Eric Coates himself wrote the best book about Eric Coates, ‘The
Uncrowned King of Light Music’. His autobiography, Suite
in Four Movements, first published in 1953, was a joyous,
non-technical account of his lifeand music. It is also
an invaluable historical record of what life was like as a student
of the Royal Academy of Music, as a player in concert and theatre
orchestras, and as a Londoner in the early years of the 20th
century. I will always treasure the memory of my friendship
with the composer’s son, Austin Coates and his encouragement
to me to contribute a short foreword to the 1986 centenary reprint
of Suite
in Four Movements.
Wisely, Michael Payne avoids repeating Eric Coates own autobiographical
detail, but concentrates on contributing new material plus useful
and insightful analyses of Coates’ music We learn of his
pessimism about the future of light music and his disappointments
and conflicts with the BBC about what he saw as the neglect
of the genre and the infrequent inclusion of his music in Prom
concerts: a table shows the number of Prom performances of his
music between 1909 and 1956. Yet, as Payne points out, despite
the BBC claiming that Eric Coates’s music did not chime
well with the declared Prom classical music brief, the Corporation
did choose many of his works to be signature tunes for their
radio and TV programmes and were keen to broadcast his new pieces.
Also noteworthy is the account of the composer’s relationship
with the Performing Rights Society (PRS). Another eye-opening
table shows a comparison of the PRS incomes of Eric Coates,
Haydn Wood and Albert Ketèlbey between 1914 and 1923.
Especially interesting is Payne’s detailed coverage of
Eric Coates’s failed stage musical projects; as one observer
remarked, he never found a Gilbert as Sullivan had done. We
learn, too, a lot about the persistent illnesses that blighted
Eric’s life: his frequent bouts of influenza and bronchitis,
for instance, and cataracts towards the end of his life.
The book includes numerous musical examples, tables, lists of
works and a selected bibliography. There are also some pictures,
well reproduced, of the composer and his family. I cannot remember
having seen these before.
There are some puzzling omissions. Coquette was one of
Coates’ few unpublished pieces. Payne includes comment
and a musical example from this charming little piece but fails
to add that it was recorded only by Eric Coates’s champion,
John Wilson, who as I understand the situation, rediscovered
the piece and included it in his 1996 album of 17 Eric Coates
Orchestral Miniatures (ASV CDWHL 2107). In fact mention of John
Wilson is conspicuously absent from this book. Payne’s
list of radio and television programmes also omits a significant
segment of BBC TV’s One Show transmitted in August
2009 that was devoted to Eric Coates’s Knightsbridge
March.
It is nevertheless a most worthwhile addition to Eric Coates
studies.
Ian Lace
All book reviews on
Musicweb International
