Priaulx Rainier

[1] Although she lived most of her life in England and died in France, her compositional style was strongly influenced by the African music remembered from her childhood.

[4] She had encouragement as a composer from Arnold Bax, and in 1937 studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris[5][6] but considered herself essentially self-taught.

[18] The first of Priaulx Rainier's large orchestral works was Phalaphala (the word refers to an African chief's ceremonial horn), first heard in 1961, celebrating Sir Adrian Boult's tenth anniversary with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (1960).

[5] Peter Pears and the Purcell Singers[19] gave the first performance of Priaulx Rainier's Requiem (1956; tenor and unaccompanied chorus) at the Aldeburgh Festival that year.

[19] Pears also commissioned Rainier's Cycle for Declamation (1954) and The Bee Oracles (1970), a setting of Edith Sitwell's poem The Bee-Keeper scored for tenor, flute, oboe, violin, cello and harpsichord.

[4] The Cello Concerto was written for a Prom Concert held on 3 September 1964[5][23] where it was introduced to the world by Jacqueline du Pré and the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Norman Del Mar (at the same concert, du Pré played Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto with the same orchestra under Sir Malcolm Sargent, the year before she made her famous recording of it under Sir John Barbirolli.

[26] Priaulx Rainier's largest work of that period was the orchestral suite Aequora Lunae, a continuous piece in seven sections, each one descriptive of one of the Moon's seas.

It was dedicated to Barbara Hepworth, whose acquaintance she made in the summer of 1949[3][18] when she stayed in St Ives, Cornwall, using a fisherman's loft as a studio.

It uses an orchestra of winds and percussion, including timpani, tubular bells, hand-bells, antique cymbals, high and low gongs, xylophone, and marimba.

[4] Her violin concerto, Due Canti e Finale, was commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin, who performed it at the 1977 Edinburgh Festival with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Charles Groves.

[11] Her "lost" early String Quartet (1922) was given its world premiere on 8 September 2004 at the Tate St Ives Visual Music Week.

[32] Rainier's Movement for strings, substantially completed in 1951 but lacking final revision, was edited by Douglas Young and received its first performance at the BBC Proms on 10 August 2013.