A 196th GARLAND OF BRITISH LIGHT MUSIC COMPOSERS
In the previous 195 posies we have alluded to a number
of Victorian ballad composers but there are still plenty more for us
to mention. One of them is G. W. Hunt, whose titles included
Waiting for the Signal (a railway one), The Gorman Band
(a familiar street sight in Victorian days), Beautiful Columbine,
Funny Mrs Jones, Gay Masquerade, Up in a Balloon and We Don’t
Want to Fight But By Jingo If We Do! Hunt also contributed songs
to Monte Cristo Jnr (1881) and Frankenstein (1887), two
stage works. Even more serious Victorian composers wrote ballads and
here we may cite John Barnett (1802-90), composer of the opera
The Mountain Sylph and a Symphony, and whose lighter songs included
such titles as The Light Guitar, Little Fay, Pretty Fay and A
Pair of Sabots. Two other ballad composers from around 1900 were
Reginald S Barnicott, composer of The Bonnie Blue Kerchief
and – a duet – The Maiden in Grey, and Katherine Barry whose
titles included A Flower, Invitation, Moon in a Garden, My Happy
Garden, The Sleeping Song, dated 1908, Tomorrow and, composed
for a performance of A Winter’s Tale, Daffodils.
From slightly later – his floreat extended though
the first three decades of the 20th century – we may remember
Mark Strong, composer of such things as The Ogo Pogo:
The Funny Fox Trot Song, presumably a 1920s number. Strong, though,
was a musical director for the stage before the Great War and his own
musicals included The Officer’s Mess (1905) and The Lily of
Bermuda (1909).
Finally, from the present day let us salute the guitarist
Jonathan Richards, who has recorded some of his own compositions
in CD, including Mini Prelude, Nocturnes and Interludes,
which are short, tuneful and agreeable – in a word "light".
Philip L Scowcroft
June 2001
Philip's book 'British Light Music Composers' (ISBN 0903413 88 4) is
currently out of print.
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