GIBBS, CECIL ARMSTRONG  

The name of Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960) is these days associated with songs and partsongs - Song of Shadows, and Five Eyes amongst them, and Dusk, one of those handful of pieces better known when heard than when referred to. However, he wrote concertos and several symphonies (Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 are available on Marco Polo 8.223553) in a productive career. Yet it is probably as a miniaturist that his reputation will stand, and his Miniature Dance Suite is particularly representative in its gentle mockery of eighteenth century and earlier models designed initially for amateurs, but, like Holst's St Paul's Suite et al., not out of place in loftier circles.