I am an enthusiast
(not a fanatic) of Granville Bantock’s music. However, it is based on the adage
of knowing what I like and liking what I know. Nowadays, poor Bantock rarely
gets an outing in the concert hall or the recital room. The notable exceptions
are English Music Festival events. To be sure, there are several CDs and LPs devoted
to his music (in print and deleted), including the 4-CD package featuring his
magnum opus, Omar Khayyám (1906-09). This is a work I have yet to
explore in detail. Yet, for a composer of his undoubted stature there is
precious little information ready to hand to form the basis of an in-depth understanding
of his life and achievement.
Any study of this
composer is hampered by the lack of a definitive biography, such as exists for
Parry, Stanford, and Dyson. Much has been written about Bantock, but most is
hidden away in library stacks and institutional archives. Only some of this
material is available online to researchers and interested listeners. The
problem has always been, where to begin. That challenge is solved by this new
book.
John C. Dressler’s Granville
Bantock (1868–1946): A Guide to Research is a triumph for the advancement
of Bantock scholarship, appreciation, and reappraisal (which must always be
ongoing). This present volume will have an immediate appeal to musicians who
may wish to gain background knowledge before embarking on a recording project
or a concert performance. Then there are specialists planning to prepare
editions of unpublished works. Another crucial audience for this book are programme
and CD liner note annotators - and even record reviewers! It is for anyone who
wishes to explore episodes in Bantock’s life and times and work. This will
include students who might choose Bantock as the subject of their research and
may one day add a dissertation or thesis to the precious few that currently
exist.
This Guide to
Research is hardly bedside reading for the ‘average’ music lover (whoever
they may be) but it is an essential tool that will, or should, be found on
library shelves in universities and music conservatories around the world. But
it is also a book that ‘amateur’ Bantock enthusiasts will want to save up for. It
will certainly help me to explore and examine several orchestral works that are
amongst my favourite British symphonies and tone poems.
The earliest
biographical details of Granville Bantock are found in Round the World with ‘A
Gaiety Girl’ published in 1896. This was a jointly authored book between
the composer and Frederick George Aflalo (a British Zoologist!). It is
effectively a light-hearted travelogue of the show’s global progress. Bantock
was A Gaiety Girl’s musical director and conductor. For historians, the
first major work about the composer was by H. Orsmond Anderton, Bantock’s
long-time personal secretary. This is one of the Living Masters of Music
series and was published 1915. This study is a snapshot in time, as the
composer was to live for another 31 years. Anderton also contributed many
essays and articles to contemporary music journals and newspapers. These are noted
in Dressler’s Guide to Research.
In 1972, the
composer’s daughter Myrrha Bantock wrote Granville Bantock: A Personal
Portrait (Dent). This is exactly as the title states, rather than being an
analytical survey. The same year Trevor Bray submitted his doctoral thesis, Granville
Bantock: his life and music. It is usually regarded as being the ‘seminal
academic study’ of the composer. Unfortunately, I have not seen a copy of this
document as it is not yet been ‘cleared’ for digitalisation. (Why not?) And,
Cambridge University is long way to travel. An extract from this thesis was
published by Triad Press in 1973 as Bantock: Music in the Midlands before
the First World War.
In 2017 Michael
Allis issued Granville Bantock's Letters to William Wallace and Ernest
Newman, 1893-1921 (Boydell and Brewer). I have not read this book, but understand
much space is devoted to Bantock and Wallace’s development of the ‘modern
British symphonic poem’ as well as ‘fascinating details of the musical culture
in London, Liverpool and Birmingham.’
Further important
contributions to Bantock scholarship are two volumes by the composer’s
grandson, Cuillin. The first is a booklet length study Never Lukewarm:
Recollections of Granville and Helena Bantock (EM Publishing, 2012)
which is a ‘vignette’ of the composer and his wife’s last years. It is written
from the perspective of a ‘family’ memoir, complete with photos, ‘random
thoughts and memorable quotes.’ A more involved study is A Musical Wanderer
- The Later years of Granville Bantock (EM Publishing, 2018) which is a
‘narrative of the contents of GB’s set of diaries’ from 1938 to 1946. There is
a need for more diary entries to be published: he began writing them in 1911.
In 1947, several
leading musicians and other interested parties, promulgated a Bantock Society.
A statement of the objectives and aims agreed at the launch were ‘published.’ (Musical
Times, January 1947). Studying library catalogues, it is difficult to
discover what if anything, they published. It was not until 1996 that a Bantock
Society Journal appears. Prior to this, there was a Newsletter. In
2013 the Society was ‘relaunched’ but appears to have relapsed into total desuetude.
Which is a pity. Nevertheless, there is a crying need for the few Journals
that were issued to be ‘scanned’ and put ‘online’. Details of articles
published here are scattered throughout the Guide to Research.
Which brings me to
the Bantock website. This has fallen by the wayside too. A few scattered
remains are available on MusicWeb
International, but apart from that nothing. Even
the Way Back Machine at the Internet Archive does not help.
Surely a composer as significant as GB demands a functioning society or at the
very least, a working webpage?
Most readers of
this book review will know something about the composer and his work. However I
was impressed by John Dressler’s succinct overview printed in the ‘Preface’ of
this book: ‘Granville Bantock (1868-1946) was a British composer, arranger,
editor, music department administrator, competitive singing promoter and adjudicator,
world traveller, lover of life, literature and philosophy, radio talk
presenter, champion of works of other rising British composers over his own,
husband and father.’ In other words, he was a regular polymath. His best-known
work is probably the Hebridean Symphony, but his accomplishments are
hardly well understood and appreciated save amongst the most dedicated enthusiasts
of British music.
Granville Bantock
(1868–1946): A Guide to Research is divided into
three principal formal sections. After the ‘preface’ and ‘acknowledgements ‘there
is a short ‘biographical sketch’ which gives a basic overview of Bantock’s
career. This is followed by the first main portion, ‘Works and Performances’
(W). This accounts for nearly half of the book’s length. Then, the ‘Discography’
(D) contains all known recordings of Bantock’s music, past and present, and in all
media save streaming. This includes both commercial and archival material. The
third section is the ‘Selected Bibliography’ (B) noting archival sources, dissertations,
general and biographical references, reviews, and obituaries. The book
concludes with an exceptionally detailed Index, cross referencing all musical
works and most of the individuals referred to in the text.
Firstly, turning to
the main catalogue, I was amazed at just how much music Granville Bantock wrote.
Each piece has been allocated the conventional ‘W’ number (as for many of these
volumes). This is true for every work from large scale choral piece through to
the most obscure choral arrangements and even drafts. Bantock’s Sketchbook
has been allocated a single number: W546. In total there are some 637 works listed.
I wonder if consideration has ever been given by the ‘Bantock Estate’ to
introducing a unique reference letter such as GRB like Graham Parlett’s ‘GP’ prefix
for Arnold Bax’s music.
The index is
comprehensive, and as noted above is the ‘go-to place’ to begin research. It
includes the titles of all works, many contemporary musicians, and luminaries,
as well as current musical historians and performers.
There are three routes to references: the index, the individual
section devoted to the work, and the ‘W’ entry itself. If using the index, the
reference is simply given a page number, so the reader must scan through the
text to spot the relevant search term. Coming from the ‘Works and Performances’
section, the unique bibliographical ‘B’ or ‘D’ discography number is given.
As an example of
the working process, I took my favourite Bantock work, A Celtic Symphony. ‘Facts’ not stated in Dressler’s book are
noted here in square brackets. Looking at the index referred me to p.150
as the starting point. I discovered that the work (W383) was composed as late
as 1940 [Finished 16 September 1940] and was dedicated ‘To [my old pupil]
Clarence Raybould’ an English conductor, pianist, and composer. (see Jürgen
Schaarwächter’s Two Centuries of British Symphonism, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2015, p.843). Details of movements are not
included, nor the duration, which is about 20 minutes. It is not 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 manuscript
is untraced but was published by Novello. I found a reference to a holograph/score
‘owned’ by Goodwin and Tabb 1953 (Schaarwächter, op.cit. and the Catalog of
Copyright Entries: Published Music, Third series, January-June 1954). The Guide
states that the work’s premiere was a BBC broadcast performance on Saturday 1
August 1942 during a BBC Scottish Symphony [Orchestra] Concert conducted by Clarence
Raybould [broadcast from Glasgow]. I found this concert listed in the Radio
Times. It is noted there that this was the ‘first performance.’ Dressler
then lists a further nine ‘selected’ performances of this work between 1952 and
2013. There may have been several more. In this example, there are no reviews cited of
the premiere or subsequent performances.
I turned now to
explore the ‘D’ numbers – the discography. These are referenced in the ‘Works’
section and the index. I know and love the one splendid modern recording of
Bantock’s A Celtic Symphony: Vernon Handley and the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra on Hyperion CDA 66450. This CD was issued in 1991 (not 1990 as noted
here, which was the recording date): it was coupled with A Hebridean
Symphony, The Witch of Atlas and The Sea Reivers. This was
subsequently repackaged in 2007 as a part of a six-CD set of Bantock’s
Orchestral Music (CDS 44281/6). Dressler
mentions a 78rpm record (Paxton GTR 113/4) of A Celtic Symphony.
This featured the London Promenade Orchestra, conducted by Walter Collins. It is
assigned no date but was probably 1949. This recording of the Symphony was
subsequently re-released in 1959 on Paxton LPT 1003. This two-LP set also
included the Comedy Overture: Frogs of Aristophanes and the Women’s
Festival Overture. This latter piece (listed here as W386) is also titled
the Overture to a Greek Comedy. The ‘work’ entry states that the
manuscript is untraced, and the overture remains unpublished. I wonder what the
London Promenade Orchestra played from. There is another entry (W388) for a
‘Comedy Overture to the Thesmophoriazusae) literally meaning ‘The Women
Celebrating the Festival of the Thesmophoria’) by Aristophanes. This is shown
as being undated and sketches only. Was this an early draft of W386?
According to
Dressler there are no more recordings of A Celtic Symphony in existence.
It would have been good to have had
references to record reviews in the ‘Discography’ section, instead of in the
main entry/index for the work.
For most
researchers, the bibliographical cross references are of considerable interest.
Clearly the number of citations
varies from work to work. For many compositions there is the discrete section
‘References to Specific Works’. Here, the student of Omar Khayyám (W133) has a massive 79 entries to
absorb and guide them on their way and Bantock’s best known orchestral work,
the Hebridean Symphony (W398), has 22. For a study of the tantalising Two
Scottish Pieces for piano (W541) there is a single reference in the ‘Works and
Performances’ section to an article in The Gramophone August 2009. Alas,
this seems to be for the CD Songs of the Isles (Meridian CDE84570)
rather than the disc of Rediscovered Bantock’ (SOMMCD 0183).
As A Celtic
Symphony is one of Bantock’s most significant works, it has a section
devoted to it. Alas, there are only three citations. Two are reviews in The
Gramophone of the Paxton recordings (1949 and 1960) and one is a slightly
off-tangent comment by Ivan Hewett in the Daily Telegraph (9 September
2013).
Additionally, (from
the ‘Works and Performances’ entry) there are a few other general references
including the above-mentioned Jürgen Schaarwächter’s Two Centuries of
British Symphonism, the American Record Guide (September/October
1991) and the Penguin Guide to CDs (1999), both for assessments of the
Hyperion CD. Interestingly, W.A.
Chislett’s discussion in The Gramophone (February 1960) is cited twice
(B296 and B403). On p.241 I chanced upon La musica classica inglese by
John Allitt [2006]. It was not incorporated in the cross referencing. This Italian
book includes ‘historical and analytical remarks’ about several Bantock works
including A Celtic Symphony.
Other possible reviews
that could have been included were the Birmingham Post (27 November
1967) and The Stage 12 March 1953. One crucial document omitted from the bibliographical cross referencing are the excellent liner notes by Michael Hurd provided for the
Hyperion CD. At least I could not find it…
Finally, like all
books of this nature it pays to check any given reference before citation.
So, what is my conclusion about this ‘worked’ example. I
guess that I feel that more references could have been included for A Celtic
Symphony, but space was most likely the major constraint. Then there are
one or two facts that seem unclear (or maybe lacking or plain wrong). The
citations included in this Guide will provide a great starting point for
further surveys and critiques. By utilising all the information provided here,
it would allow the music historian to write a reasonable programme note and a
small amount of reception history. It is a long way from enabling them to
create a thorough study. To achieve the latter, it will require examining many
of the other general references contained in this book, and most likely
visiting several libraries and repositories.
One key feature
that I would have appreciated is a ‘Chronology’. Ideally, this would show dates,
important events in the composer’s life and times and compositions completed
and premiered. I guess that I would have been satisfied with just a
chronological list of works. There is no distinct alphabetical list of works
either, but this has been compiled into the cumulative index. I would have
siphoned off all the Bantock Society Journal essays and articles into a
separate bibliographical section. Lastly, Bantock’s The New Quarterly Music
Review could have benefited from its own section. I could find no mention
of this publication in the index, despite it being an influential, if short
lived, achievement by the composer.
I have previously noted my big concern about Bibliographies
and Guides to Research in general. In the digital age, many more
references are made to web-based material or online databases of journals and
news media. I guess few commentators consult ‘hard copies’ of the Daily
Telegraph or The Times these days. These databases are usually
curated by large organisations. But it is with some of the more ephemeral
websites that problems could arise. It is often possible to find what is needed
on the invaluable Way Back Machine. On the other hand, many websites
disappear with no ‘forwarding’ address. The Bantock Society webpages are
a case in point. John Dressler has few web citations in this book, but one does
wonder how many of these ‘addresses’ will still be available in 20-30 years.
This hardback book
is a high-quality production, with a strong spine and robust covers. The font
is clear and sufficiently large for ease of reading. There are only two illustrations
(a photo of Granville and Helen Bantock and a musical sketch), both printed
onto the page, and not bound in as a plate. The front cover features a
well-known portrait from a cigarette card (W.D. & H.O. Wills).
John Dressler is currently Professor Emeritus of Horn and Musicology at
Murray State University in Murray, Kentucky. As well as practical music lessons
lectures in several 19th and 20th century musicological studies. He gained his
Masters and Doctoral degree from Indiana University as well as holding a
Bachelor of Music Education degree from Baldwin-Wallace College, Ohio.
In addition to his academic work Dressler plays horn with the Paducah
Symphony Orchestra and substitutes with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. He
is organist at Benton First United Methodist Church in Benton,
Kentucky. Dressler has previously assembled ‘bio-bibliographies’ and
‘guides to research’ for Gerald Finzi, Alan Rawsthorne and William
Alwyn. His latest project is a similar guide to research on the
lives and works of Ruth Gipps and Phyllis Tate.
There is no doubt that Granville Bantock (1868–1946): A Guide to Research
is major tool for those interested in the composer’s musical success. The
amount of solid study and detailed research that has gone into its production
is clearly reflected in the high price of £95. This book will become the
standard reference work for many years to come. With any project like this, it
is so easy for users to suggest that this or that should have been done
differently. Errors and discrepancies can and do creep in. The fact is that
this is an invaluable reference document that will enrich ‘Bantock Studies’ for
many years to come.
Granville Bantock (1868–1946): A Guide to Research John C. Dressler
Clemson University Press
Hardback, 426 pages, £95.00
ISBN 978-1-942-95479-8