Sir Granville Bantock(1868-1946): a Catalogue of the Orchestral and Choral Music

[Dundonnell]

The penultimate in this current series of catalogues is devoted to the music of a true Romantic. Bantock however did compose an immense amount of music, including a considerable number of very large-scale choral compositions (some incomplete). This is only therefore my stab at a proper catalogue. Others will-no doubt-have additions and corrections to make

SIR GRANVILLE BANTOCK: A CATALOGUE OF THE ORCHESTRAL AND CHORAL MUSIC

1889:   Scherzo from Symphony in C
c.1890: Overture "Satan Hell"
c.1892:Ballet "Egypt"
             Ballet Music to "Rameses II"(Egyptian Ballet Suite)
1892:   Dramatic Cantata "The Fire Worshippers" for soprano, tenor, bass, chorus and orchestra
             Scena "Wulstan" for baritone and orchestra
189?-1901: Festival Symphony "Christus" in ten parts
1893/
1912: "The Funeral" for orchestra(from "The Curse of Kehama"; 1912 renamed "Processional")
1894:   Symphonic Overture with organ "Saul"
            "Jaga-Naut" for orchestra(from "The Curse of Kehama")
c.1896: Overture "Eugene Aram" (overture to an unfinished opera)
1898-99:Elegiac Poem for Cello and Orchestra: 6 minutes
1899:   "Russian Scenes"-Suite of five pieces for small orchestra: 13 minutes      +  (Naxos cd)
             "Helena" (Orchestral Variations on the theme HFB): 19 minutes      + (Hyperion cd)
1899:   Tone Poem 1 "Thalaba, The Destroyer": 26 minutes   +  (Hyperion cd)
1900:   "English Scenes"- Suite of five pieces for small orchestra
1901/
1910:   Tone Poem 2 "Dante and Beatrice": 25 minutes    +  (Hyperion cd)
1901:   Tone Poem 3 (renamed 1911 as Orchestral Drama "Fifine at the Fair")
1902:   Tone Poem 4 "Hudibras"
             Tone Poem 5 "The Witch of Atlas": 14 minutes    + (Hyperion cd)
             Tone Poem 6 "Lalla Rookh"
1903:   Five Ghazals of Hafiz, with a Prelude for baritone and orchestra: 29 minutes     *
             "Ferishtah's Fancies" for tenor and orchestra
1904:   Rhapsody for chorus and orchestra "The Time Spirit": 15 minutes   *
1906:   "Sappho"-Prelude and Nine Fragments for mezzo-soprano and orchestra: 59 minutes    + (Hyperion cd)
1906/
1909:   Sapphic Poem for Cello and Orchestra: 15 minutes     +  (Hyperion cd)
1906-09: "Omar Khayyam" for mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, chorus and orchestra: 171 minutes    *     +  (Hyperion cd)
1907:   Oratorio "Christ in the Wilderness"(extracted from "Christus") for soprano, baritone, chorus, organ and orchestra
             Poem for chorus and orchestra "The Sea Wanderers": 24 minutes      *
1908:   Comedy Overture "Pierrot of the Minute": 12 minutes   +  (Chandos and Hyperion cds)
1909:   Three Dramatic Dances for orchestra
             Old English Suite for small orchestra: 15 minutes    + (Naxos cd)
1910:   Oratorio "Gethsemane" (extracted from "Christus") for baritone,  chorus, organ and orchestra
1911:   Overture to a Greek Tragedy(after Sophocles' 'Oedipus at Colonus'): 18 minutes        +  (Lyrita and Hyperion cds)
             Orchestral Drama "Fifine at the Fair-A Defence of Inconstancy": 35 minutes        + (EMI and Hyperion cds)
1912:   "From the Far West" for strings
             Serenade for Strings "In the Far East"
             Two Orchestral Scenes: "Processional": 14 minutes and "Jaga-Naut" + ("Processional", Hyperion cd)
1912-22: "The Song of Songs" for soloists, chorus and orchestra          + (excerpts, Hyperion cd)
1913:   Hebridean Symphony: 35 minutes       + (Hyperion and Naxos cds)
             Scottish Rhapsody for orchestra
             Suite for Strings "Scenes from the Scottish Highlands"
1914:   "The Song of Liberty" for solo voices, chorus and orchestra
             "The Great God Pan"-A Choral Ballet in Two Scenes with a Prologue for chorus and orchestra (only Part I survives)
1915:   Suite for Strings "The Land of the Gael"
1916:   Celtic Poem for Cello and Orchestra
1917:   "The Sea Reivers"-Hebridean Sea Poem No.2: 3 minutes    + (Hyperion cd)
1917-18: Pagan Chants for tenor and orchestra
1918:   "Coronach" for strings, harp and organ
              Suite from Judith for orchestra
              Festal Hymn of Judith for orchestra
1919:   "Hamabdil" for Cello, Harp and Strings
             "The Vale of Arden" for voice and orchestra
             "The March" for tenor and orchestra
1920?:  Suite for orchestra "Arabian Nights"
1920/
1944:   "Caristiona"-Hebridean Sea Poem No.1: 9 minutes    +  (Hyperion cd)
1927:   "The Burden of Babylon" for chorus, brass and drums
1927-28: Pagan Symphony: 35 minutes       *    +  (BBC Classics and Hyperion cds)
1928:   "The Pilgrim's Progress" for six solo voices, chorus and orchestra: 90 minutes
1934/39: Prelude to "The Bacchanals" for orchestra: 8 minutes
1935:   Comedy Overture "The Frogs"(after Aristophanes): 8 minutes     *
1936:   Four Chinese Landscapes for orchestra: 11 minutes    *
             Symphonic Prelude "Prometheus Unbound" for chorus and orchestra
1937:   "King Soloman" for chorus, narrator and orchestra
1938-39: "The Cyprian Goddess (Aphrodite in Cyprus)" (Symphony No.3): 24 minutes    +  (Hyperion cd)
1940:   Celtic Symphony for Strings and Six Harps: 20 minutes    + (Hyperion cd)
             Macbeth Overture: 8 minutes     *
1941:   Dramatic Poem for Cello and Orchestra
             Overture to a Greek Comedy "The Women's Festival"(after Aristophanes): 7 minutes    *
             Comedy Overture "Circus Life": 3 minutes
             "The Sphinx" for contralto or baritone and orchestra
1944:   Two Heroic Ballads-"Cuchullan's Lament" and "Kishmul's Gallery" for orchestra: 8 minutes       +  (Hyperion cd)
             "The Sea-Gull of the Land-Under-Wave" for orchestra
1946:   Comedy Overture "The Birds"(after Aristophanes): 8 minutes
             Ballad "Thomas the Rhymer" for voice and orchestra

and      Romance for Violin and Orchestra
            Two Marches for the Ceylon Police for orchestra
            "Fairy land" for female voices and orchestra
   

[albion]

Great work, Colin - Bantock was not one to let his pen idle for very long ...



Perhaps they were excluded on the grounds of not including the orchestra, but because of their importance (primarily with regard to the first two) I would also add -

1911:   Atalanta in Calydon, Choral Symphony (unaccompanied) - 31 minutes + (Albany cd, deleted)
1913:   Vanity of Vanities, Choral Symphony (unaccompanied) - 35 minutes + (Albany cd, deleted)
1914:   A Pageant of Human Life, Choral Suite (sometimes mistakenly referred to as a third Choral Symphony) - 13 minutes + (Regent cd)

Confusingly, the Symphonic Ode: Aphrodite in Cyprus is simply another name occasionally given to The Cyprian Goddess (Symphony No.3).

Only the first part of The Great God Pan was published (in 1915 as Pan In Arcady). Part II (The Festival of Pan) doesn't appear to survive in manuscript (the autograph of Part I is BL Add. 50758) - it was plundered by Bantock for his Pagan Symphony.

Omar Khayyam is complete in our archive (Del Mar, 1979), very-nearly complete on Chandos (Handley) and there are a couple of extracts on the Hyperion disc.

[albion]

Besides having the full score of the complete Christus in ten parts (GB/1/1/3, dated 1901), the Barber Music Library at Birmingham University also has the following manuscripts in their huge Bantock collection:

- full score of the first movement of the early Symphony in C, undated (GB/4/1/51)

- full and vocal scores of The Curse of Kehama: Scene 2, The Curse, for 3 solo voices and orchestra, dated 1896 and 1895 respectively (GB/4/1/6 and GB/4/1/7)

- full score of The Curse of Kehama: Scene 4, The Departure, for 2 solo voices and orchestra, dated 1900 (GB/4/1/8)

- full score of The Curse of Kehama: Scene 5, Separation, for orchestra only, dated 1900 (GB/4/1/9)

- full score of The Curse of Kehama: Scene 13, The Retreat, for orchestra only, dated 1899 (GB/4/1/10)

- vocal score of Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, in four acts, for soloists, chorus and orchestra [presumably not orchestrated], dated 1936 (GB/3/1/11)

[TerraEpon]

So there's still a decent amount of orchestral stuff not on the Hyperion set....

[Dundonnell]

Thanks for your corrections, John I have amended accordingly.

I do appreciate your point about the scale and importance of the three choral works you have listed. I have not included them purely on the grounds of consistency. Were I to include them then I should equally include a large number of unaccompanied choral compositions by composers like Herbert Howells or John Joubert. Complete catalogues would obviously include these works

[Dundonnell]

So there's still a decent amount of orchestral stuff not on the Hyperion set....

There certainly is

[alberto]

A few late additions to the discography.
The Pagan Symphony exists/existed in a BBC Carlton Cd (Edward Downes, BBC Philh.) and also on the -disappeared- Intaglio  label, 1991 release (Maurice Handford, BBC Northern -therefore the same orchestra of the Downes).
The Intaglio Cd included also The Hebridean Symphony (Adrian Boult, BBC Scottish, 1968 live recording).
The Intaglio recording claimed (maybe rightly) to be the first recording of the Pagan Symphony; no date was indicated.
I have doubts about the legality of the entire Intaglio catalogue. (I bought about ten when that Italian label, never very visible in Italy, had disappeared).
Now -to my surprise - I see that the Bantock Intaglio Cd (which I got about ten years ago or more) is proposed on the web at 29.95 $. 

[Jimfin]

Though Bantock seems slightly less chaotic in his output and its ordering than Holbrooke, I have always wondered about 'The Cyprian Goddess' and its numbering. I assume that the Hebridean is to be seen as no. 1 and the Pagan as no. 2, and the choral symphonies as unnumbered. But I have never seen numbers attached to any of the other symphonies.