by Grahame Clifford (baritone)
Songs by Granville Bantock
Praise ye the Lord
Six Jester Songs
1 The Jester. 2 In Tyme of Olde. 3 Will o' the Wisp. 4 Under the Rose. 5 Serenade. 6 Tra-la-lalie!
The Court of Dreams (Songs from the Chinese Poets)
The Feast of Lanterns
Sir Granville Bantock is a prolific composer, having turned his hand to practically every form of composition. Not least in importance are his songs, of which there is a considerable output. The Six Jester Songs were written about 1900, during Bantock's early years as principal of the Birmingham and Midland Institute of Music. They ' are perhaps due to a wish on Bantock's part', says H. Orsmond Anderton, ' to enlarge his range and break loose from, the Oriental manner, which he may have felt was in danger of becoming a mannerism. They are not in Bantock's own characteristic vein. They are light-hearted for the most part, though the jester is the pathetic figure who has become a tradition since the fool in King Lear, and who carries a sore heart under his motley..... Altogether, if the humorous, quasi-antique style is not the most characteristic manner either of Bantock or his wife, who wrote the words, the songs are pleasant trifles, musicianly of their kind, and with a sure appeal to many whom the profounder songs would leave untouched.'