In previous Garlands we have alluded a number of times
to the composers of Victorian dance music. CHARLES COOTE is worth yet
another mention, as he conducted a prestigious dance band, described
as Coote and Tinney's Band (Tinney himself, whose Christian name is
not known to me, see footnote, composed, being
credited with a galop Fizz - though I have seen this given to
Coote!) when it appeared at a State Ball at Buckingham Palace on 17
May 1870, when Coote's waltzes Belle of the Ball and Alexina
and his Favourite Lancers Burlesque Lancers were in the
programme. It is sometimes said that after Prince Albert's death (in
1861) the Court Balls were discontinued but this seems to give the lie
to that statement. Other dances at that particular Ball included the
State Ball Quadrille by one FREWIN (possibly written for that
very occasion) and the valse Chiquita by Captain the Hon. F.A.
WELLESLEY, interestingly as he is clearly from the same family as the
(famous) Duke of Wellington, whose father, the Earl of Mornington, was
well known for his glees either side of 1800. It would be interesting
to have some of this Victorian dance music played in concert; I myself
have heard LOUIS JULLIEN's British Army Quadrilles on a 1920s recording
and in a live performance a year or two ago, and played by a Doncaster
student orchestra, CHARLES D'ALBERT's Sutton Polka, a most attractive
piece suggesting that a revival of this particular side of Victorian
music might have some mileage in it.
Now to a few people who were active around the turn
of the 19th Century. WILFRED BENDALL, who was secretary to
Sir Arthur Sullivan from 1895 up to Sullivan's death in November 1900
and who in that capacity arranged the piano part for some of Sullivan's
later published vocal scores (including the incidental music for King
Arthur) and also the piano reduction for the 1897 ballet score Victoria
and Merrie England. Like Sullivan he worked in the lighter musical
theatre, his pieces including Lover's Knots (1880), the vaudeville
"fore-piece", Quid Pro Quo (1889), the operetta, The Gypsies
(1890), whose words were by Basil Hood (maybe his debut in the theatre
where he acquired fame later, in collaboration with Sullivan and, notably,
German), the operetta, Beef Tea (1892) and the burlesque, Little
Black Sambo and Little White Barbara (1904: the score
written jointly with FREDERICK ROSE). Rather more ambitious than any
of these was the cantata The Lady of Shalott, for women's voices
and orchestra; his other pieces for female voices included the "ballad",
A Legend of Bregenz (1897) and a suite, Song Dances.
JOHN M. CAPEL is remembered today for the evergreen
ballad Love Could I Only Tell Thee, often heard today sung by
male voice choirs in a 1939 setting by Doris Arnold. Other ballad titles
by Capel included Lorraine, Lorraine, Lorree, The Miller and His
Wife, My Lady and Six Husbands: He too, dabbled in the light
musical stage, writing the score for the comedietta, The Composer
in 1892 and contributing numbers to the horse-racing musical comedy,
Newmarket; the song "I've Nothing to Do" and the trio
"Fal Lal", both by him, were among that show's most highly regarded
pieces.
HERBERT BUNNING (1863-1937) was educated at Harrow
and BNC, Oxford and later in France and Italy. He was Musical Director
at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith (1892-4) and the Prince of Wales'
Theatre (1895-6). His most important works for the theatre were the
opera Princes Osra, produced at Covent Garden in July
1902, and the incidental music for the play Robin Hood, staged
at Lyric in 1906 and from which Albert Ketelbey and Arthur Wood arranged
a selection and the composer himself extracted a four movement suite.
Apart from Princes Osra, his major compositions appear to be
the Scenas with orchestra, Ludovico Il Moro (1892) and Sir
Launcelot and Queen Guinevere, performed at the 1905 Norwich Festival.
His song's (e. g. In the Maytime, Sunshine and Butterflies, Sunshine
and Roses) were mostly of the ballad type and his orchestral works
were mainly light : Shepherd's Call (1893, later performed at
the Henry Wood Proms) Village Suite (1896) and several overtures
including Mistral and Spring and Youth, which were both
dated 1897.
Now for a for more lady composers. AVRIL GWENDOLEN
COLERIDGE-TAYLOR, born in 1903, inherited some of her father's compositional
talent and was an experienced conductor, too. Her songs, titles like
April, Who Knows and The Dreaming Water Lily, were often
of the ballad type and she produced orchestra and instrumental music,
too. The slightly earlier MAUDE CASKE DAY is still remembered for her
most popular ballad Arise O Sun often, like Capel's Love Could
I Only Tell Thee, heard in a choral arrangement; other titles were
Spring's A Dancer, Beyond the Stars, Bachelors of Devon, Billsticker
Joe and Fairy Shoon. Next among this distaff group we may
recall the miniaturist DOROTHY HOGBEN, active during the first half
of the 20th Century. Of her ballads, The Shawl has
been recorded in our time by Dame Felicity Lott; her piano music included
The Animal Book (24 pieces in two books), a suite Our Family,
another suite, Punch and Judy Show, for piano duet, and The
Pirate Ship. Finally WINIFRED HOWE wrote in 1918 a shapely piece
for salon orchestra entitled My Lady Charming which I heard and
enjoyed on the radio not long ago - but this appears to be a "singleton"
as far as I, or any of my sources, can determine.
We come up to date now with mention of two film/TV
composers. The fame of these composers depends not merely on the intrinsic
qualities of their music, though DEBBIE WISEMAN's melodic gifts have
already earned her music widespread currency, notwithstanding her relative
youth, but also on whether particular films for which they have written
the music themselves achieve fame - the recent (I write in 1999) awards
won by Shakespeare in Love has done STEPHEN WARBECK's
reputation no harm at all. The composers of music for the two most recent
BBC TV Dickens adaptations have not as yet quite aspired to such heights
but the quality of the scores by ADRIAN JOHNSTONE for Our Mutual
Friend (1998) and PETER SALEM for Great Expectations (1999) promise
well. Lastly, a well-established film composer, usually for American
films, is BRUCE BROUGHTON, born in 1945, whose scores include those
for Young Sherloc Holmes (1978: the "Title Music" and "Love Theme"
were published for piano solo) and, more recently, Lost in Space.
Not that he has confined himself to film music - his brass band pieces
include a lively little number entitles Harlequin.
© Philip L Scowcroft
I think the 'Tinney' you refer to who was part of the 'Coote
& Tinney' band was Frederick George; they certainly worked together
as publishers and providers of bands etc. Apparently their formal partnership
ended in 1858 but bands under their names were certainly playing in the
early 1890's. Frederick George died in 1865. Whether Henry Tinney [whom
I take with Charles Ernest to be sons of Frederick George] had any involvement
with Coote I am unable to find at this time.
Philip's book 'British Light Music Composers' (ISBN 0903413 88 4) is
currently out of print.
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