Arthur Bliss - Honours, Legacy and Reputation

Honours, Legacy and Reputation

In addition to his knighthood, Bliss was appointed KCVO (1969) and CH (1971). He received honorary degrees from the universities of Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lancaster, London and Princeton. The London Symphony Orchestra appointed him its honorary President in 1958. In 1963, he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society.

Bliss's archive is kept at Cambridge University Library. There is an Arthur Bliss Road in Newport, an Arthur Bliss Gardens in Cheltenham and a block of flats, Sir Arthur Bliss Court, in Mitcham, South London.

The Arthur Bliss Society was founded in 2003 to further the knowledge and appreciation of Bliss's music. The society's website includes listings of forthcoming performances of Bliss's works; in March 2011 the following works were listed as scheduled for performance in the UK and U.S.: Ceremonial Prelude; Clarinet Quartet (2 performances); Four Songs for Voice, Violin and Piano ; Music for Strings; Pastoral (Lie strewn the white flocks); Royal Fanfares; Seven American Poems; String Quartet No. 2 (5 performances); Things to Come Suite (2 performances); Things to Come March.

Many of Bliss's works have been recorded. He was a capable conductor, and was in charge of some of the recordings. The Library of Cambridge University maintains a complete Bliss discography. In March 2011 it contained details of 281 recordings: 120 orchestral, 56 chamber and instrumental, 58 choral and vocal, and 47 stage and screen works. Among the works that have received multiple recordings are A Colour Symphony (6 recordings); the Cello Concerto (6); the Piano Concerto (6); Music for Strings (7); the Oboe Quintet (7); the Viola Sonata (The vioin sonata was given its first recorded in 2010) (7); and Checkmate (complete ballet and ballet suite (9)).

Bliss was a modest man, with no inflated ideas about his importance. On receiving the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society in 1963, he said, "I don't claim to have done more than light a small taper at the shrine of music. I do not upbraid Fate for not having given me greater gifts. Endeavour has been the joy". A hundred years after Bliss's birth, Byron Adams wrote,

Of the smaller stars that shone in the ample firmament of twentieth-century English music, the light that coruscated with the greatest brilliance was Sir Arthur Bliss.