Though he composed his share of “serious” music, Joseph Horovitz was not afraid to go popular, light, or even ridiculous. In fact, my first exposure to his work was through the “Horrortorio,” composed for one of the Hoffnung Music Festival concerts. Gerard Hoffnung’s whimsical series enlisted top-flight English musicians to let down their hair and embrace their lunatic side, in skewering staid classical music conventions. The “Horrortorio,” a response to Hammer Films’ lurid resurrections of classic monsters, relates the wedding of Dracula’s daughter to Frankenstein’s son, in the context of a faux oratorio. Horovitz spoofs Baroque standards by Bach and Handel, William Walton’s “Belshazzar’s Feast,” and the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas.

To a broader audience, he was perhaps best known for his theme music to “Rumpole of the Bailey,” the British television series starring Leo McKern.

The composer’s family, Jewish, fled Vienna following the Anschluss and settled in England in 1938. Horovitz’s musical studies began at New College, Oxford, where he also pursued modern languages. Later, he attended the Royal College of Music, where among his teachers was Gordon Jacob. Then he was off to Paris for further studies with Nadia Boulanger.

Horovitz was appointed music director at the Bristol Old Vic in 1950. He was also a conductor of opera and ballet, who toured widely.

His alma mater, New College, Oxford, recently celebrated his 95th birthday with streamed performances of his 4th and 5th String Quartets.

Among Horovitz’s other works were 16 ballets, including “Alice in Wonderland,” and several operas, including one based on the classic Garbo film “Ninotchka.” As an Edgar Rice Burroughs fan, I was also interested to discover that he composed the score for “Tarzan’s Three Challenges” (1963), with Jock Mahoney – at 44 the oldest Tarzan on film!

In addition, he wrote nine concertos, including one for euphonium and a “Jazz Concerto” for piano, strings, and percussion.

His children’s pop cantata, so-called, “Captain Noah and His Floating Zoo,” was widely embraced by amateur performers.

Horovitz died on Wednesday. He was 95 years-old.

“Rumpole of the Bailey”

The first three videos in this playlist comprise his Sonatina for Clarinet and Piano

The Euphonium Concerto

“Alice in Wonderland”: Lobster Quadrille and Grand Waltz

“Tarzan’s Three Challenges”

The String Quartet No. 5

The “Horrortorio”

The notorious and uproarious Hoffnung Music Festival

Joseph Horovitz speaks