Berners, Lord (Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson) (1883–1950)

English composer, painter, and author. In the diplomatic service at first, he studied music at Dresden and Vienna, and also sought the advice of Stravinsky and Alfredo Casella. His operatic setting of Prosper Mérimée's comedy Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement was produced in Paris in 1924, and the ballet The Triumph of Neptune in London in 1926; another, with words by Gertrude Stein, The Wedding Bouquet, was produced at Sadlers Wells, London, in 1937 with settings designed by himself. He was famed for such eccentricities as dyeing the pigeons on his lawns different colours to match his moods.

Born at Arley Park, near Bridgnorth, Shropshire, and educated at Eton, he was in the diplomatic service 1909–24. His novels include The Camel (1936), Far from the Madding War (1941), and The Romance of a Nose (1942), and he also published two popular autobiographical works, First Childhood (1934) and A Distant Prospect (1945).

Works Opera Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement (1924).

Ballet The Triumph of Neptune (1926), Luna Park (1930), The Wedding Bouquet (words by Gertrude Stein; 1937), Cupid and Psyche (1939).

Orchestral three pieces (Chinoiserie, Valse sentimentale, Kasatchok), Fantaisie espagnole (1920), and Fugue for orchestra (1928); Variations, Adagio and Hornpipe for string orchestra.

Piano Le Poisson d'or, Trois Petites Marches funèbres and Fragments psychologiques for piano; Valses bourgeoises for piano duet.

Songs including three sets in the German, French, and English manners.