Editing Gordon Jacob (section)

===Compositions===
Jacob was a prolific composer. ''Grove'' lists 16 concertos by him for a wide variety of solo instruments, including trombone and timpani. A website dedicated to Jacob lists more than 700 original compositions or arrangements of existing music.<ref>[http://www.gordonjacob.net/browse_works.html "Works"], Gordon Jacob. Retrieved 2 November 2018</ref> His biographer (and former pupil) [[Eric Wetherell]] writes that as a composer, Jacob was influenced more by early 20th-century French and Russian examples rather than the German tradition. Wetherell writes of Jacob's "clarity of structure and instrumental writing that shows a keen awareness of the capabilities and limitations of every instrument".<ref name=grove/> Reviewing a concert of his music given in 1939, ''The Times'' said, "As a general description, 'Good, but a little dry' might be justly applied to Jacob's work".<ref>"Week-end Concerts", ''The Times'', 6 February 1939, p. 8</ref>

In the 1920s and 1930s Jacob composed music for choral societies and school choirs, which provided a steady income, in between more ambitious compositions. From his works of the 1920s, Wetherell singles out a viola concerto (1926), a piano concerto followed (1927) and the First Symphony (1929) dedicated to the memory of Jacob's favourite brother who was killed in the First World War. Large-scale works from the 1930s include an oboe concerto for [[Léon Goossens]] (1935) and Variations on an Original Theme (1937)

In the 1930s Jacob, along with several other young composers, wrote for the [[Sadler's Wells Ballet Company]] (now [[The Royal Ballet]]). His one original ballet (other than a student work, ''The Jew in the Bush'' (1928)),<ref>"Royal College of Music", ''The Times'', 13 March 1928, p. 14</ref> was ''Uncle Remus'' (1934), written for them. During the [[Second World War]], Jacob wrote music for several propaganda films, and after the war he provided the score for the feature film ''[[Esther Waters (film)|Esther Waters]]'' (1948).<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20191010235549/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba07cb851 "Gordon Jacob"], British Film Institute. Retrieved 2 November 2018</ref> A more personal take on the war is evident in the austere ''Symphony for Strings'' (1943), written for the [[Boyd Neel|Boyd Neel Orchestra]].<ref>[http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2021/Jan/British-strings-v1-5553822.htm 'British Music for Strings, Volume 1', CPO 555 382-2 (2020), reviewed by ''MusicWeb International'']</ref>

Jacob's Second Symphony, premiered on 1 May 1946 at a BBC studio recording,<ref>[https://www.chandos.net/chanimages/Booklets/LY0315.pdf Wetherell, Eric. Notes to Lyrita CD LYO315 (2007)]</ref> was considered by one reviewer to be "perhaps the most stimulating work that has yet come from this composer". The reviewer remarked on the work's intensity of feeling, ranging from romantic excitement in the first movement, through poignancy and fury in the two middle movements to a mood of heroism in the final [[passacaglia]].<ref>Dr Gordon Jacob: Second Symphony", ''The Times'', 1 July 1948, p. 6</ref> Four new works appeared in 1951, the year of the [[Festival of Britain]]: ''Music for a Festival'' (for brass and military bands), concertos for flute and for horn, and the cantata ''A Goodly Heritage''.<ref name=web>Ogram, Geoff. [http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/feb04/gordon_jacob.htm "Gordon Jacob (1895–1984)]", Music Web. Retrieved 2 November 2018</ref>

Among the original compositions from Jacob's later years was incidental music to a dramatised adaptation of the biblical [[Book of Job]], first performed at the Festival of the Arts, Saffron Walden, and later broadcast by the BBC.<ref>[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/search/0/20?adv=0&q=Gordon+Jacob&media=all&yf=1923&yt=2009&mf=1&mt=12&tf=00%3A00&tt=00%3A00#search "Gordon Jacob"], BBC Genome. Retrieved 2 November 2018</ref>