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The Golden Age of Light Music: Light
Music While You WorkVolume 2
see end of review for details
rec. 1940-1946 GUILD LIGHT MUSIC GLCD5137 [78:36]
The radio show “Music
while you work” ran for 27 years from 1940, and for two shorter
periods in the 1980s and 1990s. The formula was simple – half
an hour of uninterrupted music suitable to be played in factories
to relieve the workers’ boredom. As half an hour a day was
not always sufficient for this, the Decca company issued a
series of records similar in type but which could be played
between broadcasts. The orchestras chosen were not necessarily
those who took part in the broadcasts but their style and choice
of music was very similar.
This is the second
of Guild’s selection of these recordings. It starts and ends
with a brief extract from the signature tune to the broadcast:
Eric Coates’ “Calling All Workers” March, conducted with characteristic
dash by the composer himself. The 24 pieces forming the programme
embrace a mixture of styles, from somewhat stiff and even eccentric
performances or arrangements of popular classics such as the
Waltz from Tchaikovsky’s “Sleeping Beauty” and the “Emperor” Waltz,
to more up to date pieces such as “Toy Trumpet” and “Fashionette”.
There are selections from films and shows, including “The Dancing
Years”, “Girl Crazy” and “Lady in the Dark”, and novelty numbers
such as Harry Davidson’s version of “Turkey in the straw”.
What they all have in common is a brightness and very forward
projection of the music. This is both very evocative of the
period and very wearing to listen to in more than small quantities.
Certainly even now it does help to take the mind off such tasks
as ironing or washing up - I have tried it with both - but
its main interest musically is essentially historical. The
sound of the orchestras of the period now seems to be beyond
recall, both in terms of the individual instruments, especially
the oboes, and of the clipped crisp articulation generally
favoured at that time. Such a change, over such a relatively
short period is as good an indication as I have found of the
difficulties facing those aiming more widely at Historically
Informed Performance.
Clearly this disc
will appeal to fans of the music of that period, or of the
various artists featured here whose recordings are otherwise
hard to come by, but I am doubtful of its wider interest. Taken
a few tracks at a time, however, it does have an appeal all
of its own for the curious and the nostalgic.
John Sheppard
Details
1. Eric COATES “Calling
all workers” March (excerpts) [0:27 + 0:56]
2. Louis GANNE March Lorraine
[3:10]
3. Ivor NOVELLO Selection from “The
Dancing Years” (1939) [3:10]
4. Katy MOSS “The Floral Dance” [3:02]
5. Pyotr Ilych TCHAIKOVSKY Waltz
from “The Sleeping Beauty” [3:18]
6. Montague EWING “Pierrot
comes to town” [2:53]; “Butterflies in the rain” [2:36]
7. Franz LEHÁR Lehar in the
Ballroom [3:13]
8. Raymond SCOTT Toy Trumpet
[2:43]
9. George GERSHWIN Selection
from “Girl Crazy” [2:55]
10. Johann STRAUSS Waltz from “Die
Fledermaus” (arr. Ronnie Munro) [3:07]; Emperor Waltz (arr.
Ronnie Munro) [2:43]
11. Jack STRACHEY “Theatreland” March
[2:59]
12. Franz von BLON Sizilietta
[3:07]
13. Charles ANCLIFFE “Castles
in Spain” [3:04]
14. Georges BOULANGER Selection
from the film “One Exciting Night” (1944) [5:34]
15. Jack
GLOGAN & Robert KING Fashionette [3:07]
16. Franz SCHUBERT Moment Musical
No. 3 [3:17]
17. Lloyd THOMAS Scarlet and
Gold [3:52]
18. Paul LINCKE Softly unawares
[2:56]
19. Harry WARREN & Leo ROBIN “Journey
to a star” & “ No love no nothing” [2:43]
20. Percy FLETCHER “Bal Masque” (from
Two Parisian Sketches) [3:20]
21. Lance STARKE “With sword
and lance” [2:44]
22. Trad arr. Harry DAVIDSON “Turkey
in the straw” [3:01]
23. Kurt WEILL Selection from “Lady
in the dark” (1941) [5:28]
Eric Coates & Symphony Orchestra (1)
London Coliseum Orchestra/Reginald
Burston (2, 13, 17, 21)
Harry Fryer and his orchestra
(3, 11)
Harry Davidson and his orchestra (4,
17, 22)
Richard Crean and his orchestra (5, 16, 20)
Harold
Collins and his orchestra (6, 15)
Wynford Reynolds and his
orchestra (7)
Reginald Pursglove and his orchestra (8)
Studio
Orchestra/Phil Green (9, 19)
Ronnie Munro and
his Scottish Variety Orchestra (10)
David Java and his orchestra
(12)
Phil Green and his Theatreland Orchestra (14, 23)
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