Songs from the Chinese Poets (Bantock)

Songs from the Chinese Poets are series of song settings, twenty-five in all, 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]

Songs

Songs from the Chinese, Series I (1918)

• The Old Fisherman of the Mists and Waters
• The Ghost Road (Tu Fu)
• Under the Moon
• The Celestial Weaver
• Return of Spring

Songs from the Chinese, Series II, (1919)

• The Tomb of Chao-Chun
• A Dream of Spring (Ts'en Ts'an)
• Desolation (Kao-Shih)
• The Island of Pines
• The Pavillon of Abundant Joy

Songs from the Chinese, Series III

• A Feast of Lanterns (Yuan Mei)
• Adrift (Li Po)

(list incomplete)

Recordings

John McCormack (tenor) recorded "Desolation" in Australia in 1927.

References

1. 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, ..."
2. Myrrha Bantock Granville Bantock: a personal portrait 1972 p161 "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 .."

External links

• From www.lieder.net:
  • Songs from the Chinese Poets: Set I
  • Songs from the Chinese Poets: Set II
  • Songs from the Chinese Poets: Set III
  • Songs from the Chinese Poets: Set IV
  • Songs from the Chinese Poets: Set V
  • Songs from the Chinese Poets: Set VI
• 5 Songs from the Chinese Poets, 1st Series, 5 Songs from the Chinese Poets, 2nd Series: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project