ENGLISH COMPOSERS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19145, 31 October 1927, Page 4

ENGLISH COMPOSERS.

MODERN RENAISSANCE. The Society for Imperial Culture met on .Saturday evening, when Mr T. Vernon Griffiths was the lecturer, choosing as his subject, "Modern British Composers." Professor J. Shelley presided. Mr Griffiths spoko of the influence of those British composers who were putting' the Home Country back on the musical pedestal from which she fell after the death of Purcell. These men were not seeking the glamour of passing advertisement,- and their names were practically unknown in Jiew Zealand, while in England, their work was often derided and disparaged. . The same position was found in English history when Purccll and his contemporaries raised English music above that of any other European race. The present renaissance in British music had already achieved .groat results in. spite of the difficulty encountered by the com-, posers in overcoming the Britishers' cynical disbelief in the potential genius of their own countrymen. Mr Griffiths then named the most prom-' inent of the modern English composers, Gustav Hoist, Vaughan Williams, Sir Frank Bridge, John Ireland, Joseph Halbrooke, Charles Wood, Soger Quilter, Cyril Scott, and Rutland Boughton. With the aid of piano and gramophone he introduced some of their work to members, and dealt briefly with the life of each composer. Amongst the records which the lecturer played were "Jupiter,' the Bringer of Joliitv"' (Hoist); London Symphony, Scherzo (V. Williams): "Love Went a-Biding" (Bridge); two songs of John Ireland; "Come Not When I am Dead" (Holbrooke); a jig bv Chas. Wood, two songs of Quilter, songs of Boughton.