Victory (Thomas Joseph) Gerard (1921–95), composer and music producer, was born 24 December 1921 in Dublin, son of Thomas Victory, a small shopkeeper who had settled in Dublin and had business premises in Thomas Street, and his wife, Delia Victory (née Irwin), who came from Galway. The surname is not common in Ireland but it appears most frequently in Co. Longford, where the family's antecedents originated. Gerard, as he was known, was brought up in the capital in the earliest years of the Irish Free State. His secondary schooling took place in Belvedere College (1931–9); he then studied at both the city's universities, reading Celtic studies at UCD, from where he graduated in 1942, and music at TCD, where he completed his undergraduate studies in 1960 and doctorate in 1972. Victory enjoyed a varied career path as a civil servant and then as a music producer, culminating in the role of director of music for RTÉ from 1967 until 1982. He married Geraldine Herity in April 1948, and they raised five children: Alma (b. 1950), Fiona (b. 1952), Isolde (b. 1955), Raymond (b. 1958), and Alan (b. 1962).
As a composer Victory was largely self-taught, but he took occasional lessons with John Larchet (qv), Walter Beckett (qv), Alan Rawsthorne, and A. J. Potter (qv). In addition he attended the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt, where Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Bernd-Alois Zimmermann influenced him. His first essay in composition was his Short suite written for small ensemble, which he entered for the Oireachtas prize in 1939. Victory could write in many styles and the Three Irish pictures (1980), comprising ‘The blacksmith’, ‘The Irish hussar’, and ‘Revel in reeltime’, display a light and immediately accessible style but with characteristically clever orchestration. His short First Symphony won the Oireachtas prize in 1960. His eclectic approach and sense of humour can be detected in a number of works, including his ‘Concerto for accordion and orchestra’, which was written in 1968 for the Danish accordionist Mogens Ellegaard with funds provided by the Arts Council.
Victory's extensive output includes some eight operas and other dramatic works. The early operas are short and include two with Irish librettos: An fear a phós balbhán (‘The silent wife’; 1953), with a text by Tomás Mac Anna based on Rabelais, and Iomrall aithne (‘Mistaken identity’; 1956). His first full-length opera, Chatterton (1971), was broadcast on French radio. Victory also wrote musical dramas for children, including The magic trumpet (1970), described as ‘a musical fairytale’, and The tree of life (1991). The libretto of the late oratorio, Ultima rerum (1981), reveals the breadth of Victory's reading and interests. The stark opening of the Kyrie has archaic echoes, and is touched by Irish and eastern influences; it finds a counterpart in the alto's sparse introduction to the final movement, the Agnus Dei. The Dies irae is declaimed with great energy by the choir before the introduction of the soloists.
The literary impulse is discernible in a number of Victory's works, including his Six epiphanies of the author: a symphonic study in memory of James Joyce, which was written in 1982 on the centenary of the author's birth. Subtitled ‘a symphonic memorial to James Joyce’, it is an orchestral piece in six sections framed by prologue and epilogue. Its eclectic nature represents the variety evident in Joyce's (qv) writing. It was premièred in the National Concert Hall, Dublin, in February 1982 by the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra under Colman Pearse. The earlier symphonic portrait Jonathan Swift (1971) is one of his longer works and won particular acclaim. Another occasional work, Eblana, subtitled ‘a symphonic portrait of Dublin’, was written some two decades later, in 1991, and first performed in the Ulster Hall, Belfast, by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra conducted by Proinnsías Ó Duinn. The scope of Victory's interests is also evident in his compositional style, which ranged widely; one of his final creations was an exercise in electro-acoustic composition. He had a long association with the National Chamber Choir and this is reflected in a number of vocal scores.
Notwithstanding his professional and domestic commitments, Victory became a prolific and consistent creative voice and was widely celebrated. He served as president of UNESCO's International Rostrum of Composers (1981–3) and was a member of Aosdána, Ireland's state-supported academy of creative artists, from its inception in 1981. In addition, in 1975 he was made Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and awarded the Order of Merit by the French and German governments respectively. He was also the recipient of the Hamilton Harty (qv) bursary in 1981.
Victory died 14 March 1995 in Dublin. His papers are held in TCD, and certain scores can be accessed through the Contemporary Music Centre.
More information on this entry is available at the National Database of Irish-language biographies (Ainm.ie).