's musical director until 2015.<ref name="Singers" /> He was a Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music, a Composition Fellow of Trinity College London, and for ten years an Associated Board examiner.<ref name="Singers" /> His oeuvre includes many arrangements of choral works and songs, in a wide variety of genres, for mixed (SATB), male (TTBB), and female (SSA) choirs.<ref name="Singers" /><ref>{{cite web | title=Helbling Publishing (search for "Gwyn Arch") | url=https://www.helblingpublishing.com/?pagename=search&search=Gwyn+Arch}}</ref> He marketed many of his arrangements for male voice choirs as sheet music via his company Grove Music.{{efn|Not to be confused with the Grove Dictionary of Music.}}<ref>{{cite web |title=TTBB Music for Male Voice Choirs |url=http://www.malechoirmusic.co.uk/ |publisher=Grove Music |access-date=8 June 2021}}</ref>
==Honours== Arch was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2006 Birthday Honours, for services to music in Berkshire.<ref name="Singers" /><ref>{{London Gazette |date=17 June 2006 |issue=58014 |page=14 |supp=1}}</ref>
The Gwyn Arch Foundation was launched in his memory on 9 April 2022 at a celebration concert featuring several of the choirs he founded. It aims "to support the development and performance of choral music by and for young people within the Thames Valley".<ref>{{cite web | title=Gwyn Arch Foundation|url=http://gwynarchfoundation.org.uk}}</ref>
==Personal life== Arch met Jane, subsequently a head teacher, when he was at Oxford University, where he was musical director of the Experimental Theatre Club and she was in the choir.<ref name="HS2" /> They married two years later, and moved to Sonning Common in 1964.<ref name="HS2" /> Their elder son David Arch is a conductor, arranger and composer and the musical director on the BBC Television show ''Strictly Come Dancing''.<ref name="HS2" />
Arch died on 6 June 2021.<ref name="k809"/><ref name="k910"/>
==Notes== {{Notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.gwynarchfoundation.org.uk/ Gwyn Arch Foundation]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Arch, Gwyn}} Category:1931 births Category:2021 deaths Category:British choral conductors Category:20th-century British composers Category:21st-century British composers Category:Musicians from Birmingham, West Midlands Category:Musicians from Ipswich Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:Teachers of English Category:Alumni of Trinity College of Music Category:Alumni of Selwyn College, Cambridge Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford Category:People from South Oxfordshire District Category:Military personnel from Southampton Category:20th-century British military personnel