British Light Music (28.8 - 1.9.23)

[Nick Armstrong]

An enjoyable week of programmes so far - I confess to a weakness for what might tendentiously be termed ‘the best’ of British light music.

Of course, there’s a lot that is routine and clichéd… and I’m allergic to every mawkish piece by Ketelby I’ve ever heard.

But I can take and enjoy large amounts of Eric Coates and others, especially under the baton of the John Wilsons and Rumon Gambas of this world.

(Through The Night a few months ago yielded a new favourite: Kentonia by the memorably-named Susan Spain-Dunk in a great performance by the BBC Concert Orchestra - worth looking out for, I’m sure it will turn up again)

[Ein Heldenleben]

Yes Nick - a wonderful week. The musical equivalent of a midday Negroni. For once : No tedious biographical details, angst ridden composers , and indeed interviews with over informed academics ; and DM won’t be able to do his lugubrious imminent death voiceover at approx 12.50 tomorrow.*
More please ! One might even consider a channel dedicated to such music and call it the Light programme,

*unless it’s the sad death of this genre.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

As Dorcas Lane might have said, 'Palm Court music is my one weakness." Unlike Nick, I love Ketelbey's music, and have played many of his pieces with a like-minded violinist, as well as in piano trio arrangements.

Eric Coates I can appreciate, but "Calling all workers" drives me crazy. Ronald Binge too - even the much overplayed Sailing By still hits a soft spot.

[hmvman]

Looking forward to catching up with these programmes - I wondered if it was a repeat of the CotW during the 'Light Fantastic' season some years ago.

Was in Scarborough on Tuesday this week and attended the Spa Orchestra morning concert which was splendid. Some light music favourites played were Charles Williams' "The Old Clockmaker" and Edward White's "Runaway Rocking Horse". Another piece, which was new to me, was Ken Warner's "Scrub, Brother, Scrub"; a tour-de-force for strings. I found an exhilarating performance of it on YouTube by the Melachrino Orchestra and also an excellent one by John Wilson. Happy days!

[Master Jacques]

Ronald Binge too - even the much overplayed Sailing By still hits a soft spot.

"The Mahler of Derby" was a great deal more than simply a "light music" composer, though of course as you say he excelled in the field. Indeed, I'd stick my neck out to say that if he'd called his Saturday Symphony simply Symphony in C minor it would be recognised for what it is - one of the great British symphonies, with flavours of Nielsen's 3rd and 6th, Shostakovich and Bax but with its own special mood - surprisingly downbeat - and personality. It is a work to which I always return with pleasure and admiration.

[Serial_Apologist]

Just been catching up today by listening to the first 3 programmes on iPlayer. For somebody whose first musical experiences - apart from Mum playing Chopin, Schumann and Brahms on the home piano - was hearing light music on what must have been the Light Programme in the late 40s/early 50s - this was back to the roots in that postwar rationed era when one absorbed willy-nilly without accounting for quality considerations and then built on that. Going back to so much of it with an evaluative mindset one appreciates the singularity of the light music genre: in terms of the skills that went into the making of the best of it, how much of the zeitgeist it made up (a lot of it), and the greater debt contemporary serious British composers including Bax and Ireland owed it than I had previously realised.

[Nick Armstrong]

Looking forward to catching up with these programmes …

Was in Scarborough on Tuesday this week and attended the Spa Orchestra morning concert which was splendid. …

Yes I’ve only heard the first two so far, will be catching up too.

It’s funny you mention Scarborough, because I was reflecting that my maternal grandparents were immersed in the world of light music on their holidays there with various siblings etc during the ‘20s and ‘30s, from where they lived around West Yorkshire. Their neighbours and best friends (whose Bechstein grand is a few feet away as I type) continued to make an annual pilgrimage for a week at t’Grand till well on into the ‘80s.

So that influence (plus the effects of singing in the Huddersfield Choral) might have seeped into the DNA somehow such that I’m perfectly happy listening to Coates or Bach or many others in between…

It’s great to hear that the Scarborough traditions are still going strong! I must try and make it up there one summer to experience it for myself!

[smittims]

I was glad to see Light Music given some recognition and airtime on Radio 3. I can remember a time when it was much in demand for radio and Tv programmes and short films. Then 'pop' came along ...

I think the only fair criticism of the genre is that it was limited. Innovation would not be welcome in a light music piece. But the level of craftsmanship in the composition and orchestration is a delight , and such names as Anthony Collins, Angela Morley and Ernest Tomlinson deserve to be remembered.

[hmvman]

Yes I’ve only heard the first two so far, will be catching up too.

It’s funny you mention Scarborough, because I was reflecting that my maternal grandparents were immersed in the world of light music on their holidays there with various siblings etc during the ‘20s and ‘30s, from where they lived around West Yorkshire. Their neighbours and best friends (whose Bechstein grand is a few feet away as I type) continued to make an annual pilgrimage for a week at t’Grand till well on into the ‘80s.

So that influence (plus the effects of singing in the Huddersfield Choral) might have seeped into the DNA somehow such that I’m perfectly happy listening to Coates or Bach or many others in between…

It’s great to hear that the Scarborough traditions are still going strong! I must try and make it up there one summer to experience it for myself!

That's a nice story, Nick. T'Grand's rather a shadow of its former self these days - but looks magnificent still from the outside!

Like you I'm happy listening to Coates, Binge et al as well as Bach, Britten et al.

It is good that the Spa Orchestra continues to entertain but I was concerned that this year their season was much reduced, starting only at the end of July and finishing in mid-September. I hope it's not a sign of impending demise!

[hmvman]

... But the level of craftsmanship in the composition and orchestration is a delight , and such names as Anthony Collins, Angela Morley and Ernest Tomlinson deserve to be remembered.

Agree wholeheartedly with that, smittims.

I recently gave a presentation of light music from 78rpm records to a group and one of the members commented that his wife is an orchestral player who has played a lot of light music and said that it may sound easy but much of it is very difficult!

[oddoneout]

I have only been able to listen intermittently, but what a pleasure it has been. A lift to the spirits and a chance to be reminded of happy times as a child. I don't know what my father's opinion of such music was, but it was daytime listening in any case and evidently my mother's parents must have considered it acceptable listening as she was happy to have it on. It was a more relaxed listening experience than the evening concerts or lunchtime recitals, when quiet and concentration were expected if we were to stay in the room.

[gradus]

It was a recap of the radio music of the early fifties and all the better for that. About time the proms featured some of these pieces as an encore. I liked DM's anecdote about Ernest Tomlinson bearding Glock in his lair to complain about the BBC's neglect neglect of light music, not that Glock did anything to help.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Re the Spa Orchestra, it’s been progressively cut since Max Jaffa retired in 1986. It had a reasonable body of strings, but it was turned into a wind band plus solo violin in the late 90s and has remained so until the present day. I regret this development, but it’s still a fine ensemble.

[smittims]

I'm old enough to remember the BBC Festival of Light Music on Radio2, of all places, around 1969, and hearing Ifor James play Ernest Tomlinson's Rhapsody and Rondo for Horn and Orchestra , a work which, though light, was distinguished enough to be played in a 'classical' concert. Unlike so much of today's film and TV music, it wasn't just pastiche-romantic, but had an individuality worth hearing.

[MJB]

Just catching up on the excellent programmes broadcast last week, but did DM twice refer to Albert Ketelby as Alfred? Did he also refer to Ketelby's In A Persian Market as In A Persian Garden (an earlier work by Liza Lehmann)?