Songs from the Chinese Poets
Songs from the Chinese Poets are series of song settings, twenty-five in all,[citation needed] 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
- (list incomplete)
Recordings
John McCormack (tenor) recorded "Desolation" in Australia in 1927.
References
- ^ 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 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 .."