Philip Prosper Sainton (10 November 1891 – 2 September 1967) was a British–French composer, conductor, and violist.Foreman, Lewis. Philip Sainton, in Grove Music Online, 2001
Early career He was born in Arques-la-Bataille, in Seine-Maritime, France, grandson to violinist Prosper Sainton and contralto Charlotte Helen Sainton-Dolby, but the family soon moved to Godalming, Surrey in the UK.Leach, Gerald. British Composer Profiles, 3rd ed. (2012) His father, Charles Prosper, was a painter and his mother, born Amy Foster, was a singer.Archives of the Arques-la-Bataille Civil Registry He started his music studies learning the violin. In 1913 he entered the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he studied composition under Frederick Corder and viola under Lionel Tertis.Clark, Barbara. Biography at MusicWeb International
Shortly after World War I (during which he was a cipher officer in Cairo) he joined the Queen's Hall orchestra, and in 1925 he was also appointed principal viola of the Royal Philharmonic Society's orchestra. These positions were relinquished in 1929 when he was asked to replace Harry Waldo Warner in the London Quartet.This was short-lived, lasting until the completion of the Quartet's US tour. Sainton was then replaced by William Primrose in June 1930. See Tully Potter article 'Britain's early chamber ambassadors' Classical Recordings Quarterly, (London: Autumn 2010, p. 16 In 1930 he joined the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Composer His composition activities had begun early. The premiere of his first orchestral work, Sea Pictures, took place at the Queen's Hall Proms on 4 September 1923 with the composer conducting.BBC Proms archive, Prom 21, 1923 It was repeated the following year. Other Proms premieres included Harlequin and Columbine on 1 October 1925BBC Proms archive, Prom 47, 1925 and the ballet The Dream of a Marionette on 13 August 1929.BBC Proms archive, Prom 3, 1929 In 1935, Sir Henry Wood conducted the premiere of his Serenade Fantastique with Bernard Shore playing the viola.BBC Proms archive, Prom 46, 1935 During the 1940s he was a professor of Ensemble at the Guildhall School of Music.
Today, he is perhaps most remembered as the composer of the score for John Huston's 1956 film Moby Dick. Martin Anderson described it as "a vast, alfresco ballet danced by the sea itself" which "points to what was lost when ill-health prevented the already deeply self-critical Sainton from tackling the symphony he had long planned." The score - restored and partially re-constructed by J. Morgan and W. Stromberg in the late 1990sNotes to Naxos CD 8.573367 (1998) - shows the combined influence of Ravel, Delius and Vaughan Williams.Anderson, Martin. 'A British Music Roundup', in Tempo 215 (January 2001), p 58
Modern recordings on Marco Polo and Chandos of Moby Dick,Notes to Marco Polo CD MP 5050 (1998) his tone poem The Island (1939), the symphonic elegy Nadir (first performed in 1949) as well as The Dream of a Marionette have helped the process of re-evaluating his music after years of neglect.Benoliel, Bernard. Notes to Chandos CD 9181 (1993) Sainton also orchestrated a number of scores by the amateur South African composer J.S. Gerber.British Music Collection
Personal life and death In April 1915 he married the harpist Gwendolen Mason (1883-1977), who was later professor of Harp at the Royal Academy of Music, where she taught Osian Ellis.The Times, 25 March 1915, p. 11'London Concerts' in The Musical Times, March 1921, p. 183 His second wife was Raymonde McGeoch, whom he met and married in 1935. He died in Petersfield, Hampshire in England. His daughter Barbara Clark (from his second marriage) holds many of the remaining scores.
His name is remembered in the Musicians' Book of Remembrance in the Musician's Chapel within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, (The Musicians' Church) in London.
Works Stage The Dream of the Marionette, Ballet (1929)
Orchestral Sea Pictures (1923–1924) (aka Two Orchestral Pieces) Harlequin and Columbine (published 1925) The Dream of a Marionette ballet (1929) Sérénade Fantastique for Viola and Orchestra (1935) (also arranged for oboe) The Island, Tone Poem (1939) - recording conducted by Matthias Bamert, 1992 Caricature (1940) Nadir, Tone Poem (1942) Moby Dick, Suite from the Film (1956) The Clipper Carnival
Chamber music Crépuscule for Viola and Piano (1935) Phantom Gavotte for Viola and Piano
Vocal Even for Me for Voice and Piano He Was My King for Voice and Piano; words by Helen Waddell Jonah's Hymn from Moby Dick for Voice and Piano Leaves, Shadows and Dreams for Voice and Piano; words by Fiona Macleod A Night in Spring for Voice and Piano; words by Clifford Bax Shieling Song for Voice and Piano; words by Fiona Macleod The Song of the Wind Bell for Voice and Piano; words by Harold Acton A Walk by the River at Night for Voice and Piano; words by Clifford Bax
Film music Moby Dick (1956) A King in New York (1957); incomplete
Orchestrations of works by Jack Sydney Gerber (1902-1979) Balaton Rhapsody Fiesta Prelude to Stonehenge The Sea
References
External links Music Web Biography [ Allmusic Biography]