No 1: Out of the Depths - George Lloyd's Fourth Symphony
in which we discuss the origins of Lloyd's Fourth Symphony and his traumatic experience as a Royal Marine, serving in the brand-new battle cruiser HMS Trinidad, guarding the Arctic convoys in 1942. His ship was torpedoed, and he was the last man out of his compartment where seventeen men, including nine of his fellow musicians, were drowned in oil. He was hospitalised and then discharged from the Royal Navy on grounds of psychoneurosis. or PTSD as it is now called. His Swiss-Irish wife Nancy took a crash-course in psychology, using diet, exercise and a range of unconventional techniques including hypnosis, mantras, herbal remedies and homeopathy, together with some occult remedies including radiesthesia, dowsing, and spirit healing. After four years of intensive work to rehabilitate himself, in 1946 he was able to start writing again, and composed his magnificent Fourth Symphony.
