Geoffrey Bush

Greek Love Songs

The cycle Greek Love Songs was commissioned in 1964 by the Bridport and West Dorset Music Club. Bush found his inspiration in some lyric poetry translated into English from the Greek Anthology by Dudley Fitts. The verses, which are suffused with love and desire, told of the poet Meleager's passion for Heliodora, a girl (unluckily for him) as promiscuous as she was beautiful. All that was needed to complete the cycle was an epilogue, and that was supplied by Meleager's own epitaph, a touching utterance briefly outlining his life and bidding farewell to passers-by in three different languages. Geoffrey Bush was educated at Salisbury Cathedral Choir School, Lancing College, and Balliol College, Oxford, where he read classics and music. He has been a lecturer at both Oxford and London universities. In 1957 he became chairman of the Composers' Guild, and in 1969 the visiting professor in music at King's College, London.