27 May

War And Peace : Light Music Of The 1940s

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LIGHT MUSIC CDs SEPTEMBER 2010

GUILD LIGHT MUSIC GLCD5171

War And Peace : Light Music Of The 1940s

1 Down The Mall (John Belton, real names Tony Lowry and Douglas Brownsmith)
CHARLES SHADWELL AND HIS ORCHESTRA
HMV B 9487 1946
2 Stardust (Hoagy Carmichael, arr. Percy Faith)
PERCY FAITH AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Decca 23535 1944
3 Footlights (Eric Coates)
LIGHT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Conducted by ERIC COATES
Columbia DX 966 1940
4 Spitfire Fugue – from the film “The First Of The Few” (William Walton)
HALLÉ ORCHESTRA Conducted by WILLIAM WALTON solo violin:
Laurance Turner
HMV C 3359 1943
5 A Cocktail Of Happiness (Wynford Reynolds)
WYNFORD REYNOLDS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Decca Music While You Work MW 130 1944
6 Girls In Grey (Charles Williams)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by CHARLES WILLIAMS
Chappell C 193 1943
7 Humoresque (Antonin Dvorák)
DAVID ROSE AND HIS ORCHESTRA
HMV B 9494 1946
8 “El Alamein” – Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Albert Arlen, born Albert Aarons)
JACK PAYNE AND HIS ORCHESTRA with PEGGY COCHRANE, piano
HMV C 3428 1945
9 On A Spring Note (Sidney Torch, real name Sidney Torchinsky)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by SIDNEY TORCH
Chappell C 300 1947
10 Boogie Woogie Moonshine (from the film “Piccadilly Incident”)
LOUIS LEVY AND HIS ‘MUSIC FROM THE MOVIES’ pianist HENRY BRONKHURST
Decca K 1559 1946
11 Voice Of Industry – March (Jack Beaver)
THE NEW CENTURY ORCHESTRA Conducted by SIDNEY TORCH
Francis, Day & Hunter FDH 002 1946
12 Willie The Whistler (Robert Farnon)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by CHARLES WILLIAMS
Chappell C 259 1946
13 Starlight Roof Waltz (George Melachrino)
THE MELACHRINO ORCHESTRA Conducted by GEORGE MELACHRINO
HMV B 9610 1948
14 “A Matter Of Life And Death” – Prelude from the film (Allan Gray, real name Josef Zmigrod)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by CHARLES WILLIAMS
Columbia DX 1320 1947
15 Olympic Games March (Ronald Hanmer)
NEW CENTURY ORCHESTRA Conducted by SIDNEY TORCH
Francis, Day & Hunter FDH 043 1948
16 The Fairy And The Fiddlers (Edward White)
NEW CONCERT ORCHESTRA Conducted by JAY WILBUR
Boosey & Hawkes OT 2047 1946
17 Bonaventure (Frederic Curzon)
NEW CONCERT ORCHESTRA Conducted by FREDERIC CURZON
Boosey & Hawkes O 2042 1946
18 American Serenade (Louis Alter)
MEREDITH WILLSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Decca DL 8025 1949
19 Marche Fantastique (Leighton Lucas)
LEIGHTON LUCAS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
EMI Mood Music EP 122 1948
20 Short Overture To An Unwritten Opera (Don Gillis)
NEW CONCERT ORCHESTRA Conducted by RAE JENKINS
Boosey & Hawkes OT 2092 1946
21 Royal Cavalcade (Albert William Ketèlbey)
THE LOUIS VOSS GRAND ORCHESTRA
Bosworth BC 1146 1942
22 Lullaby Of The Bells – Piano Concerto from the film “The Phantom Of The Opera” (Edward Ward)
MANTOVANI AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA featuring GUY FLETCHER, piano
Decca F 8460 1944

In retrospect it is clear that the 1940s had a major impact on the way in which Light Music would develop in the remaining years of the 20th Century. The somewhat genteel world in which many composers involved in the genre were living was shattered when World War 2 broke out in September 1939. Although their style of music would still be appreciated, it had to compete with other developments which would invigorate what some believed was a fading niche of the music scene. Light Music has never had an easy ride, and the fresh impetus provided in the 1940s would itself gradually wane – particularly in the 1970s and 1980s – until another welcome renaissance gathered pace in the 1990s. Although Light Music is not heard today on radio and in the concert hall to the extent that it once was, the paradox is that there has never been a time when there was such a wide choice available for the public to buy on commercial recordings.

Down The Mall is making its third appearance on a Guild CD, and we make no apology for selecting it as the opening number for a second time. It was first included in the second 1930s collection “In Town Tonight” (GLCD5116) played by Philip Green and his Orchestra, from a Parlophone 78 in the label’s ‘bright and breezy series’. But it has always been popular with brass bands, as the famous Fodens Motor Works Band illustrated in “Bandstand In The Park – Volume 2” (GLCD 5147). Essentially Down The Mall is a feel-good piece of light orchestral music, and on this CD it appears in the kind of arrangement (longer pieces in this style were sometimes called ‘concert arrangements’) that was so popular in the 1940s. The record label typically ignored the importance of the arranger, but there are sufficient clues in the music to link it to Peter Yorke (1902-1966), who regularly contributed such pieces for Charles Shadwell to conduct in the “ITMA” radio programme. The composer ‘John Belton’ was actually a partnership of Tony Lowry and Douglas Brownsmith (1902-1965). Charles Murray Winstanley Shadwell (1898-1979) could be heard regularly on BBC radio broadcasts during the 1940s, notably the afore-mentioned “ITMA” and “Music Hall” – the latter always ended with his own march Down with the Curtain (on Guild GLCD5135). Earlier in his career he had been conductor of the Coventry Hippodrome Orchestra, also represented previously on Guild.

By 1942 Albert William Ketèlbey (1875-1959) was no longer enjoying the success of earlier decades, when his pieces such as In a Monastery Garden, The Phantom Melody, In a Persian Market and Bells Across the Meadow had brought him international fame. But he was still writing well-crafted melodies, often for production music companies, as in the case of Royal Cavalcade, the penultimate track in this collection. Later the LP era of the 1950s brought a well-deserved revival of interest in his work. By comparison Eric Coates (1886-1957) frequently pleased the public with melodies in various styles – something he would continue until almost the end of his life with his famous Dam Busters march. Footlights finds him in familiar light-hearted territory, in stark contrast to what was happening in the real world when he conducted it in 1940.

Far more in keeping with the reality of the time was the film “The First Of The Few” which told the story of R.J. Mitchell, the designer of the Spitfire fighter aircraft which played a major role in the Battle of Britain, where Germany’s Luftwaffe was defeated by the Royal Air Force. William Walton’s score suited the film to perfection and the Fugue accompanied scenes of the aircraft’s construction and development. The Second World War was also the subject in “A Matter Of Life And Death”, although this was made when hostilities had ceased. Released in the USA as “Stairway To Heaven”, it was selected for the first post-war Royal Command Film Performance in 1946, and has since achieved cult status. Part of the credit must accrue to the music by Allan Gray (real name Josef Zmigrod, 1902-1973) who established his film scoring credentials in the German cinema before moving to England in 1936. His handful of notable scores included “I Know Where I’m Going” (1945), “This Man Is Mine” (1946) (on Guild GLCD 5109) and “The African Queen” (1952).

Still in 1946 we find Anna Neagle and Michael Wilding in “Piccadilly Incident”. Again the film is set in the Second World War, and the musical director was Anthony Collins (1893-1963). Boogie Woogie Moonshine lacks composer and arranger credits on the record label, but there are no prizes for spotting that Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata gets a look in, alongside the popular song You Are My Sunshine.

It was during 1941 that Teddy Holmes recruited Charles Williams (1893-1978) to prepare for the launch of the Chappell Recorded Music Library. When the first recordings became available for radio and films (especially wartime newsreels) in 1942, they were competing with existing mood music libraries operated by fellow London publishers Bosworth and Boosey & Hawkes. But Chappells soon became the leading provider of production music in the world – a position they were to hold for at least two decades. Williams recorded many of his own works, and Girls In Grey became instantly recognisable to millions through its use as the theme for the BBC’s Television Newsreel. Originally he had composed it as a wartime march for the Women’s Junior Air Corps.

On that momentous day in March 1942 when David Rose (1910-1990) took his orchestra into RCA Victor’s studios to record his own composition Holiday For Strings, could he have imagined the effect it would have on his peers? In one memorable recording session he proved that the general public did still enjoy Light Music, when it was performed with such enthusiasm and obvious enjoyment. It was hardly surprising that it sold over a million copies within a short while. He cleverly adapted his unique string sound for Humoresque. World War 2 also allowed musicians a freedom previously denied to them, in terms of players and the chance to experiment without financial constraints. Robert Farnon (1917-2005) and George Melachrino (1909-1965) were leaders respectively of the Canadian and British Bands of the Allied Expeditionary Forces. At their command they had many more musicians than they could have afforded in peacetime, and they embraced wholeheartedly the wonderful opportunity that had been gifted to them.

In Farnon’s case he recognised that the music scene in Britain was more suited to his talents than what existed back home, so he remained in London when he took his discharge in 1945. He brought vibrancy to Light Music that reflected his North American roots, and his influence on fellow composers and arrangers (both in Britain and America) was considerable. His very first piece for Chappell, Willie The Whistler, appears on this CD.

Melachrino kept many of his wartime musicians when he launched his own civilian orchestra, and he found that the public was happy to accept his glorious string sounds. On 23 October 1947 the revue “Starlight Roof” opened at the London Hippodrome, starring Vic Oliver and Pat Kirkwood with 12 year-old Julie Andrews in the cast. George Melachrino wrote the score for the show, from which his Starlight Roof Waltz has become a light music favourite.

Sidney Torch (1908-1990) was a famous cinema organist before war service in the Royal Air Force, where he conducted the RAF Concert Orchestra. When he left the forces he also recognised the great opportunities offered in Light Music, and he turned his back on the organ. His catchy On A Spring Note was a great success for the Chappell Mood Music Library, and the original version on this CD is longer than Torch’s commercial recording on Parlophone.

Thus the second half of the 1940s witnessed the return of many talented musicians to the demands of radio, television, films and recordings, and the influence of their wartime experiences resulted in some of the finest cameos of light orchestral music ever composed. Such was the quality of Light Music (not forgetting some landmark film scores) during the entire decade that volumes could be written about each of the composers and orchestras featured in this collection. As usual, space is the enemy, so these notes will have to concentrate on a few special cases where those involved may be less familiar to music lovers today.

El Alamein – Concerto for Piano and Orchestra received its first performance in Cairo, at the Earle Hall of the YMCA in October 1944, conducted by Hugo Rignold with Phil Finch on piano. It was composed by Flying Officer Albert Arlen, in dedication to the men who died at El Alamein in 1942 and 1943 during the North Africa campaign of the Second World War. Four months later, on 18 February 1945, Peggy Cochrane performed the broadcast premiere back in London. She was also a well-known singer and violinist and was married to bandleader Jack Payne (1899-1969). She studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Eric Coates and Lionel Tertis. Albert Arlen (1905-1993) was an Australian composer, playwright and director, born Albert Aarons in Sydney to Turkish immigrants. He worked in London from 1925 to 1940, when he joined the Royal Air Force as a pilot. He is best known in his home country for the musical “The Sentimental Bloke” (1960), and was appointed a member of the Order of Australia for services to music and the performing arts in 1990.

London hosted the first post-war Olympic Games in 1948, and the production music libraries commissioned several suitable marches which they hoped would be used extensively by film and newsreel companies. The prolific mood music composer Ronald Hanmer (1917-1994) is the choice for this collection, with his appropriately titled Olympic Games March from the Francis, Day & Hunter stable – note Sidney Torch again as conductor.

Hollywood was firmly in its glory days during the 1940s, and a good musical score was often regarded as essential. Edward Ward (1900-1971) adapted themes by Tchaikovsky and Chopin for the 1943 production of “The Phantom Of The Opera”, but the ‘Piano Concerto’ Lullaby Of The Bells, was his own composition. During a career lasting 37 years Ward received seven Oscar nominations – the last one being for this film. The fine recording on 12 June 1944 is one of the first employing Decca’s revolutionary ‘full frequency range recording’ system, developed originally to assist in the detection of enemy submarines; the comparison with the previous track recorded only two years earlier is quite amazing. Mantovani (1905-1980) is conducting a large concert orchestra in the days before his ‘cascading strings’ sound made him world famous. Other examples of his earlier work can be found on Guild GLCD5110 and 5113.
David Ades

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About Geoff 123
Geoff Leonard was born in Bristol. He spent much of his working career in banking but became an independent record producer in the early nineties, specialising in the works of John Barry and British TV theme compilations.
He also wrote liner notes for many soundtrack albums, including those by John Barry, Roy Budd, Ron Grainer, Maurice Jarre and Johnny Harris. He co-wrote two biographies of John Barry in 1998 and 2008, and is currently working on a biography of singer, actor, producer Adam Faith.
He joined the Internet Movie Data-base (www.imdb.com) as a data-manager in 2001 and looked after biographies, composers and the music-department, amongst other tasks. He retired after nine years loyal service in order to continue writing.