Light Music CDs. Some highly recommended releases.
Light Music is ignored by most Record Stores and Radio Stations, yet it is enjoyed by millions of people around the world.
You may know it as Easy Listening or Concert Music ... or maybe Middle-of-the Road. Whatever you happen to call it, Light Music offers relaxing enjoyment at any time of the day or night, and we hope that you will return regularly to this page in the Robert Farnon Society website to keep fully informed on the latest releases.
Releases up to December 2008
For 2008:
THE GUILD "GOLDEN AGE OF LIGHT MUSIC" SERIES HAS NOW REACHED No. 50!
String Fever
1 String Fever (Rene Costy, Rene G.F. Heylbroeck)
EMILE DELTOUR AND HIS ORCHESTRA
2 Poinciana (Nat Simon, Buddy Bernier)
LEROY HOLMES AND HIS ORCHESTRA
3 Scrub Brother Scrub (Ken Warner, full name Onslow Boyden Waldo Warner)
THE MELACHRINO STRINGS Conducted by GEORGE MELACHRINO
4 The Epic Waltz (Theme of "The Big Prevue Show") (R. Ellis, arr. Angela Morley)
JEFF MORLEY AND HIS ORCHESTRA
5 Fiddlin’ The Blues (Sidney Schwartz)
DAVID CARROLL AND HIS ORCHESTRA
6 Windy Corner (Bruce Campbell)
DANISH STATE RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
7 Pedrillo’s Buggy Ride (Julius Steffaro, real name Jan Stoeckart)
HILVERSUM RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by HUGH GRANVILLE (real name HUGO DE GROOT)
8 Tillie’s Tango (James R. Mundy, Gladys Bruce)
ACQUAVIVA AND HIS ORCHESTRA
9 Stampede (Johannes (Johnny) Steggerda)
DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA (as ‘VAN LYNN’ on LP label)
10 All Strings And Fancy Free (Sidney Torch, birth surname Torchinsky)
SIDNEY TORCH AND HIS ORCHESTRA
11 Why Shouldn’t I (Cole Porter)
RICHARD HAYMAN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
12 El Relicario (Jose Padilla)
MORTON GOULD AND HIS ORCHESTRA
13 Left Bank (C’est A Hambourg) (Margueritte Angele Monnot, arr. Laurie Johnson)
LAURIE JOHNSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA
14 Caminito (Gabino Coria Penaloza, Juan de Dios Filiberto)
WERNER MULLER AND HIS ORCHESTRA (as ‘RICARDO SANTOS’)
15 Busybody (Billy Mayerl)
STUTTGART RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by KURT REHFELD
16 Leap Year Waltz (from "The Dancing Years") (Ivor Novello)
MICHAEL FREEDMAN AND THE DEBUTANTES
17 Up With The Lark (Robert Busby)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by SIDNEY TORCH
18 Tico Tico (Zequinha da Abreu)
LUIZ ARRUDA PAES AND HIS ORCHESTRA
19 Dream Street (Mario Ruiz Armengol)
MARIO RUIZ ARMENGOL AND HIS ORCHESTRA
20 By The River Sainte Marie (Harry Warren, Edgar Leslie, arr. Gordon Jenkins)
GORDON JENKINS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
21 Pink Gin (Peter Knight)
DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA (as ‘PAUL FRANKLIN’
22 Green Eyes (Nilo Menendez, arr. John Gregory, real name Giovanni Gregori)
CYRIL ORNADEL AND HIS ORCHESTRA
23 Sneezing Violins (Meredith Willson)
MEREDITH WILLSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA featuring ALBERT PRATZ, violin
24 I Want To Be Happy (Vincent Youmans)
HELMUT ZACHARIAS AND HIS MAGIC VIOLINS
25 Lotta Pizzicato (Frank De Vol)
FRANK DE VOL AND HIS ORCHESTRA
26 Perfidia (Alberto Dominguez)
DON AMORE AND HIS ORCHESTRA
27 Cascade Of Stars (Osmar Hector Maderna)
MUSIC BY CAMARATA
28 Music Hall (Roger Roger)
ROGER ROGER AND HIS CHAMPS ELYSEES ORCHESTRA
Guild GLCD 5150
"String Fever" celebrates Guild Music’s 50th compilation in its ‘Golden Age of Light Music’ series, which was launched early in 2004. Since then over 1,200 recordings have been rescued from possible obscurity and made available once more to collectors around the world. The number of different orchestras featured exceeds 200 and more than 400 composers have had their works offered to a new and appreciative audience.
The notes accompanying the first release (GLCD 5101 – ‘An Introduction’) recalled a comment by veteran British broadcaster Denis Norden in the BBC Radio series ‘Legends of Light Music’ when he attempted to explain what Light Music really is. He said: "Light Music isn’t just tuneful round the outside - it’s tuneful right through." His observations probably come close to solving a riddle which has exercised the minds of music lovers for generations, because ‘Light Music’ can mean different things to different people.
Those two words also encounter problems when they cross frontiers. ‘Light Music’ is essentially a British phrase although it does engender a certain amount of understanding when used in North America where the term ‘Concert Music’ can also apply to this particular genre. On the continent of Europe the French appreciate ‘Musique Légère’, and further east in Germany it goes under the far more important-sounding ‘Unterhaltungsmusik’. Other descriptions which try to describe this particularly enjoyable form of music include ‘Easy Listening’, ‘Middle-of-the-Road’ and occasionally ‘Mood Music’.
Since Guild’s first release in March 2004 the pioneers such as Eric Coates. Albert Ketèlbey and Haydn Wood have seen their compositions included alongside the ‘newer boys’ like Robert Farnon, David Rose, Leroy Anderson, Sidney Torch and Charles Williams; they have moulded the traditional sounds of the early 20th century into a bright and tuneful style, thus ensuring that their work would be fully enjoyed as the century wore on.
The first Guild CDs received a warm welcome from music critics: writing in The Independent, Rob Cowan summed up his complimentary review with the words: "This is the real thing with a vengeance!" As the series has progressed new releases have widened the original scope in terms of repertoire, often in response to suggestions from enthusiastic supporters. This trend is likely to continue in the future, and it is now extremely rare for each new release not to feature several pieces of music which have been included by special request. Credit must also be given to a number of collectors around the world who so willingly supply their own copies of rare items. It almost seems as though a crusade has developed to ensure that Light Music is preserved for posterity.
Thus this 50th Guild ‘Golden Age of Light Music’ CD "String Fever" is far more than simply an enjoyable collection of pleasant music that is easy on the ear: it is a recognition that world-wide there are many people who appreciate a welcome alternative to the sounds usually pouring forth from their radio sets.
With so many different composers and orchestras usually featured in each collection, it is virtually impossible to include biographical notes on each of them within the confines of a booklet such as this. Over the series as a whole they all get their special mention sooner or later, and a determined effort is made to showcase those who are appearing on a Guild Light Music CD for the very first time – like the five profiled below.
As a young man Michael Freedman (b. 1911) studied the violin, and at the age of 16 he was offered his first engagements in London’s West End theatre orchestras. Thereafter he tended to concentrate more on studying the art of conducting, and at various times worked with Toscanini, Furtwängler, von Karajan and Cantelli. However, like all musicians needing to pay the bills he used his talents widely, and in the early 1950s he was a violinist in the Philharmonia Orchestra. Gradually he became known as a conductor through his BBC broadcasts, and also appeared on television with an orchestra of lady musicians – Michael Freedman and his Debutantes, as heard on this CD. It comes from an Oriole LP released in 1957, which was reissued three years later on Woolworths’ Embassy label, but this time the orchestra was renamed "Hi-Fi String Orchestra" (amusingly mis-named "Hi-Hi" on the sleeve). Like so many musicians in the post-war years, Michael Freedman eventually had to seek other work, and he became a London taxi driver.
Sao Paulo born Luiz Arruda Paes (1926-1999) was a leading figure in his native Brazil’s entertainment scene. He was involved with many television shows, including the inauguration of the service in 1950, and he helped to establish the Jazz Sinfonica de Sao Paulo.
Don Mario Ruiz Armengol (b. 1914) has been compared by some musicologists as being Mexico’s equivalent of David Rose, and his arrangements do contain certain snatches of Rose’s unique style. During the middle years of the last century he was regarded as Mexico’s foremost arranger and conductor of popular music, as well as one of its leading composers. From the 1930s onwards RCA used him to accompany many of the contract artists on their Mexican subsidiary label, and he also worked extensively in radio and films. He gradually became known across the border in the USA (Duke Ellington is reported to have dubbed him "Mr. Harmony"), and Billy May recorded Armengol’s Dream Street but retitled it Brassmen’s Holiday.
Ken Warner (1902-1988 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 London’s Guildhall School of Music, so naturally that is where young Onslow received most of his musical education. From 1921 – at first using the name ‘Onslow Kent’ - he played saxophone and violin in various dance bands in such places as the Kit-Kat club and the Café de Paris in the West End of London. He appeared on recordings with Percival Mackey in 1927 (Peter Yorke also arranged for this band); Harry Hudson from 1927 to 1932; and George Fisher in 1928 (again alongside Peter Yorke). Reference books also show him as having arranged for Jay Wilbur in 1928, and it can be safely assumed that this kind of work – performing and arranging – kept him fully occupied during the 1930s, both in England and abroad. By 1940 he had become well known as ‘Ken Warner’ and in that year he joined the BBC Light Orchestra, playing violin, clarinet and saxophone under Fred Hartley, also doing much of the arranging. He also played with, and arranged for, orchestras directed by famous violinists Max Jaffa, Reg 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. His compositions found their way into the Recorded Music Libraries of London publishers, although Scrub Brother Scrub seems to have been created simply as an enjoyable concert piece. The term ‘scrubbing’ refers to the articulation of repeated notes by means of a back and forth movement of the violin bow across the strings. This unique effect has been exploited by many violin virtuosi over the ages.
Billy Joseph Mayerl (1902-1959) created many attractive pieces of light music during his lifetime, but it was for his piano playing that he became universally famous. A child prodigy, at the age of seven he was studying at the Trinity College of Music and publicly performed Grieg’s Piano Concerto at the Queen’s Hall. In his early teens, like so many musicians of his generation, he was playing for silent films and in dance bands, but the event that was to change his life happened in 1926 when he set up a correspondence course in ‘Modern Syncopation’ for the thousands of his fans who hoped to emulate his style. Sadly most of them had their hopes dashed, but such was the success of his enterprise that by the late 1930s he employed a staff in excess of more than 100 and a worldwide clientele of over 30,000 students, until it finally closed down in 1957. Among many other projects his punishing work schedule involved numerous broadcasts, public appearances and the composition of numerous catchy novelties, the most famous being Marigold. Gradually he became more interested in writing light orchestral music, and Busybody is typical of the pieces he was writing for mood music in the 1950s. When the Light Music Society was formed in 1957, Billy Mayerl became the Editor of its regular Newsletter, a position he held until his sudden death from a heart attack in 1959.
On this occasion, in celebration of Guild’s 50th Light Music CD, space has been left in this booklet for photographs of some of the leading figures who entertain us regularly.
David Ades
Going Places
1 Fantasy On National Airs (Max Saunders) Early One Morning, The Ash Grove, The Campbells Are Coming, Londonderry Air.
BBC TELEVISION ORCHESTRA Conducted by ERIC ROBINSON
2 Going Places (Jackie Brown)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by SIDNEY TORCH
3 Enchanted Isle (Kermit Leslie & Walter Leslie real surnames Levinsky)
KERMIT LESLIE AND HIS ORCHESTRA
4 Mexican Interlude (David Bee)
DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA (as ‘VAN LYNN’ on LP label)
5 Park Avenue Waltz (William Hill-Bowen)
THE MELACHRINO STRINGS Conducted by GEORGE MELACHRINO
6 Cabaret Time In Paris (Selection)
NORRIE PARAMOR AND HIS ORCHESTRA
7 Moon Of Manakoora (Alfred Newman, Frank Loesser)
DAVID ROSE AND HIS ORCHESTRA
8 El Rancho Grande (My Ranch) (Ramos)
MORTON GOULD AND HIS ORCHESTRA
9 Streets Of New York (Victor Herbert)
WERNER MULLER AND HIS ORCHESTRA
10 Call Of The Casbah (theme from ITV serial "Destination Downing Street") (Joyce Cochrane, arr. Laurie Johnson)
LAURIE JOHNSON AND HIS ORCHESTRA
11 Monte Carlo (Whiting, Harding)
MONTY KELLY AND HIS ORCHESTRA
12 Mediterranean Serenade (Alain Romans, Jacques Larue)
LEROY HOLMES AND HIS ORCHESTRA
13 Viennese Lantern Waltz (also known as Lights Of Vienna) (Juan R. Delgado)
RED NICHOLS AND THE AUGMENTED PENNIES
14 Southwest Territory (Frank De Vol)
FRANK DE VOL AND HIS ORCHESTRA
15 Scherzo: Avignon (based on ‘Sur Le Pont d’Avignon’) (trad, arr. Ronald Hanmer)
BBC MIDLAND LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by H.G. BURGESS
16 Adios Mexico (Fred Hartley)
FRED HARTLEY AND HIS ORCHESTRA
17 Taj Mahal (Robert Farnon)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
18 Fiesta Argentina (Oliphant Chuckerbutty)
THE LOUIS VOSS GRAND ORCHESTRA
19 Mediterranean Cruise (Billy Mayerl)
STUTTGART RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by KURT REHFELD
20 Cryin’ For The Carolines (Harry Warren, Sam Lewis, Joe Young)
GUY LUYPAERTS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
21 The Poor People of Paris (La Goualante Du Pauvre Jean) (Marguerite Monnot)
RICHARD HAYMAN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
22 Irish Fantasy – Songs To Remember No. 4 (arr. Peter Yorke)
PETER YORKE AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA
23 Persian Nocturne (Robert Stolz)
ROBERT FARNON AND HIS ORCHESTRA
24 London By Night (Carroll Coates)
RAY MARTIN AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA
25 Aarhus Tappenstreg (Aarhus Tattoo) (C. C. Moller)
AARHUS CIVIC ORCHESTRA Conducted by THOMAS JENSEN
Guild GLCD 5151
The theme of this collection is very simple: music associated with different parts of the world. Unlike "Globetrotting" (Guild GLCD 5141), no attempt has been made to provide any kind of accurate geographical journey from place to place. But we would like to think that many of the tracks will evoke pleasant memories among seasoned travellers. The only exception is the title track, Going Places which is typical of the kind of ‘holiday’ music you used to hear in the background behind newsreels of the 1940s and 1950s whenever scenes of a happy, carefree nature were being screened.
Our opening piece of music visits the four countries of the British Isles – England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland - but there is a much more important reason for including it. The final track on "Childhood Memories – Volume 2" (Guild GLCD 5144) was Scherzetto for Children, commissioned by the BBC from composer Fred Hartley to introduce Children’s Television for several years during the 1950s. A number of collectors subsequently contacted us to request that we should issue the ‘grown up’ version from BBC TV in those days – in other words the music that was also specially commissioned to be played before programmes started in the evening (remember this was decades before 24 hour television, when there were often long gaps with only test cards on view).
Once again Guild is grateful to TV memorabilia collector Tony Clayden for supplying us with a recording of Fantasy on National Airs by Max Saunders. As with the Scherzetto, the piece is performed by the BBC Television Orchestra conducted by Eric Robinson and it is believed to have been recorded in 1951. These two works have not previously been available on any commercial recordings, so a unique part of British television history has now been preserved for posterity.
Max Saunders (1903-1983) was born in Auckland, New Zealand, and left his homeland in the 1940s to work with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Sydney, before moving on to London where he composed, arranged and conducted many productions for the BBC, particularly during the 1950s. His total output included incidental music for around 70 radio and television plays and features, as well as several film scores. He seems to have made a speciality of part songs and orchestral works, and among his major compositions are his African Suite, A Cotswold Pastoral for oboe and strings, and various arrangements of traditional Maori chants. He also wrote chamber music and three short operas.
Eric Robinson (1908-1974) was a personality during the formative years of BBC Television. He had played the violin in an orchestra for a television production in 1939, just before the service abruptly closed down upon the outbreak of World War 2. When normal service was resumed he became the conductor of the BBC Television Orchestra, and was soon a household name through his monthly show "Music For You", broadcast on a Wednesday from Studio G at Lime Grove, which won the Television Society’s Silver Medal in 1952. Eric conducted numerous musical shows featuring the BBC’s top stars during the 1950s. According to the reference books he was involved in just one film – "Old Mother Riley’s New Venture" (1947). His elder brother was the famous conductor Stanford Robinson (1904-1984).
Another rarity on this CD is the Scherzo: Avignon by Ronald Hanmer (1917-1994). This is the composer’s own private recording of a performance in 1946, and it seems likely that it was originally written for Charles Shadwell to conduct in the BBC radio programme "ITMA". Usually in a comical vein, another example of Hanmer’s contributions to this long-running series is Ten Green Bottles on Guild GLCD 5102. His career stretched from the 1930s (he was a cinema organist) until the end of his life, and over 700 of his compositions were published in various background music libraries (examples already on Guild include Proud and Free GLCD 5136, The Four Horsemen and Intermission – both onGLCD 5140). Among his film scores were Made in Heaven (1952), Penny Princess (1952) and Top of the Form (1953). He was also in demand as an orchestrator of well-known works for Amateur Societies, and the brass band world was very familiar with his scores – sometimes used as test pieces. In 1975 he emigrated to Australia, where he was delighted to discover that his melody Pastorale was famous throughout the land as the theme for the long-running radio serial Blue Hills. In 1992 he received the Order of Australia for services to music, just before that country abolished the honours system.
A welcome newcomer in this selection is Red Nichols (sometimes known as ‘Nicholls’) - more usually associated with his Five Pennies. He was the inspiration behind the 1959 film "The Five Pennies" starring Danny Kaye, which was very loosely based on his life. He played the trumpet for the movie soundtrack, but didn’t appear on screen. Ernest Loring ‘Red’ Nichols (1905-1965) is regarded by some jazz students as one of the finest cornet players to emerge during the 1920s, working for bandleaders such as Paul Whiteman and Harry Reser. He became one of the busiest record session musicians, and also played in several Broadway shows. His contribution to this collection is taken from an album released in 1957 where strings were added to his usual lineup – presumably to try and gain him a new audience.
Norrie Paramor (1914-1979) tended to be better known by the public for his work with pop stars such as Cliff Richard, but he also made numerous instrumental recordings and wrote several catchy numbers that greatly appealed – one of these was Cornflakes under the pseudonym ‘Sidney Norman’ on Guild GLCD 5130. As Artists and Repertoire Manager at Columbia during the 1950s (part of the time with Ray Martin) he was sometimes obliged to satisfy public demand for popular tunes of the day, and Cabaret Time In Paris is one such example.
Fred Hartley (1905-1980) has already been mentioned in these notes for his Scherzetto for Children. He was a familiar name in British broadcasting for many years, having made his first appearance on the BBC as a solo pianist as early as 1925. He was then employed as an accompanist, and founded his famous Novelty Quintet in 1931. In 1946 he was appointed the BBC’s Head of Light Music. In the 1950s two of his own compositions became popular through their frequent broadcasts; Alpine Festival was included on Guild GLCD 5141, and this time it is the turn of Adios Mexico on the other side of the same Decca single.
American light orchestras are well represented in this musical tour. Kermit Leslie leads the pack with Enchanted Isle co-composed with his brother Walter. This is the sixth time his orchestra has been featured on Guild, and it will not be the last. Next comes David Rose (1910-1990) - although born in Britain he made his successful career in the USA. Moon of Manakoora first appeared in the film "The Hurricane" (1937) starring Dorothy Lamour, and Alfred Newman’s score was nominated for an Academy Award.
The proximity of Mexico to the USA has been a big influence on the popular music scene, and Morton Gould (1913-1996) often conducted his own arrangements of well known tunes such as El Rancho Grande. Gould became one of the most highly respected American composers, and his distinguished career was crowned with a Pulitzer Prize (for his Stringmusic, commissioned by Mstislav Rostropovich for the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington) just a year before his death at the age of 82. Among his best-known works were the ballet Fall River Legend and American Symphonette No. 3,from which the movement called Pavanne (the mis-spelling was deliberate) became very popular. There is a delightful version of this piece by Jay Wilbur’s Serenaders on Guild GLCD 5139. From 1986 to 1994 Gould was President of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).
Our American roll call continues with Monty Kelly (1910-1971), a trumpeter, arranger and bandleader who played with the Paul Whiteman and Skinnay Ennis bands before landing a job with NBC in New York. For a while he was a regular in the recording studios, and managed to secure some success with singles such as Tropicana and Three O’Clock In The Morning (both on Guild GLCD 5105). This persuaded Cash Box magazine to name him ‘most promising orchestra’ in 1953, but by then the era of popular instrumentals was starting to wane in the USA. His albums continued to do well, and they are still sought by light music fans. Monte Carlo is his tenth appearance in this Guild series.
Leroy Holmes (born Alvin Holmes, 1913-1986) scored Hollywood films and radio programmes during his early career, before becoming one of the mainstays of MGM’s conducting ‘team’ in the 1950s, also arranging many of their recordings. Eventually he moved on to United Artists where he conducted many of their contract singers and also recorded albums under his own name. His film credits include "The Bridge In The Jungle" (1970) and "Smile" (1975).
In the USA Frank De Vol (1911-1999) is known primarily as the composer for the radio and TV series "The Brady Bunch", but light music fans appreciate that his career has been far more substantial. It was not uncommon to see the credit ‘Music by De Vol’ on many films, and he started playing violin in cinema orchestras just as the silent films era was coming to an end. After touring with the Alvino Rey orchestra, in the 1940s he began a recording career, first as an arranger for vocalists Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Doris Day, Vic Damone and Nat "King" Cole. His arrangement of "Nature Boy" sung by Nat "King" Cole became a number one hit in 1948. That earned him an executive position at Columbia Records, for whom he went on to make a number of successful mood music albums. In the 1950s his own Hollywood orchestra, called "Music of the Century", played frequently at the Hollywood Palladium. His many motion picture scores included the following which were all nominated for Oscars: the Doris Day/Rock Hudson comedy "Pillow Talk" (1959), "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte" (1964), "Cat Ballou" (1965), and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" (1967). Frank also appeared as a character actor in several US television series, such as "I Dream of Jeannie", "Bonanza" and "Petticoat Junction". South West Territory reveals his considerable skills as a composer with a tone poem that will strike a chord with many fellow Americans.
As well as being a respected arranger and conductor, Richard Hayman (b. 1920) was also a harmonica virtuoso, and he sometimes adapted his scores of popular melodies so that he could perform on his favourite instrument. This formula brought him two chart successes in the early 1950s, with 78s of Ruby and April In Portugal. He followed Leroy Anderson as an arranger for the Boston Pops Orchestra over a period of more than 30 years, and also served as Music Director of Mercury Records. He was regularly in demand to orchestrate Broadway shows and film soundtracks, and notable among his own compositions are No Strings Attached (on Guild GLCD 5105) and Skipping Along (Guild GLCD 5131). His recent recordings are still being released today by major record companies.
The final track finds Thomas Jensen (1898-1963) conducting the Aarhus Civic Orchestra (later to become Symphony). Aarhus is Denmark’s second city, and in the late 1940s its orchestra was regarded as Jensen’s. He had studied the cello at the Royal Danish Academy of Music, where Carl Nielsen taught him harmony. Later he would conduct Nielsen’s symphonies, winning approval from the composer’s daughters.
David Ades
From Stage and Screen
1 June Is Bustin’ Out All Over (from "Carousel") (Richard Rodgers)
GEOFF LOVE AND HIS ORCHESTRA
2 "Glenn Miller Story" – Theme from the film (Henry Mancini)
JACKIE BROWN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
3 "Guys and Dolls" Selection (Frank Loesser, arr. Roland Shaw) Guys And Dolls, I’ve Never Been In Love Before, A Bushel And A Peck, If I Were A Bell, I’ll Know, Sit Down You’re Rockin’ The Boat.
GERALDO AND HIS NEW CONCERT ORCHESTRA
4 It’s Only A Paper Moon (from the film "Take A Chance" 1933) (Harold Arlen)
DAVID ROSE AND HIS ORCHESTRA
5 Secret Love (from film "Calamity Jane") (Sammy Fain)
ROBERT FARNON AND HIS ORCHESTRA
6 "Anastasia" – Theme from the film (Alfred Newman)
THE VICTOR YOUNG SINGING STRINGS Conducted by ALFRED NEWMAN
7 "The Dancing Years" Selection (Ivor Novello, arr, Sidney Torch)
SIDNEY TORCH AND HIS ORCHESTRA
8 As Time Goes By (featured in "Casablanca") (Herman Hupfeld, arr. Ron Goodwin)
RON GOODWIN AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA
9 Old Devil Moon (from "Finian’s Rainbow) (Burton Lane, arr. Morton Gould)
MORTON GOULD AND HIS ORCHESTRA
10 The Wedding Of The Painted Doll (Arthur Freed, Nacio Herb Brown) (from the film "Broadway Melody" 1929)
FRANK CHACKSFIELD AND HIS ORCHESTRA
11 The Song From "The Moulin Rouge" (Where Is Your Heart) (Georges Auric, arr. Percy Faith)
PERCY FAITH AND HIS ORCHESTRA
12 Show Me (from "My Fair Lady") (Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe – arr. Percy Faith)
PERCY FAITH AND HIS ORCHESTRA
13 The Song From "Desiree" (Alfred Newman – arr. Frank Cordell)
FRANK CORDELL AND HIS ORCHESTRA
14 "Samson And Delilah" Film Theme (Victor Young)
THE PARAMOUNT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Conducted by VICTOR YOUNG
15 "Dark Secret" – Theme Waltz from the film (George Melachrino)
THE MELACHRINO STRINGS Conducted by GEORGE MELACHRINO
16 Carriage and Pair; Long Forgotten Melody (from the film "So Long At The Fair") (Benjamin Frankel)
CHARLES WILLIAMS AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA
17 "Obsession" – Themes from the film (Nino Rota)
SIDNEY TORCH AND HIS ORCHESTRA
18 "The Passionate Friends" Film music (Richard Addinsell, arr. Leonard Isaacs)
THE PHILHARMONIA ORCHESTRA Conducted by MUIR MATHIESON
19 The Card Ballet (from the film "Let’s Be Happy") (Brodszky, Sendrey)
ASSOCIATED BRITISH STUDIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by LOUIS LEVY
Original soundtrack recording
Guild GLCD 5152
Music has helped to create the right atmosphere for many theatrical productions since time immemorial, and during the last century another art form – namely filmed entertainment – has continued this well established custom. Long before the movie pioneers learned how to link pictures on screen with recorded sound, numerous musicians were employed to provide an accompaniment to the flickering images, helping to lull the audience into the right frame of mind, although it has been suggested that another motive was to smother the sound made by the noisy film projectors. Whatever the true reasons, by the time films started talking towards the end of the 1920s a musical accompaniment was deemed essential by producers and audiences alike.
This created a wonderful opportunity for composers to exploit the new medium. Remember this was also happening at a time when radio was reaching homes all over the world. Never can there have been a period in history when musicians found their talents to be in such demand. The result was a truly astonishing outpouring of melodies of all kinds, from composers and lyricists of varying talents. Many were soon deservedly forgotten, but a substantial legacy of memorable songs conceived for theatrical and film productions remains to this day.
Alongside the shows and musicals were the purely dramatic films which required a different kind of music to establish just the right background, and a number of leading ‘serious’ composers, normally active in classical fields, found themselves being offered prestigious commissions. A few rose to the occasion, but gradually it was realised that films required a more specialised approach, and an elite corps of writers emerged on both sides of the Atlantic to dominate the film music scene.
In this collection we salute the backroom boys whose music has meant so much, whether memorable songs from fondly recalled shows and films, or distinctive orchestral scores especially for the cinema.
Some of the chosen pieces apply equally to both art forms, since many successful stage productions were subsequently filmed, reaching a massive audience around the world. The opening track June Is Bustin’ Out All Over from "Carousel" illustrates just one of the Richard Rodgers (1902-1990) scores to be snapped up by Hollywood. Geoff Love (1917-1991) was a leading figure in Britain’s musical scene, turning his hand to all kinds of music from bright and breezy ‘corny’ tunes to a full concert orchestra performing high class arrangements such as this.
Enrico Nicola – better known as ‘Henry’ Mancini (1924-1994) had a brilliant career in recording and films, and his early score for "The Glenn Miller Story" (1954) deservedly won an Academy Award nomination.
Geraldo (Gerald Bright, 1904-1974) fronted just about every kind of ensemble over four decades and influenced the successful careers of numerous top singers. In the 1950s he fronted an orchestra brimful of talented musicians for his BBC broadcasts and recordings, and he engaged Roland Shaw (born 1920 Roland Edgar Shaw-Tomkins) to arrange the selection of tunes from "Guys And Dolls".
David Rose (1910-1990) hardly needs an introduction to light music admirers. Although born in England he fronted one of America’s foremost orchestras, and among his numerous compositions were Holiday For Strings and The Stripper.
Born in Toronto, Canada, Robert Farnon (1917-2005) came to England in 1944 to conduct the Canadian Band of the AEF, and when he was demobbed he remained and quickly established himself in radio, records, films and television. His gift for composition resulted in hundreds of his works being accepted for the background music library operated by the London publishers Chappells, and he was also a master at orchestrating other composers’ melodies. Secret Love is a prime example of the unique string sound which is instantly recognisable to his countless admirers.
Alfred Newman (1900-1970) was nominated for an Academy Award no less than 45 times, actually winning the Oscar on nine occasions. He is represented in this collection by two compositions Anastasia and The Song from Desiree. The first also finds him conducting the Victor Young Singing Strings while the second is performed by Frank Cordell (1918-1980) in a lush arrangement so typical of the more romantic side of his output.
Sidney Torch (1908-1990) was one of Britain’s finest theatre organists during the 1930s. After war service in the Royal Air Force, where he conducted the RAF Concert Orchestra, he concentrated entirely on composing, arranging and conducting light music. Previous Guild CDs have included some of his catchy compositions (mostly composed especially for the Chappell Recorded Music Library), and from the 1950s to the 1970s he was a familiar name in Britain thanks to his association with the radio programme "Friday Night Is Music Night". His recording contract with EMI’s Parlophone label produced numerous 78s, usually featuring his own superb arrangements – witness the way in which he treats the beautifully crafted melodies by Ivor Novello (born David Ivor Davies 1893-1951) for his show "The Dancing Years". From his first hit Keep the Home Fires Burning during World War One, until his last show "Gay’s The Word" shortly before his death, he was a leading figure in Britain’s theatrical scene. The other Sidney Torch recording is music from Obsession, an early film score by Nino Rota (1911-1979). Before he became world famous through his work in many great Italian movies, Rota worked in British film studios, perhaps the best-known being "The Glass Mountain" in 1949, which achieved box office success largely due to the popularity of the music. The previous year he scored "Obsession" ("The Hidden Room" for its US release) starring Robert Newton. This contains many of the elements that would make Rota’s Italian scores so distinctive: they often sound almost like simple folk tunes yet they can also be cutting-edge with their avant-garde harmonies.
Veteran Hollywood composer Max Steiner (born Maximilian Raoul Walter Steiner 1888-1971) was responsible for scoring the 1942 masterpiece "Casablanca", but it is not his music that is remembered. Instead the glory goes to Herman Hupfeld (1894-1951) who composed As Time Goes By. The song was first heard in a musical called "Everybody’s Welcome" which opened at New York’s Schubert Theater on 13 October 1931. Had Dooley Wilson not sung it at the piano in "Casablanca" we would probably not know the song today, since it attracted very little attention when first published, with apparently only one British dance band deciding to make a 78. The 1956 version by Ron Goodwin (1925-2003) provides a showcase for sax and trumpet. At the time he engaged session musicians for his recordings and unfortunately it has not been possible to identify who the soloists were.
Morton Gould (1913-1996) became one of the most highly respected American composers, and his distinguished career was crowned with a Pulitzer Prize (for his Stringmusic, commissioned by Mstislav Rostropovich for the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington) just a year before his death at the age of 82. Among his best-known works were the ballet Fall River Legend and American Symphonette No. 3,which became better known as Pavanne (the mis-spelling was deliberate). His American Salute (based on When Johnny Comes Marching Home) also caught the public’s attention. From 1986 to 1994 Gould was President of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). As well as composing and conducting he also created numerous imaginative arrangements, such as Old Devil Moon from "Finian’s Rainbow".
Frank Chacksfield (1914-1995) conducted one of the finest light orchestras in the world, and during his long recording career with Decca alone it is estimated that his albums sold more than 20 million copies. In total he made more than 150 long-playing albums which were released in many countries, especially in Europe, Japan and Australia as well as Britain and America.
Percy Faith (1908-1976) was born in Toronto, Canada, and originally he expected that his musical career would be as a concert pianist. But he injured his hands in a fire, which forced him to turn to composing, arranging and conducting. During the 1930s his programme "Music By Faith" was carried by the Mutual network in the USA, which prompted offers of work south of the border. In 1940 he moved permanently to the USA where he quickly established himself through radio and recordings. From the 1950s onwards his fame spread internationally, due to the great success of his numerous long playing albums. Unlike most of his contemporaries, Faith arranged all his own material, and his exciting and vibrant scores made his work stand out among the rest.
Victor Young (1900-1956) excelled as a violinist, arranger, film composer, songwriter, conductor and record producer. This wide experience in all forms of music, from his first hit song, Sweet Sue, Just You in 1928 to his tremendous score for "Around the World in 80 Days" in 1956, was exceptional even by Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood standards, all the more so because his international reputation was achieved in such a short lifetime. Like so many of his contemporaries, he found work with various dance bands of the 1920s and 1930s, before eventually ending up in Hollywood, where he discovered the ideal outlet for his melodic gifts – his screen credits eventually exceeded 200 productions.
It is a pity that the British film "Dark Secret" (1949) seems almost to have vanished without trace, because it is one of several from the same era featuring a score by George Melachrino (1909-1965). Apart from his fine recordings with his orchestra, he composed and arranged many pieces intended for use by radio, television and films, and several of these have already appeared in this series of Guild CDs.
Benjamin Frankel (1906-1973) is today remembered more for some of his serious works, although his name first came to the public’s attention through several of his film scores, particularly "The Seventh Veil" (1946), "So Long At The Fair" (1950) from which comes the charming Carriage and Pair (the Mantovani version is on GLCD 5105), "The Man In The White Suit" (1951) and "A Kid For Two Farthings" (1955). In total Frankel scored over 80 feature films and documentaries, plus television plays and theatrical productions.
Charles Williams(real name Isaac Cozerbreit 1893-1978) began his career accompanying silent films, then played violin under the batons of Beecham and Elgar. Right from the start of the ‘talkies’, he provided scores for numerous British films, and in 1960 he topped the American charts with his theme for the film "The Apartment", although in reality the producers had resurrected one of his earlier works Jealous Lover. He conducted many commercial recordings for Columbia during the 1940s and 1950s, although his largest body of work in the light music field was his massive contribution to the Chappell Recorded Music Library (there is a fine selection from this source on GLCD 5107).
"The Passionate Friends" was one of David Lean’s least successful films when released in 1948, yet it possessed many positive ingredients that should have made it a box office hit. Based on a story by H.G. Wells, the stars included Ann Todd, Trevor Howard and Claude Rains, backed up by a strong team of British supporting actors. The outdoor scenes were attractive, and there seems little doubt that the producers were hoping to build on the success of "Brief Encounter" three years earlier. For the music they turned to Richard Addinsell (1904–1977) who, in 1941, had stunned cinema audiences with his Warsaw Concerto" (for the film "Dangerous Moonlight"), although it subsequently emerged that much of the credit should have gone to the man who orchestrated Addinsell’s sketches - Roy Douglas (b.1907). In the case of "The Passionate Friends" Addinsell worked with Leonard Isaacs (1909-1997), and an attempt was made to promote part of the score as a popular song under the title Lovers’ Moon. Film buffs in the 21st century now look more favourably on this film than their grandparents; it seems to be acquiring cult status and has been digitally restored by the British Film Institute. In the USA it was released as "One Woman’s Story". The MD on the film was the ubiquitous Muir Mathieson (1911-1975), who also conducted the commercial recording for Columbia.
Although Angela Morley arranged most of the music for the British film "Let’s Be Happy", it is disappointing that she was not allowed to orchestrate Nicholas Brodszky’s music for the ballet sequence – The Card Ballet. It seems that musicals of this period often deemed it necessary to include such a set piece, giving composers and arrangers a great opportunity to produce something rather special. It would be foolish to expect another "American In Paris" or "Slaughter On Tenth Avenue" every time, but enjoyable results can often be achieved from more modest resources.
Albert Richard Sendrey (1911-2003) was a prolific composer, conductor and arranger largely unknown to the public, although he was highly regarded within the music profession. His Hungarian-born father Alfred was an opera singer and composer; he also taught music and one of his pupils is reputed to have been Henry Mancini. Albert’s mother, Eugenie, had been a soprano for the Vienna Opera under Gustav Mahler, so he certainly grew up strongly influenced by music. His education included periods at the Leipzig Conservatory and the Trinity College of Music in London, and he also studied with John Barbirolli, Albert Coates and Henry Geehl. One might have expected all these influences to result in a career in serious music, but it seems that Albert was more attracted to the popular music scene in the USA. He signed with MGM in the 1940s, and his long career produced some 170 scores for films and TV. In 1953 he began contributing production numbers for shows in Las Vegas, and shortly thereafter he began working as pianist and conductor for Tony Martin, one of the stars of "Let’s Be Happy". No doubt this influenced the producers to engage him to work on the ballet sequence with Brodszky.
Born in Odessa, Russia, Nicholas Brodszky (1905-1958) – spellings of his names differ - was credited with a number of film scores, but in essence his main gift was as a composer of songs, leaving others to orchestrate his basic themes (similar to Richard Addinsell, mentioned above). Like so many musicians he learned piano as a child, and studied in Rome, Vienna and Budapest. By the late 1920s he was contributing songs to long-forgotten Viennese operettas, and his success with hit songs in Europe prompted a move to England in 1937 where he wrote the music (to A.P. Herbert’s lyrics) for C.B. Cochrane’s revue "Home and Beauty". Previously his work had already appeared in many German films, so it was hardly surprising that British film producers would soon commission him – even though ‘collaborators’ such as Charles Williams, Philip Green, Mischa Spoliansky, Clive Richardson and Sidney Torch would all take turns at moulding Brodszky’s songs into acceptable film scores. Perhaps the most memorable during that period was "The Way To The Stars" (1945), although Charles Williams later claimed that Brodszky only wrote the first four notes of the main theme leaving the rest to him (Williams’ own recording is on GLCD 5102). Brodszky ended his career in Hollywood, receiving five Oscar nominations for movie songs (four of them with lyrics by Sammy Cahn) such as Be My Love and Because You’re Mine. Louis Levy was musical director at Associated British Studios at that time, and his name (as usual) was prominently displayed on the credits as conductor. But it is Albert Sendrey who deserves the real credit for The Card Ballet. Choreographed by Pauline Grant and Alfred Rodriques, it gave Hollywood star Vera-Ellen full scope to display her dancing skills in what was to be her last major film role.
© David Ades 2008
Great Light Orchestras Salute George Gershwin and Jerome Kern
1 Look For The Silver Lining (from "Sally"1920); They Didn’t Believe Me (from "The Girl From Utah" 1914); Long Ago And Far Away (from film "Cover Girl" 1944) (Jerome Kern)
ANDRE KOSTELANETZ AND HIS ORCHESTRA
2 Love Walked In (from "The Goldwyn Follies" 1938) (George Gershwin, arr. Robert Farnon)
ROBERT FARNON AND HIS ORCHESTRA
3 Why Was I Born (from "Sweet Adeline" 1929) (Jerome Kern)
DAVID ROSE AND HIS ORCHESTRA
4 A Fine Romance (from film "Swing Time" 1936) (Jerome Kern, arr. Johnny Douglas)
JOHNNY DOUGLAS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
5 For You, For Me, For Evermore (from film "The Shocking Miss Pilgrim" 1947) (George Gershwin, arr. Percy Faith)
PERCY FAITH AND HIS ORCHESTRA
6 Who (from "Sunny" 1925); I’ve Told Ev’ry Little Star (from "Music In The Air" 1932) (Jerome Kern, arr. Angela Morley)
KINGSWAY PROMENADE ORCHESTRA Conducted by STANLEY BLACK
7 Embraceable You (from "Girl Crazy" 1930) (George Gershwin)
FRANK PERKINS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
8 Fascinating Rhythm (from "Lady Be Good" 1924) (George & Ira Gershwin)
ANDRE KOSTELANETZ AND HIS ORCHESTRA
9 Can’t Help Singing (title song from 1944 film) (Jerome Kern)
THE MELACHRINO ORCHESTRA Conducted by GEORGE MELACHRINO
10 Strike Up The Band (title songs from 1927 musical) (George Gershwin)
DANISH STATE RADIO ENTERTAINMENT ORCHESTRA Conducted by KAI MORTENSEN
11 "Lovely To Look At" Film Selection (Jerome Kern, Otto Harbach) Lovely To Look At, You’re Devastating, Yesterdays, I Won’t Dance, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, The Touch Of Your Hand, Lovely To Look At.
RAY MARTIN AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA
12 Liza (from "Show Girl" 1929) (George Gershwin, arr. Richard Jones)
THE PITTSBURGH STRINGS Conducted by RICHARD JONES
13 Long Ago And Far Away (from film "Cover Girl" 1944) (Jerome Kern, arr. Gordon Jenkins)
GORDON JENKINS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
14 Rhapsody In Blue (1924) (George Gershwin)
PHILIP GREEN AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA with RONNIE SELBEY, piano
15 Can I Forget You (from "High, Wide and Handsome" 1937) (Jerome Kern)
GLENN OSSER AND HIS ORCHESTRA
16 The Way You Look Tonight (from film "Swing Time" 1936) (Jerome Kern, arr. Ron Goodwin)
RON GOODWIN AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA
17 George Gershwin Suite (Gershwin) Strike Up The Band, Embraceable You, Do-do-do, Love Walked In, Swanee, Someone To Watch Over Me, S’Wonderful, I Got Rhythm, Bidin’ My Time, But Not For Me, Somebody Loves Me, Of Thee I Sing.
LOUIS LEVY AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA
GLCD 5148
The 20th Century was a time when popular songwriters were truly blessed by three wonderful inventions which transformed the way in which music became accessible to everyone, virtually on demand. The gramophone, radio and talking pictures created an almost insatiable appetite for words and music, which the entertainment moguls of the day did their best to satisfy – often earning themselves a very comfortable living in the process.
There must have been thousands of tunesmiths churning out melodies in the hope of attracting attention from a public always eager for more. As the century dawned sheet music sales were the main source of income for publishers, since all who could afford it had a piano in the home. Even by the 1940s there were so-called ‘hit parade’ charts listing the most popular tunes compiled from piano scores, although eventually disc sales became a more accurate reflection of the public’s preferences.
A few composers and lyricists emerged as being pre-eminent purveyors of their art. Most had previously directed their talents towards the musical theatre, but the lure of Hollywood eventually proved too strong for many to resist, and the movies of the 1930s witnessed a tremendous outpouring of musical talent (in Europe as well as the USA) and the finest songs of the period are now a part of our enduring musical heritage.
In previous collections in this series Guild has already saluted the talents of Richard Rodgers (GLCD 5123) and Cole Porter (GLCD 5127): now it is the turn of George Gershwin and Jerome Kern.
Encapsulating the brilliant achievements of George Gershwin in a few paragraphs is well nigh impossible, but anyone wishing to study his career in depth has a wide choice of excellent biographies by learned musicologists from which to choose. He was born Jacob Gershovitz in Brooklyn, New York on 26 September 1898 and is reported to have taught himself to play on a neighbour’s piano. At the age of thirteen a teacher introduced him to the classics, and two years later he found employment with a music publisher as a demonstrator of the latest songs. By the time he was twenty he had completed his first Broadway musical, "La La Lucille" and around the same time he had his first big hit Swanee when it was discovered by Al Jolson.
Thereafter it seemed that almost everything he wrote found favour with the public, and throughout his career he worked closely with his elder brother Ira who was one of the great lyricists of the period. It has been said that Gershwin’s strengths were a result of his willing acceptance of European musical culture which he cleverly married to the jazz idiom that swept America during his youth. Nowhere was this more apparent than in his memorable Rhapsody In Blue in 1924, although subsequent attempts to compose a sequel of similar stature somehow eluded him, despite several important works written for the concert hall. But it appears that his heart was mainly in the theatre and, when sound arrived in the late 1920s, the cinema. It was a tragedy that someone so talented should have had their life cut short by a condition that would probably have been curable today. He was diagnosed as suffering from a brain tumour, and died in Hollywood on 11 July 1937 aged only 38.
There is a famous quote which still bears repeating: the writer John O'Hara summed up the feelings of many Americans when he said "George Gershwin is dead, but I don't have to believe it if I don't want to."
Thirteen years before Gershwin’s arrival on the planet, Jerome David Kern was born in New York City on 27 January 1885. Although their careers bore certain similarities, Kern has been described as being more influenced by the European school of musical theatre which was a strong force on Broadway during his formative years. In fact he spent some while studying in Germany, and worked successfully in London where he met his wife Eva, and contributed songs to several West End shows.
Drawing room ballads were still popular during the early years of the last century. They sold in their thousands to budding musicians who would perform them in their own homes for the entertainment of sometimes long-suffering family and friends. Students have suggested that Kern managed to break a long established mould when, in 1914, with lyrics by Herbert Reynolds he created what some consider to be the first modern ballad, They Didn’t Believe Me. It has also been claimed that he helped to move the traditional Broadway musical on to a higher plane with "Show Boat", written in collaboration with Oscar Hammerstein II in 1927.
Eventually Kern was persuaded to write for Hollywood musicals, although it has been said that he was nervous when approached to write the score for the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers 1936 film "Swing Time". Then in his fifties, he wondered if he still had his finger on the musical pulse of the younger generation, but he didn’t need to worry; tunes such as Pick Yourself confirmed that he could cope very well with modern rhythms, and he continued to produce delightful film scores including the memorable "Cover Girl" with Rita Hayworth and Gene Kelly in 1944.
In 1945 Kern was working on a planned revival of "Show Boat", but he never saw it performed: he died of a heart attack in New York on 11 November 1945 aged 60. At his friend's memorial service, Oscar Hammerstein remarked: "He stimulated everyone. He annoyed some. He never bored anyone at any time."
In selecting the orchestras for this tribute an attempt has been made to offer some performances which will be less familiar to music lovers. Rather than repeat versions that are readily available elsewhere, some rare 78s have been rescued from oblivion – such an example being the 1945 Decca recording of Rhapsody In Blue. It is conducted by Philip Green (1910-1982) who began his professional career at the age of eighteen playing in various orchestras. Within a year he became London’s youngest West End conductor at the Prince of Wales Theatre. His long recording career began with EMI in 1933, and he is credited with at least 150 film scores. A compulsive worker, he appeared in countless radio programmes and also composed numerous pieces of mood music for major London publishers including Chappell & Co., Francis Day & Hunter, Paxton and EMI’s Photoplay Music, where he ultimately became the only contributor to the catalogue. The pianist Ronnie Selbey played on several Ambrose 78s during 1941, and was present on some of Ted Heath’s earliest recordings for Decca. He also worked in the USA where he was Vic Damone’s pianist for a while.
Composers as prolific as Gershwin and Kern occasionally decline to publish some of their creations for various reasons, and it can be a moment of great excitement when researchers later discover some works previously unknown. Manuscripts left behind by Gershwin were naturally the subject of keen interest and in 1947 a film "The Shocking Miss Pilgrim" with Betty Grable offered a ‘new’ and posthumous score with lyrics, as always, by his brother Ira. Several of the songs became popular, the most lasting being For You, For Me, For Evermore which Percy Faith (1908-1976) delightfully arranged for his own tribute to Gershwin released by Columbia in 1957.
In the middle years of the last century the name ‘Louis Levy’ (1893-1957) would have been familiar to millions of cinemagoers around the world. He was listed as Musical Director on countless British films, and he led a team of fine composers and arrangers that helped to establish film scoring as an important craft in its own right. As head of a music department servicing both Gaumont British and Gainsborough studios, Levy was one of the most influential figures in British film music from the 1930s to the 1950s. He was more prolific than his contemporary Muir Mathieson, although it has to be said that the latter enjoyed greater critical acclaim. Levy’s success in films resulted in major record contracts for HMV and Columbia, and he became a regular broadcaster.
His famous long-running BBC radio series "Music From The Movies" began on 6th January 1936. Levy’s aim was to allow listeners at home to enjoy the same lush orchestrations they were then accustomed to hearing in the cinema. He further extended this ideal to his commercial recordings, and the rich sounds emanating from his large orchestra were considered impressive by contemporary collectors. Through the sheer necessity of having to produce so much music, Levy wisely employed several talented arrangers who helped to establish his style, among them Peter Yorke (1902-1966, who adapted the powerful Levy sound for his own successful post-war concert orchestra), and Bretton Byrd (who was Levy’s chief music editor at Gaumont British). To the constant frustration of researchers, it was rare for record companies to divulge the names of the arrangers on 78 labels, so it is a matter for conjecture as to who was responsible for scoring the Gershwin selection which concludes this CD. Certainly it was not the work of Peter Yorke; his arrangements are unique and instantly recognisable to his admirers, and in any case he was busy with his own orchestra conducting frequent broadcasts and recordings at that time. Bretton Byrd is, perhaps, an obvious choice since he was still composing and conducting for films several years after this suite was recorded. However the style bears little similarity to Levy’s 1930s discs (some of which were undoubtedly Byrd’s work) so a definite attribution must await the discovery of future evidence.
David Ades
The Show Goes On
1 The Show Goes On (Ivor Slaney)
HUDSON ORCHESTRA Conducted by WALTER WARREN (real name MEYER DE WOLFE)
2 Broadway Melody (Nacio Herb Brown)
FRANK CHACKSFIELD AND HIS ORCHESTRA
3 The Film Opens (Eleventh Hour Melody) (King Palmer)
LONDON PROMENADE ORCHESTRA Conducted by WALTER COLLINS
4 If I Had A Talking Picture Of You (Buddy De Sylva, Lew Brown, Ray Henderson, arr. Robert Farnon)
ROBERT FARNON AND HIS ORCHESTRA
5 News Theatre (Jack Beaver)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by SIDNEY TORCH
6 Startime (Eric Rogers)
WINIFRED ATWELL, piano, with FRANK CHACKSFIELD AND HIS ORCHESTRA AND CHORUS
7 South Wales And West – Television March (Eric Coates)
ERIC COATES AND HIS ORCHESTRA
8 Television Playhouse (Len Stevens, full name Herbert Leonard Stevens)
THE CRAWFORD LIGHT ORCHESTRA
9 Picture Parade (Jack Beaver)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by CHARLES WILLIAMS
10 Curtain Time (Bob Haymes)
ACQUAVIVA AND HIS ORCHESTRA
11 Stars In My Eyes (from "The King Steps Out") (Fritz Kreisler)
ANDRE KOSTELANETZ AND HIS ORCHESTRA
12 Up With The Curtain (Jack Strachey)
NEW CONCERT ORCHESTRA Conducted by FREDERICK CURZON
13 Back Stage (Harry Rabinowitz)
NEW CENTURY ORCHESTRA Conducted by ERICH BÖRSCHEL
14 Leading Lady (Edward White)
DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
15 Top Of The Bill (Jack Strachey)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by SIDNEY TORCH
16 Chorus Girl (Claud Vane, real name Rufus Isaacs)
WEST END CELEBRITY ORCHESTRA
17 The Man On The Flying Trapeze (Alfred Lee, George Leybourne)
GEORGE TZIPINE AND HIS ORCHESTRA
18 It’s In The Air – theme from the film (Harry Parr-Davies)
ROYAL AIR FORCE ORCHESTRA Conducted by Wing Commander R.P. O’DONNELL, MVO
19 Floor Show (Len Stevens, full name Herbert Leonard Stevens)
NEW CENTURY ORCHESTRA Conducted by ERICH BÖRSCHEL
20 Lap Of Luxury (Angela Morley)
TELECAST ORCHESTRA Conducted by ELLIOTT MAYES
21 Gay And Glamorous (Kenneth Essex, real name Rufus Isaacs)
DANISH STATE RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
22 A Star Is Born (Robert Farnon)
ROBERT FARNON AND HIS ORCHESTRA
23 ITMA Signature Tune (Michael North, arr. Ronald Hanmer)
BBC VARIETY ORCHESTRA, leader FRANK CANTELL, Conducted by CHARLES SHADWELL
24 The Spice Of Life (James Kennedy, Michael Carr, arr. Ronald Hanmer)
CHARLES SHADWELL AND HIS ORCHESTRA
25 Radio Romantic (Sidney Torch, real name Sidney Torchinsky)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by SIDNEY TORCH
26 South Bank (Paul Fenoulhet)
STUTTGART RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by KURT REHFELD
27 Premiere (Trevor Duncan, real name Leonard CharlesTrebilco)
NEW CONCERT ORCHESTRA Conducted by JACK LEON
28 Melody Of The Stars (Peter Yorke)
PETER YORKE AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA
29 There’s No Business Like Show Business (Irving Berlin, arr. Angela Morley)
WALLY STOTT AND HIS ORCHESTRA
GLCD 5149
The theatre is notorious for its superstitions. "Break a leg" … "the Scottish Play" and the avoidance of using mirrors and live flowers on-stage are probably some of the best known. Equally there is the saying "The Show must go on" when everything seems to be conspiring against such an event taking place!
In this collection the Show definitely does go on, with many talented Light Music composers doing their best to create a feeling of warmth, happiness and general well-being that is usually associated with the entertainment business. Thus we have a good selection of pieces descriptive of the theatre, alongside some diversions into the worlds of the cinema, radio and television.
The honour of opening this compilation goes to Ivor Slaney (1921-1998) who, as well as being an accomplished composer, was also a fine oboe player much in demand for concerts and recording sessions (he played on several Robert Farnon albums). He was born in Birmingham and received his musical education at London’s Royal College of Music. His compositions include Donkey Doodle (on Guild GLCD 5131), Georgian Rhumba (which his wife, pianist Dolores Ventura, recorded commercially), Brazilian Suite and an Oboe Concerto and Suite. He also worked on many film scores, and one of his most successful for the small screen was the Carlos Theme from the TV series "Sentimental Agent", which he recorded with his orchestra on an HMV 45. In the early 1960s he arranged and conducted (anonymously) some of the 101 Strings albums for the American Somerset (later Alshire) label which were issued in the UK as part of Pye’s ‘Golden Guinea’ series. One of his later TV projects was the children’s series "The Double Deckers".
The pinnacle of theatrical success is to perform in London’s West End or New York’s Broadway. Hollywood spent a decade chronicling the highs and lows of life on Broadway, and no one summed it up better than Nacio Herb Brown (1896-1964) when he wrote Broadway Melody for the 1929 film of the same name. Also that year the public first heard If I Had A Talking Picture Of You which cleverly exploited the excitement created by the arrival of the ‘talkies’. Three decades later Robert Farnon’s (1917-2005) arrangement injected the melody with a touch of romance which the more frenetic versions on its debut failed to capture.
Most of the music on this CD was specially written for the Recorded Music Libraries (now often known as Production Music) of the main London publishers. During the 1940s and 1950s there was a big surge in demand from the entertainment business for affordable music that was readily available in recorded form, without the cumbersome copyright restrictions that had been so troublesome. A number of composers excelled at being able to create a variety of moods, and even some writers normally associated with more serious works were tempted to get involved.
One might include Cedric King Palmer (1913-1999) in this category, because of his undoubted studious nature. He was a prolific composer of mood music who contributed more than 600 works over a period of 30 years to several London publishers. He was able to adapt his writing to many different styles, and The Film Opens became one of his best-known works, especially in the USA. It was chosen as the theme for a television series called "11th Hour Theater" so it became the Eleventh Hour Melody. A lyric was added by the American Carl Sigman, prompting commercial recordings and healthy US sheet music sales. To survive in the music business meant accepting many varied commissions, and King Palmer could turn his hand to making popular arrangements of the classics which he often conducted with his own orchestra on the BBC Light Programme in the 1940s and 1950s. His many bright and tuneful pieces disguised the fact that he possessed a serious knowledge of music; at the age of 26 he completed a study of the work of Granville Bantock (1868-1946), and in 1944 Palmer wrote ‘Teach Yourself Music’ for the Hodder and Stoughton Home University Series which ran to several editions. He ceased composing production music in the 1970s, and towards the end of his life he became a patient and popular piano teacher, with sometimes over 60 pupils on his books.
TV 24-hour news channels are not unique – or even new. There was a time when many large towns and cities would possess news theatres, in which the latest newsreels and short features would be screened continuously, thus allowing folks with spare time on their hands the opportunity to pass the odd hour or so catching up on world events. Railway stations were ideal locations, and Chappells asked Jack Beaver (1900-1963) to write the kind of theme that was appearing so frequently in newsreels of the period. News Theatre is a fine example of his ability to capture a chosen mood to absolute perfection although his Picture Parade (which was the signature tune for an early BBC Television series of the same name) will be more familiar to the public. His sons described Beaver as a workaholic, who would dash between engagements in various parts of the country, often completing scores for theatrical productions during long train journeys en route. He also worked on well over 100 films and documentaries but, like many of his contemporaries at that time, his name did not always appear on the credits.
When commercial television was launched in Britain in September 1955 one of its early successes was "Sunday Night At The London Palladium". It appeared regularly from 1955 to 1967, then reappeared for a season in 1973/74. The theme Startime was composed by Eric Rogers (1921-1981), who was musical director at the London Palladium at the time. As his career developed he tended to concentrate on films, initially as conductor (several early "Carry Ons" and the first James Bond film "Dr No") then he also wrote the music, most notably "Carry On Cabby" (1963) and "Carry On Matron" (1972). He emigrated to the USA in 1975, where he became in demand for films and television series.
As commercial television gradually spread across Britain, each of the individual companies decided to follow the original example set by the BBC, and use a march to signal the commencement of broadcasting (back in the 1950s the advent of 24-hour television was still decades away in the future). Eric Coates (1886-1957) composed the Television March for the BBC; for the commercial company ATV he wrote Sound And Vision and when the South Wales and West region approached him he resurrected a former piece Seven Seas (originally composed in 1937) and renamed it after the TV station.
Len Stevens(d. 1989 - his full name was Herbert Leonard Stevens) was a prolific composer, contributing mood music to several different libraries, with a style that his admirers quickly grew to recognise. Like so many of the talented musicians employed in the business, he could turn his hand to any kind of music that was needed, and he was also involved in the musical theatre. His publishers, Josef Weinberger, would have been keen to get his work accepted for television (where the royalties were far more generous than radio), hence their decision to choose the title Television Playhouse.
The radio segment commences with Robert Farnon’s A Star Is Born which used to introduce the star guest towards the end of the BBC’s "In Town Tonight" during the later years of its long run. One of the popular features in Tommy Handley’s ITMA show (ITMA stood for "It’s That Man Again" – the opening words of the signature tune by Michael North) was a musical interlude in which arrangers would be invited to contribute their own ideas on a well-known tune. Often these were folk songs or nursery rhymes, but Ronald Hanmer (1917-1994) decided that he ought to honour the programme itself, hence his ingenious musical portrait of the show’s own famous song. He was a prolific composer and arranger whose proud boast was that he had worked in the music business since the day he left school. Many of his comic creations enlivened the BBC’s wartime ITMA broadcasts (his arrangement of Ten Green Bottles is on Guild GLCD 5102), and eventually over 700 of his compositions were published in various background music libraries. His film scores include Made in Heaven (1952), Penny Princess (1952) and Top of the Form (1953). He was also in demand as an orchestrator of well-known works for Amateur Societies, and the brass band world was very familiar with his scores – sometimes used as test pieces. In 1975 he emigrated to Australia, where he was delighted to discover that his melody Pastorale was famous throughout the land as the theme for the long-running radio serial Blue Hills. In Britain his best-known theme was the signature tune for BBC radio’s The Adventures of P.C. 49; the music came from a Francis, Day & Hunter Mood Music 78 simply called Changing Moods.
Charles Shadwell (1898-1979) conducted the BBC Variety Orchestra in the ITMA broadcasts, which made him a minor celebrity due to regular quips with Tommy Handley. He had a recording contract with HMV, and The Spice of Life was familiar as the signature tune of "Music Hall".
During the 1940s Paul Fenoulhet (1906-1979) directed the Skyrockets service band. He became a well-known conductor in Britain thanks to his appointments heading various BBC light orchestras, for whom he scored numerous arrangements. He also composed some light pieces, including a concert suite "Suffolk Sketches". On this CD he is represented by South Bank, which is his portrait of an area on the south bank of the River Thames which was establishing itself as an important centre for the arts, following the 1951 Festival of Britain which saw the construction of the Royal Festival Hall. In essence it is a clever arrangement of the old nursery rhyme London Bridge Is Falling Down.
Other treats include the ebullient Curtain Time by Bob Haymes (1922-1989), screen actor and younger brother of the famous singer Dick Haymes. His biggest songwriting success was That’s All recorded by Frank Sinatra in 1962. Mention must be made of the superb Andre Kostelanetz (1901-1980) version of Fritz Kreisler’s Stars In My Eyes. And the two tracks featuring the genius of Angela Morley (b. 1924): her own sultry composition Lap Of Luxury, and our closing track There’s No Business Like Show Business which she arranged and conducted for the Philips label when she was working as ‘Wally Stott’.
Jack Strachey (1894-1972) composed many fine numbers with a true show business feel, and we feature two – Up With The Curtain and Top Of The Bill. His place in popular music’s hall of fame has been assured as the composer of These Foolish Things, and in the world of light music he is known especially for In Party Mood (the signature tune of "Housewives’ Choice" – the original recording is on Guild GLCD 5120) and Theatreland, which is offered on Guild in two versions by Jay Wilbur (GLCD 5102) and Harry Fryer (GLCD 5137).
The one film theme is "It’s In The Air" which movie buffs will recognise as one of George Formby’s many morale-boosting comedies from the war years. Appropriately our version is a now rare 78 featuring the Royal Air Force Orchestra.
The remaining composers this time were all also brilliant arrangers, and most of them were well-known conductors. South African Harry Rabinowitz (b. 1916) came to England in 1946 and was appointed conductor of the BBC Revue Orchestra in 1953. He became better known to the public through BBC radio and TV entertainment shows like 'Hancock's Half Hour' and was Head of Music for London Weekend Television in 1970s. He also conducted for West End musicals and film scores.
Edward White (1910-1994) enjoyed considerable acclaim with his Runaway Rocking Horse when it emerged as one of the most popular pieces of light music in the immediate post-war years – the version by the Orchestre Raymonde can be heard on Guild GLCD5102. But he was to achieve even greater success a few years later with Puffin’ Billy, thanks to its use in Britain as the signature tune of "Children’s Favourites", and as the theme for "Captain Kangaroo" in the USA.
Sidney Torch (1908-1990) was one of Britain’s finest theatre organists during the 1930s but after war service in the Royal Air Force he concentrated entirely on composing, arranging and conducting light music. Previous Guild CDs have included some of his catchy compositions (composed especially for the Chappell Recorded Music Library), and from the 1950s to the 1970s he was a familiar name in Britain thanks to his association with the radio programme "Friday Night Is Music Night".
Claud Vane and Kenneth Essex hide the true identity of Rufus Isaacs, who also used other pseudonyms such as Derek Dwyer and Howitt Hale. His many short works often had a ‘show business’ or holiday feel.
Peter Yorke (1902-1966) worked with many leading British bands during his formative years, some of the most notable being Percival Mackey, Jack Hylton and Henry Hall. In 1936 he began a fruitful collaboration as chief arranger with Louis Levy, one of the pioneers of music for British films, who employed several talented writers such as Clive Richardson, Charles Williams and Jack Beaver, but seldom gave them any credit on-screen. Later on Peter Yorke conducted one of Britain’s most popular broadcasting and recording orchestras from the 1940s until the 1960s.
Leonard Trebilco (1924-2005) adopted the pseudonym ‘Trevor Duncan’, to avoid a conflict of interest while he was working at the BBC. His first big success had been High Heels, but this was soon followed by a string of other catchy instrumentals. Premiere on this CD is one of his early works, before he became well-known through pieces such as The Girl From Corsica.
Which just leaves Georges Samuel Tzipine (1907-1987) to remind us that the circus is definitely a part of show business. From the mid-1920s he was musical director of France’s Gaumont Newsreel for which he composed a vast amount of varied background music to suit all kinds of documentary moods and themes. There are also references to him being commissioned to record various cues for use in American TV series during the 1950s.
To return to our opening theme, how could anyone want a fellow performer to "break a leg" during their performance? Is it the kind of thing an ambitious understudy would say to a big star? Not necessarily. One of several explanations is that it simply means that they hope the show will go so well resulting in many curtain calls. Still confused? In theatres the curtains, or ‘tabs’, are also known as ‘legs’. In older theatres they had to be cranked up and down by hand, and the machinery was known to fail on occasions. So in theatrical folk lore "break a leg" can mean that repeated rising and lowering of the curtains in response to an enthusiastic audience could result in the ‘leg’ breaking down. Another way of ‘breaking a leg’ is to bend the knee, in other words take a bow.
Avoiding mirrors and flowers on stage is simply common sense, rather than superstition. The bright lights could reflect in a mirror, blinding someone in the audience, and the heat generated by the lights would probably cause most blooms to wilt before the end of the performance.
Which leaves us with the ‘Scottish play’ – Shakespeare’s "Hamlet". Saying the ‘H’ word in the theatre is supposed to bring bad luck, possibly because it is generally the most-performed of all Shakespeare’s works, and contains three fights giving plenty of scope for accidents. Probably it is no more dangerous for actors than any other production, but that would spoil a much-loved theatrical legend!
David Ades
"CHILDHOOD MEMORIES – Volume 2"
1 Popgun Patrol (Frank Perkins)
FRANK PERKINS AND HIS ‘POPS’ ORCHESTRA
2 Dance Of The Marionettes (Gilbert Vinter)
NEW CONCERT ORCHESTRA Conducted by DOLF VAN DER LINDEN
3 Jack-in-a-Box (Alan Perry, real name Ernest Tomlinson)
NEW CONCERT ORCHESTRA Conducted by DOLF VAN DER LINDEN
4 Hunt The Slipper (Il Court Le Furet) (Roger Roger)
ROGER ROGER AND HIS CHAMPS ELYSEES ORCHESTRA
5 Dance Of The Pirate (José Fontaine)
DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA (VAN LYNN on LP label)
6 Ourselves When Young (Robert Docker)
LONDON PROMENADE ORCHESTRA Conducted by WALTER COLLINS
7 The Magic Garden (Horace Shepherd)
DANISH STATE RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
8 Teddy Bears’ Picnic (John W. Bratton)
BARNABAS VON GECZY AND HIS ORCHESTRA
9 A Fairy Ballet (Cecil White)
BOURNEMOUTH MUNICIPAL ORCHESTRA Conducted by Sir DAN GODFREY
Cello by Ernst Slaney; Trumpet by Phil Ledington
10 Doll Dance (Nacio Herb Brown)
NAT SHILKRET AND HIS ORCHESTRA
"Tales From A Fairy Book" Suite (Josef Engleman)
11 Babes In The Wood
12 Rumpelstickins
13 Cinderella
14 Ali Baba
WEST END CELEBRITY ORCHESTRA
15 Parade Of The Imps (Callo Ecklebe)
GEORGE GROHROCK-FERRARI AND HIS ORCHESTRA
16 Sleepy Marionette (Charles Williams)
CHARLES WILLIAMS AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA
17 Whipper-Snapper (Peter Yorke)
DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
18 Toyland Tattoo (Robert Farnon)
DANISH STATE RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
19 See-Saw (Douglas Brownsmith)
INTERNATIONAL RADIO ORCHESTRA
20 Nine Naughty Gnomes (Hans May, real name Johannes Mayer)
THE HARMONIC ORCHESTRA Conducted by HANS MAY
21 Drummer Boy (Charles Williams)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
22 Marionette March (Dolf van der Linden)
DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
23 Pirouette (Henry Croudson)
LOUIS VOSS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
24 Paper Hats And Wooden Swords (Walter Collins)
HILVERSUM SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Conducted by ANTON DUREM
25 Golliwog On The Loose (Len Stevens, full name Herbert Leonard Stevens)
NEW CENTURY ORCHESTRA Conducted by SIDNEY TORCH
26 Pinocchio March (Julius Steffaro, real name Jan Stoeckart)
HILVERSUM RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by HUGO DE GROOT
27 Scherzetto For Children (Fred Hartley)
BBC TELEVISION ORCHESTRA Conducted by ERIC ROBINSON
Guild GLCD 5144
The opening paragraph of Guild’s first volume of "Childhood Memories" (GLCD 5125) stated: "The carefree years of childhood have for centuries provided inspiration for writers and composers, often conjuring up happy memories that seem remote from the realities of everyday life. At times we all need to escape into a world where problems seem non-existent, and it is hoped that the music in this collection will provide just that welcoming refuge."
Clearly these sentiments were shared by many purchasers of this series of Guild Light Music CDs, because there have been numerous requests for a second volume of similar compositions. So once again we offer a mixture of well-known favourites alongside some catchy offerings from the production music libraries which would have been heard many times on radio, television and films (especially newsreels) during the middle years of the last century.
The composers represented in this collection include some legendary names in Light Music circles. Equally there are some less frequent contributors to ‘The Golden Age of Light Music’ who also deserve their share of the limelight. Our opening track features such a musician as both conductor and composer of Popgun Patrol: Frank Perkins (1908-1988) gained a degree in Economics at university, but he soon discarded the idea of a financial career for his first love, music. After studying in both America and Europe, he became noticed in 1934 following a successful collaboration with lyricist Mitchell Parrish which resulted in Stars Fell on Alabama and Emmaline. In 1937 he was engaged as an arranger by Warner Bros. in Hollywood, where he remained until the mid-1960s. Although much of his work failed to get acknowledged (such as some piano improvisations in the legendary 1942 movie "Casablanca") his name can still be spotted in the music credits for many Warner Bros. pictures particularly during the war years. Later he tended to concentrate more on light orchestral works for concert performance producing some catchy novelties with intriguing titles such as Kentucky Trotter (on GLCD 5114), The Frustrated Floorwalker, Barbara (GLCD 5119) and The Deserted Patio. One of his biggest hits was Fandango (GLCD 5103) which also became a song with the benefit of an added lyric by John Bradford. In 1962 Frank received an Oscar nomination for his work scoring the musical "Gypsy".
Lincoln-born Gilbert Vinter (1909-1969) is probably best remembered in Britain as the conductor of the BBC Midland Light Orchestra when it was one of the foremost contributors of quality light music on the BBC. However he also excelled as a composer, both in light music and the brass band world. He was a chorister at Lincoln Cathedral, then studied bassoon at the Royal Academy of Music, later becoming a Professor and Fellow of the Academy. As a young man he played bassoon in the BBC Wireless Military Band and the London Philharmonic. During World War II, he was a member of the Royal Air Force Central Band and later led several RAF bands including the RAF Coastal Command Band. After the war Vinter joined the BBC as a staff conductor where he also developed his skill as a composer. Many of his works were for brass band and among his finest is The Trumpets, scored for the unusual combination of a large brass band, chorus, and bass soloist. When Inter-art Music Publishers launched their new production music library Impress in the mid-1950s he was commissioned to write several pieces of mood music. Perhaps the best-known was Portuguese Party in 1956 (on Guild GLCD 5141); it was well-received, and enjoyed many broadcasts and eventually a commercial recording on HMV. Also for Impress, Air Display (Guild GLCD 5131) showed how an ‘ordinary’ piece of mood music could still grab the listener’s attention, which equally applies to his contribution this time – Dance Of The Marionettes for the Boosey & Hawkes library, which is scored for woodwind. An example of Gilbert Vinter’s arranging and conducting skills can he heard on the Guild Light Music CD "Musical Kaleidoscope – Volume 1" (GLCD 5139) which includes his arrangement Music of the People – England played by the BBC Midland Light Orchestra under his baton in 1952. It is a clever work which incorporates some of the street cries of old London as well as traditional English airs.
Ernest Tomlinson(b.1924) is one of Britain’s most talented composers, working mainly in light music, but also highly regarded for his choral works and brass band pieces. During a very productive career he has contributed numerous titles to the recorded music libraries of many different publishers, often under the pseudonym ‘Alan Perry’ (one of Ernest’s amusing quotes is that "this fellow Alan Perry is a more successful composer than I am!"). One of his best-known numbers is Little Serenade, developed from a theme he wrote as incidental music for a radio production ‘The Story of Cinderella’ in 1955; from the same source comes his charming Fairy Coach on Guild GLCD 5142. His suites of English Folk Dances have also become part of the standard light music repertoire. As well as writing many bright and breezy works (such as Jack-in-a-Box on this CD) Ernest can also turn his hand to portrayals of natural beauty, witness Great Panorama on GLCD 5145.
Robert Docker (1918-1992) was a regular broadcaster, mainly as a pianist, but also through his activities ‘behind the scenes’ as a composer and arranger, working closely with people such as Sidney Torch. His best-known compositions include Tabarinage (Buffoonery) and Legend, although it is probably for his many skilful arrangements that he is best remembered. They were often included in BBC Radio’s "Friday Night is Music Night" although the selection on this CD – Ourselves When Young – was created several years before that long-running programme was first heard on the BBC Light Programme in 1952. Docker has cleverly woven a tapestry of many familiar (and some less well-known) nursery rhymes that used to be a part of growing up.
Horace Shepherd (1892-1960 – also known as Hugh Kairs) was musical director and composer of the score for at least ten British films from the 1930s to 1950s, perhaps the best-known being "Hatter’s Castle" (1942) based on the A.J. Cronin novel. He also seems to have been active in Europe – the 1930 French film "Prix de Beauté" being just one example. He is listed as the director of "Making The Grade" (1947), a short film about actors becoming stars which featured Jessie Matthews. "The Flamingo Affair" (1948) credits him with producing and directing as well as composing the score; it might be interesting to see today, since the famous violinist Stephane Grappelli is listed as ‘appearing as himself’. Although Horace Shepherd did not contribute a vast amount to mood music libraries, his music was of a high standard as demonstrated in his sensitive The Magic Garden on this CD, and Winter (GLCD 5138).
Joseph (Josef) Engleman (d. 1949) was an English pianist who also composed a large amount of light music. His works (particularly his suites) found favour with the many municipal and theatre orchestras that existed until World War 2 and he is credited with helping to found the Bosworth Mood Music Library in 1937, for which he contributed numerous pieces. He continued his involvement with light orchestras in the Midlands after the war, although it has to be acknowledged that his son, Harry Engleman (b. 1912) became better known as a pianist and dance band leader. Joseph’s Children’s Playtime Suite has already been featured in Guild’s first volume of "Childhood Memories".
Hans May (real name Johannes Mayer, 1891-1959) was a Viennese-born composer and music director who devoted much of his musical life to composing for the screen and stage. Initially he worked in the German film industry, but in the mid-1930s the developing political situation forced him to relocate briefly in France before eventually settling in England, like so many other mid-European musicians at that time. His numerous films included scores for the Boulting Brothers, Gainsborough Films and the Rank Organisation, and he conducted many early 78s for the Harmonic Music Library which was established in the mid-1940s. He also wrote many songs, perhaps the best known being Throw Open Wide Your Window. His Rippling Down The Mountain was included in the Guild CD "Reflections of Tranquility" (GLCD 5112) and here we have the wonderfully titled Nine Naughty Gnomes which finds him as both composer and conductor. In his later career he concentrated more on stage productions, including "Carissima" in collaboration with Eric Maschwitz.
The final track on this CD comes with an apology for the fact that the sound of it is not up to our usual high standards. Indeed, there was much soul searching and discussion before the decision to include it was made.
So let us explain that it is a piece of British Television history which should be instantly familiar to children of the early 1950s who watched the BBC's programmes especially made for them on the small black and white screens that seemed such a scientific miracle at the time. The problem we faced was that the original recording could not be located and the only copy available was one which had been dubbed to optical film soundtrack and then transferred to videotape before being copied to CD for restoration work to be attempted. Despite considerable efforts, the final result is far from perfect, but the rarity of this piece of music, and the fact that it is unlikely ever to appear on another commercial recording, persuaded us to include it.
It was made long before the days of 24-hour TV, when broadcasts were scheduled in segments through the day and in-between there could be test cards or promotional films, although often the screens were left blank. When broadcasting was due to re-start familiar symbols such as clocks would appear, together with a piece of music which became familiar through its sheer repetition.
For several years from 21 May 1951 onwards the children’s segment was introduced by "Scherzetto For Children", specially commissioned by the BBC, and recorded by Eric Robinson (b. 1908) and The Television Orchestra. Its composer, Fred Hartley (1905-1980), was a familiar name in British broadcasting for many years, having made his first appearance on the BBC as a solo pianist as early as 1925. He was then employed as an accompanist, and founded his famous Novelty Quintet in 1931. In 1946 he was appointed the BBC's Head of Light Music. We are grateful to Andrew Emmerson and Tony Clayden (both enthusiastic and extremely knowledgeable collectors of old radio and television memorabilia) for so readily allowing Guild to issue this precious recording.
David Ades
Scenic Grandeur
1 Sequoia (Kermit Leslie & Walter Leslie real surnames Levinsky)
KERMIT LESLIE AND HIS ORCHESTRA
2 Golden Highway (Len Stevens)
LOUIS VOSS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
3 Scenic Grandeur (Robert Farnon)
DANISH STATE RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
4 Green (Gordon Jenkins)
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Conducted by FRANK SINATRA
5 October Mist (Ted Fiorito, Paul Francis Webster)
DAVID ROSE AND HIS ORCHESTRA
6 Great Panorama (Alan Perry, real name Ernest Tomlinson)
NEW CONCERT ORCHESTRA Conducted by DOLF VAN DER LINDEN
7 Whispering Pines (Mahlon Merrick)
MAHLON MERRICK AND HIS ORCHESTRA
8 Pastoral Montage (Gideon Fagan)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
9 The Tall Ships (Trevor Duncan, real name Leonard Trebilco)
STUTTGART RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by KURT REHFELD
10 Evening Mist (Salvatore ‘Tutti’ Camarata)
CONDUCTED BY CAMARATA
11 Seascape (Tony Lowry)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
12 Quiet Countryside (Peter Yorke)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by SIDNEY TORCH
13 Cloudland (Bruce Campbell)
DANISH STATE RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
14 Hills Of Brecon (Charles Williams)
DANISH STATE RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
15 Atlantic Crossing (Clive Richardson)
DANISH STATE RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
16 Melody At Moonrise (Cyril Watters)
NEW CONCERT ORCHESTRA Conducted by FREDERIC CURZON
17 Table Bay (Harry Rabinowitz)
DANISH STATE RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
18 Open Skies (Robert Farnon)
DANISH STATE RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
19 Yacht Race (Jack Beaver)
QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by CHARLES WILLIAMS
20 Still Waters (Trevor Duncan, real name Leonard Trebilco)
NEW CONCERT ORCHESTRA Conducted by FREDERIC CURZON
21 Piper In The Heather (Frederick Peter Hargreaves)
FRANK CHACKSFIELD AND HIS ORCHESTRA
22 Forest Fantasy (Dolf van der Linden)
DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
23 Arizona Sketches (Victor Young)
VICTOR YOUNG AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Guild GLCD 5145
For many people the word ‘grandeur’ will imply something magnificent on a large scale, and that is certainly one meaning. However dictionaries carry far wider definitions, among them ‘nobility’ and ‘splendour’ but these descriptions do not necessarily indicate considerable size as a pre-requisite for such terms. A majestic mountain range, a large valley or a vast seascape – all these undoubtedly qualify as ‘Scenic Grandeur’, yet surely the same term can be applied to a wild-flower meadow in the morning mist or a cloudy sky tinted pink and grey by a setting sun. To qualify for inclusion in this collection the talented composers do not need to have been inspired by size, but by nature’s beauty in its many and varied forms.
But sheer size certainly applies to the opening track, because California’s Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron) is credited as the largest tree in terms of total volume on our planet. The Levinsky brothers Kermit and Walter certainly managed to capture its glory in their composition Sequoia, which was chosen as the theme for NBC’s daytime re-runs of "The Loretta Young Show". Research on these musical brothers suggests that they appeared happy to use their birth surnames for most of their activities, although it seems that the few LPs featuring ‘Kermit Leslie and his Orchestra’ required a name that is, perhaps, more easily remembered. Both were originally musicians, playing saxes and woodwinds, but Kermit appears to have had a more varied career in later years. Born in New York City, he was working as a professional musician by the time he was fourteen. In 1939 he joined Alvino Rey’s band as saxophonist and arranger, until he was conscripted during the Second World War. Later he studied harmony and counterpoint and for a while became an arranger with Tommy Dorsey. He was a prolific composer (often with his brother Walter) with over 50 published titles to his credit, although Walter’s total is even higher. In 1964 Kermit worked as orchestrator on the film "Return to Oz" and in 1968 he orchestrated and conducted Marvin Hamlisch’s score for the Woody Allen picture "Take the Money and Run". Several compositions by these brothers have been featured on previous Guild CDs: The Little Toy Shop (GLCD 5114); Walking On Ice (GLCD 5131); and Gilbert The Goose (GLCD 5143).
Unfortunately few of us live in places that are outstandingly beautiful, so for many it is necessary to travel some distance to find the mountains, valleys and seascapes that can provide the serene antidote to modern life. It seems likely that Herbert Leonard Stevens (d. 1989) had this in mind when he wrote Golden Highway. He was prolific composer, contributing mood music to several different libraries, with a style that his admirers quickly grew to recognise. Like so many of the talented musicians employed in the business, he could turn his hand to any kind of music that was needed, and he was also involved in the musical theatre. Other examples of his tuneful melodies on previous Guild CDs include Easy Street (GLCD 5119), This Modern Age (GLCD 5124), Airways Suite (GLCD 5131), Snow Shadow (GLCD 5138), Cigarette Girl (GLCD 5140), Lido Fashion Parade (GLCD 5142) and Golliwog On The Loose (GLCD 5144).
It is arguable that two of the featured composers in this collection have between them written so much music described as ‘scenic’ that their works could have filled this CD. Robert Farnon (1917-2005) and Leonard Trebilco (1924-2005), who composed most of his music as ‘Trevor Duncan’, were masters of this genre. Farnon provides the title track Scenic Grandeur which, surprisingly, is one of his works that he did not choose to include on one of his own many commercial recordings. His other contribution Open Skies did feature in a collection of music associated with the American West, but that is not yet in the public domain so we have selected his original recording of this work for the Chappell Recorded Music Library. Trebilco’s pieces are The Tall Ships (which superbly captures the atmosphere of the great days of sail) and Still Waters. The careers of both composers have been profiled on previous Guild CDs, and Leonard Trebilco was the featured composer of ‘Hall of Fame – Volume 2’ (GLCD 5124).
The inspiration for Gordon Jenkins’ tone poem Green came from a piece of poetry by Norman Sickel, at one time a radio script-writer for Frank Sinatra. Like many before him, Sickel regarded the colour green as being allied to all that grows and the natural beauty that ensues. Jenkins seems to have effortlessly conveyed this sentiment into musical notes, thus creating a vivid impression of nature in all her atmospheric phases. This melody comes from an album conducted by Frank Sinatra (1915-1998) in the summer of 1956 when Capitol engaged their star singer to front a symphony size orchestra to celebrate the opening of their new Hollywood studios – now famously known all over the world as the Capitol Records Tower. One of the composers personally selected by Sinatra for this prestigious project was Gordon Hill Jenkins (1910-1984) with whom he would subsequently record the superb 1957 LP ‘Where Are You’ (his first in stereo) and two years later ‘No One Cares’.
The available space in these booklets makes it impossible to do full justice to each and every composer, conductor and arranger of the music included. A difficult choice has to be made, which usually means that those whose careers have been highlighted previously are often put to one side in favour of those who may be less familiar, or appearing in a Guild collection for the first time.
Gideon Fagan (1904-1980) was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and studied music under Vaughan Williams at London’s Royal College of Music from 1922 to 1926. He worked in films and his conducting assignments included a spell with the BBC Northern Orchestra (now the BBC Philharmonic) from 1939 to 1942, and several West End shows (his recording of a selection from "Song of Norway" conducting the Palace Theatre Symphony Orchestra was included on Guild GLCD 5141). He contributed a few compositions to recorded music libraries, and his best-known work was probably Pastoral Montage (for Chappell) which the BBC used as the music accompanying its television interlude film of a windmill. Fagan returned to South Africa in 1949 and was appointed a music director of the South African Broadcasting Corporation in 1963, then lectured at Cape Town University from 1967 to 1973.
Successful writers and conductors often need assistance from other arrangers when faced with heavy work schedules, and it is hardly surprising that some of the collaborators benefit greatly from such contacts. Bruce Campbell was one of several writers who owed much to his association with Robert Farnon. He was a fellow Canadian, who actually came to Britain some years before Farnon, and played trombone with various British bands during the 1930s. Towards the end of the 1940s Campbell realised that he possessed some skills as a composer, and Farnon encouraged him and provided some valuable guidance on occasions. One such example is Cloudland which certainly reveals Farnon influences, although admirers of Campbell’s work can spot his own trademarks which he developed during the 1950s when he became much in demand from various mood music publishers. He can also be heard on Guild in Children’s Hour and Skippy (GLCD 5125).
It is always particularly satisfying when a composer takes the trouble to explain the background to a major piece of music, and Victor Young (1900-1956) provided the following information in the sleeve notes to the LP which includes our final track,
Arizona Sketches. "I had been commissioned by Paramount Studios to write a symphonic tone poem to cover all the beautiful things about Arizona. This is one time the music has been composed before cinematography was added to it. With the aid of the director we invented a story about a prospector going to Arizona with his little German music box. He sets up camp at night, lights his pipe and falls asleep. As the music box fades out, the dream takes place, and in his dreams we go through Arizona - the majestic rocks, the desert flowers in bloom, the dust storm – and we fade back to the music box. The old prospector wakes up, puts his pipe and music box away, and leads his mule out of the scene. The main theme of the Arizona Sketches attracted the attention of Frank Loesser. He wrote a very beautiful lyric to the theme known as Prairieland Lullaby. Bing Crosby recorded it, as did Glenn Miller. Arizona Sketches has had several illustrious performances. It has been given at the Hollywood Bowl in California and at Carnegie Hall with Leopold Stokowski as conductor."
It is worth mentioning that the British production music libraries of the 1950s had to contend with a ban by the Musicians’ Union which forced them to record their music on the Continent of Europe. Impress chose Germany’s excellent Stuttgart Radio Orchestra under their conductor Kurt Rehfeld, although the 78 labels simply credited ‘The Lansdowne Light Orchestra’. Chappells used several orchestras, although it seems their preferred choice was the Danish State Radio Orchestra (usually conducted by Robert Farnon) which became ‘The Melodi Light Orchestra conducted by Ole Jensen’ on the 78s. Boosey & Hawkes retained their familiar ‘New Concert Orchestra’ name, although one of their conductors ‘Nat Nyll’ was actually Dolf van der Linden, a top arranger/ conductor/ composer from the Netherlands who gained a well-deserved international reputation for his work. Other production music libraries used similar pseudonyms, although Paxton credited many of their recordings to Dolf van der Linden and his Metropole Orchestra based in Hilversum. New discoveries in this area continue to be made and, whenever it is possible to name the real orchestra on recordings like these, they will be given in Guild booklets.
David Ades
"STRINGIN’ ALONG"
1 Stringin’ Along (Victor Young)
VICTOR YOUNG AND HIS ORCHESTRA
2 Penthouse Serenade (Will Jason, Val Burton)
WERNER MULLER AND HIS ORCHESTRA
3 Mam’selle Moderne (Trevor Duncan)
STUTTGART RADIO ORCH / KURT REHFELD
4 Rainy Afternoon (Kermit Leslie & Walter Leslie)
KERMIT LESLIE AND HIS ORCHESTRA
5 Heading For Home (Reginald King)
REGENT CLASSIC ORCHESTRA
6 A New Born Love (Giraud)
GUY LUYPAERTS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
7 Man In A Hurry (Ronald Binge)
STUTTGART RADIO ORCH / KURT REHFELD
8 Wedding Of The Violins (Leo Lefleur)
ALFONZO D’ARTEGA AND HIS ORCHESTRA
9 Whirl Of The Waltz (Paul Lincke)
LONDON PROMENADE ORCH / ERIC ROGERS
10 Aperitif (Fontaine, Speguel)
EMILE DELTOUR AND HIS ORCHESTRA
11 Carioca (Vincent Youmans)
ANDRE KOSTELANETZ AND HIS ORCHESTRA
12 Devotion (Otto Cesana)
OTTO CESANA AND HIS ORCHESTRA
13 Fresh Up (Peter Dennis, real name Dennis Berry)
DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
14 By Heck (Gilbert L. Wolfe, Henry R. Stern)
GEORGE TZIPINE AND HIS SALON ORCHESTRA
15 I’m In Love With Vienna (Hammerstein, Strauss)
RICHARD HAYMAN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
16 Polka For Strings (Emile Deltour, Fud Candrix)
DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
17 Gay Romance (George Melachrino)
THE MELACHRINO ORCHESTRA
18 Tentacion de Amor (Xavier Cugat, Fausto Curbelo, arr. Laurie Johnson)
AMBROSE AND HIS ORCHESTRA WITH STRINGS Conducted by LAURIE JOHNSON
19 Six Proud Walkers (Theme from the BBC TV serial) (Ray Martin)
RAY MARTIN AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA
20 Flight 101 (Vivian Ellis)
DANISH STATE RADIO ORCH / R. FARNON
21 Ballet Of The Bells (Ray Martin)
JACKIE BROWN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
22 Zsa-Zsa (Bernie Wayne, real name Bernard Weitzner)
BERNIE WAYNE AND HIS ORCHESTRA
23 The Frustrated Floorwalker (Frank Perkins)
FRANK PERKINS AND HIS ‘POPS’ ORCHESTRA
24 Bordeaux (David Rose)
DAVID ROSE AND HIS ORCHESTRA
25 Moomin (Robert Farnon)
DANISH STATE RADIO ORCH / R. FARNON
26 Bobby Sox (George French)
L’ORCHESTRE DEVEREAUX
27 Apple Flap (John Pi Scheffer)
DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
28 The Little Ballerina (Guy Pierre Lafarge)
DAVID CARROLL AND HIS ORCHESTRA
Guild GLCD 5146
Once again Guild looks to the composing genius of Victor Young to launch a collection of tuneful orchestral cameos – the first such occasion was his piece Travellin’ Light (GLCD 5114). This time the spotlight falls on Stringin’ Along which reminds us that Victor Young (1900-1956 – some sources give his birth as 1899) was a musician of many talents. His early career was spent as a concert violinist and classical composer, but he decided to move into the popular music arena and joined Ted Fio Rito’s band. In 1928 his first big hit song Sweet Sue probably persuaded him to widen his musical horizons (you can hear the superb David Rose recording of this tune on Guild GLCD 5133). He settled in Hollywood in the mid-1930s, intending to concentrate on writing for films, but he also worked on radio and conducted many of Bing Crosby’s Decca 78s. Victor Young excelled as a violinist, arranger, film composer, songwriter, conductor and record producer. This wide experience in all forms of music was exceptional even by Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood standards, all the more so because his international reputation was achieved in such a short lifetime. Perhaps he enjoyed his greatest triumph shortly before his death, when he composed the score for "Around The World In Eighty Days", the 1956 big screen epic which won Victor Young an Oscar, although it was awarded posthumously. He didn’t orchestrate everything he wrote for the screen (surely he couldn’t have found the time), but used experienced arranger/composers such as Leo Shuken and Sidney Cutner to fill out his sketches. For a while his fellow orchestra leader in the US Decca stable was Gordon Jenkins, who is reported as having said that Victor was a lovely man and a wonderful composer, "but he always had a bad band - full of relatives and refugees from the old country who needed work". Although born in Chicago, Young had strong ties with his grandparents’ country Poland, where he spent some of his formative years (his widowed father abandoned him as a child) and studied at the Warsaw Conservatory of Music together with his sister Helen.
Werner Müller (1920-1998) was a bassoonist who became the first conductor of the RIAS (Radio In American Sector) Dance Band based in Berlin, which gave its first concert on 24 April 1949. It was not long before Müller began to realise that the public’s love affair with the swing era was gradually starting to wane, and sixteen strings were added to the line up. The band had built up a strong following through its Polydor recordings, and by the mid-1950s the labels dropped the ‘RIAS’ tag and simply credited ‘Werner Müller and his Orchestra’. A good example of the way in which strings became an integral part of the line up can be heard in Manhattan Serenade (GUILD GLCD 5130) from the LP "Holiday in New York", and Penthouse Serenade in this collection comes from the same source. Tangos also enjoyed a revival during the 1950s, and Werner used the pseudonym ‘Ricardo Santos’ for his recordings with a South American flavour. In 1966 he moved to Westdeutsche Rundfunk in Cologne, where he continued to make LPs – both purely orchestral and also accompanying popular singers such as Caterina Valente.
Reginald Claude McMahon King (1904-1991) was an accomplished pianist, who performed under the baton of Sir Henry Wood at the Proms soon after he completed his studies at London’s Royal Academy. In 1927 he took an orchestra into Swan & Edgar’s restaurant at their Piccadilly Circus store, where they remained until 1939. During this period he also started broadcasting regularly (during his career his number of broadcasts exceeded 1,400), and he made numerous recordings, often featuring his own attractive compositions. He made his last broadcast in 1964, but during a long retirement he continued composing until shortly before his death. One of his major works, the concert overture The Immortals, was featured on Guild GLCD5106 spotlighting music of the 1930s, and in a lighter vein his tuneful orchestra can be heard playing popular melodies such as Lullaby Of The Leaves (GLCD 5134) and Roses At Dawning (GLCD 5139) on several Guild CDs. Once again we feature him as a contributor to one of London’s production music libraries with his exciting Heading For Home for Bosworth.
Guy Luypaerts (b. 1917) first appeared on a Guild CD playing music by Cole Porter (GLCD 5127). He was born in Paris to Belgian parents during the First World War and became well-known in French musical circles through conducting an orchestra called the Nouvelle Association Symphonique de Paris. This was in the era when live music featured prominently on the radio, and his broadcasts with this orchestra resulted in invitations to conduct other radio orchestras in European cities. Luypaerts is listed as providing the music for the 1945 film "Etoile Sans Lumière". He worked with Edith Piaf (he arranged her 1946 world-wide hit "La Vie En Rose"), Georges Guetary, Yves Montand and most notably with Charles Trénet - their collaboration spanned 30 years and began when Trenet discovered him playing jazz at an officers’ mess early in World War 2. Guild has previously included his imaginative sounds in the Cole Porter tribute (GLCD 5127) and conducting quirky cameos such as The Sleepwalker of Amsterdam (GLCD 5131) and Masquerade In Madrid (GLCD 5132). This time A New Born Love finds him in yet another different mood.
Alfonso D’Artega (1907-1998) arrived in the USA from his native Mexico in 1918. Often merely known by his surname (spellings of his first name vary), he was educated in music and composition at the Strassburger Conservatory by Boris Levenson, who was a pupil of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. D’Artega became a conductor, arranger and composer of wide and varied musical experience, and conducted orchestras for radio, television, transcriptions, recordings, concert stage and motion pictures. In 1946 he originated and conducted in Carnegie Hall the Pop Concerts, with the members of the New York Philharmonic; other notable conducting assignments were with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Miami Symphony, St. Louis Symphony and the Symphony of the Air. He portrayed the role of Tchaikovsky in the 1947 United Artists production "Carnegie Hall" and also conducted the sound track for the film. In addition to conducting, D'Artega also composed well over 50 popular compositions, both alone and sometimes in collaboration with others. Perhaps his best known song was In The Blue Of Evening (on which he collaborated with Thomas Montgomery Adair), which was a hit recording for Frank Sinatra with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in 1943; the American public would have recognised him particularly for The NBC Chimes Theme. He has previously appeared on Guild with Victor Herbert’s Dagger Dance (GLCD 5140) and Tulips In Springtime (GLCD 5138). This time it is Leo Lefleur’s Wedding Of The Violins which receives the dazzling D’Artega treatment.
Belgian violinist Emile Deltour appears to have started his recording career as ‘Eddie Tower’, and some 78s he made in April 1940 of versions of Count Basie titles have received approval from jazz enthusiasts. During a career which began in the 1920s he worked with Django Reinhardt and the French singer Lucienne Boyer and is listed as having accompanied various singers in the Netherlands during the 1940s, but little seems to be mentioned in reference books about his light music recordings which briefly appeared during the 1950s. In this collection he appears as both conductor (Aperitif) and co-composer (Polka For Strings).
Italian born Otto Cesana (1899-1980) spent much of his early career in California where he lived from 1908 to 1930. His piano studies commenced at the age of ten, and he became an accomplished organist; he also learned about orchestration and harmony which he put to good use working in radio and Hollywood film studios. Most critics regarded Cesana’s work as being ‘easy listening’, although the distinguished jazz critic Leonard Feather considered him worthy of an entry in the 1960 Encyclopaedia Jazz through his acclaimed composition Symphony In Jazz. By then Cesana had returned to Italy, although he was living in New York when he died in 1980. Guild has previously featured his exciting and vibrant Night Train (GLCD 5131), but this time the mood is more romantic and mellow, as the title Devotion suggests.
Georges Samuel Tzipine (1907-1987) is making his Guild debut in this collection with his orchestra’s recording of the catchy novelty number By Heck. He studied at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris, winning a first prize in 1926. Originally he became recognised as a virtuoso on the violin, but he progressed to composing and conducting (often with the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra) and made numerous recordings of both classical and popular music during his long career. From the mid-1920s he was musical director of France’s Gaumont Newsreel for which he composed a vast amount of varied background music to suit all kinds of documentary moods and themes. There are also references to him being commissioned by US publishers to record in France various cues for use in American TV series during the 1950s.
George Melachrino (1909-1965) was one of the big names in British light music from the 1940s to the 1960s. Born in London, he became a professional musician, competent on clarinet, alto and tenor saxophone, violin and viola, and he worked with many British dance bands in the 1930s. He was also in demand as a singer, and can be heard on recordings with Carroll Gibbons and others. During World War 2 he became Musical Director of the Army Radio Unit, and his 50-piece ‘Orchestra in Khaki’ toured with the ‘Stars in Battledress’. When the Allied Expeditionary Forces Programme of the BBC began broadcasting to Allied troops on 7 June 1944 (one day after D-Day), George Melachrino was featured conducting the British Band of the AEF; his colleagues were Glenn Miller and Robert Farnon (whose recordings can be heard on many Guild CDs), fronting the American and Canadian Bands. After the war Melachrino built on his service band to form the magnificent orchestra that went on to achieve worldwide fame, mainly through its superb long-playing record albums which sold in millions. One aspect of his work which was not known to the majority of his fans was his involvement with the short-lived EMI recorded music library. Melachrino composed and arranged a number of pieces intended for use by radio, television and films, and several of these have already appeared in this series, for example Spring Morning (GLCD 5104), London - March (GLCD 5118), There Is A Tavern In The Town (GLCD 5118), Cockney Girl (GLCD 5139), Gracious Gown (GLCD 5120), Bobbysox Bounce (GLCD 5140) and Little Brown Jug (GLCD 5129). To this impressive list we now add Gay Romance, which has been requested by several collectors of this series of CDs.
Ray Martin (1918-1988) was one of the biggest names in British popular music during the 1950s. He conducted his orchestra regularly on radio and television, and was also an Artists and Repertoire Manager at EMI’s Columbia label, where he produced many hit records by their top contract stars. His own compositions were among some of his biggest successes (notably Marching Strings), and two of his lesser known works are included here. "The Six Proud Walkers" was a BBC TV drama series for which Ray Martin was commissioned to compose the theme. At the time he was a familiar face on British TV screens, through his regular appearance with his orchestra in programmes such as "Quite Contrary". Ballet Of The Bells is typical of many short pieces which seemed to flow effortlessly from Martin’s pen; on this occasion (wearing his A & R hat) he passed it over to his colleague Jackie Brown to wave the baton, although the musicians employed are probably the ones who usually played for Martin’s sessions. Jackie’s own output as a composer was relatively sparse, although light music aficionados regard his Metropolis (on Guild GLCD 5102) as one of the finest pieces of its kind. He worked on around a dozen films, and was the unseen conductor who used to direct the Billy Cotton Band for its television shows while Bill himself performed on-screen. Jackie also became a household name in Britain thanks to his regular appearances on Hughie Green’s (1920-1997) "Double Your Money" TV quiz show.
Special mention should be made of Robert Farnon’s Moomin, because some people assume that it relates to a pleasurable activity, such as ‘spooning’! In fact ‘Moomin’ is a cartoon character dreamed up by Tove Jansson, who first appeared in the 1950s. He remains popular today, and even has his own Theme Park in Finland. As a ‘thank-you’ for his catchy novelty, Robert Farnon (1917-2005) was presented with a tie covered in Moomins, which he proudly wore for many years.
George French was a British violinist who broadcast frequently on the BBC in the happy times of the last century (roughly until the 1960s) when radio stations actually employed ‘live’ musicians. He contributed to many popular series ("Music While You Work" being one prime example) and performed (often as leader) for most of the well-known conductors. He also had a gift for composing, as evidenced by Bobby Sox from the Francis, Day & Hunter mood music library.
John Pi Scheffer (1909-1988) will be unfamiliar to most light music admirers. His composition Apple Flap could almost be considered a one-off in this genre, since he concentrated mainly on composing and conducting brass music in his native Netherlands.
The American David Carroll(b. 1913) has the honour of providing our final track this time with Guy Lafarge’s The Little Ballerina. He was musical director of Mercury Records from 1951 to the early 1960s, accompanying many of the label’s contract singers as well as making some instrumental recordings of his own. Several of his LPs had a ‘dance’ theme, often including his own compositions, and he employed the cream of Chicago’s session musicians.
David Ades
Bandstand In The Park – Volume 2
1 "The Dam Busters" Film Theme (Eric Coates)
CENTRAL BAND OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE Conducted by Wing Commander A. E. SIMS, OBE
2 Jenny Wren (Davis)
BLACK DYKE MILLS BAND Conducted by Arthur O. Pearce
Cornet solo – WILLIAM LANG
3 Smiles ‘N’ Chuckles (Robert Farnon)
NEW ERA SYMPHONIC BAND Directed by MICHAEL JOHN
4 Amparito Roca (Jaime Texidor)
GRENADIER GUARDS BAND Conducted by Major F.J. HARRIS
5 Flash Harry (Ronald Binge)
BAND OF THE GRENADIER GUARDS Conducted by Major F.J. HARRIS, MBE
6 The Whistler And His Dog (Arthur Pryor)
BLACK DIAMONDS BAND
7 High School Cadets (John Philip Sousa)
GRAND MASSED BANDS Conducted by JAMES OLIVER
8 Evensong (Easthope Martin)
BBC WIRELESS MILITARY BAND Conducted by B. WALTON O’DONNELL
9 Down The Mall (John Belton, real names Tony Lowry and Douglas Brownsmith)
FODENS MOTOR WORKS BAND
10 The Jolly Airman (P. Beechfield-Carver)
CENTRAL BAND OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE Conducted by Wing Commander A.E. SIMS, OBE
11 Sing As We Go (Harry Parr-Davies)
BBC WIRELESS MILITARY BAND Conducted by B. WALTON O’DONNELL
12 Eros In Piccadilly (Jack Strachey)
THE RAF CENTRAL BAND Conducted by Squadron Leader A.E. SIMS
13 Knightsbridge (from "London Suite") (Eric Coates)
BAND OF H.M. GRENADIER GUARDS Under the Direction of Capt. GEORGE MILLER
14 Die Bosniaken Kommen (Eduard Wagnes)
DEUTSCHMEISTER KAPELLE Conducted by Julius Herrmann
15 Music In The Park (Joseph Bergeim)
IRISH GUARDS BAND
16 Royal Review (Arnold Steck, real name Leslie Statham)
BAND OF THE ROYAL NETHERLANDS NAVY Conducted by Capt. G. NIEUWLAND
17 "Cockleshell Heroes" Film Theme (F. Vivian Dunn)
BAND OF THE ROYAL MARINES SCHOOL OF MUSIC Conducted by Lt. Col. (later Sir) F. VIVIAN DUNN, CVO, FRAM
18 With Sword And Lance (Hermann Starke)
REGIMENTAL BAND OF H.M. GRENADIER GUARDS Conducted by Lt. Col. GEORGE MILLER
19 Over The Sticks (Edrich Siebert, real name Stanley Smith-Master)
CWS (MANCHESTER) BAND Conducted by ALEX MORTIMER
20 Golden Spurs (Tony Lowry)
BAND OF THE ROYAL NETHERLANDS NAVY Conducted by Capt. G. NIEUWLAND
21 El Charro (James L. Tarver)
GRENADIER GUARDS BAND Conducted by Major F.J. HARRIS
22 The Great Little Army (Kenneth J. Alford, real name Frederick Joseph Ricketts)
GRAND MASSED BANDS Conducted by JAMES OLIVER
23 New Post Horn Galop (Roger Barsotti)
BAND OF THE QUEEN’S ROYAL REGIMENT Conducted by ROGER BARSOTTI
24 March Of The Royal Air Forces Association (A.E. Sims)
CENTRAL BAND OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE Conducted by Wing Commander A.E. SIMS, MBE
25 Vindobona (Karl Komzak)
DEUTSCHMEISTER KAPELLE Conducted by JULIUS HERRMANN
26 Prince Igor Ballet Dances (Borodin, arr. Sir Dan Godfrey)
BBC WIRELESS MILITARY BAND Conducted by B. WALTON O’DONNELL
Guild GLCD 5147
The introduction to Guild’s first volume in this series (GLCD 5117) observed that there was a time when every self-respecting town would have its own bandstand as a proud feature of the main public park. Resorts – both inland and on the coast – would especially welcome such structures as evidence of their wish to offer cultural entertainment to the visitors they set out to attract. Bandstands knew no national boundaries: they could be found just about everywhere in the civilised world and, despite their name, they were not confined to ensembles generally referred to as ‘bands’, but used for all kinds of musical entertainment.
Bandstands can still be found in public places, although sadly some have been allowed to fall into disrepair. Others are rarely used for their original purpose, except on very isolated occasions. Therefore it is all the more pleasing when one comes across such a venue being occupied for music-making, just as it would have been many years ago. Perhaps the ‘golden age’ for bandstands was during the first half of the last century, when professional musicians formed a far greater number of the total workforce.
Military bands are today, in some instances, a shadow of their former selves. Once they would have numbered fifty or sixty regular players, but now they often perform with less than half that number of musicians. However many remain very versatile ensembles, with the musicians often doubling on other instruments (such as strings) so that their repertoire can be expanded to include works normally considered more within the remit of concert or salon orchestras. It should be remembered that Military bands play not only for parades but also ceremonial dinners and other social functions, where an orchestral sound is sometimes more appropriate.
A fine example of a famous band which can perform virtually anything that is demanded of it is the Central Band of the Royal Air Force, heard on the opening track. Eric Coates (1886-1957) was regarded as ‘the uncrowned king of light music’ so it was hardly surprising that the producers of the 1954 film "The Dam Busters" approached him to write a suitable march to pay homage to the RAF heroes of World War 2. Leighton Lucas (1903-1982) had been engaged for the background score, but something rather special was required for the title music, and Coates duly obliged. The famous march became one of the composer’s best-loved pieces, and it is still being performed in concerts to this day. Critics have described it as the finest piece of English music since Elgar composed Land Of Hope And Glory. The opening bars are particularly impressive; conveying the sound of a bomber aircraft lumbering along the runway, gradually building up speed until it finally takes off. Although originally written for an orchestra, it makes an even bigger impact when scored for a band.
Boosey & Hawkes engaged the RAF Band to make some mood music recordings for them in 1948, and while Jack Strachey’s Eros In Piccadilly features strings carrying the main melody for most of the time, the warm full sound of the brass players certainly gives this piece an added ‘body’ that might have been difficult to achieve with the usual line-up of a concert orchestra.
Admirers of Service Bands will no doubt already be familiar with the famous names on this CD, so it is not proposed to go into any great detail in these notes. Recordings made by the Coldstream and Grenadier Guards have helped to perpetuate the names of those great regiments, and record companies have regularly invited them into their studios. But not all bands were associated with the armed forces. There were (and happily still are) many fine concert bands, and musicians in Municipal orchestras sometimes exchanged their string instruments in favour of woodwinds and brass, thus allowing their ensembles to offer their public a more varied selection of musical works.
In the post-war years Chappell & Co. enjoyed a period as Britain’s premier provider of production or background music, employing many of the finest composers in this specialised niche in the entertainment business. Robert Farnon (1917-2005) created numerous bright and catchy orchestral cameos which became familiar around the world, but his war service with the Canadian Army had also given him a solid grounding in military music, which he put to good use on a few rare occasions. Such an example is Smiles ‘N’ Chuckles which clearly is not to be taken too seriously. Bands often enjoyed being able to include quirky pieces like this in their concerts, to provide some light relief among the more serious works they were usually obliged to perform.
Arthur Willard Pryor (1870-1942) composed one of the best-known tunes of the first half of the last century, although many people probably couldn’t name it, and even more would not have known who wrote it. Considered by some to be America’s greatest trombone virtuoso, Pryor’s main claim to fame is having composed The Whistler And His Dog, but even if he had not written this popular and catchy tune he would still be remembered for many other musical achievements. He was a member of Sousa’s famous band for over ten years, and conducted many of its recordings up to 1903. He also claimed to have performed 10,000 solos while with the band, including several tours overseas. He then went on to make records with his own band and is credited with having influenced the growing popularity of ragtime; he continued to arrange and compose a vast amount of music until officially retiring in 1933. ‘Whistler’ (composed in 1905) has been arranged for, and recorded by, every kind of orchestra and ensemble and our version by the Black Diamonds Band is probably near to what the composer will originally have had in mind when he conceived this memorable novelty.
The brass band movement continues to flourish in Britain with some estimates claiming that there are still upwards of 1,000 of them. In the 1930s and 1940s, when they were much more prolific, there appeared to be an insatiable appetite for recordings of ‘Massed Brass Bands’ and Frank Andrews’ superb discography "Brass Band Cylinder & Non-microgroove Disc Recordings 1903-1960" lists over 300 of them. Many of these were made at Brass Band Festivals such as the ones at the De Montfort Hall, Leicester and Crystal Palace, London but there were numerous occasions when the record companies brought together groups of bands especially for recording sessions. Regal Zonophone made many such recordings with some featuring as many as 15 bands with 350 players, but the two we include here, conducted by James Oliver, use more modest forces having being made by the combined Hanwell Silver, Lewisham British Legion, St. Pancras Brass and St. Hilda’s Professional bands.
In Britain the BBC established its own bands once its radio service became established, and several different ensembles were created – and changed – before the right formula was discovered. The Wireless Military Band flourished from 1927 until its last performance on 16 March 1943. In 1936 it was renamed The BBC Military Band and record labels, which had hitherto called it "The BBC Wireless Military Band", reflected this change. Its high standing on the British musical arena is confirmed by the fact that leading figures in other fields were pleased to contribute to its repertoire; such as our final selection of dances from "Prince Igor" arranged by Sir Dan Godfrey (1868-1939), for many years conductor the world-famous Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra – the forerunner of today’s Bournemouth Symphony. This recording certainly confirms the extremely high standard of playing consistently achieved by the musicians in this band.
The origins of the fabled Deutschmeister Band can be traced back as far as the 1680s, but its golden age began during the last years of the 18th century, when Emperor Josef II ordered it to be stationed in Vienna, so delighted was he with its quality of music. To this day the Deutschmeister retains a premier status, although its existence was threatened following Austro-Hungary's defeat in the First World War. But such was the esteem in which Austrians had come to regard their Deutschmeister Band that public outcry demanded that it be preserved for posterity. And so the Band was retained in civilian guise to continue the art of playing those wonderful marches, waltzes and polkas which graced the Viennese capital. Many famous works by such noted composers as Johann Strauss, and Franz Lehar were written for the Band, which uses special instrumentation similar to that which most German bands employ, including Flugal horns, and flat snare drums. Czech-born Karl Komzak (1850-1905) was a composer who contributed profusely to the repertoire of the Band, and his Vondobona is a typical example.
Sir Francis Vivian Dunn (1908-1995) was an ideal choice to compose the music for the film "Cockleshell Heroes" because he had many strong links with military music. Early in his career he played violin under Sir Henry Wood, and was a founder member of the BBC Symphony with Sir Adrian Boult. He is credited with having guided the Royal Marines Band during 38 years’ service to a pre-eminent position in the military band world, and it is appropriate that he should be conducting them playing his own film theme on this CD. Sir Vivian directed the band on the Royal Yacht on several tours, and in 1969 EMI presented him with a gold disc following sales of over one million LPs by the Royal Marines Band. He also involved himself with the light music repertoire, and made several highly acclaimed albums conducting the Orchestra of the Light Music Society.
Londoner Edrich Siebert (1903-1984) (he was born Stanley Smith Master) is a popular composer in the brass band world, with a vast number of works to his credit. He began his musical career in 1917 as a boy musician in the Cheshire Regiment, and returned to service life during the Second World War. From 1946 onwards he devoted himself entirely to arranging and composing, and Over The Sticks was the signature tune of BBC Radio’s "Mid-day Music Hall".
Ronald Binge (1910-1979) was a prolific composer and arranger, but his lasting fame will probably be linked with the famous ‘cascading strings’ effect he created during a long association with the world famous conductor Mantovani. The same style is cropping up in parts of Flash Harry and it was also particularly evident in his Cornet Carillon on GLCD 5117. It is interesting to note that he was starting to experiment with this sound as early as 1940 in a piece called The Choristerswhich is included on the Guild CD "Mantovani – By Special Request, Volume 2" (GLCD 5113). Going back to Flash Harry, as well as being a colloquial expression for someone who may be something of a ‘wide boy’, it was also an affectionate nickname for the famous conductor Sir Malcolm Sargent (1895-1967). Who did Ronnie Binge actually have in mind when he composed his clever cameo?
The final composer/conductor who deserves to be mentioned is Roger Barsotti, born in 1901 in London of Italian extraction. His career began as a flautist with the Hastings Municipal Orchestra, before joining the "Buffs" regiment as a band-boy in 1916 where he was soon promoted to Band Sergeant. Later he attended the Royal Military School of Music and was appointed bandmaster of the Queen's Royal Regiment in 1930, a position he occupied for fifteen years. Following retirement from the British army in 1946 after 30 years service, he took over the London Metropolitan Police Band – a post he held until 1968 when he became Musical Advisor to the Royal Parks. He wrote many works for military band, including at least thirty marches plus another forty or so assorted pieces including galops, xylophone solos, fanfares, piccolo solos, serenades and trombone features. For some years he contributed a series of mood music compositions to London publishers for their background music libraries, and this time he is also featured as the conductor waving the baton for his own Post Horn Galop, recorded for the Bosworth mood music library during the Second World War.
It has previously been noted that the worlds of Light Music and Military and Brass Bands are often overlapping, with each genre happy to ‘borrow’ from the other. Surely no one could argue that this is not the case, based on the evidence in this tuneful collection.
David Ades
