GARLAND 54
The number of British light music composers clamouring
for my attention is seemingly never ending. Here are twenty more names
to add to an already enormous list.
First, two more composers which we may categorise
as "classical" rather then truly "light". FRANZ REIZENSTEIN (1911-68)
was German-born and came to England in the 1930s. Among a list of compositions
which was basically classical we can point to the Jolly Overture
of 1951, music for films from 1951 onwards, mainly horror movies, the
satirical Concerto Popolare written for one of the Hoffnung extravaganzas
and a number of lighter suites for piano solo like The Zodiac
and Musical Box.
GRACE WILLIAMS, born in Barry South Wales in 1906(she
lived until 1977) was educated at the Royal College of Music and in
Vienna. Welsh folksong was always an important element in her basically
tuneful output and we may convincingly argue that her Fantasia
on Welsh Nursery Tunes of 1940 is light music and similarly the
choral suite, The Dancers; she composed an orchestral fanfare,
Castell Caernarfon for the present Prince of Wales' Investiture
in 1969.
Now for a sheaf of ballad composers. FRANK LAMBERT,
active around 1900, composed A Baroque at Midnight, Night Has a Thousand
Eyes, She is Far From the Land, Farewell The Outward Ship, The Song
of the Mill Wheel, all of them songs, plus piano miniatures like
Valse Caressante. CHARLES WILLEBY's songs were popular during
the early years of this century; they include titles like Crossing
the Bar, The Fortune Hunter, Summer Rain, Autumn Days, The Sea
Gypsy, Coming Home and Flower Fetter, plus the cycles Bow
Bells, Five London Silhouettes and the (three) Songs of the Madonna.
From roughly the same period came: ARTHUR M. GOODHART, who composed
The Bells of Clermont Town, Give Me The Flower, Mary, Sweet
Lavender and most popular, probably because it was sung by Dame
Clara Butt, A Fairy Went a Marketing - Goodhart also contributed
to a composite set of variations for piano on Tipperary when
that song achieved enormous popularity in around 1914; the Irishwomen
ALICIA ADELAIDE NEEDHAM, whose titles included The Exile's Return,
My Dark Rosaleen, The Donovans, All in the Morning Early, Four Ducks
in a Pond (from a cycle for four voices - a popular form at that
period of 1914, entitled A Branch of Arbutus), The Fairy's Lullaby
and possibly best known of all Husheen, the ninth of Twelve
Hush Songs; and LOUISE CAMPBELL-TIPTON whose A Spirit Flower
(1908) and The Crying of Water were published in London (he may
possibly have been American).
From a slightly later period (i.e. between the wars)
CHATER ROBINSON produced ballads like Dream Doors, A New-Fashioned
House, Peter and You and I, also orchestral genre movements
like the intermezzo, In Slumbertime and the waltz Confidence.
Now let me mention two figures who were best known
as arrangers. AUBREY WINTER, active between the wars, arranged folk
tunes and potpourri's of martial, maritime and Alpine tunes. His arrangements
are, I understand, still played: DORIS ARNOLD (1904-69) worked for the
BBC as secretary, pianist and disc jockey (she was one of the first
female DJs and her semi-classical programme "These You Have Loved" is
remembered with affection by the present writer). Although she was a
pianist - she was often heard in double piano harmony with Harry S.
Pepper - her arrangements were primarily for male voice choirs. Again
these are still used; they comprise pantomime and plantation medleys
and settings of folksongs.
Finally, here are a few more composers of light orchestral
miniatures. Earliest of these is THEO BENDIX, who was active during
the first two decades of this century, composer of the Morceaux caracteristiques
The Butterfly (particularly with orchestras then) and A Southern
Reverie, A Hungarian Romance, A Norwegian Episode, the "mazurka
de concert" Memories of Vienna and a suite A Love Episode
in Birdland whose four movements are entitled "The Merry Lark (A
Japanese Flight)", "The broken-hearted Sparrow (A Pathetic Appeal)",
"The Gentle Dove (A Love Song)" and "The Magpie and the Parrot: Humoresque".
MAX BENDIX (1886-1945), composer of the "air de ballet"
Pavlova may have been a relative. BILL WARLAND born in 1921,
was a pianist with experience in dance bands, during and after the Second
War and later in traditional light music ensembles. He developed his
arranging skills in music publishing just after the war. Most of his
original compositions date from after 1960 and thus suffered from the
decline in interest in light music. His titles include orchestral suites
Tres Senoritas, In the Shadow of Vesuvius and a Petite Suite
and many individual genre movements: Happy Hacienda, Pepita, Sombrero
and Bosanova Romantica are all in Latin American style,
ever a popular standby for 20th Century British light music
composers, while Shopping Spree, Brighton Belle (named after
the train, of course, and It's Spring Again all sound, from their
titles attempts to write "production" or "library" music. Several of
his many popular songs appeared under the name of RON GROVES. GORDON
FRANKS, who died in 1976, also wrote popular songs and light orchestral
miniatures of which we may instance Sid's Tune. ARNOLD STECK,
particularly active in the 1950s and 1960s, is remembered for his marches,
with titles like Piccadilly, Birdcage Walk, Path of Glory and,
best known as it was the original signature tune for "Match of the Day",
Drum Majorette, not to mention other "production music" titles
for Chappell's library, such as Morning Canter and Important
Occasion.
Roughly contemporary with Steck and Franks and a composer
of songs under the pseudonym PETER HENLEY, was HAL EVANS who wrote much
incidental music for BBC radio such as A Christmas Carol, The Four
Feathers, and The Water Gypsies, which latter score includes
parts for celesta, glockenspiel and a barge siren. W. LAMBERT WILLIAMSON
was another in demand at that time for music accompanying BBC radio
productions (for example Lawn and Bicycles). KENNETH PLATTS,
born in 1946 composed much vocal and instrumental music on a approachable
style of which we can instance: for full orchestra, Manx Dances,
Elizabethan Dances, Dance Overture, A Saturday Overture and A
Sussex Overture (Malcolm Arnold also wrote an overture under this
title); for string orchestra Divertimento and Little Suite;
for wind band Delta Dances; and for brass another Little
Suite. EDWIN THOMAS ASKEY (1922-98) went into the world of music
publication after service in the Second World War, as a arranger for
Francis Day & Hunter. He composed much for TV - some of his scores,
like Robin Hood and The Saint were big earners - and large
screen films such as the 1962 version of The Phantom of the Opera
and many documentaries. He could afford to (more or less) retire in
around 1980. Still very much active is JOHN KEANE, whose large and small
screen scores seem, to this writer at any rate, to have been associated
with ships - most recently he has provided the background music for
the Hornblower TV adaptations.
© Phil Scowcroft
Philip's book 'British Light Music Composers' (ISBN 0903413 88 4) is
currently out of print.
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