A 238th GARLAND OF BRITISH LIGHT MUSIC COMPOSERS
I start with a group of composers best known for writing
light piano music which was particularly popular between the wars. Frederic
Mullen indeed published this repertoire under several different
names: In Arcady (1912) and Scènes Pittoresques
(1913) as Pierre Lescant, the Spring Tales Suite and Edda
(Northern Suite) as Gustav Lund and Vivace Alla Burla
under his own name (he also used the pseudonyms Jean Morel and
Philippe Carton; notice the use of French sounding names, thought
to promote sales). Others in the same mould and from a similar period
were Maurice Winlaw, known especially for Battle of the Flowers
(from Four Southern Sketches), Noel Norman, especially
for Phantom Shadows, (from Four Night Fancies) and, from
slightly later, John Neat, composer of Almond Blossom,
A Hindu’s Paradise and A Ride to the Pyramids, who appeared
to cater for the English love of the exotic, as did Ketèlbey
and so many others. He was also noted for his many medleys.
Albert Arlen, born in 1905, achieved transient
fame with his Alamein Concerto (1945), one of many film-inspired
"concertos" (usually singly movement Rachmaninoff-like rhapsodies
which followed up the astonishing success of Addinsell’s still-popular
Warsaw Concerto). Jack Beaver arranged the theme for publication
and many have helped with the "concerto" in other ways. Arlen
also provided music for the "musical romance" A Girl From
the Snowy, a selection from which achieved publication, the suite
- again exotic-sounding – The Pagoda of Jade, orchestrated by
Denis Wright, whose four movements were entitled March of the Ming
Warriors, Pekin Love Tale, Dance of the Lantern Bearers and
In the Forbidden City, and songs like Clancy of the Overflow
and Song of Canberra. Barrie Neale is worth a mention
for The Dancing Dustman, a lively miniature, which acquired popularity
in an orchestration made by Sydney Baynes in the 1920s.
And so finally to David Moule Evans (1905-88),
born in Kent, who studied at the Royal College of Music, whither he
later returned as Professor of Composition and Theory. Much of his output
was serious but he earns a place here with his music for certain documentary
films and orchestral pieces like the overture The Spirit of London,
Vienna Rhapsody and, from 1951, the Old Tupper’s Dance.
Philip L Scowcroft
December 2001
Philip's book 'British Light Music Composers' (ISBN 0903413 88 4) is
currently out of print.
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