Songs from the Chinese Poets
Songs from the Chinese Poets are series of settings in six parts by Granville Bantock.[1] The English song texts were mainly supplied by Captain L. A. Cranmer Byng (1872-1945), who had also supplied the text for Choral Suite from the Chinese (1914). Launcelot Alfred Cranmer-Byng was part of the Byng baronets family and wrote various books on China.[2]
In 1933 the first set were also arranged in the form of a four movement string quartet under the title In a Chinese Mirror. It was recorded for the first time by the Tippett Quartet in 2021.[3]
Bantock also set other English translationd of Chinese poetry from Edward Powys Mathers (Five Chinese Songs) and Herbert Giles (Ten Songs from the Chinese, 1943).[4]
Songs[edit]
Songs from the Chinese Poets, Series I (1918)
- The old fisherman of the mists and waters
- The ghost road
- Under the moon
- The celestial weaver
- Return of spring
Songs from the Chinese Poets, Series II (1919)
- The tomb of Chao-Chün
- A dream of spring
- Desolation
- The Island of Pines
- The pavilion of abounding joy
Songs from the Chinese Poets, Series III
- From the tomb of an unknown woman
- Adrift
- The golden nenuphar
- Yung-Yang
- A feast of lanterns
Songs from the Chinese Poets, Series IV
- Autumn across the Frontier
- The Kingfisher's Tower
- On the banks of Jo-Eh
- Despair
- The last revel
Songs from the Chinese Poets, Series V
- The court of dreams
- Down the Hwai
- Night on the mountain
- The lost one
- Memories with the dusk return
- And there are tears
Songs from the Chinese Poets, Series VI
- The King of Tang
- Wild geese
- Exile
- Willow flowers
- Dreaming at Golden Hill
- Galloping home
Recordings[edit]
John McCormack (tenor) recorded "Desolation" in Australia in 1927.
References[edit]
- ^ Martin Clayton, Bennett Zon Music and Orientalism in the British Empire, 1780s–1940s (2007), 0754656047, page 143: "Over the next few years Bantock produced a few other Oriental works, such as a Choral Suite from the Chinese (1914) and 25 Songs from the Chinese Poets (191 8-20) with English texts by his friend Captain L. A. Cranmer Byng, ..."
- ^ Myrrha Bantock Granville Bantock: a personal portrait (1972), p.161 "The English texts were mostly supplied by Captain L. A. Cranmer Byng. The two men, both Welsh bards, struck up a close friendship. They were often seen together at the National Eisteddfod of Wales — a distinguished pair, one in white and .."
- ^ Dutton CDLX7389 (2021)
- ^ Myrrha Bantock Granville Bantock: a personal portrait (1972), p.191