Ce n'est pas le printemps !

In honor of "not-spring" in Granville, New York -- another cold, gray day when I am stuck indoors doing my day job -- I have a funny little story. The photos are not mine; they are taken from Wikipedia (and hopefully are in the public domain). 

An American friend of mine who lives in England texted me a few days ago. We used to be colleagues and kind-of rivals, working on the same bird conservation project ("Important Bird Areas") for two different organizations. He's a very nice man and an expert birder. His wife works in nature conservation, too, doing climate change analysis, and is also a classical concert pianist.

Here's what he wrote: My wife, when she is not working on climate change, or practicing classical piano (she is practicing towards getting he FRSM - Fellow of the Royal School of Music with an expertise in Debussy; I am trying to get her to also pick up some Amy Beach) also sings in the UEA choir. They had a concert this evening (Durufle Requiem) and it was conducted by Bjorn Bantock, the great grandson of Granville Bantock.

I was completely lost. I had no idea who Granville Bantock was -- so I thought the part that caught his attention was that I live in Granville. I mean, how many people have Granville as their first name?

Let me add some context: I am one of the very few experts on the life and music of an obscure 19th-century American composer by the name of Anthony Philip Heinrich. I have contributed to the scant literature about him and in particular his relationship to the artist/naturalist John James Audubon and his family. I'll spare you the details!

So who was Granville Bantock? A somewhat obscure 19th-century British composer. It turned out that for my friend, it had nothing to do with where I live -- that was an unlikely coincidence -- but rather my interest in obscure musical figures that would pique my curiosity. Not that Heinrich and Bantock were contmporaries, nor were they compatriots: Heinrich American though of Bohemian birth, living mainly in the first half of the 1800s; Bantock British of Scottish parents, born in the late 1800s and living to 1946.

Here's to Granville Bantock and hoping to listen to some of his music. And, please, can we have Spring now so I don't have to be jealous of Chateaubriant Daily Photo?



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