[1] 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.
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 1990s[10] - shows the combined influence of Ravel, Delius and Vaughan Williams.
[11] Modern recordings on Marco Polo and Chandos of Moby Dick,[12] 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.
[14] 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.