1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Bantock, Granville

BANTOCK, GRANVILLE (1868–), English musical composer, born in London Aug. 7 1868, was intended for the Indian civil service and later for the career of a chemical engineer, but abandoned both for music; he entered the Royal Academy of Music in 1889. There he gained many prizes and was the first holder of the Macfarren scholarship. In 1893 he founded the New Quarterly Musical Review, a pioneer publication on modern lines, and during the following two years he toured America and Australia as conductor of a Gaiety company, after which, in 1897 he became musical director at the Tower, New Brighton. Three years subsequently he was elected director of the school of music at the Midland Institute, Birmingham, and in 1908 he succeeded Elgar as professor of music at Birmingham University. A prolific composer in nearly all forms, among his best known works are The Great God Pan (1903); Omar Khayyam (1906); Pierrot of the Minute (1908); the truly choral symphony Atalanta in Calydon (1912); Fifine at the Fair (1912); and the fine Hebridean Symphony (1916) for the publication of which the Carnegie Trust made themselves responsible. His great choral symphonies, for instance, Atalanta, a colossal work for unaccompanied choirs, occupying about 45 minutes in performance, and its companion, Vanity of Vanities (1914), are remarkable examples of his work. Bantock was largely instrumental in establishing the Birmingham competition festivals in 1912 and in increasing their efficiency.