Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss (1891–1975) Biography

Born in London, Bliss took a music degree at Cambridge and studied briefly at the Royal College of Music with Charles Stanford ( 1852 – 1924 ), Vaughan Williams , and Holst . After army service in World War I, he was attracted by the lively innovations of Parisian music of the 1920s, but his natural style of post-Elgarian romanticism (without Elgar's introspection) prevailed. His most deeply felt work was Morning Heroes ( 1930 ), a choral symphony with orator, sublimating the experiences of the war years. The Colour Symphony is a work of his early maturity, written at the suggestion of Elgar for the Three Choirs Festival of 1922 . He wrote two excellent ballet scores for Sadler's Wells: Checkmate ( 1937 ) and Miracle of the Gorbals ( 1944 ); also a powerful score for Alexander Korda's film Things to Come ( 1934 – 35 ). Perhaps his best-known work was, however, his concerto for piano ( 1938 ). His one opera, The Olympians ( 1949 ), with libretto by J. B. Priestley , failed to stay in the repertoire. Bliss was Director of Music at the BBC ( 1942 – 44 ).