We begin, as so often before, with obscure Victorian
composers, three this time: one MASON, composer of a gallop, Let
Go, and other music popular with the late Victorian brass bands;
the ballad composer WALTER WADHAM, active during the Queen's last years
with songs such as By the River, The Voice I Loved, and, especially
popular, Come To Me; and DR. GEORGE HAVELOCK.
Havelock's doctorate was conferred by Toronto University,
who may still have his doctoral exercise, Psalm 145, and he was
for a time Organist of Valetta Cathedral, in Malta, but gave up the
job because, it was said, the heat did not suit him. He came to Doncaster,
taking up the position of Organist of Christ Church (not the town's
main parish church) in 1888. He was there for eight years and then fell
out with the Vicar. Nothing strange about that; but it was fairly
unusual for Havelock and the Reverend to argue their differences, week
after week and with increasing bitterness, in the columns of the local
newspaper. Havelock resigned, no doubt as an alternative to dismissal,
and moved to St. James', Doncaster. Soon after that he acquired five
other local organist-ships which he held in plurality with St. James',
rehearsing the six choirs on different nights during the week, then
sending his wife and four of his pupils to officiate on Sundays while
he concentrated on St. James' and of course raked in six stipends.
Havelock earns a place in this Garland because of
the work he undertook with the Ladies' Orchestra of his pupils: a curious
ensemble of violins, cellos, guitars, mandolins and percussion which
was in demand for concerts within a considerable radius of the town.
It is not clear how much; if any of this orchestra's music was composed
by Havelock but he would certainly arrange it for his bizarre ensemble.
A concert on 15 November 1894 included the polka Charmante, the
Polka Brillant, Flora, the scherzo Papillonette (a "Butterfly
Dance"), the valse Vita Palermitana and an arrangement of Santa
Lucia, plus various solos, vocal and instrumental. Other pieces
played by the Ladies' Orchestra at various times included Ye Banks
and Braes (in arrangement), the valse, Parillon Blue and
Vita Gaia, a mazurka Les Patireuses, a "descriptive piece",
La Chasse" and even a set of Maltese Dances. Havelock
died in Doncaster in 1915, still Organist at St. James.
We move now to the present century. First of all,
our near-statutory mention of a contemporary film/TV composer: CHRISTOPHER
DEDRICK, who has music for several TV documentaries to his credit, including
most recently, Channel 4's Secrets of the Deep.
The name JOAN TRIMBLE may surprise many who remember
her just as one of the two piano duo with her sister Valerie from 1938
up till around 1970. She produced many arrangements for the duo which
was particularly famed for lightish music (Arthur Benjamin wrote Jamaican
Rumba for them), including a few Irish folk song transcriptions
(The Cows are a-Milking, Garton Mother's Lullaby and The
Heather Glen), whose exuberance recalls Percy Grainger. Buttermilk
Point (a reel), The Baird of Lisgoole and The Humours
of Carick (described as a "hop-jig") are not arrangements of actual
tunes but, like, for example, Grainger's Mock Morris, are well
in keeping and are brilliant light music. On the edge of the light music
repertoire are the delightfully pictorial tone poems Puck Fair
and The Green Bough, also for two pianos. The rest of Trimble's
output an opera for TV, a Wind Quintet, a Sonatina for two pianos, a
Phantasy Trio and a number of Irish-flavoured songs - is to a degree
"serious", rather than "light", though all are wonderfully fresh and
very approachable. Trimble, born in Eniskillen in 1915, studied first
at the Royal Irish Academy, then at the RCM, where she came under the
influence of Arthur Benjamin, Vaughan Williams and Herbert Howells.
A recent CD of Welsh Classical Favourites in Marco
Polo's British Light Music series yields us a few further names. Grace
Williams, Henry Walford Davies, Gareth Walters, William Mathias and
Ian Parrott, represented thereon, have previously been featured this
series, but two others have not. TREVOR ROBERTS, born in 1940 at Llanharon,
South Wales, studied at the Welsh College of Music and Drama and although
much of his music is serious the orchestral Pastoral is charming,
evoking much of the beauty of the Pembrokeshire countryside. He also
published a set of (Choral) Welsh Folk Songs. And MERVYN BURTCH
(1929-), born in the Rhymney Valley in Glamorgan, spent many years teaching
and produced much music for young amateurs. His overture Aladdin
(1996) captures the excitement to the long-established genre of
the British light concert overture; Burtch has also published a Nocturne
for tenor horn and brass band, many choral songs, a substantial number
light in idiom and suitable for children, also children's operas.
© Philip L. Scowcroft
December 1999
Philip's book 'British Light Music Composers' (ISBN 0903413 88 4) is
currently out of print.
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