Granville Bantock (1868—1946) Together with his great friend Elgar, Bantock did more than anyone to bring about the revival in the fortunes of British music. Apart from being one of the most prolific of all British composers, he used his tireless energy to promote unselfishly the works of his contemporaries like Delius, Hoibrooke, Boughton, Parry and others. He was Principal of Birmingham School of Music for over thirty years, helped publish two music journals, worked unstintingly with the festival movement and examined for Trinity College for more than half a century. As a conductor he took over a dance band in New Brighton and turned it into a symphony orchestra of professional standard, he was music director of a theatre company which he took on a world tour and also fulfilled many appointnients with major symphony orchestras both here and abroad. He it was who introduced the worksof Sibelius to this country, and the Finnish master marked their life-long association by dedicating his 3rd Symphony to him. Bantock’s compositions include operas, symphonies, tone poems, suites, ballets, chamber music, pieces for chorus and orchestra and many hundreds of songs and part-songs. He had a particular fondness for the Brass Band whose repertoire he enriched with several characteristic and major works. There are still many players who will remember with affection playing under his baton.
Orion Bantock’s wide-ranging interests embraced not only celtic, oriental and middle-eastern cultures, but a passion for classical Greece which drew from him some of his most distinguished works. In 1934 he relinquished his Birmingham appointment to become Chairman of the Corporation of Trinity College. He had often performed valuable work for them in the past, but now embarked on far more extended tours on their behalf, The early summer of 1935 found him on the Gulf of Mexico, where he completed his ‘Dramatic Overture’, Orion (originally ‘Symphonic’ overture) on 1st June. The story of Orion occupies a special place in Greek mythology, and clearly had a particular attraction for the composer. It tells of his great size, beauty and strength, his mighty feats, his numerous amours and exploits as a hunter: how he was blinded but had his sight restored with the advice of the Oracle before being transformed into a constellation where he is in ceaseless pursuit of the Pleiades, sword in hand, to brighten our otherwise dull winter nights. It would be a mistake to attribute specific incidents to particular parts of the work, but the listener is immediately struck by the dramatic grandeur and sweep of the score from its arresting opening to the massive conclusion: the quieter sections have either a poignancy or heroic melancholy which never allows the mood to sag. Harmonically, and to some extent melodically, Bantock pays tribute in this work to two composers he particularly admired, Liszt and Wagnei but Orion remains thoroughly characteristic of his best work. It is moreover genuinely symphonic. The scoring — Bantock’s own — is both full and restrained, admirably exploiting both the brilliant and sustaining qualities of the band. Like Elgar with the Severn Suite, Bantock later (1938) made an orchestral version entitled Agamemnon, but while this has merits of its own, the original Orion remains a classic of the medium.
