Editing Constant Lambert (section)

{{Short description|British composer, conductor, and author (1905–1951)}}
{{EngvarB|date=November 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = Constant Lambert
| image         = Constant Lambert by Christopher Wood.jpg
| caption       = Portrait by Christopher Wood (1926)
| birth_name    = Leonard Constant Lambert
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|df=yes|1905|8|23}}
| birth_place   = [[Fulham]], London, England
| death_date    = {{death date and age|df=yes|1951|8|21|1905|8|23}}
| death_place   = London, England
| field         = Composer<br />conductor<br />author
| training      = [[Royal College of Music]]<br />[[Christ's Hospital]]
| movement      =
| works         = [[The Rio Grande (Lambert)|The Rio Grande]]<br />[[Summer's Last Will and Testament (Lambert)|Summer's Last Will and Testament]]<br />''Music Ho!''
| patrons       =
| awards        = 
| father        = [[George Washington Lambert|George Lambert]]
| spouse        = {{marriage|Florence Kaye|5 August 1931|1947|end=divorced}}<br>{{marriage|[[Isabel Nicholas]]|1947}}
| partner       = [[Margot Fonteyn]]
| relatives     = [[Kit Lambert]] (son)<br>[[Maurice Lambert]] (brother)
}}

'''Leonard Constant Lambert''' (23 August 1905{{spaced ndash}}21 August 1951) was a British [[composer]], conductor, and [[author]]. He was the founding music director of the [[Royal Ballet]], and (alongside Dame [[Ninette de Valois]] and Sir [[Frederick Ashton]]) he was a major figure in the establishment of the English ballet as a significant artistic movement.<ref name="ROH bio">{{cite web |title=Constant Lambert biography |url=http://www.roh.org.uk/people/constant-lambert |publisher=Royal Opera House |access-date=20 February 2019}}</ref>

His ballet commitments, including extensive conducting work throughout his life, restricted his compositional activities. However one work, ''[[The Rio Grande (Lambert)|The Rio Grande]]'', for chorus, orchestra and piano soloist, achieved widespread popularity in the 1920s, and is still regularly performed today. His other work includes a jazz influenced Piano Concerto (1931), major ballet scores such as ''[[Horoscope (ballet)|Horoscope]]'' (1937) and a full-scale choral masque ''[[Summer's Last Will and Testament (Lambert)|Summer's Last Will and Testament]]'' (1936) that some consider his masterpiece.

Lambert had wide-ranging interests beyond music, as can be seen from his critical study ''Music Ho!'' (1934), which places music in the context of the other arts. His friends included [[John Maynard Keynes]], [[Anthony Powell]] and the [[The Sitwells|Sitwells]].<ref>Motion Andrew (1996). ''The Lamberts. George, Constant and Kit''.</ref> To Keynes, Lambert was perhaps the most brilliant man he had ever met; to de Valois he was the greatest ballet conductor and advisor his country had ever had; to the composer [[Denis ApIvor]] he was the most entertaining personality of the musical world.<ref>Stephen Lloyd. ''Constant Lambert – Beyond The Rio Grande''. Introduction.</ref>