( b London, 23 Aug 1905; d there, 21 Aug 1951). English composer. He entered the RCM when he was 17, and was becoming well known by the time he was 20. He was the first English composer commissioned by Dyagilev (Romeo and Juliet, 1926), initiating a lifelong association with ballet as a conductor and composer: he wrote Pomona (1927) for Nizhinska and Horoscope (1938) for the Vic-Wells Ballet, of which he was founder musical director (from 1931). But he also wrote concert pieces, preferring unconventional genres and anti-traditional tastes for jazz and Stravinsky: such works include The Rio Grande for piano, chorus and orchestra (1927), the Concerto for piano and nonet (1930-31) and the choral orchestral ‘masque’ Summer's Last Will and Testament (1932-5). He stood in sharp relief against the background of English musical life and had wide-ranging interests. A lively critic, he wrote the stimulating Music Ho! a Study of Music in Decline (1934).

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