H. BALFOUR GARDINER

Henry Balfour Gardiner (1877-1950) was born in London, England. He began learning piano at age five and was composing music by age nine. He attended the Charterhouse School and New College, Oxford. He was a piano student at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main and studied conducting at Sondershausen. Gardiner collected folk songs in Hampshire in 1905-1906 and briefly taught music at Winchester College (1907). He wanted to be a concert pianist but is mostly known as a composer. His works included compositions in a variety of genres, including two symphonies, but many of his scores are lost. As a conductor, he promoted contemporary British and colonial composers; particularly Bax, Holst, Grainger, Quilter, and Scott. He financed these concerts himself and was generous with his personal fortune; he paid for a private benefit performance of The Planets for Gustav Holst in 1918 and purchased Frederick Delius’ house at Grez-sur-Loing to enable him to continue living in it at the end of his life. He gave up composing in 1925: in part, from self-criticism and the belief that he could not flourish as a composer in the post-war culture. He was the great-uncle of the conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

All are mixed chorus; some contain divisi.