Songs from the Chinese Poets explained

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

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

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

External links

• From :
  • 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

Notes and 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), 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 .."
3. https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDLX7389 Dutton CDLX7389 (2021)
4. Myrrha Bantock Granville Bantock: a personal portrait (1972), p.191