His career was wide-ranging: he was associated with the revival of interest in 20th century English ballet, arranged music for dance bands, conducted challenging contemporary classical works and wrote many original concert and film scores.
[1] Lucas began his career as a dancer for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (1918–21) but soon branched out into conducting.
In 1954 he conducted the first staged performance in Britain of Honegger's oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher at the Stoll Theatre.
Philip Lane reconstructed the lost score, noting that Lucas created his own main theme "which seems to play hide and seek with Coates's throughout the film, both vying for supremacy.
"[10] Lucas's Sinfonia Brevis (1936) for horn and 11 instruments may be one of the earliest British scores to incorporate Balinese gamelan effects.