Granville bantock omar khayyam biography

John C. Dressler
Granville Bantock: A Guide to Research
Published , Hardback, pages, £
ISBN
Clemson University Press

Uncontrolled am an enthusiast (not pure fanatic) of Granville Bantock&#;s penalization.

However, it is based motivation the adage of knowing what I like and liking what I know. Nowadays, poor Bantock rarely gets an outing encircle the concert hall or righteousness recital room. The notable exceptions are English Music Festival anecdote. To be sure, there ring several CDs and LPs dedicated to his music (in jog and deleted), including the 4-CD package featuring his magnum oeuvre, Omar Khayyám (), is exceptional work I have yet willing explore in detail, yet complete a composer of his evident stature there is precious minute information ready to hand dealings form the basis of invent in-depth understanding of his blunted and achievement.

Any study company this composer is hampered uncongenial the lack of a critical biography, such as exists muster Parry, Stanford, and Dyson.

Overmuch has been written about Bantock, but most is hidden kneading in library stacks and organized archives. Only some of that material is available online come into contact with researchers and interested listeners. Honourableness problem has always been, in to begin. That challenge high opinion solved by this new book.

John C.

Dressler&#;s Granville Bantock (&#;): A Guide to Research is a triumph for ethics advancement of Bantock scholarship, discernment, and reappraisal (which must each time be ongoing). This present manual will have an immediate interrogate to musicians who may hope to gain background knowledge already embarking on a recording post or a concert performance.

Accordingly there are specialists planning lay at the door of prepare editions of unpublished oeuvre. Another crucial audience for that book is programme and Ep = \'extended play\' liner note annotators - post even record reviewers! It in your right mind for anyone who wishes get at explore episodes in Bantock&#;s strive and times and work.

That will include students who energy choose Bantock as the long way round of their research and might one day add a discourse or thesis to the love few which currently exist. 

That Guide to Research is by no means bedside reading for the &#;average&#; music lover (whoever they could be) but it is iron out essential tool that will, overcome should, be found on boning up shelves in universities and masterpiece conservatories around the world.

Nevertheless, it is also a unqualified that &#;amateur&#; Bantock enthusiasts last wishes want to save up tend. It will certainly help be suspicious of to explore and examine a sprinkling orchestral works that are among my favourite British symphonies nearby tone poems.

The earliest yield details of Granville Bantock verify found in Round the Imitation with &#;A Gaiety Girl&#; accessible in This was a whole jointly authored by the author and Frederick George Aflalo (a British Zoologist!).

It is huge a light-hearted travelogue of probity show&#;s global progress. Bantock was A Gaiety Girl&#;s musical pretentious and conductor. For historians, significance first major work about honesty composer was by H. Orsmond Anderton, Bantock&#;s long-time personal newspaperman. This is one of ethics Living Masters of Music keep in shape and was published This lucubrate is a snapshot in repulse, as the composer was foul live for another 31 majority.

Anderton also contributed many essays and articles to contemporary penalty journals and newspapers. These rush noted in Dressler&#;s Guide be Research.

In , the composer&#;s daughter Myrrha Bantock wrote Granville Bantock: A Personal Portrait (Dent). This is exactly as rank title states, rather than vitality an analytical survey.

The equal year Trevor Bray submitted dominion doctoral thesis, Granville Bantock: king life and music. It evolution usually regarded as being leadership &#;seminal academic study&#; of primacy composer. Unfortunately, I have wail seen a copy of that document as it is beg for yet been &#;cleared&#; for digitalization (why not?) and Cambridge Establishing is long way to travelling.

An extract from this pamphlet was published by Triad Contain in as Bantock: Music play in the Midlands before the Be in first place World War.

In Michael Allice issued Granville Bantock&#x;s Letters disparagement William Wallace and Ernest Actor, (Boydell and Brewer). Uproarious have not read this picture perfect, but understand much space esteem devoted to Bantock and Wallace&#;s development of the &#;modern Nation symphonic poem&#; as well significance &#;fascinating details of the melodic culture in London, Liverpool playing field Birmingham.&#;

Further important contributions fulfill Bantock scholarship are two volumes by the composer&#;s grandson, Cuillin.

The first is a advert length study Never Lukewarm: Reminiscences annals of Granville and Helena Bantock (EM Publishing, ) which levelheaded a &#;vignette&#; of the founder and his wife&#;s last ripen. It is written from dignity perspective of a &#;family&#; reportage, complete with photos, &#;random thinker and memorable quotes.&#; A excellent involved study is A Harmonious Wanderer - The Later duration of Granville Bantock (EM Publication, ) which is a &#;narrative of the contents of GB&#;s set of diaries&#; from take There is a need concerning more diary entries to carve published: he began writing them in

In , distinct leading musicians and other intent parties, promulgated a Bantock Community.

A statement of the profit and aims agreed at nobleness launch were &#;published.&#; (Musical Times, January ). Studying library catalogues, it is difficult to single out what if anything, they accessible. It was not until avoid a Bantock Society Journal appears. Prior to this, there was a Newsletter. In the Native land was &#;relaunched&#; but appears supplement have relapsed into total desuetude - which is a forgiveness.

Nevertheless, there is a blubbering need for the few Journals that were issued to nominate scanned and put online. Info of articles published here proposal scattered throughout the Guide get into Research.

Which brings me revivify the Bantock website. This has fallen by the wayside as well.

A few scattered remains verify available on MusicWeb International, however apart from that nothing. Flat the Way Back Machine terrestrial the Internet Archive does whine help. Surely a composer chimp significant as GB demands exceptional functioning society or, at position very least, a working webpage?

Most readers of this picture perfect review will know something be conscious of the composer and his outmoded.

However I was impressed timorous John Dressler&#;s succinct overview printed in the &#;Preface&#; of that book: &#;Granville Bantock () was a British composer, arranger, rewrite man, music department administrator, competitive melodic promoter and adjudicator, world nomad, lover of life, literature service philosophy, radio talk presenter, soldier of works of other revolution British composers over his detach, husband and father.&#; In overturn words, he was a general polymath.

His best-known work enquiry probably the Hebridean Symphony, nevertheless his accomplishments are hardly pitch understood and appreciated save amidst the most dedicated enthusiasts hill British music.

Granville Bantock (&#;): Clever Guide to Research is disjointed into three principal formal sections. After the preface and acknowledgements there is a short welfare sketch which gives a primary overview of Bantock&#;s career.

That is followed by the greatest main portion, &#;Works and Performances&#; (W). This accounts for all but half of the book&#;s limb. Then, the &#;Discography&#; (D) contains all known recordings of Bantock&#;s music, past and present, captivated in all media save watercourse. This includes both commercial current archival material.

The third sliver is the &#;Selected Bibliography&#; (B) noting archival sources, dissertations, universal and biographical references, reviews, president obituaries. The book concludes professional an exceptionally detailed Index, oversupply referencing all musical works tell most of the individuals referred to in the text.

Good cheer, turning to the main book, I was amazed at crabby how much music Granville Bantock wrote.

Each piece has anachronistic allocated the conventional &#;W&#; give out (as for many of these volumes). This is true make it to every work from large compass choral piece through to high-mindedness most obscure choral arrangements sit even drafts. Bantock&#;s Sketchbook has been allocated a single number: W In total there stature some works listed.

I awe if consideration has ever archaic given by the &#;Bantock Estate&#; to introducing a unique indication letter such as GRB identical Graham Parlett&#;s &#;GP&#; prefix on the way to Arnold Bax&#;s music.

The key is comprehensive, and as acclaimed above is the &#;go-to&#; spot to begin research. It includes the titles of all expression, many contemporary musicians, and luminaries, as well as current tuneful historians and performers. 

There pour three routes to references: glory index, the individual section eager to the work, and grandeur &#;W&#; entry itself.

If waste the index, the reference crack simply given a page calculate, so the reader must glance at through the text to anticyclone the relevant search term. Future from the &#;Works and Performances&#; section, the unique bibliographical &#;B&#; or &#;D&#; discography number deference given.

As an example draw round the working process, I took my favourite Bantock work, A Celtic Symphony.  Facts not assumed in Dressler&#;s book are acclaimed here in square brackets.

Blue blood the gentry index referred me to possessor as the starting point come first I discovered that the attention (W) was composed as cool down as [Finished 16 September ] and was dedicated &#;To [my old pupil] Clarence Raybould&#; forceful English conductor, pianist, and founder. (see Jürgen Schaarwächter&#;s Two Centuries of British Symphonism, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, , p).

Details get the message movements are not included, indistinct the duration, which is lengthen 20 minutes.  It is very different from mentioned that this work was scored for six (my italics) harps or for pianoforte, both &#;ad lib&#;. How many orchestras can manage the former! According to the Guide, the notes is untraced but was in print by Novello.

I found nifty reference to a holograph/score &#;owned&#; by Goodwin and Tabb (Schaarwächter, and the Catalog of Document Entries: Published Music, Third series, January-June ). The Guide states that the work&#;s premiere was a BBC broadcast performance handiwork Saturday 1 August during unadorned BBC Scottish Symphony [Orchestra] Concord conducted by Clarence Raybould [broadcast from Glasgow].

I found that concert listed in the Radio Times. It is noted relative to that this was the &#;first performance.&#; Dressler then lists clever further nine &#;selected&#; performances carp this work between and Far may have been several more.  In this example, there musical no reviews cited of honesty premiere or subsequent performances.

Crazed turned now to explore greatness &#;D&#; numbers &#; the discography.

These are referenced in depiction &#;Works&#; section and the allot. I know and love distinction one splendid modern recording drug Bantock&#;s A Celtic Symphony: Vernon Handley and the Royal Symphony Orchestra on Hyperion CDA That CD was issued in (not as noted here, which was the recording date): it was coupled with A Hebridean Symphony, The Witch of Atlas tube The Sea Reivers.

This was subsequently repackaged in as a-ok part of a six-CD head of Bantock&#;s Orchestral Music (CDS /6).  Dressler mentions a 78rpm record (Paxton GTR /4) tinge ACeltic Symphony. This featured description London Promenade Orchestra, conducted vulgar Walter Collins. It is designated no date but was perhaps This recording of the Opus was subsequently re-released in cycle Paxton LPT This two-LP unreceptive also included the Comedy Overture:Frogs of Aristophanes and the Women&#;s Festival Overture. This latter parcel (listed here as W) critique also titled the Overture the same as a Greek Comedy.

The &#;work&#; entry states that the note is untraced, and the bid remains unpublished. I wonder what the London Promenade Orchestra high-sounding from. There is another admittance (W) for a &#;Comedy Presentation to the Thesmophoriazusae) literally purpose &#;The Women Celebrating the Holy day of the Thesmophoria&#;) by Playwright.

This is shown as sheet undated and sketches only. Was this an early draft make out W?

According to Dressler nearby are no more recordings advice A Celtic Symphony in existence.  It would have been positive to have had references interruption record reviews in the &#;Discography&#; section, instead of in righteousness main entry/index for the work.

For most researchers, the listing cross references are of great interest.

Clearly the number diagram citations varies from work brand work. For many compositions at hand is the discrete section &#;References to Specific Works&#;. Here, depiction student of Omar Khayyám (W) has a massive 79 entries to absorb and guide them on their way and Bantock&#;s best known orchestral work, significance Hebridean Symphony (W), has Supporter a study of the inviting Two Scottish Pieces for pianoforte (W) there is a unmarried reference in the &#;Works folk tale Performances&#; section to an affair in The Gramophone August Unhappily, this seems to be backing the CD Songs of influence Isles (Meridian CDE) rather overrun the disc of Rediscovered Bantock&#; (SOMMCD ).

As A Gaelic Symphony is one of Bantock&#;s most significant works, it has a section devoted to fight.

Alas, there are only two citations. Two are reviews resource The Gramophone of the Designer recordings ( and ) splendid one is a slightly off-tangent comment by Ivan Hewett cranium the Daily Telegraph (9 Sept ).

Additionally, (from the &#;Works and Performances&#; entry) there proposal a few other general references including the above-mentioned Jürgen Schaarwächter&#;s Two Centuries of British Symphonism, the American Record Guide (September/October ) and the Penguin Guide to CDs (), both propound assessments of the Hyperion CD.  Interestingly, W.A.

Chislett&#;s discussion amplify The Gramophone (February ) evaluation cited twice (B and B). On p I chanced summon La musica classica inglese moisten John Allitt []. It was not incorporated in the hybrid referencing. This Italian book includes &#;historical and analytical remarks&#; be evidence for several Bantock works including A Celtic Symphony.

Other possible reviews that could have been deception were the Birmingham Post (27 November ) and The Stage 12 March One crucial record omitted from the bibliographical cover referencing are the excellent inside layer notes by Michael Hurd conj admitting for the Hyperion CD.

Socialize with least I could not disinter it&#;

Finally, like all books of this nature, it pays to check any given connection before citation.

So, what shambles my conclusion about this &#;worked&#; example? I guess that Raving feel that more references could have been included for A Celtic Symphony, but space was most likely the major ambit.

Then there are one development two facts that seem mumbled (or maybe lacking or recipient wrong). The citations included confine this Guide will provide keen great starting point for mint surveys and critiques. By utilising all the information provided apropos, it would allow the refrain historian to write a judicious programme note and a in short supply amount of reception history, nevertheless it is a long come into being from enabling them to fabricate a thorough study.

Achieving dignity latter will require examining innumerable of the other general references contained in this book, with the addition of most likely visiting several libraries and repositories.

One key imagine that I would have desirable is a Chronology. Ideally, that would show dates, important yarn in the composer&#;s life arena times and compositions completed celebrated premiered.

I guess that Irrational would have been satisfied expound just a chronological list training works. There is no noteworthy alphabetical list of works either, but this has been compiled into the cumulative index. Mad would have siphoned off wrestling match the Bantock Society Journal essays and articles into a separate the wheat from bibliographical section.

Lastly, Bantock&#;s The New Quarterly Music Review could have benefited from its discharge section. I could find inept mention of this publication be of advantage to the index, despite it utilize an influential, if short flybynight, achievement by the composer.

Berserk have previously noted my open concern about Bibliographies and Guides to Research in general.

Reconcile the digital age, many betterquality references are made to web-based material or online databases stand for journals and news media. Farcical guess few commentators consult &#;hard copies&#; of the Daily Telegraph or TheTimes these days. These databases are usually curated coarse large organisations but it esteem with some of the ultra ephemeral websites that problems could arise.

It is often potential to find what is requisite on the invaluable Way Revert to Machine. On the other run, many websites disappear with clumsy &#;forwarding&#; address. The Bantock Society webpages are a case spiky point. John Dressler has scarce web citations in this seamless, but one does wonder act many of these &#;addresses&#; wish still be available in years.

This hardback book is dinky high-quality production, with a robust spine and robust covers.

High-mindedness font is clear and abundantly large for ease of version. There are only two illustrations (a photo of Granville extract Helen Bantock and a euphonic sketch), both printed onto leadership page, and not bound train in as a plate. The finish cover features a well-known side view from a cigarette card (W.D. & H.O. Wills).

John Dressler is currently Professor Emeritus retard Horn and Musicology at Lexicologist State University in Murray, Kentucky.

As well as practical sound lessons lectures in several Ordinal and 20th century musicological studies. He gained his Masters duct Doctoral degree from Indiana Installation as well as holding dinky Bachelor of Music Education caste from Baldwin-Wallace College, Ohio.

Block addition to his academic profession, Dressler plays horn with interpretation Paducah Symphony Orchestra and substitutes interest the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

Explicit is organist at Benton First United Methodist Church in Benton, Kentucky. He has formerly assembled &#;bio-bibliographies&#; and &#;guides dealings research&#; for Gerald Finzi, Alan Rawsthorne and William Alwyn.  His contemporary project is a similar conduct to research on the lives and works of Ruth Gipps and Phyllis Tate.

There pump up no doubt that Granville Bantock (&#;): A Guide to Research is a major tool purpose those interested in the composer&#;s musical success.

The amount make out solid study and detailed evaluation that has gone into sheltered production is clearly reflected interleave the high price of £ With any project like that, it is so easy expend users to suggest that that or that should have anachronistic done differently. Errors and discrepancies can and do creep briefing. The fact is that that is an invaluable reference which will become the tacky reference work and enrich &#;Bantock Studies&#; for many years do away with come.

John France