Miniatures This compilation brings together a concert of outstanding light orchestral pieces by seventeen different composers. For music to achieve...
Miniatures
This compilation brings together a concert of outstanding light orchestral
pieces by seventeen different composers. For music to achieve popularity without
the persuasive influence of words is no mean achievement. An evocative title,
or the association of the music with a story, imagined, or specific, as in a
film, is a common lead-in to a work's success, and no composer underrates the
choice of one of his pieces as a signature-tune to a television or radio programme.
But all such factors count for little if the music itself is not of the highest
order, impeccably fashioned and orchestrated and - most important of all - it
must have a good tune. Melody is the starting-point of any assessment of
light music and the key factor in the choice of music for this British Light
Music series. Some 'hits' seem to have come out of the blue, from composers
whose main activities have been outside the field of light music, but for the
most part they are by composers who specialised in this field. Their inclusion
in this compilation invites the listener to explore more of their composer's
works, a pointer, perhaps, to their consideration for a full CD of their music.
Most of the items can be said to have chosen themselves by their success. Also
selected for this compilation are one or two pieces not yet well-known but with
a similar potential to become all-time favourites.
1) Vanity Fair - Anthony Collins (1893-1963)
Anthony Collins studied violin and composition at the Royal College of Music,
London, from 1920, and began his career as an orchestral player. From 1926 he
was for ten years principal viola with the London Symphony Orchestra and the
Covent Garden Orchestra. For the rest of his career his activities were fairly
equally divided between conducting (opera to begin with, then symphonic work)
and composition. He went to the United States in 1939, where his career in films
began, writing film scores for RKO in Hollywood. He was also in demand as a
conductor, in which role he was active in promoting interest in British music.
This advocacy he continued with British orchestras when he returned to this
country both during and after Second World War, with numerous concerts and fine
recordings of Delius, Vaughan Williams and others. Besides his film scores Collins
wrote two string symphonies, two violin concertos, four short operas, various
choral and chamber works and songs, from time to time turning his hand also
to light orchestral music. He made no secret of the fact that for all his success
in other spheres, the writing of Vanity Fair was the achievement he most
valued. The original "Vanity Fair" was a creation of John Bunyan in his The
Pilgrim's Progress, but it is most associated with William Thackeray's famous
novel of 1847 which was set during the Napoleonic Wars. To hear Anthony Collins'
Vanity Fair, with its gently dancing melody over a dainty string accompaniment,
is to be transported immediately to the airs and graces of Regency London.
2) Polka Dots- Mark Lubbock (1898-1986)
Mark Lubbock had a particular affinity with light music. He was educated
at Eton, then in Vienna, where his life-long love of operetta was nurtured.
He joined the BBC as Light Music Conductor from 1933 to 1944 and continued as
conductor in broadcasting and the theatre. He conducted Night in Venice
and other West End shows, and compiled an important reference book, The Complete
Book of Light Opera. Besides composing incidental music he wrote
a number of light orchestral pieces of which Polka Dots became a regular
favourite. The Polka is an energetic dance in two-time which first emerged in
rural Bohemia around 1800 and soon became one of the most popular of all ballroom
dances. Music for the polka is always characterised by certain standard rhythms,
the most inviolate being the short-short-long / see-me-dance rhythm which
motivates the left-right-left-op), right-left-right (hop), which are
the simple steps of the dance. The concert polka by definition features those
same rhythms even where too slow (Pizzicato Polka) or too fast (Thunder
and Lightning Polka) for the ballroom. Fortunately for us Mark Lubbock keeps
his feet on the ground, and his Polka Dots admirably expresses all the
gaiety of this lively dance.
3) Dusk - Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960)
The contribution Cecil Armstrong Gibbs made to the musical life of Britain was
much greater than his place in the history books would suggest. He was born
in Essex in affluent circumstances - remember brushing your teeth with Gibbs
Dentifrice? - but from his earliest days he was determined to stand on his own
feet as a musician. Immensely gifted, he was writing music from the age of five.
His father insisted on a 'proper' education and after a Brighton prep school
and Winchester he went to Cambridge in 1908. Here he took an honours degree
in history, with a music degree to follow. Quite apart from his training in
composition he found musical life in Cambridge rich and rewarding. Gibbs took
up teaching, first at Copthorne School, East Grinstead, then in 1915 at his
old school in Brighton, being considered unfit for military service. In
1919, having already been attracted to and set to music poems by Walter de Ia
Mare, he asked that poet to write a play for the school, Crossings, to which
Gibbs would write the music. The conductor was a young Adrian Boult who - as
did Walter de Ia Mare - subsequently encouraged Gibbs to take up composition
seriously. Gibbs studied at the Royal College of Music (1920-21) under Boult,
Charles Wood and Vaughan Williams (whom he had already worked with at Cambridge).
The break-through came with his first publications, and commissions to write
incidental music for the theatre. As a teacher he was on the staff of the Royal
College of Music in London from 1921 to 1939. Composition apart, Armstrong Gibbs'
most significant contribution to music was in his role as adjudicator at competitive
music festivals. This much undervalued activity is teaching at its most constructive,
of inestimable value to thousands of aspiring performers - choirs in particular
- who are the lifeblood of a country's music-making. Enthusiasm for music at
grass-roots level is reflected in many of Armstrong Gibbs' compositions: works
for amateur orchestras and above all his vocal music, part-songs for choirs,
songs and duets, many of them setting poems by de Ia Mare. Odysseus and
other large scale choral works, three symphonies (two of which are available
on the Marco Polo label), nine string quartets and other orchestral and chamber
music, and much piano music testify to the diversity of Armstrong Gibbs' output.
Of his various light orchestral works one movement from his Fancy Dress Suite
of 1935 was destined to achieve enormous popularity.
Conductor Jay Wilbur, whose orchestra backed the popular wartime radio
show Hi Gang!, featuring Bebe Daniels and Ben Lyon, spotted the potential
of Armstrong Gibbs' Dusk and performed it regularly with his string orchestra
at the Savoy Hotel, London. His arrangement of it for strings and harp was published
in 1948 and became a standard favourite with the many light orchestras of the
era and their public. A song version was published in 1949. As was normal at
the time, Dusk was constantly arranged afresh to cater for the individual
requirements of the numerous broadcasting combinations. This arrangement, made
for the Ernest Tomlinson Light Orchestra in 1955, retains the rich string sound
characteristic of the Wilbur arrangement, adds woodwind and horns and reinstates
a passage from the waltz's middle section omitted from the Wilbur version.
4) Carriage and Pair - Benjamin Frankel (1906-1973)
Born in London, Benjamin Frankel's musical prowess was first realised as
a performer on piano and violin. When, in his late teens, he was studying piano
and composition at the Guildhall School of Music, London, he was also playing
in night clubs as a jazz violinist. As a writer his first successes came as
an orchestrator of West End musical comedies and revues, including Noel Coward's
Operette and various C.B. Cochran shows. Then, in 1934, came his first film
score. He went on to become a supreme master in this field, with over a hundred
films to his credit in a wide variety of styles, from the Curse of the Werewolf
to The Importance of Being Earnest. Frankel's recognition as a composer
in his own right did not come until he was in his mid-forties, notably with
the Violin Concerto of 1951, followed by an increasingly fluent output
of chamber and orchestral music, including eight symphonies. Doubtless as a
reaction to the immediacy of his film music Frankel's concert music is deeply
felt and took him into new fields idiomatically. As such it calls for dedicated
listening. His music for the cinema, on the other hand, is used with such discretion,
and so matches the mood and timing of the action as not to be heard consciously,
simply enhancing the viewers' enjoyment without their knowing why. Here and
there, though, certain episodes lend themselves to theme-tunes emerging from
the background to take on a more active role, presenting audio-visual cameos
of great charm. A perfect example of this occurs in the 1950 film So long
at the Fair, featuring Jean Simmons and Dirk Bogarde and set in Paris at
the time of the Great Exhibition of 1889. Through the film it is appropriately
brought into use several times in short journeys through that great city. From
the music's intermingling trotting' textures a melody emerges which sings its
way into our consciousness, becoming an instant hit. As is often the case, there
is no complete version of the piece in the film itself. In this concert version
Frankel brings the various motifs together, inviting us to take a three minute
ride in that Carriage and Pair.
5) Coronation Scot - Vivian Ellis (born 1903)
Vivian Ellis is one of Britain's great song-writers. With such a melodic
gift backed by all the right attributes - harmonic resource, sense of design,
ability to set a scene, and impeccable workmanship - it was natural that his
output has also included a number of light orchestral compositions. Vivian Ellis
was born in Hampstead, London, into a musical family. His grandmother was a
pianist and composer, writing, amongst other things, a comic opera, and his
mother was a fine violinist. He studied composition and piano at the Royal Academy
of Music, the latter under Myra Hess. Recognising that his talents lay in 'light'
rather than symphonic fields his first employment was as a reader and demonstrator
for the London publisher Francis, Day and Hunter. That meant on the one hand
assessing songs and piano pieces submitted for publication - up to two hundred
a week - and then being available in the shop to demonstrate on the piano the
current publications being promoted for sale, including those from across the
Atlantic by Irving Berlin and others. That experience Ellis freely acknowledges
to be the most crucial part of his training as a composer. His own skill as
a song-writer was recognised by his late teens and there began a prolific output
of songs and, other musical numbers for the stage, working with the great artists
of the day, including Jack Hulbert, Francis Day and Sophie Tucker. He was only
twenty when the great impresario C.B. Cochran invited him to write for his 1930
Revue and thus began a long and fruitful relationship. The constant turnover
of new revues and musical comedies that characterised theatre in the pre-war
era found Ellis in his element. His many songs included Come and Dance the
Charleston, The Wind in the Willows, She's My Lovely and Spread a Little
Happiness. His first major success was Mr. Cinders (1929). In 1939
a new career beckoned and Vivian Ellis, together with his lifelong helpmeet,
sister Hermione, were off to Hollywood. However, he had joined the Royal Navy
Volunteer Reserve some years earlier. When it became clear to him that war was
imminent he abandoned all thoughts of a Hollywood career and returned to England.
He served in the Royal Navy throughout the war, reaching the rank of Lieutenant-Commander.
After the war Ellis soon picked up the threads of his stage career and there
followed three C.B. Cochran successes, Big Ben, Tough at the Top and,
between those two, Ellis's masterpiece: the light opera Bless the Bride.
(Ma Belle Marguerite, This is my lovely day etc.) The book was written by
author, poet and politician A.P. Herbert. It is worth noting that this work
was staged after those two great American musicals Oklahoma and Annie
Get Your Gun had taken London by storm, ran for just as long and was just
as successful. In A.P. Herbert, both before the war and afterwards in Bless
the Bride and The Water Gypsies Vivian Ellis found the ideal partner.
Characteristic of all Vivian Ellis's songs is the perfect harmony between words
and music, each feeding the other in an elegant and witty way. One should not,
however, overlook the mastery of Ellis's earlier collaborators, particularly
Desmond Carter, whose lyrics come over today as freshly as they ever did, nor
indeed what an accomplished lyric-writer Vivian Ellis himself was, as seen in
his musical play Half in Earnest (after Oscar Wilde) and songs like Uproarious
Devon. A Director of the Performing Right Society from 1955, he has been
its President since 1983. In 1985 the Vivian Ellis Prize was founded, financed
by PRS, offering help and encouragement to young writers for the musical stage.
From the later 1940s Ellis turned his hand increasingly to writing light orchestral
music including the descriptive suites Happy Week-End and Holidays
Abroad, but it is an earlier work that is presented here. The age of steam
and all that goes with a journey by train has inspired many compositions. Coronation
Scot was composed by Vivian Ellis on a journey from Paddington to Taunton
in 1938. Cornish Riviera Express does not exactly trip off the tongue,
hence the present title. Coronation Scot was recorded by the Queens Hall
Light Orchestra under Sidney Torch and, in Ellis's own words, "did nothing"
until it was chosen as signature-tune for BBC Television's Paul Temple thriller
series written by Francis Durbridge. With its evocation of the train setting
off, then settling down to the 'rhythm of the rails", over which comes a soaring
melody that everyone can hum, Coronation Scot became a great favourite
in its own right.
6 -7) Two Jamaican Pieces - Arthur Benjamin (1893-1960)
Arthur Benjamin has suffered - if that is the word - from having produced one
piece of music, Jamaican Rumba, so successful as to tend to divert interest
away from his substantial achievements elsewhere. Benjamin was born in
Sydney, but for most of his life was based in England. He studied piano and
composition under Stanford at the Royal College of Music, London from 1911.
After service in the 1914 - 18 Great War he returned to Australia as a teacher
of piano at Sydney Conservatorium, then took a similar post at the Royal College
of Music in London, having come back to England in 1921. As a composer Benjamin
covered a wide span, from his more 'serious' works, his operas The Tale of
Two Cities (1950) and Tartuffe (1960) by way of a Piano Concertino
and other orchestral works as well as chamber music, songs and piano music,
to a significant number of works in lighter vein. Benjamin's work as examiner
for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music took him overseas, and
his travels in Latin America bore fruit in a number of vocal and instrumental
works, Caribbean influence being perhaps the most dominant. Two Jamaican
Pieces (for small orchestra) was published in 1938 and complement each other
so well it is a surprise they are not heard together more often. Jamaican
Song, conjuring up the lazy days under the Caribbean sun provides the ideal
contrast to the jaunty rhythms of the rumba to follow. Here we are captivated
by two calypso-like melodies, first heard separately then played together. Jamaican
Rumba, in its original form written for Joan and Valerie Trimble, a two-piano
duo popular before, during and after the second world war, was so successful
world-wide it earned for the composer an annual barrel of rum given by the Jamaican
authorities in recognition of the fame he had brought to their island!
8) Tabarinage - Robert Docker (1919- 1992)
Robert Docker, London-born, was one of the most active and successful practitioners
in the various fields of light music in his four-fold capacity as pianist, composer,
arranger and conductor. He studied piano, viola and composition at the Royal
Academy of Music, London, from 1937 to 1941. Then with Britain's fortunes in
Second World War at their lowest, volunteered for service in the army. Returning
to civilian life Docker's ability and versatility, coupled with a likeable personality,
made him admirably suited to making a career as a free-lance musician. In any
kind of broadcasting or recording session where a pianist was required, Bob
could fill the bill. He was much in demand as a soloist too, with many broadcasts
and guest appearances with various orchestras. A regular assignment was with
the BBC Scottish Variety Orchestra in Glasgow, in any or all of the four capacities
mentioned above. For twelve years he had a successful two-piano duo with Edward
Rubach. Docker was in constant demand as an arranger and also did important
work in that least reported area of arranging assisting major film composers
to reach their deadlines. He was a brilliant improviser, a welcome performer
at music clubs, where he would ask members to name various tunes, which he would
weave together into a finished work. Coupled with his facility in conjuring
up tunes of his own, Docker's mastery of orchestration shows through in his
many compositions. With his bubbling inventiveness composition came as a natural
adjunct to his activities as a professional musician. He wrote much music for
the mood-music libraries and numerous pieces in the light orchestral field.
These often featured solo piano, including his popular Legend. Here we
have his most successful short piece, his sparkling Tabarinage, or, in
English, Buffoonery, a Londoner's tongue-in- cheek look at that most
characteristic of French dances, the Can-can.
9) Beau Brummel - Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Elgar's place among the great composers is unquestionable, as exemplified
in his orchestral masterpieces the Enigma Variations, the Cello and Violin
Concertos, two symphonies and in his large scale choral and orchestral works,
which reached their pinnacle in The Dream of Gerontius. The hallmark
of the great composer can be seen too in the sheer wealth and variety of his
output: orchestral music of many different kinds - the Pomp and Circumstance
Marches, the Overture Cockaigne and the symphonic study Falstaff;
the tender Serenade for Strings; songs, part-songs, chamber music,
piano and organ music. There is a unity in all this inventiveness by the distinctively
personal way Elgar used basically the same musical language, whether for his
most 'serious' utterances or his pieces in lighter vein, a concept increasingly
hard for later composers to sustain. Elgar was born near Worcester in England's
West Midlands and it was in Worcester that his professional apprenticeship began.
He had no formal music education apart from lessons on the Violin locally and,
for a spell, in London. Recognising he was not to become a solo violinist Elgar
nevertheless was for some years able to turn his ability to good account, playing
the violin in various orchestras in Worcester, Birmingham and elsewhere until
his late twenties. Free-lance from the age of sixteen he was for some years
employed also as an organist. As a composer Elgar was virtually self-taught.
If he needed a spur to his inventiveness being involved in music-making provided
it. From those early years came his first light music successes, including Salut
d'amour and Chanson de ma tin. Elgar's character was a complex one,
shaped by the tradesman's-son-makes-good image of his upbringing which he was
always needlessly sensitive about, the insecurities of trying to make ends meet
as a free-lance musician and conviction which, quite without lustification,
he held throughout his life, that his music was not being properly appreciated.
He was, after all, knighted at forty-seven, four years before some of his greatest
works were written, and regularly feted both here and abroad. The stabilizing
force throughout these times was the good sense of his wife Alice, whom he had
married in 1888. After her death in 1920 Elgar, now sixty-three, found composition
to be a less important part of his life, though he continued to be in demand
as a conductor of his own music. Elgar was enthusiastic in having his works
recorded for that new invention, the gramophone, first acoustic then electrical.
From his youngest days Elgar had shown much interest in music for the theatre.
Music for a children's play written in his early teens provided the themes for
his later Nursery Suite. Later incidental music included that for The
Starlight Express (1915). At the age of seventy he wrote incidental music
for the play Beau Brummel. Here we present the Minuet from that
production which, for all its simplicity, is unmistakeably Elgar.
10) Siciliano - Harry Dexter (1910 -1973)
Harry Dexter was born in Sheffield. Classically trained, he obtained a Bachelor
of Music degree at Durham University. He had several substantial choral and
orchestral works to his name. Whilst serving as an army Captain overseas in
World War II he wrote a prize-winning symphony. After the war it was a not unfamiliar
story of a musician from the north seeking to establish himself in London, tramping
the streets, song plugging and arranging for various publishers. During the
fifties his fortunes changed, with the increasing acceptance by the broadcasters
of his tuneful light orchestral pieces. One of them, for instance, was the signature-tune
for the original Maigret series for BBC Television. He joined the staff of the
London music publisher, Francis, Day and Hunter, in charge of its light orchestral
and mood- music output, offering valuable encouragement and opportunities to
his fellow- composers in this field. In a parallel career, so to speak, Dexter
was music critic for several important periodicals. In 1956 he founded the Light
Music Society, with Eric Coates as its first President, and served as its Chairman
for several years. The term Siciliano or Siciliana was first used
to identify a certain type of song originating in Sicily, it is presumed - then
applied to instrumental movements which adopted the same characteristic gently
lilting triple rhythms. Instrumental Sicilianos were common in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries and subsequently, often describing scenes of a pastoral
nature. The best examples of this are the Pastoral Symphonies in both
Handel's Messiah and Bach's Christmas Oratorio. Adopt a slightly
quicker, tripping-along variant of the same rhythm and the Siciliano becomes
a dance, very popular in those times. It is as just such a dance that the Siciliano
is portrayed in this, Harry Dexter's best-known piece.
11) Scrub, brothers, scrub! - Ken Warner (1902-1988)
Ken Warner, or, to give him his full-name, Onslow Boyden Waldo Warner, was born
in Chiswick, London, into a musical family. His father, Harry Waldo Warner played
viola in the London String Quartet and was a professor at the Guildhall School
of Music, London. Onslow Warner was educated privately and at the Guildhall.
From 1921 he played saxophone and violin, under the name Onslow Kent, in various
dance- bands, including that of Peter Yorke. He played in such places as the
Kit-Kat and the Cafe de Paris as well as abroad, and made many
recordings. Under the name which he became universally known by, Ken Warner,
he joined the BBC Light Orchestra in 1940, playing violin, clarinet and saxophone
under Fred Hartley, and doing much arranging. He also played with, and arranged
for, orchestras directed by famous violinists Max Jaffa, Peg Leopold and Tom
Jenkins and was an early member of Michael Krein's Saxophone Quartet. He stayed
as a BBC employee until 1959, after which he retired to Cornwall to raise pigs.
Arranging and composing was a constant part of Warner's activities. He wrote
much mood music and his several light pieces often featuring strings - made
welcome additions to the repertoire. Articulating repeated notes by means of
a back and forth movement of the bow across the string - 'scrubbing' is a good
word - produces a unique effect, which has been much exploited since the early
days of the violin. It is heard in the misterioso of the first entry of violins
in Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and to energise the mounting crescendos
in Rossini's Overture to The Italian Girl in Algiers. In this piece Ken
Warner took that process to its ultimate when every note of his melody with
the occasional let-up - is presented on the same double-articulation principle.
When this goes on and on - and on- and on - it becomes very demanding on the
players. One can readily conjure up the vision of some session in, say, 1941,
with the enthusiastic composer countering his colleagues' flagging energies
by a clarion call of "Scrub, brothers, scrub!" The original version of the piece
was for strings and piano only, to which wind and percussion were added for
its reissue in 1945.
12) Cradle Song - Gordon Jacob (1895 - 1984)
Gordon Jacob was one of the most prolific of English composers, spanning many
fields from 'serious' to 'light'. Born in London and educated at Dulwich College,
he was of the generation that was inevitably caught up in the 1914-18 Great
War, in which he was wounded and taken prisoner. Rehabilitation eventually came
when a grant enabled him to study at the Royal College of Music in London with
Stanford, Howells and Boult as his teachers. As a teacher he soon established
himself. He was on the staff of the Royal College of Music for forty years from
1926, teaching composition and orchestration. Amongst his books, Orchestral
Technique (1931) has become a standard work. Jacob' compositions include
two symphonies, and other orchestral music, chamber music, songs and part-songs,
music for band and film scores. Older listeners will recall Dr. Gordon Jacob's
witty arrangements for the popular radio series ITMA (It's That Man Again)
featuring the Liverpool comedian Tommy Handley. Characteristic of Jacob's
output is that he looked out for areas where there were gaps in the available
repertoire. He wrote several concertos and solos, including those for less favoured
instruments; trombone, bassoon, cor anglais and double bass. He would readily
write for a new ensemble and welcomed a new challenge. He wrote a two-piano
concerto (three hands) for Phyllis Sellick and the sadly handicapped Cyril Smith.
When the prowess of the brilliant harmonica-player Tommy Reilly became known
to him this inspired him to compose several most attractive pieces for that
artist. In one of these, Cradle Song from his Suite of five Pieces
for Harmonica, the solo part is ideally suited to the oboe. This lovely
piece has been performed many times in that form, accompanied by strings, as
it is on this CD.
13) Gavotte (Georgian Suite) - Arne-Tomlinson
Whatever else may be said about the ups and downs of British music through the
centuries it has always been strong on melody. In Thomas Augustine Arne (1710
- 1778) we have one of the great melodists of all time. Arne was born in London
and educated at Eton. His intended profession was law but music was his first
love and he was composing from an early age. He surreptitiously acquired a spinet,
damping the strings so he could practise it in his room undetected. He went
to Oxford to hear a Handel oratorio and hear that great master play the organ.
He regularly bluffed his way into the gallery of the Italian Opera. He made
himself known to leading musicians of the day, notably Festing, with whom he
studied privately. His participation in musical activities could hardly be kept
secret and Ames father, now recognising his son's gifts, encouraged a musical
career for him. Arne was to become the most successful British composer of his
day. Most of Arne's large number of works were for the stage: operas including
Artaxerxes and Thomas and Sally, several masques and a variety
of music incidental to stage productions. Music for Shakespeare plays gave us
well-known songs such as Where the Bee Sucks and Blow, Blow thou Winter
Wind. Richard Wagner said that in the first eight notes of Rule, Britannia
(from the masque Alfred) Thomas Arne summed up the British character.
Arne wrote cantatas and oratorios and other vocal works, including lots of fun
pieces, glees and catches. He was no less prolific in his instrumental music
with some twelve 'overtures' (symphonies), six keyboard concertos and several
sonatas. In 1756 Arne published VIII Sonatas of Lessons for Harpsichord.
Each consisted of several tuneful movements including dances such as Almain
and Jig. Eight of these pieces were arranged for orchestra by Ernest Tomlinson
under the title Georgian Suite, from which we hear the delightfully playful
Gavotte.
14) Portuguese Party - Gilbert VinIer (1909- 1969)
Gilbert Vinter was born in Lincoln and was a choirboy in the cathedral there.
He joined the Lincolnshire Regiment whilst still a boy, subsequently studying
bassoon and cello at the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall. From
1927 he studied bassoon and composition at the Royal Academy of Music where
he was subsequently appointed professor of bassoon. Vinter joined the Royal
Air Force early in the Second World War, and became conductor of various bands.
This gave him the opportunity to perform his own compositions and arrangements.
From 1946 to 1955 he was employed by the BBC as a conductor, for most of these
years with the BBC Midland Light Orchestra, then latterly the BBC Concert Orchestra.
He was one of the foremost interpreters of light orchestral music, giving
many first performances. After leaving the BBC he recognised the potential of
the professional, civilian equivalent of the service bands, founding his International
Concert Band. Gilbert Vinter was a prolific composer and arranger, with a particular
flair for effective instrumental colouring. Among his many orchestral works
were three ballets. He was fond of telling a story through his compositions
such as The Legend of Cracow. He brought a new dynamic to scoring for
the British Brass Band, with several impressive works, notably The Trumpets
with soloists and chorus. A facet of Vinter's work was his absorbing interest
in music from all over the world. He wrote no fewer than twenty Fantasias on
the indigenous melodies of different countries, including the rarely favoured
ones like Bulgaria and Iceland. Thus it came naturally for some of Vinter's
compositions to reflect the idioms of particular countries, none more so than
in the exuberant rhythms of this Portuguese Party.
15) Concert Waltz: The Haunted Ballroom - Geoffrey Toye
(1889 - 1942)
Geoffrey Toye's career centred round his activities as a conductor. Born
in Winchester, he studied at the Royal College of Music in London. After serving
in the first world war he returned to conducting, first with D'Oyly Carte Opera
Company and subsequently at the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells. Toye's affinity
with the theatre was to continue throughout his career, but he also was in demand
as a conductor of symphonic music, giving the first performance of Vaughan Williams'
A London Symphony in 1919. He took on increasing administrative duties,
including a spell as managing director of the Royal Opera House Company, and
his composition and arranging often came as a spin-off to his conducting and
administrative work. For the revival of the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera Ruddigore
in 1921, for which he was responsible, he rewrote the overture (the original
not being Sullivan's own). Having returned to D'Oyley Carte Opera he adapted,
produced and conducted the film version of The Mikado in 1939. He also
wrote a radio operetta The Red Pen, with words by A.P. Herbert. There
were also two ballets. The first was for Ninette de Valois' Douanes. Then
in 1935 came The Haunted Ballroom. To hear the waltz from that ballet
is automatically to conjure up intangible mental images: the dimly-lit scene,
the gradual lead-in to the seductive contours of the waltz, which becomes ever
more compelling and dramatic as the ghostly figures take up their swirling figurations;
then the gradual subsiding to a quiet rounding off the work as the vision fades
into nothingness.
16) Puffin' Billy - Edward White (1910-1994)
Teddy White, as he came to be known, was born in London and received no formal
musical education other than some violin lessons when he was ten. Self-taught,
he nevertheless made his impressive way into the music profession, first as
a violinist in a trio, but most notably as a performer in dance bands from 1930
onwards, Adept also on saxophone and clarinet, he played in the Palais Band
at Streatham Locarno, later with Lou Preager at Romano's in the West End, and
then with the Ambrose Octet. This was an ideal environment for Teddy to develop
his skills as an arranger and composer. Then came the war, and White joined
the Royal Air Force, soon put into service as a musician with the Felix King
Group. He was also much involved in broadcasting from Bristol and playing and
arranging in light entertainment shows whenever these did not conflict with
his RAF duties, It was to Bristol that Teddy returned after the war, directing
his own ballroom orchestra at the Grand Spa Hotel. Throughout this period composition
assumed steadily more importance as a natural adjunct to arranging. Compositions
first heard in those wartime shows, including Caprice for Strings and
Runaway Rocking Horse, would eventually become standard light music successes,
Inevitably, London called and White became very busy with commissions for BBC
Television and finding a ready outlet in the flourishing market for 'mood music'.
A conscious decision to concentrate on composition rather than arranging bore
fruit in a series of delightful light orchestral pieces. The best-known, which
countless numbers of parents and grand-parents will recall with affection, is
the tune used as signature tune during the 1950s of BBC Radio's Saturday morning
programme Children's Favourites, though few will know the title of the
piece: Puffin' Billy. This was loved by millions in the USA where it
was signature tune for a children's programme Captain Kangaroo. The inspiration
for this piece came to Edward White on a holiday in the Isle of Wight, and seeing
some antiquated steam engines, one of which was named Puffin' Billy. So we have
here not the mighty presence of the Coronation Scot, but the squat, workaday
stopping train that chugged along out-of-the-way branch lines, commonly dubbed
Puffin' Billy wherever they operated.
17) Starlight Roof Waltz - George Melaehrino (1909- 1965)
George Melachrino was an extremely versatile musician whose influence on the
British Light Music scene should not be underestimated. Ho was born in London
and was something of an infant prodigy, playing a miniature violin when only
four years old. He studied at the Trinity College of Music, London. With his
all round prowess Melachrino was much in demand in the thirties playing violin,
viola, saxophone and clarinet and as an accomplished vocalist. He worked with
leading dance-bands, including Ambrose, Jack Jackson, Jay Wilbur and Carroll
Gibbons, then directing his own dance orchestra at London's Cafe do Paris. Melachrino
joined the army early in World War II. His musical and organising abilities
were soon recognised. He toured as one of the Stars in Battledress and
later formed and conducted the Orchestra in Khaki drawn from the
many professional musicians now serving in the army. This led to the formation
in 1944 of the fifty-piece British Band of the AEF (Allied Expeditionary
Forces). This became a great favourite with the public as well as the allied
forces, together with the American and Canadian Bands of the AEF under
Glenn Miller and Robert Farnon. After the war Melachrino took in effect the
same orchestra into civilian life where it became famous world-wide, with numerous
broadcasts and recordings. The orchestra played a leading role in popularising
the new wave of light orchestral winners such as Festival (Richard Addinsell)
and Legend (Robert Docker). The Melachrino Organisation, handling many
bands and orchestras grew to be one of the largest in the country. Melachrino
also helped found a publishing company, Arcadia, promoting not just his own
compositions but light orchestral works of his younger contemporaries, including
the first publications of a certain Ernest Tomlinson. The distinctive sound
of the Melachrino strings, which became his hallmark, was an enhancement, in
orchestral terms, of the close harmony scoring of the dance orchestra, In carrying
the same principles into the classical orchestra Melachrino broke away from
traditional light orchestral scoring, using the various tone-colours in groups
rather than diffusing them across the spectrum, with the background rhythm on
a separate plane of sound, as in a dance orchestra. As a composer, besides writing
attractive light orchestral pieces such as Winter Sunshine and Woodland Revel
he wrote the music for at least twelve feature films, including No Orchids
for Miss Blandish. He was also active in the theatre and in 1947 wrote the
music for the London Hippodrome's successful revue Starlight Roof. Here
we include the exuberant waltz from that show, a waltz which broke new ground,
with its jazz-derived syncopations propelled by a string section moving as a
team in big-band style.
18) Beachcomber - CIlve Richardson (born 1909)
Clive Richardson's compositions have become so familiar we need to be reminded
just what a wealth of musical activity has characterised his long career, in
which he excelled also as pianist, in both solo and accompanying roles, arranger
and musical director. He was born in Paris of British parents and from an early
age his upbringing was in England. For a while he appeared to be destined for
the medical profession but it was soon evident that his career would be in music.
At the Royal Academy of Music he was not content with studying just piano, orchestration
and conducting, on which his future was to be based, but organ, violin, clarinet,
trumpet, trombone and timpani. His entry into the music profession came by way
of arranging popular songs and dance music for Waltord Hyden's Cafe Colette
Orchestra, which made numerous broadcasts. He toured as a member of Harold Ramsey's
Rhythm Symphony Orchestra. He was also musical director for several Andre
CharIot revues, including Please (Savoy; 1933) starring Beatrice Lillie and
Lupino Lane, the composer being Vivian Ellis, and Herbert Farjeon's Spread
ft Abroad (Saville; 1936) with Hermione Gingold and Nelson Keys. During
the 1930s he toured extensively with the singer Hildegard as accompanist and
musical director, the highlight being a stay at New York's prestigious Rainbow
Room. A book could be written about the backroom boys', arrangers and composers
who made crucial contributions to British film music without their receiving
acknowledgement, other than (presumably) to their bank balance. One such was
Clive Richardson, who in 1936 joined the Gaumont British Film Company as arranger,
and assistant musical director to Louis Levy. Working with Charles Williams,
Richardson wrote most of the music for Will Hay's Gainsborough pictures, including
the hilarious ON Mr. Porter and scored several other films. The music
credits on such films were regularly given the person under whose aegis the
music was commissioned and performed rather than those who actually wrote it.
When war broke out in 1939 Richardson, having been in the Territorial Army since
1928, was called immediately into the Royal Artillery Regiment in which he served
until hostilities ended. Musical activities continued as and when duties permitted.
Clive Richardson became a household name in 1944 for the many arrangements he
made for the popular radio show ITMA. Orchestral Transcriptions based
on folk songs, nursery rhymes, traditional tunes or music-hall songs played
by the BBC Variety Orchestra under Charles Shadwell, were a feature of every
ITMA show and Richardson was in his element. Other contributors included
Arthur Sandford and Gordon Jacob. As a composer he first made his mark before
the public with London Fantasia for piano and orchestra. Inspired by
his time on an anti-aircraft battery during bombing raids, the Fantasia paints
a realistic picture of a day in wartime. Too realistic for some, it nevertheless
received many performances and a Mantovani recording. Shortly after the war
ended Richardson teamed up with a long-standing friend and colleague arranger
and composer Tony Lowry in a two-piano duo Four Hands/n Harmony. Their
inventive arrangements and their ability to think as one made them enormously
popular, even topping variety bills, and they made over five hundred broadcasts.
Richardson's gift for melody allied to all the right arranging and dramatic
skills found many outlets for his light orchestral compositions in the numerous
background libraries which flourished increasingly after the war. From this
output emerged several evergreens like Melody on the Move, Running off
the Rails and the contrasting item that ends this CD. Wandering idly
along the sea-coast, inspecting the miscellaneous debris brought in by the tides,
is the Beachcomber, who has retired from society, content with his uncomplicated
lot. This spirit is admirably captured by Clive Richardson providing us with
a nicely relaxing way to conclude this compilation of timeless favourites.
RTE Concert Orchestra (Dublin)
The Radio Television Concert Orchestra, Radio Telefis Eireann, in Dublin
is a body of amazing versatility. Founded in 1948, the orchestra has played
a major role in broadcast and televised music, in addition to frequent appearances
in the concert hall, winning critical acclaim equally for music as diverse as
a Shostakovich symphony or support for the Eurovision Song Contest. The RTE
Concert Orchestra gives about eighty concerts a year in the Dublin National
Concert Hall and throughout Ireland and has undertaken a number of successful
foreign tours, including a series of 63 concerts in a 75 day tour of the United
States and appearance at the Seville EXPO '92.
Ernest Tomlinson
Ernest Tomlinson, best known as a composer, has been conducting professionally
since the first broadcast, in 1955, of the Ernest Tomlinson Light Orchestra.
In 1969, having returned to his native Lancashire, he founded the Northern Concert
Orchestra, which broadcast regularly from Manchester during the 1970s, giving
many performances of the music of contemporary composers. Ernest Tomlinson has
made many recordings for music publishers for film, television and other purposes,
and has conducted concert performances of his more substantial works in cities
as far apart as Manchester, Munich and Moscow. In the Marco Polo British Light
Music series he conducts the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Brat slave in two CDs
of his own works, in addition to the present disc, and discs of music by Haydn
Wood and Ronald Binge.
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