Bate received early training in music and had composed two operas by age 20. He studied under Ralph Vaughan Williams, R.O. Morris, Gordon Jacob, and Arthur Benjamin, and then in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and in Berlin with Paul Hindemith. He wrote incidental music for performances at German playhouses, and toured Australia and the United States as a pianist. Bate was openly gay, but was married to fellow composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks from 1938 to 1949, when they divorced. After several years living in America, where Bate and Glanville-Hicks had moved in 1941, he returned to London. Bate committed suicide in 1959.
Works
Bate's works are influenced by Hindemith, Vaughan Williams, and William Walton.
Dramatic
Operas
The Forest Enchanted, 1928
All for the Queen, 1929–30
Ballets
Eros, 1935
Goyescas, 1937
Juanita (mime-ballet), 1938
Cap over Mill, op.27, 1939
Perseus, op.26, 1939
Dance Variations, op.49, 1944–6
Highland Fling, 1946
Troilus and Cressida, op.60, 1948
Incidental music
Electra (Sophocles), 1938
Bodas de Sangre (Federico García Lorca), c. 1938
The Cherry Orchard (Anton Chekhov), c. 1938
Twelfth Night (Shakespeare), c. 1938
The White Guard, c. 1938
The Patriots (play) (Sidney Kingsley), 1944
Music for films
The Fifth Year, 1944
Jean Helion, 1946
The Pleasure Garden, 1952–3
Light through the Ages, 1953
Instrumental
Orchestral
Concertante, op.24, 1936–8
Concertino, op.21, 1937
Symphony no.2, op.20, 1937–9
Sinfonietta no.1, op.22, 1938
Piano Concerto no.2, op.28, 1940
Symphony no.3, op.29, 1940
Violin Concerto. no.2, op.42, 1943
Sinfonietta no.2, op.39, 1944
Viola Concerto, op.46, 1944–6
Haneen, op.50, 1944
Pastorale, op.48a, c. 1946
Violin Concerto no.3, op.58, 1947–50
Piano Concerto no.3, op.66, 1951–2
Concerto grosso, 1952
Harpsichord Concerto, 1952–5
Cello Concerto, 1953
Symphony no.4, 1954–5
Piano Concerto no.4, c. 1955
Piano Concerto no.5, 1958
Chamber music
Sonata, op.11, 1937
5 Pieces, op.23, c. 1937
Sonatina, op.12, 1938
String Quartet no.2, op.41, 1942
Sonata no.1, op.47, 1946
Sonata, op.52, 1946
Fantasy, op.56, 1946–7
Recitative, op.52a, 1946–7
Pastorale, op.57, c. 1947
Sonata no.2, 1950
Piano
6 Pieces for an Infant Prodigy, op.13, c. 1938
2 Sonatinas, op.19, 1939–41
Romance and Toccata, op.25, 1941
Sonatinas nos.3–9, opp.30–6, 1942–3
Overture to a Russian War Relief Concert, op.37, c. 1943
3 Pieces, op.38, 1943
Sonata no.1, op.45, 1943
Suite, op.44, 1943
3 Mazurkas, op.38a, 1944
Sonata no.2, op.59, 1947
Sonata no.3, op.62, 1949
17 Preludes, op.64, 1949
Prelude, Rondo and Toccata, 1953
Vocal
Incantations (E. Jolas), op.48
4 Songs (A.E. Housman), op.51, 1945
Pomes Penyeach (James Joyce), op.53, 1946
3 Songs (C. Day-Lewis, E. Sitwell, Joyce), op.55, 1946
