# Alexander Breth-Smith, (obscure?) composer



## Starless74

Hello to everybody
I recently made a research on the hymn _*Come My Way, My Truth, My Life*_ by George Herbert (1593-1633), famously set to music by Vaughan-Williams and Herbert Howells among others.

I came across a version which was reportedly set to music by *Alexander Breth*-*Smith*; I could not find anything about this composer on the Internet, except for the authoring credit on the recording itself.
Should anybody have any biographical information on this author, please reply here.
Thanks in advance.

By the way, here's the version:


----------



## RICK RIEKERT

Brent-Smith (1889-1950) was a critic, educationalist, and composer who was born at Brookthorpe in Gloucestershire and went to King's School, Worcester. He studied privately with Sir Ivor Atkins and became Atkins' assistant organist at Worcester Cathedral. Atkins remained a good friend encouraging Brent-Smith to maintain the flow of compositions at times when he might otherwise have forsaken composition. The music of Elgar, Parry and Stanford made a strong impression on the young composer. From 1912-34 he was Director of Music at Lancing College, Sussex where he was remembered as an enthralling lecturer and a brilliant organist, and his music was represented on several occasions at the Three Choirs Festivals. His compositions include two symphonies and a symphonic study, four operas: The Gentle Tyrant, The Captain s Parrot, The Age of Chivalry and Catherine Morland (the last after Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey), large scale choral works, five concertos, chamber and instrumental music. Brent-Smith also wrote Studies of the Great Composers and various studies of Schubert s music.

As a critic Brent-Smith was of a conservative bent. Writing in the 1930s he denounced "all this Bartok and Schoenberg" as "damned rot".


----------



## Starless74

Thank you very much, Rick.
So the name was mispelled on the CD, that's why I couldn't find anything.


----------



## Rogerx

Starless74 said:


> Thank you very much, Rick.
> So the name was mispelled on the CD, that's why I couldn't find anything.


And now...are you exploring this composer further more?


----------

