DESCRIPTION:
Atalanta in Calydon: Choral Symphony after Algernon Swinburne (1911)

I. Ode 1: When the hounds of spring are on winter's traces [0:00]
II. Ode 2: Before the beginning of years [7:13]
III. Ode 3: We have seen thee, O Love, thou art fair [16:47]
IV. Ode 4: Who hath given man speech? [19:30]


The TEXT of the choral-symphony is extracted from four lengthy choruses in Swinburne's poem "Atalanta in Calydon". The text is available here:
https://sites.google.com/site/musicanthtext/atalanta

I recommend opening a new Internet browser window with the text to follow along as the video plays.


This is a large-scale choral symphony by British composer Granville Bantock (1868-1946). Bantock was self-taught in music until he turned twenty-one and won a place at the Royal Academy of Music, studying under Frederick Corder. After his 1897 appointment as musical director of the New Brighton Tower concerts, where he converted the local marching band into a professional orchestra and programmed modern British and European music, Bantock rose to prominence as an important composer and his name was often paired with that of his close friend Edward Elgar. In 1908, Elgar offered his professorship at Birmingham University to Bantock; he accepted and remained there for two decades and a half, founding the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Throughout his life, Bantock composed prolifically. Among his most ambitious works dating the early part of his tenure at the University of Birmingham are two monumental choral symphonies: "Atalanta in Calydon" and "The Vanity of Vanities" (both can be found on this channel). "Atalanta in Calydon" is based on the 1865 poetic work of the same name by the English decadent poet and novelist Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909). Bantock's composition is a purely vocal work, demanding a twenty-part choir with "not less than ten voices to each part" according to the composer's directions. The work was dedicated to the choirmaster R. H. Wilson and the Hallé Choir from Manchester, which premiered "Atalanta in Calydon" in January 1912 under Bantock's direction.

The poem is a verse drama that depicts episodes from Greek mythology, particularly the legend of the chaste huntress Atalanta, a favourite of Artemis. The goddess sent a ferocious, monstrous boar to ravage Calydon; the hero Meleager organized the famous Calydonian boar hunt to defeat it, calling all the famous warriors of Greece to join him, including Atalanta. Meleager immediately fell in love, and although his arrow first struck the boar, he allowed Atalanta to finish the job and carry away the spoils of the hunt. This sparked the vicious jealousy of Meleager's uncles. After he fought and killed them both, his distraught mother Althaea invoked a curse that had been placed on Meleager as an infant, burning the brand in which the Moirae (Fates) had placed her son's life.


Conductor: Simon Joly
BBC Singers