Stanley Bate

Stanley Bate (12 December 1911 – 19 October 1959) was an English composer and pianist.

Education and early career Bate was born at Milehouse in the County Borough of Devonport, and received his first musical education from local teachers. He took to the piano early and by the age of 12 had secured a post as organist at Herbert Street Methodist Church in Devonport. His first opera, The Forest Enchanted, was completed in 1928 when he was 17, and produced locally with Bate conducting. Winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, he studied under Ralph Vaughan Williams, R.O. Morris, Gordon Jacob, and Arthur Benjamin. Compositions from this time include the String Quartet No 1 (1936) and the Symphony No 1 in E, which was first performed at the College in 1936. Bate also began writing incidental music for theatre director Michel Saint-Denis (including productions of Twelfth Night and The Cherry Orchard) and produced two ballet scores - Perseus for Les Trois Arts and Cap Over Mill, for Ballet Rambert.

Marriage and wartime travel While at the College Bate met Australian-born fellow student and composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks. Although Bate was openly homosexual they married in 1938 and remained together until a divorce in 1949. She was very supportive of his career, at some cost to her own. There were also reports of domestic violence. After the divorce Bate married the Brazilian diplomat Margarida Guedes Nogueira. Other successful US premieres included the Sinfonietta No 1 in 1942 (ISCM, Berkeley California), the String Quartet No 2, given by the Lener Quartet in 1943, and the Viola Concerto in 1946, performed by Emanuel Vardi with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. - was unanimously well received by critics. The Musical Times called it "exhilarating, hard-hitting music". The BBC has been criticised for its lack of support for his music, but it did stage the world premiere of his Piano Concerto No 3 at the Proms on 30 August 1957 with the composer as soloist and Malcolm Sargent conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra. And the first broadcast of the Symphony No 4 was given on 3 April 1958 by the BBC Northern Orchestra, conducted by Lawrence Leonard.

Short of money and depressed by his lack of recognition, Bate died in 1959 aged 47, having suffered a breakdown a few months before. He was found dead at his flat in Roland Gardens, Kensington. The coroner's verdict was death due to complications of alcohol, though other reports suggested a drug overdose. There was a further performance of the Third Symphony at Cheltenham in 1965, but it took until 2006 for a new performance to be broadcast, followed by a commercial recording in 2010.

That same year, a recording of the Viola Concerto (1944–46) by Roger Chase and the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Stephen Bell helped spark a modern revival of interest. This intensively lyrical work also immediately brings to mind the music of Vaughan Williams, to whom it is dedicated. Recordings of the Symphony No 4 (1954–55) followed in 2011, and the Third Piano Concerto (1938) and Sinfonietta No 1 (1940) in 2012. A recording of the Cello Concerto (1954) was issued by Lyrita in 2015.

The world premiere of his Second Symphony (1937-39) took place on 23 May 2025 at the English Music Festival in Dorchester, by the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Martin Yates.

Works