A 239th GARLAND OF BRITISH LIGHT MUSIC COMPOSERS
We begin with a brief reference to one of the present-day
writers of incidental music for films, TV or radio: Neil Brand,
whose latest effort in that particular direction has been to write "pantomime
music" for a radio play Rumpole and Old Familiar Faces,
transmitted in December 2001.
Tom Birkett, who died in 2001, was a Drum Major
in H.M. Coldstream Guards who also composed, mainly marches such as
Hazelmere, Out the Escort and The Adjutant.
Next for two ballad composers active in the period,
prior to the Great War. J. Fred Helf is known for just one title,
when an Old School Boy Meets An Old School Girl, dated 1913.
Second, H.W. Petrie, who straddled the 19th and 20th
Centuries, seems to have derived particular inspiration from the sea.
His best known song – and it was popular in its day – was Asleep
in the Deep, but we can also cite At Night in the Stormy Deep,
published in 1907, Davy Jones’ Locker, Down in the Deep Let Me Sleep
(could this have been confused with his best known title?), Ho! For
a Sail in a Piping Breeze, On the Roll of the Open Sea, The Song of
the Lighthouse Bell, Where the Winds O’er the Sea and When the
Sunset Turns the Oceans Blue to Gold.
Finally, a word about Geraldo, whose real name
was Gerald Bright (1904-74), although he was an arranger and
compiler rather than a composer as such. A pianist and organist, he
studied the former at the Royal Academy of Music. He then formed a Light
Orchestra (under his real name) which played for five years at the Hotel
Majestic, St Anne’s-On-Sea before changing his name to Geraldo in 1930.
Thereafter he created various dance orchestras under that name and recorded
prolifically and broadcast over 2000 times. He directed the musical
show The Fleet’s Lit Up in 1938 and was in ENSA during the Second
World War.
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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