Anthony Edward Payne (1936–2021) was an English composer, music critic, and musicologist whose career spanned over five decades. Born in London, Payne studied music at Durham University before launching his professional composing career in the late 1960s. His early work, such as the choral and brass piece Phoenix Mass (1969), was characterized by a staunchly modernist aesthetic. Over time, however, Payne's style evolved to synthesize this modernism with the English romantic tradition of figures like Edward Elgar, Frederick Delius, and Ralph Vaughan Williams, a blend described by colleagues as "modernized nostalgia."
Payne is perhaps most widely recognized for his monumental task of completing Edward Elgar's unfinished Third Symphony. Released to critical acclaim, Payne's elaboration of Elgar's sketches successfully integrated the work into the late composer's official canon. Beyond this achievement, Payne was a prolific composer of chamber music, much of it written for his wife, the soprano Jane Manning, and their new music ensemble, Jane's Minstrels. He also received several prestigious commissions for the BBC Proms, including orchestral works like The Spirit's Harvest (1985), Time's Arrow (1990), and Of Land, Sea and Sky (2016).
Alongside his composition, Payne maintained an active career as an academic, music critic, and author. He held teaching posts at institutions worldwide, including the London College of Music and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. To supplement his composing income, he wrote music criticism for major publications such as The Daily Telegraph and The Independent. His musicological output includes an influential 1968 study on Arnold Schoenberg and extensive writings on the composer Frank Bridge, whose work Payne championed throughout his life.
