associated only with one church anthem, ‘And I Saw a New Heaven’; but during the first half of the twentieth century Bainton was a leading fi gure in Britain’s musical life – as composer, pianist, conductor, examiner, adjudicator and lecturer, with his part-songs, piano pieces and works for chorus and orchestra in print and frequently performed. It was his emigration in 1934 to Australia, where he remained until his death in 1956, which turned him by default into an

Australian composer and removed him from the musical mainstream in the UK. 

Today the name of Edgar Bainton is

associated only with one church anthem,

‘And I Saw a New Heaven’; but during the

fi rst half of the twentieth century Bainton

was a leading fi gure in Britain’s musical

life – as composer, pianist, conductor,

examiner, adjudicator and lecturer, with

his part-songs, piano pieces and works for

chorus and orchestra in print and frequently

performed. It was his emigration in 1934 to

Australia, where he remained until his death

in 1956, which turned him by default into an

Australian composer and removed him from

the musical mainstream in the UK.