Two landmark Light Music LPs are available once more
The Light Music Society Orchestra conducted by SIR VIVIAN DUNN, K.C.V.O.
CD 1
Percy Grainger and other works TWO295
1 Country Gardens
2 Molly on the Shore
3 Londonderry Air
4 Handel in the Strand
5 Mock Morris
6 Shepherd’s Hey
7 Children’s Overture (Roger Quilter)
8 The Haunted Ballroom (Geoffrey Toye)
9 Dusk (Armstrong Gibbs, arr. Jay Wilbur)
10 Shepherd Fennel’s Dance (Henry Balfour Gardiner)
CD 2
Britain’s Choice TWO297
1 March from the ‘Colour Suite’ (Gordon Langford)
2 A La Claire Fontaine (Robert Farnon)
Suite of English Folk Dances (Ernest Tomlinson)
3 Jenny Pluck Pears
4 Ten Pound Lass
5 Dick’s Maggot
6 Nonesuch
7 Hunt the Squirrel
8 Woodicock
9 March from ‘A Little Suite’ (Trevor Duncan)
10 The Boulevardier (Frederic Curzon)
11 The Watermill (Ronald Binge)
12 Tabarinage (Robert Docker)
The King of Kerry – Suite (Peter Hope)
13 Jaunting Car
14 Lough Leane
15 Killorglin Fair
Vocalion CDLK4182 [2 CDs for the price of 1]
The Light Music Society (LMS) was formed in the 1950s at a time when it appeared that there was a danger that Light Music would no longer be heard as often on the radio or in the concert hall. There was also concern that the growing influence of teenagers on record sales would diminish the interest of record companies in this sphere of the music scene.
Membership of the society was open to anyone interested in Light Music, and many long-standing members of the Robert Farnon also participated in the activities of the LMS back in the 1960s and 1970s. However it has to be acknowledged that the strength was provided by the involvement of the very composers and publishers whose future was being threatened by changing musical tastes.
In retrospect it can be claimed that the existence of the LMS, through its contacts at a high level in the BBC, did delay the eventual decline in Light Music, that reached a nadir in the 1980s. By then the society had ceased to function actively, but this sorry state of affairs was reversed towards the end of the last century when the highly respected composer Ernest Tomlinson announced that he had undertaken a major restoration exercise in salvaging many priceless scores, often on the point of being consigned to landfill sites.
The current situation is that the Light Music Society is flourishing once again, and it is actively encouraging performances with practical assistance through the provision of manuscripts that are simply not available anywhere else. It would be impossible to exaggerate the importance of Ernest Tomlinson’s tireless efforts: he deserves recognition at the highest level.
In 1968 the Light Music Society Orchestra gave its first public performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, heralding a new era of recordings and broadcasts. Their first two LPs are featured on this CD reissue, and they provide sparkling performances of some fine compositions that have never been bettered.
All of the composers represented on the first CD in this collection were born within a span of twelve years between 1877 and 1889. They grew up subject to the same musical influences, yet the wide diversity of their composing talents serves to illustrate the broad canvas that is encompassed by the term ‘Light Music’.
Six of the numbers were written by Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882-1961), born in Melbourne, Australia. He was already an accomplished pianist by the time he arrived in London in 1909, and he soon made a name for himself as a soloist. From boyhood he had developed a passionate interest in folk music, and in England he was one of the first to take around with him a primitive phonograph which enabled him to record folk tunes on cylinders (he rediscovered Brigg Fair in Lincolnshire, and gave it to Delius).
Country Gardens and Shepherd's Hey are Morris Dance versions of the old songs The Vicar of Bray and The Keel Row, supplied to Grainger by Cecil J. Sharp. The Bray of the former is in Berkshire and the latter song has long been particularly associated with Tyneside. Molly on the Shore is a combination of two Irish reel tunes and so fond was Grainger of this that he arranged it successively for string quartet, small orchestra and large orchestra. Londonderry Air is really better named ‘Air from County Derry’. Widely regarded as one of the loveliest tunes in the whole of music, it was taken down by Miss Jane Ross of Limavady from a peasant who visited the little town on market day. It first appeared in print in 1855. The bright and brilliant Handel in the Strand and Mock Morris are not folk tune arrangements although anyone might be forgiven for thinking they were. The composer himself has told us that the former was inspired by his delight on returning to the exhilarating sea air of the Dutch coast after giving a series of concerts inland, and that the latter was influenced by a popular music hall ditty ‘Always merry and bright’.
Roger Quilter (1877-1953) was born in London and educated at Eton. Essentially a miniaturist, it is for his songs, particularly his settings of poems by Shakespeare and Herrick, that he is and always will be chiefly remembered. The delicately dancing Children's Overture dates from 1914 and was inspired by a volume of nursery rhymes called ‘Baby's Opera’ and delightfully illustrated by Walter Crane, friend of William Morris and sometime Principal of the Royal College of Art, South Kensington. The tunes are put together with supreme sensitivity and skill, and orchestrated with rare transparency.
Geoffrey Toye (1889-1942) was the younger son of John Toye, a house master at Winchester who for a long time ran a musical society for the boys. After leaving the Royal Academy of Music, Toye conducted at several theatres in London. Following his war service he undertook some more important conducting engagements and then became in turn a Governor of the Sadler's Wells Theatre and Managing Director of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden. It was while at Sadler's Wells that he wrote the book and music of his ballet The Haunted Ballroom (first produced in 1934), from which this waltz was arranged and orchestrated by Frank Tapp.
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960) was born in Cheltenham and educated at Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music. Like Roger Quilter, he is chiefly remembered by his songs. In 1936 he wrote an orchestral suite to which he gave the name Fancy Dress. Some years later he fitted the third movement, the rather barcarolle-like waltz which we hear here, with words, and it is by its new name Dusk that it has become best known, whether sung or played.
Henry Balfour Gardiner (1877-1950) was born in London, educated at Charterhouse and Oxford, and spent some time as music master at Winchester before launching himself upon a career as a composer. He was highly self-critical and had the rare gift of recognising his own limitations, and so spent a great deal of his time and much of his private means helping others. It was he, for instance, who gave HoIst the opportunity of first hearing The Planets at a semi-private concert in the old Queen's Hall, London. He wrote music in various forms but little of it is heard today. Shepherd Fennel’s Dance however, has always, and rightly, been a prime favourite, particularly with 'Prom' audiences some decades ago. It dates from 1911 and was inspired by an episode in Thomas Hardy's ‘Wessex Tales’.
The numbers included in Britain’s Choice were chosen by a panel set up by the LMS in association with the Composers’ Guild of Great Britain. As the LP notes confirm, the degree of unanimity among the panel was such that the items virtually chose themselves.
The opening spirited March from Colour Suite by Gordon Langford (b. 1930) is typical of the bright, modern sounds that rejuvenated Light Music in the post-war years. Gordon is well known for his work with brass bands, and he is equally appreciated as a fine pianist. As a composer and arranger he is just as happy working in jazz or symphonic works.
Another all-round musician whose capabilities know no bounds is Robert Farnon (b. 1917), widely regarded as the greatest living composer of Light Music. He composed A La Claire Fontaine in the 1950s for his suite of "Canadian Impressions" (on Vocalion CDLK4104), revealing a sensitive side to his nature in stark contrast to the vitality of his Jumping Bean and Portrait of a Flirt.
We will let Ernest Tomlinson (b. 1924) describe how he came to compose his Suite of English Folk Dances : "In 1951 I went along to a festival given by the English Folk Dance and Song Society at the Royal Albert Hall, and was so enchanted with the lovely tunes they danced to that I came away inspired to write a suite based on some of them. The ones I finally chose were all taken from John Playford’s ‘The English Dancing Master’ published in various editions between 1650 and 1728. My aim was to preserve as far as possible the spirit of the original dances, which spirit was beautifully conveyed by the performers in the studio."
‘Trevor Duncan’ is actually Leonard Trebilco (b. 1924), born in Cornwall and educated at Trinity College of Music. He has written an amazing amount of music specifically for use in television, documentaries and films, and the choice of the March from his Little Suite as the signature tune for BBC Television’s ‘Dr. Finlay’s Casebook’ confirmed his position as one of our top composers.
Frederic Curzon (1899-1973 ) enjoyed early success as a composer in the 1930s with his Robin Hood Suite at a time when Eric Coates and Haydn Wood were still contributing many fine works to the Light Music repertoire. Curzon was also an organist, and an executive with a leading publisher, in which capacity he assisted many young composers in developing their careers. His Boulevardier became very popular when first recorded in the 1940s, and it has remained so ever since.
Ronald Binge (1910-1979) was responsible for devising the ‘cascading strings’ sound that allowed Mantovani to enjoy his worldwide fame – a fact not widely known until some years later. Happily for Ron he did achieve great success as a composer in his own right, firstly through Elizabethan Serenade, and later with Sailing By, the music that closed Radio 4 for so long.
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 Tabarinage (Buffoonery) takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the Can-Can.
Peter Hope (b. 1930) completes the selection with his Ring of Kerry Suite which won him a well-deserved Ivor Novello Award in 1969. The name describes a popular tourist road in the south-west of Ireland, and the suite paints some of the scenes along the way.
The brilliant conductor involved in all of these performances was Sir Vivian Dunn, KCVO, OBE, FRAM (1908-1995). As a Lieutenant-Colonel of the Royal Marines he was the first Military Director of Music to be knighted. He spent nearly 40 years with the Royal Marines Band Service, establishing it as one of the finest of its kind in the world. Before he was appointed Director of Music of the Portsmouth Division Band in 1931, at the age of 22, he had been a member of the first violin section of the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Adrian Boult. Although he made a career in military music, Sir Vivian did not neglect orchestral music, and during World War 2 he conducted many broadcasts to the Forces with the Orchestra of the Portsmouth Division, Royal Marines. In the cinema he scored the film "Cockleshell Heroes" and the catchy march has become a firm favourite.
His choice as the conductor of the Light Music Society Orchestra was inspired, and many of the composers of the music on these recordings were fulsome in their praise of his interpretations of their work. During the last years of his life we were honoured to have Sir Vivian as a member of the Robert Farnon Society. He attended several of our London meetings, and members who were privileged to meet him will forever remember how approachable and charming he was.
David Ades
Two HMV LPs from 1960 & 1961 have just made a welcome reappearance on Vocalion
Sinfonia of London conducted by ROBERT IRVING and DOUGLAS GAMLEY
Musical Merry-Go-Round CSD1333
1 The Carousel Waltz (Rodgers, arr. Gamley) b
2 Clowns’ Dance (Ibert) a
3 Visions d’Art (from ‘Les Forains’) (Sauguet) a
4 Circus Polka (Stravinsky) a
5 Waltz (from ‘Masquerade’) (Khachaturian) a
6 La Ronde (Oscar Straus, arr. Don Banks) b
7 Coney Island (Don Banks) b
8 Gopak (from ‘Sorchinski Fair’) (Mussorgsky, orch. Liadov) a
9 Prater Fest (Douglas Gamley) b
10 Dance of the Comedians (from ‘The Bartered Bride’) (Smetana) a
Famous Evergreens CSD1319
11 Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (Liszt, arr. Sir Henry J. Wood) a
12 Ave Maria (Schubert, arr. Don Banks) a
13 Songs Without Words, Op. 67 No. 4 (‘Bees’ Wedding’)
(Mendelssohn, arr. Don Banks) a
14 Waltz in A Flat Major, Op. 39 No. 15 (Brahms, arr. Gamley) b
15 Santa Lucia* (Cottrau, arr. Gamley) a
16 Waltz (from ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ Ballet, Act 1) (Tchaikovsky) a
17 Jealousy (Gade, arr. Gamley) b
18 Clair de Lune (Debussy, arr. André Coplet) a
19 Moto Perpetuo (Novaček, arr. Gamley) b
20 Intermezzo (from ‘Cavalleria Rusticana’) (Mascagni) a
21 Dance of the Hours (from ‘La Gioconda’, Act 3) (Ponchielli) a
*with DOUGLAS GAMLEY, piano
conducted by
a Robert Irving
b Douglas Gamley
Vocalion CDLK4181
More than 50 years later, the Festival of Britain in 1951 has left us with a major concert hall on London’s South Bank – the Royal Festival Hall. When Musical Merry-Go-Round was released in 1961 another legacy of the Festival could still be enjoyed – the Fun Fair in Battersea Park. Stereo recordings were still something of a novelty to record buyers, and the original sleeve notes of this album went to great lengths to explain how the special effects had been achieved.
"The scheme for this record originated during a summer evening visit to London's Battersea Fun Fair. It was while watching the Merry-go-round that there came the idea of a unique stereo illusion. It was reasoned that if stereo could give precise location of Left and Right, why not also a revolving effect? - but how to achieve this? Various suggestions were made, including microphones mounted on a revolving spindle, and even placing the orchestra on a revolving platform. However, the solution came, as all scientific solutions must, by painstaking experimentation. A careful electronically synchronised manipulation of Left and Right tracks was found to provide the complete illusion of the music issuing from a Merry-go-round. The two pieces to receive this treatment suggested themselves immediately; the Carousel Waltz and La Ronde are ideally suitable, not only in their titles, but also for the nature of the melodies, and the scores were prepared in collaboration with the sound-technicians so that the shape of the music could match the period of revolution. The actual recording was made in a completely straightforward manner with the usual stereo distribution of the orchestra, e.g. trumpets on extreme right, horns on extreme left, upper strings left, lower strings right, woodwind located centrally, etc. Some of this stereo information was then reduced to provide one single revolving track. Incidentally, it will be noticed that the Merry-go-round stops occasionally to collect its passengers."
The world of the Circus and the Fairground provided the inspiration for all the music in this entertaining collection, ranging from the penetrating mind of Igor Stravinsky, to the unashamed melodic invention of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Straus.
Two new compositions were specially commissioned for this album. Coney Island is the work of Don Banks (1923-1980), which cleverly describes the brash artificial world in this famous American amusement park. Banks was an Australian composer and orchestrator, who was based in London in the 1950s and 1960s, working in many spheres including feature films, documentaries, television and the theatre (you can read more about him at the end of this feature). In complete contrast another new work Prater Fest, composed by Douglas Gamley, is far more genteel; it reflects Vienna in the days of its greatness, when the elite of Europe would wander along the long avenue of chestnut trees to the playground which has been immortalised through the big wheel sequence in the Harry Lime film "The Third Man".
Famous Evergreens provides a charming selection of classical melodies that will be instantly recognisable, even if some of the precise titles may be somewhat elusive.
Brahms is reported to have been a keen admirer of Johann Strauss, but his waltzes owed more to the influence of Schubert. Douglas Gamley interprets the normally serious composer in one of his lighter moods. His deft touch as a sensitive arranger is also evident in Santa Lucia, whose words express the beauty of the Bay of Naples, with never a hint of the constant threat imposed by Vesuvius, just waiting to erupt once again. Douglas Gamley also features on the piano in this number, which must have been dear to his heart because he loved to escape to his second home in Italy.
Further Gamley scores crop up in Gade’s Jealousy (many people are surprised to learn that Jacob Gade [1879-1963] came from Denmark), and Novaček’s Moto Perpetuo, sometimes called Perpetuum Mobile. The remaining works are all familiar ‘standards’ that music lovers have enjoyed for generations.
Robert Augustine Irving was born in Winchester on 28 August 1913, and his education took place at Winchester College, New College Oxford and the Royal College of Music in London. In 1936 he was engaged as répétiteur at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and he was also a music master at Winchester College. He joined the Royal Air Force upon the outbreak of World War 2 in 1939, and after hostilities ceased he conducted the BBC Scottish Orchestra in Glasgow from 1945 until 1948. He was appointed musical director of the Sadlers Wells (later ‘Royal’) Ballet from 1949 to 1958. In 1958 he went to the New York City Ballet, and became recognised as one of the world’s leading ballet conductors, frequently invited as guest conductor in the USA and Europe.
John Douglas Gamley was born in Melbourne, Australia, on 23 September 1924. He came to England in the early 1950s, and his talents as a composer, arranger and pianist were soon in demand. He composed and scored the music for many films, and his credits include "Tom Thumb" (1958), "And Now The Screaming Starts!" (1973), "Madhouse" (1974), "The Beast Must Die" (1974), "The Land That Time Forgot" (1975) and "Enigma" (1982). He also worked alongside Henry Mancini for "Shot in the Dark" and "Charade". As many readers will already know, Douglas was a close musical associate of Robert Farnon, both in films and at recording sessions involving Tony Bennett, Lena Horne, George Shearing and numerous others. Douglas made many recordings with Joan Sutherland, and was active in both the classical and popular spheres – talents which made him particularly suitable for the repertoire on this compact disc. In his later life he tended to spend six months of the year in Australia, where he conducted the Australian Pops Orchestra. The rest of the time was divided between working in London, and relaxing in Italy, where the climate suited him better as an asthma sufferer. Douglas was a charming, gentle man who could always be relied upon in any musical situation. He died in London on 5 February 1998.
Don Banks (1923-1980)
One of the highlights of these releases was the involvement of Don Banks, who contributed several arrangements plus one superb original composition, Coney Island. This work described the famous American amusement park, and it opens with a kaleidoscopic impression of the brash, artificial world of the Fun Fair, as it seemed in the middle years of the last century. This leads into a gentle Carousel in 5/8 time, which asymmetrical rhythm corresponds to the movement of the carousel horses. This in turn leads to the Water-shoot – cleverly portrayed very literally – and then we are in the quiet atmosphere of the Tunnel of Love, where the languorous and seductive tones of three alto saxophones, placed in a perspective of depth, create the illusion of the long, echoing tunnel. The kaleidoscope turns again to reveal the Big Dipper careering past, and the work finishes with a return to the bustling jollity of the opening scene. The composer of this exhilarating number was Don Banks, who was born in Australia on 25 October 1923. Don Banks' studies in piano and musical theory commenced at the age of five. His father was a professional jazz musician who played trombone, alto saxophone and percussion, and who led his own band and Banks learned to play the various instruments that inevitably surrounded him in his early years. Often he would 'sit in' with his father's band, and later he earned his living as a jazz pianist and trombonist with bands such as that of Roger and Graeme Bell, where he gained valuable experience as an arranger and orchestrator. Jazz was Banks' earliest and strongest musical influence and his enthusiasm for it never waned. At various times throughout his life he gave broadcasts and lectured on jazz music, and in 1977 was co-adjudicator of the NSW State Government prize for a Jazz Composition. Between 1941 and 1946 Banks served with the Australian Army Medical Corps. He studied piano, harmony and counterpoint privately during the last two years of his service and on being discharged entered the University of Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. He majored in piano and composition, studying under Waldemar Seidel (piano), A.E.H. Nickson and Dorian Le Gallienne (composition), and was awarded a Diploma of Music with first class honours in 1949. In 1950 he left for Europe, and for the next two years studied composition privately with Matyas Seiber. Seiber placed great emphasis on intensive analysis, and this period of study was to be a decisive influence on Banks. In 1952, Banks co-founded (with Margaret Sutherland) the Australian Musical Association in London, which became a vital platform for Australian composition. Also in 1952, he attended the Seminar in American Studies Summer School in Salzburg, where he studied under Milton Babbitt, and then travelled to Florence on an Italian Government Scholarship to study composition and orchestration with Luigi Dallapiccola for a year. In 1956 Banks was selected by Youth and Music (London) to attend a Composers' Seminar in Switzerland, where he studied with Luigi Nono. Banks earned his living in London as a professional orchestrator and, from 1956, as a composer of commercial music, including music for feature films, documentaries, animated films, television, advertisements, record libraries and theatre. Notable among the film scores are those he wrote for some of the Hammer horror films, such as Hysteria, The Reptiles and Rasputin, The Mad Monk. Between 1960 and 1971 he also gave private lessons in composition, analysis and orchestration. Banks was active in many areas of music throughout his life, and in his last few years in Britain (1965-1971), held a number of positions. He guest-lectured on various subjects for educational establishments including universities, the Newport College of Art, and the Society for Musical Education of the Under Twelves, he broadcast for the BBC Third Programme, was three times an adjudicator for the Royal Amateur Orchestral Society Prize, and was an external examiner to the University of Wales. He was also chairman of the Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM) in 1967-68, and organised and co-directed their Composers' Seminars in 1967, 1968 and 1970. Appointed Music Director at the University of London Goldsmiths' College in 1969, Banks initiated new courses in conducting, guitar, folk music and jazz, and also developed an Electronic Music Studio. Following a brief visit in 1970, Don Banks returned to Australia in 1972 to take up a Fellowship in Creative Arts in Canberra. Throughout the year of the Fellowship he gave lectures, attended and directed seminars, adjudicated and involved himself in the activities of the International Society for Contemporary Music in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. He was also invited by the Prime Minister to chair the Music Board of the Australian Council for the Arts. In 1973 Banks, still in Australia, directed the Fourth National Young Composer's Seminar at the University of Western Australia's Department of Music and provided introductory sessions in Electronic Music for young composers at the Canberra School of Music's Electronic Music Studio. Having decided to settle permanently in Australia, Banks returned briefly to the UK to finalise his affairs before taking up the position of Head of Composition and Electronic Music Studies at the Canberra School of Music in October 1973. Apart from the administrative and lecturing duties of this position, Banks was also responsible for the development of the Canberra School of Music's Electronic Music Centre, which under his guidance became the most advanced studio complex in the southern hemisphere. He was also an 'ex-officio' consultant for the development of electronic music studios in high schools and tertiary institutions, and in May 1977 chaired the Electronic Music section of the ASME National Conference. In October 1977 Banks took up an appointment as Guest Composer at the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, and in 1978 became Head of the School of Composition Studies there. In 1980 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for services to music and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Melbourne. Don Banks died of cancer on 5 September, 1980. His musical estate, consisting of papers, correspondence, manuscripts of almost all his works, scores, tapes, discs and books, is preserved in the National Library of Australia in Canberra. The instruments that constitute the electronic studio of Don Banks are preserved by the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.
David Ades
BILL McGUFFIE and his Piano and Strings "Strange Enchantment"
1 YOU MAKE ME FEEL SO YOUNG
2 THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN
3 EMMANUELLE
4 I’VE GOT YOU UNDER MY SKIN
5 YOU MY LOVE
6 I’LL GET BY
7 COME FLY WITH ME
8 THE GREAT PRETENDER
9 THIS I FIND IS BEAUTIFUL
10 ACCOUNT FOR BASIE
11 ANOTHER SUITCASE IN ANOTHER HALL
12 MY WAY
13 YOU ARE MY DEAREST LOVE
14 WHAT’S NEW PUSSYCAT?
15 I LOOKED AROUND
16 SO DEEP IS THE NIGHT
17 INNAMORATI A VENEZIA
18 BOY ON A DOLPHIN
19 STRANGE ENCHANTMENT
20 EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE
21 BLESS YOU FOR BEING AN ANGEL
22 I STILL SEE YOU (THE GO-BETWEEN)
23 I’LL TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOU
24 ALMA LLANERA
Vocalion CDLK4172
In the summer of 2000, Vocalion released "The Piano Artistry of Bill McGuffie with his Big Band" (CDLK4103) which was warmly received by Bill’s many friends and admirers (for full details see Journal Into Melody 144 – September 2000 – page 22). Very soon it became clear that a second collection of his music should be made available, and this time it was decided that the choice should centre upon Bill’s work with strings – although it was fully realised that whatever Bill performed he couldn’t completely escape from his first love of jazz.
Once again, Bill’s widow Rosemary gave her wholehearted support and encouragement, and the result is this mixture of the old and the new – popular favourites with some lesser-known, but equally enjoyable numbers – all given the polished treatment that was Bill McGuffie’s trademark.
Bill is still regarded with affection as one of Britain's finest pianists of the 20th century. Whether performing as a solo pianist, fronting a big band, or simply participating as a session musician in a large orchestra, he always displayed a supreme air of professionalism which endeared him to everyone who was privileged to know and work with him.
William McGuffie (his parents called him Billy, and he was also known to his friends as Wee Willie McGuffie) was born on 11 December 1927 at Carmyle, near Glasgow, Scotland. The third finger of his right hand was amputated in childhood following an accident, but he never allowed this to handicap his playing. At the age of 11 the Victoria College in Glasgow awarded him its Medal in recognition of his proficiency; a year later he made his first radio broadcast on Children's Hour.
Until he was 14 he was content to enjoy classical music. Then he heard some jazz, and asked his father to buy him some jazz records. McGuffie senior purchased six Charlie Kunz 78s. "His intentions were good!" recalled Bill some years later. While still aged 14 he began playing regularly with the BBC Scottish Variety Orchestra, and was proud to have accompanied two great Scottish artists of the Music Hall, Harry lauder and Will Fyffe.
Bill was also fascinated by the piano he heard in the Victor Silvester Orchestra on records and in radio broadcasts. "If only I could play all those notes" he thought. It was some while before he learned that Silvester actually employed two pianists at that time; with perseverance Bill managed to sound like them both.
Although music was his first love, initially he didn't consider it as a long-term career. He was a teenager during the Second World War, and began studying to become a naval architect. However he moved to Ayr to work with the Miff Hobson Orchestra, then in 1944 took the big step to try his luck in London, where his first engagement was with Teddy Foster at the Lyceum ballroom. Four years with Joe Loss followed, before joining the bands of Ambrose, Sidney Lipton and Maurice Winnick at the famous Ciro's club. Together with Carroll Gibbons, Bill played for staff parties at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.
This grounding in the bread-and-butter side of the music business was to stand Bill in good stead at the Mayfair Club, where he led his own ensemble. But his major breakthrough came in the early 1950s when he spent three years with Cyril Stapleton's BBC Show Band - the first broadcast was heard on Saturday 3 October 1952. This superb ensemble included some of Britain's finest musicians, and the talents of top arrangers were employed to establish this band as one of the finest of its kind in the world. It should have gone on much longer, but inevitably became a victim of the financial constraints which have ever since plagued radio, thanks to the insatiable demands of television.
Bill left the Show Band after three years to go to California, where he worked at MGM Studios with Andre Previn and Johnny Green on several films, including The Tender Trap and Kismet .
Back in Britain, happily Bill's talents remained in strong demand. In England he toured with Stoll Theatre and Moss Empires, topping the bill in Variety. He was a valued member of Kenny Baker's Dozen, and under the influence of Robert Farnon and Philip Green he developed his skills as an arranger and composer, especially for films. His cinema credits are numerous, including themes and sometimes full scores for Too Hot to Handle (1960), It Takes a Thief (1960), The Long Shadow (1961 ), The Boys (1961 ), The Leather Boys (1963), Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966), The Asphyx (1972) and The Small Miracle (1973). Back in 1955 he had worked with Robert Farnon on the film Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, starring Jane Russell, and can be seen on-screen in one sequence. In fact Bill made a brief appearance (a la Hitchcock) in virtually every film he worked on, sometimes as a cocktail pianist if the script called for it.
Another Farnon assignment was the last 'Road' movie, the British-made Road to Hong Kong (1962). Old-timers Bob Hope, Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour were joined by Joan Collins, who actually sang one number. Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin made guest appearances, and the eagle-eyed can also spot Bill briefly in one sequence.
Bill McGuffie could be heard regularly, as soloist or with his own Group, on radio in programmes such as Kings of the Keyboard, Piano Playtime, Night Ride, Music Through Midnight, Roundabout, Band Parade and Week Ending. He played in the orchestra for Breakfast (and Bedtime) With Braden and Round the Horne. He arranged and conducted for television programmes starring Hermione Gingold, Jimmy Edwards and Ronnie Barker.
Apart from his regular session work, Bill was also in demand from record companies to appear on disc in his own name, both as solo pianist and also fronting small groups and big bands.
In the early 1970s he played with Benny Goodman's Band and American Sextet on their European tours, but a stroke in 1974 laid him low for a while. At the time he was working for BBC Radio on Week Ending and also recording fourteen numbers per session every two weeks for Night Ride. Five weeks later, he was back at work in the studio.
This collection showcases the McGuffie talent at its peak, near the end of his distinguished career. In earlier years he had tended to concentrate more on small group recordings, occasionally featuring his own numbers. Perhaps Bill's most famous original composition is Sweet September, for which he won an Ivor Novello Award in 1963. International recognition came through a recording by Bill Evans, in a Klaus Ogerman arrangement, and Pete Jolly and The Shadows made cover versions. It was also published in Spain, under the title Tu Recuerdo.
He wrote under two other names: Guido Miguel for Spanish compositions, and Raphael Maertek. This came about after a Scottish friend had said that Bill had 'maer' (more) technique than some!
In 1980 the British Academy of Composers Songwriters and Authors awarded Bill its coveted Gold Badge of Merit. In his more serious moments Bill appreciated the music of Ravel and Debussy. In the jazz world he was a great admirer of the Count Basie Band. It may surprise some of his admirers to learn that Bill never considered himself to be a jazz pianist. Respected broadcaster Steve Race once singled Bill out as "a pianist who generates his own beat".
Bill McGuffie died at Chertsey, Surrey, on 22 March 1987 aged 59. Fortunately for us, he has left a legacy of fine recordings which will continue to provide endless musical pleasure for generations to come.
David Ades
Two Pye LPs from 1960 have been granted a new lease of life by Vocalion
Pro Arte Orchestra conducted by STANFORD ROBINSON Tribute to Eric Coates
1 LONDON BRIDGE
2 THE ENCHANTED GARDEN
3 BY THE SLEEPY LAGOON
4 CINDERELLA
5 SECOND SYMPHONIC RHAPSODY
Bird Songs at Eventide; I Heard You Singing
6 FOOTLIGHTS
Edwardian Favourites arranged by Stanford Robinson
7 PAUL RUBENS MELODIES
8 JOSEF STRAUSS POT-POURRI
9 LIONEL MONCKTON MELODIES
10 EDWARD GERMAN MELODIES
Vocalion CDLK4183
The death of Eric Coates prompted Stanford Robinson to record this tribute with the Pro Arte Orchestra, a highly regarded ensemble drawn from many of London’s top orchestras for broadcasting, concerts and recordings. To provide the accompanying sleeve notes for the LP, the record company could have chosen none better than the composer’s only son, Austin Coates (1922-1997), from whose notes the following extracts are taken.
When Eric Coates died, on December 21st 1957, it was rightly said that perhaps no composer had ever provided music to suit the public taste so unerringly for such a long time. Just under fifty years lie between his first song success, in Edwardian times, and his last orchestral works, including the memorable March for the film The Dam Busters; and for a great part of this time Eric Coates was recognised as a unique figure - 'the uncrowned king of light music'.
Greatly influenced in his early years by Edward German, after 1920 Eric Coates developed his own distinctive style, the most significant feature of which was his understanding and use of the newly-introduced American syncopated idiom. He was the first European composer to treat modern syncopation as a serious contribution to orchestral music, and to introduce into symphonic writing the dance-band practice of treating each instrument of the brass section as a soloist. Much of the brilliance and vivacity of his orchestration is attributable to this.
For many years an orchestral musician himself (he was principal viola in Sir Henry J. Wood's Queen's Hall Orchestra from 1912 to 1919), Eric Coates, in the later days of his success as a composer-conductor, never forgot his old friends in the many orchestras he conducted, and had an understanding of orchestral musicians which enabled him to secure from them superb performances of his music in a way which, to many people, seemed effortless.
Happy throughout his life - in his youth, in his marriage, in his success as a writer -Iike many happy people, Eric Coates tended to live in (to use his own title) an enchanted garden of his own imagination. In the concert hall, to see his immaculate appearance, polished conducting, and unfailing modesty with audience and orchestra alike, it was difficult to realise what an unworldly person he was. His world was that of the invariable happy ending. When he wrote a fantasy he called it a phantasy; and a waltz was always a valse. Somehow in that way it belonged more to his world. An unusual quality about his music is that, despite this unworldliness, he expressed moods of the twentieth century as few others have succeeded in doing, with his curiously metallic brilliance of orchestration, his hectic zest and uncomplicated romanticism. Like Gershwin, he expresses something of this century that will evoke our time to future generations,
The ten years from 1929 to 1939 were the most prolific in Eric Coates' career, and marked his rise to international fame. On this record is a representative selection of his music written during this period, the gayest and most colourful English music produced in the past forty years.
The Enchanted Garden was originally written as a ballet, scored for twelve solo instruments, on the theme of Snowdrop and the Seven Dwarfs, first performed at the opening of the Cambridge Theatre, London, in 1928. It is particularly appropriate that this, the first recording of the work, should be conducted by Stanford Robinson, because it was he who first realised the possibilities of Snowdrop as a symphonic score, and consistently urged the composer to rewrite it for full orchestra. This Eric Coates finally did in 1938, renaming it The Enchanted Garden. In the same year he conducted first performances of it in the Scandinavian capitals and at Hilversum.
The theme is the conflict between good and evil influences in the garden. The Princess has been left alone while her Prince is away, and he has given an injunction (the commanding opening bars) to all the good spirits and friendly animals of the garden to look after her. At first all is gentleness and love, but after a time the restless, malevolent elements in the garden come sneering in. They cannot at once get the better of the Princess' protectors, but finally (in a vigorous tarantella and fugue) they are on the point of mastering the garden, when the Prince returns holding a flaming sword, and order is restored.
Unlike The Three Bears and Cinderella, in which a knowledge of the story is essential to the enjoyment of the music, The Enchanted Garden music speaks for itself, and needs no programme explanation. After the opening injunction there follow three themes, the second in slow syncopation, the third in quick tempo, which are developed in various ways throughout the ballet. The syncopated idiom, distinctive of Eric Coates' style, is here handled with the utmost delicacy. The climax of the work comes at the end of the tarantella, with the repetition fortissimo of the injunction, after which the main themes resolve themselves in a tranquil and simple statement of great beauty in the closing bars.
Cinderella, successor to The Selfish Giant and The Three Bears, is the third and last of the composer's "phantasies". It is based entirely on the word Cinderella, announced softly in the opening bars, where Cinderella sits alone by the fire, after her sisters have gone to the ball. Soon comes the gentle call of the Fairy Godmother, followed by the sudden and miraculous appearance of carriage and horses, beautiful clothes and the celebrated glass slippers. With the warning to be home by midnight, Cinderella drives off, the horses trotting gaily through the town. She enters the Prince's palace as a waltz is in full swing. After a moment the Prince sees her, inquires who she is, and invites her to dance. There follows the famous slow waltz, which gradually increases in speed and vigour, as more and more dancers join, culminating in the striking of midnight, and the instant evaporation of all Cinderella's happiness. Once more she is in rags by the fire, wondering now whether it was all a dream, yet hardly believing it could be, since she so clearly remembers the waltz music. Meanwhile, in the distance, trumpets are sounding; for the Prince has discovered the glass slipper Cinderella left behind, and troops are to be sent throughout the town to find the girl whose foot the slipper fits. The troops set forth (not a particularly fine body of men, one gathers) and draw near Cinderella's house, where after a moment of suspense it is found that Cinderella is the girl they are looking for, and she is driven off to the palace, where of course she marries and lives happily ever after. Cinderella was first performed at the Eastbourne Festival, 1929, and has since become one of Eric Coates' most widely played works.
No Eric Coates programme would be complete without one of his inimitable marches, and one of the quick waltzes of which he may be called the originator. For this record Stanford Robinson has selected London Bridge (1934) and Footlights (1939), both of which he did much to popularize in the days when he was conductor of the BBC Theatre Orchestra. By the Sleepy Lagoon (1930) needs no intro- duction, neither do the songs I Heard You Singing and Bird Songs at Eventide, though they may be less familiar in this orchestral version, which comes from Two Symphonic Rhapsodies, written in 1933.
Stanford Robinson was responsible for arranging the four selections which made up the second album to be featured on this CD, Edwardian Favourites. He was born in Leeds on 5 July 1904. During his early musical career he played the piano in hotel orchestras, until attending the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied conducting under Sir Adrian Boult. From 1924 to 1966 he was on the staff of the BBC, originally as organiser of the BBC’s London Wireless Chorus in 1924. He conducted the BBC Theatre Orchestra from 1932 to 1946, and was also director of music productions (including opera and operetta) from 1936 to 1946.
From 1946 to 1949 he was opera director and associate conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and he served as conductor of the BBC Opera Orchestra as an opera organiser from 1949 until 1952. Thereafter he served in various capacities (including numerous broadcasts) until his official retirement in 1966, when he went to the southern hemisphere and conducted various orchestras in Australia and New Zealand during the remainder of 1966 and 1967. In 1968 he was appointed chief conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.
Stanford Robinson’s brother Eric achieved even greater public recognition, through his work conducting his orchestra in many early BBC Television programmes, such as Music For You.
David Ades
Fifty years ago Light Music was a regular feature on the new release lists from record companies. Many treasured 78s are now falling out of copyright, so we can all enjoy them again on CDs, sounding better than ever before.
"Pink Champagne"
A Collection of Superb Vintage Light Music
1 CURTAIN TIME (Bob Haymes)
ACQUAVIVA AND HIS ORCHESTRA
2 LOVELY DAY (Tom Wyler)
FRANK CHACKSFIELD AND HIS SINGING STRINGS
3 MUSIC FOR "RIVERS OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND" (Lambert Williamson)
a] SERENE
b] FLOWING
4 CHIMING STRINGS (Clive Richardson)
L’ORCHESTRE DEVEREAUX Conducted by GEORGES DEVEREAUX
5 VANESSA (Bernie Wayne)
MELACHRINO STRINGS Conducted by GEORGE MELACHRINO
6 THE FILM OPENS [ELEVENTH HOUR MELODY] (King Palmer)
LONDON PROMENADE ORCHESTRA Conducted by WALTER COLLINS
7 MELODY IN MOCCASINS (Wilfred Burns)
PHILIP GREEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
8 SEVENTH HEAVEN (Robert Farnon)
DANISH STATE RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
9 GIN-FIZZ (Bolesworth)
FRANK CHACKSFIELD AND HIS SINGING STRINGS
10 VENDETTA (Jones, Armstrong)
RAY MARTIN AND HIS ORCHESTRA
11 CROSS ROADS (Richard Telford)
REGENT CLASSIC ORCHESTRA
12 LAUGHING MARIONETTE (Walter Collins)
JACK HYLTON AND HIS ORCHESTRA
13 PULLING STRINGS (McCann, Bolesworth)
FRANK CHACKSFIELD AND HIS SINGING STRINGS
14 TINKERBELL (King Palmer)
LONDON PROMENADE ORCHESTRA Conducted by WALTER COLLINS
15 TOMBOY (Trevor Duncan)
NEW CONCERT ORCHESTRA Conducted by CEDRIC DUMONT
16 PLAYTIME (Robert Farnon)
DANISH STATE RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
17 THE FALCONS (Charles Williams)
CHARLES WILLIAMS AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA
18 SPEAKEASY (Lewis Gensler)
SIDNEY TORCH AND HIS ORCHESTRA
19 DANCE OF THE HAILSTONES (Kenneth Essex)
LOUIS VOSS AND HIS ORCHESTRA
20 BUBBLE, BUBBLE, BUBBLE [PINK CHAMPAGNE] (Wright, Forrest)
HENRI RENÉ AND HIS ORCHESTRA
21 MURIELLA (Ray Martin)
RAY MARTIN AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA
22 HAPPY TIME (Tom Wyler)
FRANK CHACKSFIELD AND HIS SINGING STRINGS
23 WALTZ IN SWINGTIME (Jerome Kern)
PERCY FAITH AND HIS ORCHESTRA
24 VERADERO (Bernie Wayne)
MUSIC BY CAMARATA
25 WINDY CORNER (Bruce Campbell)
DANISH STATE RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON
26 BAA BAA BLACK SHEEP (Trad. arr. Peter Yorke)
BBC VARIETY ORCHESTRA Conducted by CHARLES SHADWELL
27 DANCING TAMBOURINE (Polla, arr. Morton Gould)
ROBIN HOOD DELL ORCHESTRA Conducted by MORTON GOULD
Living Era CD AJA 5470
Light Music is currently enjoying a welcome, and long-overdue revival. Once again collectors are being given the opportunity to acquire CDs of the kind of music which used to be so familiar around fifty years ago. Generations of radio listeners grew up knowing the names of the famous orchestra leaders that regularly filled their homes with pleasant sounds. Today radio ignores them, but thankfully record companies do not. Following the warm reaction to "Twilight Memories" (CD AJA 5419) in 2002, Living Era is releasing another collection of old favourites, plus hopefully a few pleasant surprises.
Readers of this magazine will recognise many familiar orchestras on the above list, and hopefully they will be glad to be able to acquire pristine new recordings of several old favourites. But there are also some tracks which will not already be in private collections, making this a valuable addition to the catalogue of readily available Light Music.
The American conductor Nicholas Acquaviva did not make a lot of records, but he became known in the USA through his involvement with the Symphony of the Air orchestra, and as organiser and conductor of the New York ‘Pops’ Symphony Orchestra. Bob Haymes (who had a famous brother, the singer Dick Haymes) was also an American actor who appeared in around 20 films in the 1930s and 40s. He dabbled in songwriting (That’s All was his biggest success), but his exciting Curtain Time in this superb version by Acquaviva has become a minor light music classic.
The name ‘Tom Wyler’ hides the true identity of Toni Leutwiler, a Swiss violinist and conductor who was at the forefront of the light music scene in Switzerland during the 1950s. A prolific composer, two of his best-known works, Lovely Day and Happy Time, are heard on this CD; he described them as "joyful and technically demanding compositions which every violinist could not fail to appreciate had been written by a fellow violinist." Here they are performed by Frank Chacksfield and his Singing Strings, in recordings made just a year before he moved to Decca and gained international success with Limelight and Ebb Tide.
In 1950 BBC radio produced a programme called "Rivers of the North of England".Lambert Williamson was commissioned to write some incidental music, and the result was so outstanding that it became familiar for decades afterwards as the theme for a long-running monthly series "The Countryside In …". Despite its enduring popularity with light music lovers, it has never previously been available on a commercial recording. For years collectors have searched in vain for this music, and it has occasionally been featured at London meetings of the Robert Farnon Society. At last an important piece of Light Music is now readily available for enjoying at home.
Clive Richardson was the composer responsible for such gems as Melody on the Move, Holiday Spirit, Shadow Waltz and London Fantasia. He contributed regularly to London publishers’ mood music libraries, and Chiming Strings was heard often in the background of newsreels of the 1950s. Clive was a talented pianist, and was one half of the ‘Four Hands in Harmony’ act with Tony Lowry. Towards the end of his long life he became a member of the Robert Farnon Society, and he made welcome appearances at our London meetings.
When American songwriter Bernie Wayne died in April 1993, it made national news in the USA, because he composed the pop standard Blue Velvet and music for the ‘Miss America’ pageant. But he also wrote a string of catchy instrumentals that were recorded by many light orchestras in the 1950s. Two of his best are featured on this CD: Vanessa by the George Melachrino Strings (with William Hill-Bowen on Harpsichord), and Veradero with the American Salvatore (‘Tutti’) Camarata conducting a fine orchestra of British musicians, probably in London’s Kingsway Hall.
Cedric King Palmer excelled at producing numerous pieces of mood music for various publishers, but he was also highly regarded as an author of musical textbooks. The Film Opens was probably one of his most successful works, due to it being chosen as the theme for "The Eleventh Hour", a popular television series in the USA. Tinkerbell reveals the lighter side of his nature, and both works come from the Paxton library.
Wilfred Burns was also a prolific composer, and he was in demand to score many British films in the 1950s and 60s. Although it originated in the Harmonic Music Library, we have chosen the commercial recording of Melody in Moccasins by Philip Green and his Orchestra for this collection, simply because it is such a sparkling performance.
Robert Farnon hardly needs any introduction to light music admirers (and especially readers of this magazine!). He is widely regarded as one of the finest composers of the last century, and has been responsible for numerous LPs which are now finding appreciative new audiences through their reissue on CD. His famous light music compositions include Jumping Bean, Portrait of a Flirt, Journey Into Melody, Westminster Waltz and The Colditz March. This new CD features two of his works which, although lesser known, possess all the charm of his very best. Seventh Heaven conjures up images of glamorous Hollywood premieres, while Playtime was composed at the piano with his young son Paul on his knees.
It is not uncommon for composers to adopt pseudonyms, and names against tune titles on record labels often only mention surnames. From time to time researchers draw a blank when trying to identify the writers responsible for some attractive pieces, and inevitably there are some in this collection. The two remaining Frank Chacksfield numbers – Gin-Fizz and Pulling Strings – are by Bolesworth (the latter also co-composed by McCann). Chacksfield himself used many different names for his own compositions, but to assume they are his would be pure speculation. One thing is certain: they were both composed by a talented writer. Maybe a reader can tell us more about the mysterious ‘Bolesworth’? If so, we’ll share the information in a future issue.
Ray Martin was one of the leading lights behind EMI’s Columbia label successes in the mid-1950s, and he also had a distinguished career as a composer / arranger / conductor in his own right. His big hit was Marching Strings, but there were many others as well. Before he was signed by EMI, he made a few sides for Decca and Polygon, and two tracks have been selected for this CD. Vendetta is an exciting number from his own pen (he used the pseudonym ‘Chris Armstrong’), but he freely admitted to having been responsible for the tender Muriella. He seems to have only recorded one 78 for Decca, and shortly after Vendetta was issued he moved to EMI’s Columbia label with spectacular results – as can be heard on the two Vocalion collections of his singles (In the Ray Martin Manner CDLK4105 & CDLK4119).
Cross Roads is a bright and breezy number, typical of the kind of mood music that was demanded by films and television in the 1950s. It comes from the London publishers Bosworth, but little seems known about the composer Richard Telford; is this another pseudonym? (If you know the answer, please get in touch!).
It is not always appreciated today that dance bands were responsible for introducing occasional pieces of light music to their audiences. Jack Hylton played the works of Eric Coates and Edward German, but he is in lighter mood with Laughing Marionette, a novelty by Walter Collins, conductor of the London Promenade Orchestra on two tracks on this CD. In 1928 the Jack Hylton Orchestra was undertaking a successful tour of Germany, at the same time that Walter Collins was similarly engaged with his own orchestra. Legend has it that they met in Berlin in November, when this number was recorded. David Ades included this number in one of the "Legends of Light Music" programmes on BBC Radio-2, and the favourable reaction encouraged him to feature it on this new CD. The sound quality for a 1928 78 is quite amazing.
Leonard Trebilco 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, Tomboy being one of the best. This recording was made in Switzerland, under the baton of Cedric Dumont, for many years the leading light music conductor in that country. Leonard Trebilco later achieved public recognition through melodies such as The Girl From Corsica and the theme music for BBC Television’s Dr. Finlay’s Casebook. He is a very prolific composer, and there are many fine examples of his talent waiting to be rediscovered.
Charles Williams has secured his place of honour among British light music composers. His list of superb works include Devil’s Galop (the ‘Dick Barton’ theme), Girls in Grey, The Dream of Olwen, Rhythm on Rails, and literally hundreds of other pieces. He scored many British films – especially during the 1940s – and was responsible for conducting almost the entire Chappell Recorded Music Library during its formative years. Only occasionally did he submit work to other publishers, but one example is his exciting piece The Falcons, which he recorded with his own orchestra for Columbia.
Although composers of light music tended to specialise in the genre, there are many instances where songwriters have also contributed the occasional piece of orchestral music that has caught the public’s attention. The American Lewis E. Gensler was responsible for several popular songs in the 1930s, perhaps the best-known being Love Is Just Around The Corner. Prohibition must have provided some useful inspiration (maybe first-hand knowledge?) because his pulsating Speakeasy seemed a natural for the Sidney Torch treatment.
Rufus Isaacs was a busy composer for various mood music publishers, using a variety of different pseudonyms. He usually chose ‘Kenneth Essex’ when writing bright, cheerful pieces, of which Dance Of The Hailstones is a prime example. Louis Voss made this fine recording for the Bosworth library, not previously available commercially.
We’re back with the songwriters – in this case Robert Wright and George Forrest, probably best-known for their adaptation of Borodin for "Kismet". Bubble, Bubble, Bubble was very popular 50 years ago; it also went under the title Pink Champagne and had a catchy vocal version. But it works extremely well as a purely instrumental number, played here by Henri René and his Orchestra (despite his French sounding name, he hails from New York).
Percy Faith was one of the leading popular orchestral conductors in the USA, although he actually hailed from Canada where a young Robert Farnon played trumpet in his CBC Orchestra. Numerous Faith LPs have been reissued on CD in recent years, but his recording output was so prolific that it is inevitable that some gems remain undiscovered. One such number is Waltz in Swingtime which Jerome Kern composed for the Astaire-Rogers 1937 film musical "Swing Time". It is best-known as a purely instrumental number, and this arrangement by Percy Faith is sparkling – to say the least. It has never before been issued in Britain, and has not made it on to CD anywhere in the world – until now. Alan Bunting assures us that it will be welcomed by keen Faith collectors.
Bruce Campbell is one of several composers who benefited from encouragement, and indeed positive help, from Robert Farnon in their early composing careers for the London publishers Chappells. Windy Corner was one of Bruce’s first pieces, and the Farnon touches are there for all to hear. The two Canadians had worked together since the mid-1940s, with Campbell assisting Robert Farnon on many broadcasts and recording projects. Bruce Campbell went on to compose a vast quantity of mood music, which was much in demand from various publishers.
Few arrangers have managed to resist the temptation to work on traditional melodies, and the 1940s British radio show "I.T.M.A." used to make a weekly feature of such numbers. Peter Yorke was just one of many leading musicians who contributed witty scores, which were played in the programme by the BBC Variety Orchestra conducted by Charles Shadwell. They made few commercial records, so we are lucky that Baa Baa Black Sheep was preserved on shellac for posterity. In the 1930s Peter Yorke had been closely associated with the full, rich orchestral sound of the Louis Levy Orchestra, and he developed this successfully with his own Concert Orchestra for numerous recordings and radio broadcasts in the post-war years. (Some of Peter Yorke’s work for Louis Levy can be heard on the Living Era CD "Music from the Movies – the 1930s" – CD AJA 5445).
This exercise in mining the rich musical seam known as ‘Light Music’ reaches a worthy conclusion with a much sought-after number by a giant of American music – Morton Gould. He arranged a 1927 novelty number called Dancing Tambourine by W.C. Polla for the symphony size Robin Hood Dell Orchestra, thereby transforming a relatively minor work into an enduring light orchestral favourite. Gould was an extremely versatile musician, who had made his name with the public through American radio in the 1930s. He seemed equally at home with classical and popular music, and was particularly supportive of American composers.
Whether you call it Light Music, Concert Music, Easy Listening or Mood Music, the kind of music featured on this CD is gaining in popularity all the time. It provides a refreshing change from the usual output of radio stations, and offers a haven of peace and tranquillity far removed from the outside world. The good news is that there is so much of it waiting to be rediscovered for the 21st Century.
David Ades
This CD has been compiled by David Ades, with audio restoration and remastering by Alan Bunting. It is available from record stores in many countries, and can also be purchased from the RFS Record Service for £8 [US $16].
27
May
SYMPHONY NO.5½, THE ALAMO, SAGA OF A PRAIRIE SCHOOL, PORTRAIT OF A FRONTIER TOWN & THE MAN WHO INVENTED MUSIC
Written by Super UserHis Symphony No. 5½ has been popular for years, but he also wrote a lot more hugely enjoyable works. Music lovers are in for some very pleasant surprises ….
DON GILLIS
NEW SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OF LONDON
Conducted by DON GILLIS
SYMPHONY NO. 5½ [A Symphony For Fun]
a] Perpetual Emotion
b] Spiritual?
c] Scherzofrenia
d] Conclusion!
THE ALAMO
SAGA OF A PRAIRIE SCHOOL (Symphony No. 7)
a] The Vision
b] The People
c] The Dedication
d] The Fulfilment
PORTRAIT OF A FRONTIER TOWN
a] Chamber of Commerce
b] Where the West Begins
c] Ranch House Party
d] Prairie Sunset
e] Main Street - Saturday Night
CD2
THE MAN WHO INVENTED MUSIC Narrator: Jack Kilty
Vocalion CDLK4163
Anyone who can compose a piece of music called "Symphony No. 5½" is almost demanding not to be taken too seriously, yet for half a century the privileged music lovers who discovered this vibrant work in the early days of the long-playing record have wondered what other treasures remain undiscovered.
Don Gillis himself conducted this work in 1950 for Decca at London’s Kingsway Hall, thereby bringing him to the attention of British admirers of bright, modern orchestral sounds. In his native USA, Gillis was already known through his work on radio, notably with Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony. The fact that his talents were subsequently largely ignored by the record industry is more an indictment of blinkered attitudes towards new works, with their uncertain sales potential, rather than an objective criticism of his composing abilities.
Don E. Gillis was born in Cameron, Missouri on 16 June 1912. As a boy he studied both trumpet and trombone, and his enthusiasm and expertise gained him acceptance into his local Rotary Club band and, naturally, his school orchestra. While still at school he formed a jazz band, playing his own arrangements as well as original works he composed himself.
When Don was 17 his basic schooling was complete, and the Gillis family moved to Forth Worth, Texas. In 1931 he enrolled in Texas Christian University as a scholarship trombone player, and studied composition with Keith Mixson. He appears to have made an immediate impact, becoming student director of the University’s popular Horned Frog Band during his junior year. Four years later he graduated with both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, before going on to advanced studies in composition and orchestration with Roy T. Wills and Wilfred Bain at North Texas State University in Denton.
For two years he worked as staff arranger and producer for a local Fort Worth radio station WBAP, then moved on to Chicago to become a member of the production team for NBC’s affiliate. Presumably his radio work allowed him some spare time, because he continued his association with Texas Christian University where he taught trombone and became the University’s band director, a post he held from 1935 until 1942. The academic life must have attracted him: in 1944 he graduated from North Texas State University with another Master’s degree, and he also studied at Louisiana State and Columbia Universities. In 1948 the degree of Doctor of Music was conferred upon him by Texas Christian University.
Don Gillis had also been bitten by the composing bug, and around 1937 the first of his numerous works (over 200 in total) began to appear and, more importantly, get published and performed. One of the first, The Crucifixion – a cantata for narrator, soloists, chorus and orchestra reflected the Christian influence of his years at university. But soon he became noticed for the wit and American humour in many of his works, early examples being The Woolyworm (for narrator and orchestra), and Thoughts Provoked on Becoming a Prospective Papa. Clearly catchy titles also appealed to him, such as his January February March – a delightful concert piece, vibrant with energy, with the theme passing several times between the brass and the woodwinds; it appears briefly in The Man Who Invented Music.
Asked about his early influences, he recalled that in his youth "the band, the square dance, the hymn tune and early jazz were very much part of my environment … I am fundamentally a melodist … I have not embraced any particular school of writing but have been influenced orchestrally by R. Strauss, Sibelius, and Debussy … My greatest enjoyment in composition is writing for the stage."
His work at NBC in Chicago had been noticed, and in 1944 they brought him to New York to serve as chief producer and writer for the prestigious NBC Symphony Orchestra concerts. He was also required to play trombone, compose, arrange and provide scripts for music and drama programmes originating from New York City. This involved working with the legendary Arturo Toscanini, with whom he developed a close personal friendship. Gillis remained in this capacity until NBC disbanded the orchestra in 1954.
But the musicians were unhappy with NBC’s actions. They wanted to keep the orchestra alive, and Don Gillis headed a musicians’ committee which re-organised the orchestra which eventually reappeared as the Symphony of the Air. Unable to attract a permanent musical director, the orchestra finally disappeared from the musical scene in 1962.
Possibly due to his academic background, during his later years Don Gillis became involved in various administrative positions in the music world, thus allowing him to pursue his strong interest in music education in mixed media. From 1958 to 1961 he served as vice-president of the Interlochen Music Camp in Michigan, which at that time was still being managed by its founder Joseph Maddy. He became chairman of the music department at Southern Methodist University in 1967/68, then he accepted a similar post heading the fine arts department at Dallas Baptist College from 1968 to 1972.
In 1973 he was appointed Director of the Center for Media Arts Studies and composer-in-residence at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, remaining in this post until his sudden death from a heart attack on 10 January 1978, at the age of 65.
Don Gillis once wrote: "I think it is unimportant for a composer to wonder about what posterity thinks of him. It is more important that he be faithful to his own beliefs in music. He must be the final critic, and he must write what is his own, regardless of current trends or popularity. If his music reflects folk quality, it must be because it is a natural thing, not a contrived use of folk material merely to be ‘American’. Honesty, above all things, is the important ingredient a composer needs."
Undoubtedly the music of Don Gillis exhibits the vitality so often associated with the growth of the great nation into which he was born. Stuart Triff described him accurately as a person who "wrote ‘feel good’ music to make people happy. For this uniquely American composer, every night was a Saturday night hoedown!"
Following his death, Don Gillis’s widow Barbara made a major donation of his archives and memorabilia to the North Texas Music Library. Researchers can now study his manuscripts and copies of his works, an unpublished autobiography, pictures and scrapbooks. The archive also includes a complete set of tapes from the radio series Toscanini: The Man Behind the Legend, a sincere tribute to the ‘Maestro’ which Gillis compiled in 1967.
Apart from the works included on this CD, the compositions of Don Gillis represent a major contribution to the musical culture of his country. It is to be hoped that, one day, some more of his symphonies (he wrote twelve, although two were unnumbered) will attract new performers, who may also be drawn to other orchestral works such as The Panhandle Suite (1937), Intermission – 10 minutes (1940), Prairie Poem (1943), Short Overture to an Unwritten Opera (1944), To an Unknown Soldier (1945), Rhapsody for Harp and Orchestra (1946), Tulsa – a Symphonic Portrait in Oil (1950), Dude Ranch (1967) and maybe his two piano concertos. There are also several operas, pieces for bands, chamber music and a vast body of choral works.
Symphony No. 5½ [A Symphony For Fun]
When asked why this work had such an unusual title, Gillis simply replied that he wrote it between his Symphony No. 5 and Symphony No. 6! This folksy humour is certainly borne out in this entertaining work, which must have surprised many listeners on first hearing, who normally associate the word ’symphony’ with something much more serious, and usually far less accessible. You only need to hear the first movement Perpetual Emotion once, to be convinced that music can, indeed, be fun! Gillis composed this, his best-known work in 1946, and it received its premiere performance by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops the following May. It reached a much wider audience through its first radio broadcast on 21 September 1947 by the NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini. It is reported that the great conductor could be heard chuckling or saying "Bravo" during the performance, and even the audience could not resist from tiny bursts of applause between the movements. That performance was recorded on a V-Disc for the Armed Forces Radio Service, but never released commercially. Three years later the composer himself was brought to London to conduct this work (and others on this CD) at the acoustically excellent Kingsway Hall, with the New Symphony Orchestra of London, an ensemble used regularly by Decca at that time, comprising many of the top players drawn from the capital’s leading symphony orchestras. When asked to describe this work, the composer explained that it was "… based on idiomatic devices found in jazz and other folk sources indigenous to the American musical scene." The result is music in rare good humour which, through its brilliant orchestration and subtle rhythms, has danced its way into amazing popularity.
The Alamo
This evocative tone poem was composed in 1947, and is part of a trilogy on symbols of American freedom. The serene opening soon suggests the dramatic events that were to follow at this fort in Texas, with the melodious pastoral sounds lapsing into darker passages hinting that all is not well. The tension gradually builds, eventually erupting into the full scale conflict between the whites and the Native Americans that has become a part of American history. The composer has cleverly interwoven ‘traditional cowboy music’ with tender passages sometimes reflecting the European composers he admits have influenced him. But such images are quickly dispelled by folksy themes among the turmoil of the battle, with impressive writing for both strings and brass. The tragic aftermath of the battle is finally tempered by a brief return to a ‘western’ theme from the opening, suggesting that good will eventually triumph over evil, but in this instance at a terrible price. Apparently Gillis himself did not intend this to be a descriptive work in the sense of gunfire and battlefield. He said: "It is rather an attempt to portray musically the deep feelings of emotion that arise in the contemplation of the heroism and courage expressed by the defenders of the Alamo as they gave their lives in the defence of freedom." It received its first performance in Texas by the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dr. Max Reiter.
Saga of a Prairie School (Symphony No. 7)
This work was first performed in May 1948 with the composer conducting the Symphony Orchestra of the School of Fine Arts, Texas Christian University. It had been written to celebrate the University’s diamond jubilee anniversary, and is dedicated to the spirit that originally created it. The four movements are played without pause, and follow a spiritual rather than historical approach. The music of The Vision opens with a pastoral theme, reflecting the land … the prayerful willingness of the founding fathers to devote their lives to a cause … their determination and zeal is evidenced in the militant spirit in which they work and play. From the spiritual theme, the entire symphony is built. In the second movement, The People, the music portrays the open heartedness and friendly hospitality of southwestern folk. The Dedication offers a prayer for guidance and strength … of the reason for being … and of the steadfastness of the ideals of the men who make the school. Finally The Fulfilment provides a prayerful tribute to the present glory and future power of the university, incorporating its Alma Mater Hymn. It is not uncommon for parents or friends of pupils to compose special works in recognition of academic institutions. Sometimes the results can be self-indulgent, downright boring or simply painful to endure. But it would be hard to imagine that the Texas Christian University could have been other than delighted with this truly magnificent paean of praise in its honour.
Portrait of a Frontier Town
The ‘town’ in this musical portrait is Fort Worth, Texas. The first movement, Chamber of Commerce, offers a tour of the town (known by its affectionate nickname ‘Cowtown’). But by the mid-20th Century cattle no longer provide the town’s main wealth, with modern industries, skyscrapers, colleges and universities alongside the stockyards and sites of its military history. It is also the home of WBAP, the radio station known throughout the southwest through its familiar cowbell. The people have also changed, with the latest fashions rubbing shoulders with oilmen and ranchers. The second movement is called Where the West begins – the slogan of the city indicating the point where the Eastern USA leaves off and the West commences. Gillis portrays the feel of the wide open spaces, and the prairie lands peacefully existing in a mood of nostalgic contentment. Ranch House Partyreveals the locals in party mood, enjoying traditional square dancing. Don Gillis occasionally interrupts the fiddles with snatches of what he regarded as ‘rhythms of today’, but don’t forget that he composed this work before the nation’s youth adopted rock’n’roll! The fourth movement Prairie Sunset captures that magical time of day when the sky assumes rapidly changing colours of pink, gold and purple, before darkness finally descends. Gillis completes his musical portrait of Fort Worth with Main Street – Saturday Night, but the revels in Cowtown are really no different from any other place on earth where locals like to let their hair down at the end of a long working week.
The Man Who Invented Music
This work for narrator and orchestra was scripted by Claris Ross and Don Gillis, especially for the U.S. Steel NBC Summer Symphony series on radio, and it received its first performance on 22 August 1949 conducted by Antal Dorati. It is based on an original idea by the composer, in which a Grandfather tells a very ‘tall story’ about how he invented music, in order to persuade his young grandchild Wendy to go to sleep. On this recording the narrator is Jack Kilty who, at the time, was a young American musical comedy star who was making a name for himself in the USA in Broadway shows such as "Oklahoma" and "Make Mine Manhattan".
It is perhaps surprising that it was a British record company, Decca (known as London in North America), that offered the American composer Don Gillis the opportunity to conduct definitive recordings of some of his major works. He came to London in mid-career, when his considerable talents had already been recognised, although we now know that he still had a lot of wonderful music to offer the world. These rare recordings are of great historical interest, but more importantly they also provide the listener with some hugely enjoyable music.
Readers who would like to explore more of the music of Don Gillis, are advised of the following CD released in the USA:
DON GILLIS – Music inspired by the American Southwest: Symphony X [The Big D]; Shindig; Encore Concerto; Symphony No. 5½. – Albany Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Alan Miller. Albany TROY391.
David Ades
Around fifty years ago collectors eagerly awaited the latest Melachrino HMV 78 of show tunes. That great songwriting era is recaptured again on a new Living Era CD
THE MELACHRINO ORCHESTRA
Conducted by George Melachrino
GREAT FILM AND SHOW TUNES
The Classic HMV Selections
1 "CALL ME MADAM" (Irving Berlin)
Washington Square Dance; You’re Just In Love; Marrying For Love; The Best Thing For You; They Like Ike; Once Upon A Time Today; It’s A Lovely Day Today; The Ocarina; You’re Just In Love.
2 "KISS ME KATE" (Cole Porter)
Another Op’nin’ Another Show; So In Love; Too Darn Hot; Why Can’t You Behave?; Wunderbar; Bianca; Were Thine That Special Face; Always True To You In My Fashion; So In Love.
3 "SHOW BOAT" (Jerome Kern)
Cotton Blossom; Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man; Why Do I Love You; Make Believe; Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man; Bill; You Are Love; Make Believe; Ol’ Man River.
4 "CAROUSEL" (Richard Rodgers)
Carousel Waltz; If I Loved You; What’s The Use Of Wond’rin’; A Real Nice Clambake; Mister Snow; You’ll Never Walk Alone; June Is Bustin’ Out All Over.
5 "THE DANCING YEARS" (Ivor Novello)
Uniform; I Can Give You The Starlight; Wings Of Sleep; My Life Belongs To You; Waltz Of My Heart; Leap Year Waltz.
6 "THREE LITTLE WORDS" (Kalmar, Ruby)
I Love You So Much; Nevertheless; Who’s Sorry Now (Kalmar, Ruby, Snyder); Come On Papa; Thinking Of You; So Long! Oo Long; My Sunny Tennessee; All Alone Monday; Three Little Words.
7 "YOU’RE MY EVERYTHING"
Varsity Drag (De Sylva, Brown, Henderson); I May Be Wrong (Ruskin, Sullivan); On The Good Ship Lollipop (Clare, Whiting); Ain’t She Sweet Yellen, Ager); You’re My Everything (Dixon, Young, Warren); The Charleston (Mack, Johnson); Would You Like To Take A Walk (Dixon, Rose, Warren); California Here I Come (Jolson, De Sylva, Meyer).
8 COLE PORTER FANTASY (Cole Porter)
Just One Of Those Things; What Is This Thing Called Love; You Do Something To Me; Easy To Love; Night And Day; Anything Goes.
9 GERSHWIN FANTASY (George Gershwin)
The Man I Love; Fascinating Rhythm; Embraceable You; Lisa; Summertime; Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off; Love Walked In; Rhapsody In Blue; I Got Rhythm. (Chappell, NCB, BIEM)
Living Era CD AJA 5469
In the years immediately following the end of the Second World War, and before long-playing records eventually found their way into most music lovers’ homes, 78 rpm discs were still being purchased in large quantities by keen record collectors. They offered a wide range of music but, because they were relatively expensive (and highly taxed as luxuries), they were bought mainly by people now regarded as ‘the older generation’. Teenagers had yet to bring their overwhelming influence to bear on the singles market, so the majority of the popular records that were issued featured what might be termed ‘straight’ singers and light orchestras and dance bands.
Music from the latest films and shows always attracted attention, and record companies were quick to bring out their own versions of the biggest hits. The Melachrino Orchestra produced a steady stream of 78s featuring tunes from the major shows, tastefully arranged and usually lasting over eight minutes – the playing time then available using both sides of a 12" disc. This collection features some of the best from that period, which produced melodies of such charm and quality that many of them are still remembered today, over half a century later. In the case of American musicals, there was often an embargo on their music being played in Britain until the show eventually opened in London’s West End, which explains why some of George Melachrino’s selections were recorded a year or two after the shows first appeared on Broadway.
"Call Me Madam" was just one of many successes by the prolific Irving Berlin. The show first opened at Broadway’s Imperial Theatre in New York on 12 October 1950, where it ran for 644 performances. In London it opened at the Coliseum in March 1952 and lasted for 14 months. It told the story of Sally Adams, ‘the hostess with the mostest’, who became the US Ambassador to the tiny Grand Duchy of Lichtenburg, captivating the handsome Prime Minister, and encouraging the romance of her aide with an enchanting young Princess. Tunes such as It’s a Lovely Day Today and You’re Just in Love soon became very popular. The war hero General Eisenhower, who eventually became President of the USA, is remembered in the number They Like Ike.
"Kiss Me Kate" boasted words and music by Cole Porter, and it contains some of his most memorable melodies. The story revolves around the performance in Baltimore of a musical version of Shakespeare’s "Taming of the Shrew", with some of the characters in the play closely mirrored by the players. It was first seen at the New Century Theatre on Broadway on 30 December 1948 (1077 performances) but didn’t reach London’s Coliseum Theatre until 8 March 1951, where it notched up 501 performances; it has since enjoyed several successful revivals. The show’s big show-stopper is Brush Up Your Shakespeare which, for some reason, Melachrino omitted from his selection. But all the other hits are here, notably Wunderbar (a sarcastic ‘dig’ at middle-European operetta) and that great opening number Another Op’nin’, Another Show. When filmed by MGM in 1953 it was produced in 3-D, although the majority of audiences will have only seen the flat version. When 3-D television eventually arrives (surely it should have been invented by now?) the special effects will finally be appreciated by the millions for whom they were intended.
"Show Boat" was Jerome Kern’s masterpiece, with the story centred on one of the many American riverboats in the 1880s that featured travelling shows. It was packed with hits including Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man, Why Do I Love You and Ol’ Man River. The original novel by Edna Ferber was ahead of its time, dealing with racial prejudice in the southern states of the USA. The show opened at Broadway’s Ziegfeld Theatre on 27 December 1927, and ran for 575 performances. It soon reached London’s Drury Lane Theatre, lasting 350 performances after its opening on 3 May 1928. George Melachrino’s recording was made in response to the 1951 MGM Technicolor film starring Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel and Ava Gardner.
"Carousel" provided the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II with one of their biggest successes, although it took a while to gain its big reputation internationally, thanks to the 1956 film version by 20th Century-Fox starring Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones. World War 2 was still in its dying throes when the show opened at New York’s Majestic Theatre on 19 April 1945, enjoying 890 performances. It did not reach London until June 1950, but had a good run of 566 shows.
"The Dancing Years" is the one British musical in this collection, written and composed by Ivor Novello, who (together with Noel Coward and Vivian Ellis) ensured that the pre-war theatre scene in Britain was not dominated by overseas productions. Unfortunately World War 2 was approaching when the show opened at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on 23 March 1939, resulting in its early closure after 187 performances. It was set in Vienna at the start of the century, and its frothy storyline was, perhaps, out of keeping with the times. But the music was captivating, and it gained a new lease of life when the show was filmed in 1949.
When the supply of Broadway shows occasionally dried up, Hollywood was quick to fill their shooting schedules with their own ‘biopics’ featuring popular composers. The storylines did not worry too much about factual accuracy, but the concocted plots usually allowed for the subject’s ‘biggest hits’ to be performed by the studio’s current stars (if they couldn’t sing, they were dubbed). "Three Little Words" featured Fred Astaire and Red Skelton in MGM’s 1950 story of the songwriting partnership of Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby. "Bert… and Harry who …?" asked cinemagoers; they didn’t know the names, but certainly recognised the tunes. BBC Television used Melachrino’s version of the title song as the signature tune for its quiz show "Down You Go". Apparently this 78 is now quite rare, so its inclusion on this CD should please keen Melachrino collectors.
"You’re My Everything" was filmed by 20th Century-Fox in 1949. Recalling those days, its star Dan Dailey said: "Musicals were probably one of the biggest grossing things they had at Fox, but they always did the Gay Nineties musicals and they always wanted you to do the same dance in every picture. You could change the wardrobe and the music, but that’s about all you could change." Dailey’s co-star in this film was Anne Baxter, and the music was selected from many different writers, all representative of the period covered by the unlikely tale of a Boston socialite who marries a dancer and becomes a movie star.
To complete this reminder of Melachrino’s great selections, we dip again into the works of the great Cole Porter, and then remember perhaps the most gifted songwriter of them all, George Gershwin. Cole Porter Fantasy emphasises the quality of Porter’s writing, when you note that all of the six main tunes featured have become standards. But there is far more in this selection than that; the arranger (it was probably William Hill-Bowen) has included snatches of many other Porter classics, some lasting only a second or two. The opening and closing moments are Begin the Beguine; linking Just One Of Those Things and What Is This Thing Called Love you’ll spot It’s D’Lovely; and just before You Do Something To Me there are snatches of Let’s Do It and Rosalie … and so on. Such gems can be spotted by alert listeners throughout this CD – perhaps a parlour game for music lovers?
Gershwin Fantasy only scratches the surface of the great body of work left behind by this musical genius, who died on 11 July 1937 aged
38. George Gershwin had been at the forefront of American shows and films for less than two decades, but his influence lasted long after he left us, in movies such as "An American In Paris" (1951). One wonders what he would have achieved, had he been allowed a normal life span.
The man behind all these vibrant selections was George Melachrino. Born in London in 1909, 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, 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. His busy schedule of composing and film work meant that he needed the assistance of a fine team of arrangers, and most of the selections on this CD were probably created by his right-hand man William Hill-Bowen; Arthur Wilkinson is another likely candidate. There are also touches of the maestro himself, and Hill-Bowen (who later went on to international fame with his own orchestra) is the featured pianist on many numbers.
George Melachrino died in his bath on 18 June 1965 at the early age of 56. He has left behind a superb legacy of recorded music, which is gradually being rediscovered in this new century.
David Ades
A more complete biography of George Melachrino appears in JIM 148 (September 2001). This new CD has been compiled by David Ades from his own collection, and the excellent digital audio restoration and remastering has been in the capable hands of Alan Bunting. The CD can be obtained from all good record shops, and you can also purchase copies from the RFS Record Service for £8 [US $16].
Two magnificent Decca LPs are finally restored to the catalogue, through this generous new 2-CD set from Vocalion
FRANK CHACKSFIELD AND HIS ORCHESTRA
"Mediterranean Moonlight" CD 1
1 EL RELICARIO (Padilla); 2 APRIL IN PORTUGAL (Ferrao); 3 FAREWELL TO NAPOLI Cottrau, arr. Leon Young); 4 LADY OF SPAIN (Evans, Reaves, Damerell); 5 MAKE IT SOON (Salvador, Pon); 6 TINA (Grosz, Kennedy); 7 VALENCIA (Padilla); 8 BLUE VENETIAN WATERS (Kaper, Surmann, Kahn); 9 ISLE OF CAPRI (Kennedy, Grosz); 10 THE STORY OF TINA (Katrivanou, Hassall); 11 ARRIVEDERCI DARLING (Rascel); 12 TESORO MIO (Becucci, arr. Leon Young); 13 MAJORCA (Gaste, Bonnett); 14 CARNIVAL OF VENICE (Frosini)
"Lovely Lady" CD 2
The Music of Jimmy McHugh
1 I’M IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (McHugh, Fields); 2 LOVELY LADY (McHugh, Koehler); 3 ON THE SUNNY SIDE OF THE STREET (McHugh, Fields); 4 DON’T BLAME ME (McHugh, Fields); 5 I CAN’T GIVE YOU ANYTHING BUT LOVE; (McHugh, Fields); 6 BLUE AGAIN (McHugh, Fields); 7 I’M SHOOTING HIGH (McHugh, Koehler); 8 A LOVELY WAY TO SPEND AN EVENING (McHugh, Adamson); 9 CUBAN LOVE SONG (McHugh, Fields, Stothart); 10 EXACTLY LIKE YOU (McHugh, Fields); 11 I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT YOU’RE IN LOVE WITH ME (McHugh , Gaskill); 12 GOOD-BYE BLUES (McHugh, Fields, Johnson); 13 I COULDN’T SLEEP A WINK LAST NIGHT (McHugh, Adamson); 14 DINNER AT EIGHT (McHugh, Fields)
Vocalion CDLK4162 [2 CDs for the price of 1]
When these Long-Playing records were first released by Decca early in 1957, Frank Chacksfield had already achieved considerable success and recognition internationally. The idea of a ‘concept album’ had, by now, been generally accepted by record companies, allowing conductors such as Chacksfield the freedom to choose certain areas and styles of music which they considered would appeal to their fans across the world. This was a notable improvement on the sometimes haphazard collection of singles which had been a feature of many LPs in the early days of this new phenomenon of the music business. As the 1950s dawned post-war austerity was still an unhappy fact of life, but fortunately things gradually improved as the decade progressed. Chacksfield’s choice of music associated with the Mediterranean struck a familiar chord with the pioneers of the package holiday boom that was just around the corner.
Mediterranean Moonlight is a tribute to that beautiful inland sea that borders so many countries associated with what has become known as the cradle of civilisation. It is practically tideless (contrary to the erroneous lyrics of Isle of Capri) and struggles to keep a balance between the conflicting demands of tourism, and the necessity for the locals living on its shores to be able to sustain a living from fishing and generally going about their business in deep waters.
Composers have long found it to be an inspiration, but few conductors have assembled such a wonderful collection of arrangements in honour of this beautiful part of the world.
Lovely Lady is a tribute to a talented songwriter who never quite achieved the fame of his contemporaries such as Berlin, Gershwin and Porter, but nevertheless entertained millions with his charming and catchy melodies. Jimmy McHugh was born on 10 July 1894, and after a short spell as an office boy at Boston’s Opera House he moved on to the local offices of Irving Berlin’s publishing company. In those early days of the 20th century music publishers employed numerous song-pluggers, who would take the latest sheet music to cinemas, theatres and music stores, and perform songs to encourage people to buy the scores. A really popular song could sell hundreds of thousands of copies, but with radio and talking pictures some years ahead in the future, the potential customers needed to hear what they would be buying.
Young Jimmy soon decided that he wanted to write songs, and in 1921 Emaline was the first one that was accepted by a publisher. This encouraged him to move to New York, where he concentrated on writing scores for the Cotton Club revues in Harlem. He was partly responsible for bringing an unknown pianist named Duke Ellington before a wider public.
Like most composers, McHugh preferred to let others put words to his melodies, and many of his biggest successes resulted from his collaboration with Dorothy Fields, a New York schoolteacher (and the daughter of a comedian) he met in 1927. Other lyric writers included Clarence Gaskill and Harold Adamson.
Jimmy McHugh died in Beverly Hills, California, on 23 May 1969 aged 74. In his later life he enjoyed the French paintings and antique silver that his massive earnings had allowed him to accumulate. "How do I write a song?" he once said. "Well, I get titles and write them down on a piece of paper. Sooner or later I may write them up – when I feel that fresh feeling coming on. Maybe one day you’re walking along the street and you start humming". Many of his melodies were composed on the upright piano which George Gershwin once owned.
Frank Chacksfield was born Francis Charles Chacksfield in Battle, Sussex, on 9 May 1914; he died on 9 June 1995 aged 81 in Kent, having suffered for several years from Parkinson’s Disease. 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.
After serving an ‘apprenticeship’ accompanying singers, the first Frank Chacksfield singles in his own right were released in 1951 with several sides for Polygon, Columbia, Parlophone and Oriole. Although they were enjoyable, these early recordings were not big sellers, and Chacksfield had to negotiate a new record contract. Decca already had star names such as Mantovani, Robert Farnon and Stanley Black making successful albums, and this probably encouraged them to seek another light orchestra to add to the list. Frank Chacksfield was duly signed up, and in 1953 he formed a 40-piece orchestra with a large string section.
His very first 78 recorded for Decca in April - Charlie Chaplin’s themes for his film "Limelight" - won him a Gold Disc through its big success in the USA. In Britain it earned him the New Musical Express ‘Record of the Year’ award. His second 78 "Ebb Tide" became the first-ever British non-vocal disc to reach No. 1 in the American charts, providing a second Gold Disc. American juke-box operators, in a nation-wide poll, voted Chacksfield the most promising new orchestra of the year. Rarely can a record company have experienced such great success with the first two releases by a new signing. [These numbers, and many of his other early Decca 78s, can be found on the Vocalion CD "Dinner at Eight-Thirty" – CDLK4109].
Following his great success with his Decca recordings, in August 1954 the BBC invited Frank Chacksfield to present his orchestra on television, and these shows continued, on and off, until 1964 when he conducted several half-hour programmes in the "Best of Both Worlds" series on the newly-launched BBC-2 channel, which were sold to some other countries. He also became an almost permanent fixture on BBC Radio in "Limelight", "Melody Hour" etc. As a child he had suffered from a slight stutter, but the friendly manner in which he conquered this affliction somehow added to his charm when he introduced his own programmes.
But it was his steady flow of long-playing records which ensured Chacksfield’s continuing popularity and high public profile. Some of his best remembered include: "Evening in Paris", "Music of Noel Coward", "Evening in Rome", "Broadway Melody", "South Sea Island Magic", "In the Mystic East", "Film Festival", collections of Academy Award-winning songs, and the two fine albums included on this 2-CD collection. "Mediterranean Moonlight", in particular, is enhanced by some exceptional lush scores from the pen of Frank Chacksfield’s long-time associate, the talented arranger Leon Young.
David Ades November 2002
After years of neglect, many of Cyril Stapleton’s finest singles from the 1950s are available once more on a new Vocalion CD
CYRIL STAPLETON AND HIS ORCHESTRA The Decca Singles Collection
1 HIGHWAY PATROL (Llewellyn) F10793 1956; 2 ELEPHANTS' TANGO (Bernard Landes) F10488 1955; 3 THE MAIDS OF MADRID (Hamilton) F10793 1956; 4 GABRIELLE (Hayward Morris) F10488 1955; 5 THE ITALIAN THEME (Giacomazzi) F10703 1956; 6 DOLL DANCE (Brown) F11257# 1960; 7 TEENAGE LULLABY (Stevens, Hamilton) F11013 1958; 8 THE RED BALLOON (Earley, Hamilton) F10850 1957; 9 STRINGS ON PARADE (Ray Martin) F10322* 1954; 10 FOR ALWAYS (Valente, Tagliaferri, Parsons) F10322* 1954; 11 CARNAVALITO (Linda, Zaldiver) F10208* 1953; 12 COME NEXT SPRING (Steiner, Adelson) F10703 1956; 13 THE MAN WHO PLAYS THE MANDOLINO (GUAGLIONE); (Fanciulla, Bergman, Keith) F10850 1957; 14 AVA (Salvador) F10359* 1954; 15 ELEANORA (Arendo) F10359* 1954; 16 'THE MAN BETWEEN' –THEME (John Addison) F10208* 1953; 17 MEET MR. CALLAGHAN (Eric Spear) F9974* 1952; 18 FIDDLE-DELPHIA (Hamilton) F11013 1958; 19 HAVANA MERRY-GO-ROUND (Lenard) ; F11257# 1960; 20 BLUE STAR (THE 'MEDIC' THEME) (Heyman, Young) F10559 1955; 21 MEXICAN MADNESS (Hamilton, Earley) F10456 1955; 22 FANFARE BOOGIE (Fahey, Kaye) F10470 1955; 23 FORGOTTEN DREAMS (Leroy Anderson) F10912 1957; 24 WHICH END BITES F11049 1958; 25 'NORTH WEST FRONTIER' F11180 1959; 26 VOLARE (Domenico Modugno) F11049 1958; 27 TANGO MAMBO F10456 1955; 28 THE HAPPY WHISTLER F10735 1956; 29 MAGIC FINGERS F10686 1956; 30 GUADALCANAL MARCH (Richard Rodgers) F10308* 1954; Decca singles * F series 78 rpm 10 inch discs only; # F issued as 45-F on 45 rpm 7 inch discs only; all other tracks issued as both F & 45-F series , 78 & 45 rpm discs
Vocalion CDLK4154
During the 1950s and 1960s, Cyril Stapleton was a well-known orchestra leader in Britain and overseas, thanks to his regular BBC broadcasts and his many recordings. Like his fellow bandleaders, he regularly made ‘singles’ to appeal to the record buying public who wanted to take home the latest catchy melody. As the 1950s progressed, the familiar 10" 78 rpm record gradually gave way to the smaller 7" 45 rpm record, and "45s" were to remain highly collectable until well into the 1980s, when the compact disc took over.
Looking back today, it may be surprising to discover some of the tunes which were issued by record companies around 50 years ago. Things are so different in the 21st century, with ‘single’ CDs concentrating on repertoire that caters almost exclusively for young people with tastes in music that reflect their individual lifestyles. Once upon a time gramophone records could be enjoyed by all the family; today we all have our own preferences, but thankfully the invention of the compact disc has resulted in more music than ever before becoming available.
Which is a roundabout way of saying that, if you don’t enjoy today’s latest sounds, there are many CDs on the market to remind you of how things used to be.
Television was making great strides in the 1950s, and several tracks played by the Cyril Stapleton Orchestra attracted attention through their use as regular signature tunes. "Highway Patrol" (1955-59) was an early American police series, with a great theme credited to ‘Ray Llewellyn’, although this is widely believed to be a pseudonym for David Rose (of Holiday for Strings and The Stripper fame).
But perhaps the most famous piece of television music on this CD is the number which closes this collection – Richard Rodgers’ Guadalcanal March from that landmark NBC television series "Victory At Sea" (1952-53).
Light music is renowned for the many composers who use pseudonyms. Several catchy numbers on this CD include the name ‘Hamilton’; this surname has been chosen by some important people such as the Dorsey Brothers in the USA, and pianist Monia Liter in England. But ‘Clyde Hamilton’ is definitely Cyril Stapleton, so it can be safely assumed that titles such as The Maids of Madrid, Teenage Lullaby, The Red Balloon and Mexican Madness are being conducted in a manner that the composer would entirely approve. The co-composer of some of these works is ‘Robert Earley’, who is better known as the conductor Bob Sharples; but ‘Bob Sharples’ is also a pseudonym used by Robert Frederick Standish.
The remaining numbers in this collection provide an entertaining snapshot of the light and popular music scene in the 1950s, before rock’n’roll changed everything, although its effects can be heard in Nacio Herb Brown’s 1920s fox trot Doll Dance, given a 1960 spruce-up. Many novelties will probably sound familiar, even if their names have long been forgotten. Cyril Stapleton wasn’t recognised for a particular style (in the same way as Mantovani with his cascading strings), but he always provided something that had a special touch, thereby distinguishing it from his peers. So when you hear his versions of popular numbers such as Elephant Tango or Carnavalito you know that you will not be hearing carbon copies of other records. And there can be few other conductors who offered their fans such varied sounds and styles, as this fascinating collection undoubtedly confirms.
Cyril Stapleton was born on 31 December 1914 at Mapperley, Nottingham, in the east midlands of England. He enlisted in the Royal Air Force during World War II where he served for five years, initially as an air gunner.
During his last year in the RAF he was stationed in Uxbridge where he became a member of the RAF Symphony Orchestra. This rekindled an earlier interest in symphonic music, and back in civilian life he decided to concentrate on this area of music. At one particular time he was a member of three orchestras: the London Symphony, the National Symphony and the Philharmonia Orchestra.
But having to keep playing the same old classical repertoire started to pall, and in 1947 he was back in London’s West End with his own band. With added strings in 1948, the Stapleton band attracted a wider audience, helped by appearances on radio shows such as "Hit Parade" and "Golden Slipper".
His fame was assured in 1952, when the BBC Dance Orchestra was changed to the BBC Show Band, and Cyril Stapleton was appointed as its conductor. This was the BBC’s prestige outfit for the playing of popular music, employing the finest musicians and arrangers, and the first programme went out on the Light Programme on 2 October 1952. Not only did the band attract the top British singers, but American entertainers such as Frank Sinatra and Nat ‘King’ Cole were also happy to appear as guests.
The Show Band was broadcasting three times a week (in various forms) but all this came to an end on 28 June 1957, to the dismay of its many fans. Despite much criticism, the BBC refused to reverse its decision to ‘kill’ the band. Cyril kept busy touring with his own orchestra, making records and broadcasting, and appearing around the country in theatres and dance halls. This continued until the mid-1960s, when he was appointed an Artists and Repertoire Manager at Pye Records.
Sadly he died aged only 59 on 25 February 1974, but he has left us with a fine collection of recordings, and his singles rediscovered for this CD prove what a thoroughly competent and versatile musician he was.
For a more complete biography of Cyril Stapleton, please see ‘Journal Into Melody’ issue 149 [December 2001].
David Ades November 2002
Here is a brand new Mantovani CD, compiled by two of his ardent admirers, that is guaranteed to fill gaps in many collections. This is the first time since Mantovani's last LP in 1976, that any 'new' material has appeared.
The Collector's Mantovani - Volume 1
1. Toyshop Ballet; 2. When The Lilac Blooms Again; 3. Swedish Rhapsody; 4. American Gypsy; 5. The Heart of Budapest; 6. The Theme From Moulin Rouge; 7. Vola Colomba; 8. Jamaican Rumba; 9. Valse Campestre; 10. Call Of The West; 11. Dream Dust; 12. I May Never Pass This Way Again (linked with Swinging Shepherd Blues by Ted Heath and His Orchestra and Who's Sorry Now by Edmundo Ros and his Orchestra); 13. Love Song From Houseboat (Almost In Your Arms) 14. Temple Of Dreams; 15. Around The World; 16. The Road To Ballingarry; 17. Mandolin Serenade; 18. Souvenir d'Italie; 19. Theme From The Sundowners; 20. To My Love; 21. A Certain Smile; 22. The Valiant Years; 23. The Canary; 24. Evening In Capri; 25. The Spring Song; 26. Flamenco Love; 27. Theme From The Last Rhapsody. Vocalion CDLK4152.
Annnunzio Paolo Mantovani (1905-80) was such a prolific album artist in the 1950s and 1960s that you might be forgiven for assuming that all of his recordings had been given album exposure at one time or another. Not so. A first search of the Decca vaults has revealed a variety of pieces which have been overlooked and neglected and may be unfamiliar to those of us interested in Mantovani's music.
The majority of these recordings are presented here for the first time in many years; indeed, some of them have never even been heard outside the Decca studios. Furthermore, several of the tunes were released only on obscure 45 rpm singles or extended play discs; in one case a song even appeared in a unique format on a charity record. The common thread in this Vocalion issue is, however, that none of the tunes has surfaced on a Mantovani compact disc until now. Indeed, just four of them were issued on long playing albums.
Vocalion's presentation encompasses what Mantovani was all about in his best selling years: lush waltzes, film themes, sumptuous Italian melodies, the occasional novelty item, his own captivating compositions and downright good tunes. You'll still come across the occasional carping critic complaining about an overload of cascading strings, but such nonsense ignores the rich musical tapestry Mantovani created, his inherent feeling for a good melody, the care he took over his recordings and the variety of choice he offered.
Mantovani's own compositions were invariably melodious, one of the more successful ones being "Toyshop Ballet" which provides for a lively opening.
Mantovani's "The Road To Ballingarry" with its lilting Irish theme is a showcase for that wonderful Welsh flautist Lionel Solomon who worked with Mantovani for nearly thirty years.
The small screen is not entirely ignored in this compilation for the stirring signature of the BBC TV series "The Valiant Years" from 1961 makes a rare appearance. Based on the memoirs of Winston Churchill, it highlighted Richard Burton as the voice of Churchill.
Mantovani's ear for a good tune is demonstrated by his 1956 version of the Continental favourite "When The Lilac Blooms Again" which he had recorded on an earlier occasion in a much slower tempo. The finale is a splendid mini-concerto from 1953, the "Theme From The Last Rhapsody", with Stanley Black on piano.
This new CD has been sponsored by two RFS members, Nicholas Briggs and Scott Raeburn. Mantovani collectors owe them a great debt of gratitude, for making so many rare items available on CD for the first time.
November 2002
ASV Living Era presents the big Orchestral Sounds of the 1930s once again
LOUIS LEVY and his GAUMONT BRITISH SYMPHONY "Music From The Movies"
1 MUSIC FROM THE MOVIES – MARCH; 2 MUSIC FROM THE MOVIES 1936 - Medley; 3 "GOLDWYN FOLLIES" FILM SELECTION; 4 JINGLE OF THE JUNGLE; 5 "HOLLYWOOD HOTEL" SELECTION; 6 "THE WIZARD OF OZ" SELECTION; 7 THE EYES OF THE WORLD ARE ON YOU; 8 "THE GREAT ZIEGFELD" FILM SELECTION; 9 EMPIRE BUILDERS – MARCH; 10 "GOLD DIGGERS OF 1937" SELECTION; 11 I HAVEN’T TIME TO BE A MILLIONAIRE; 12 "ON THE AVENUE" SELECTION; 13 EVERYBODY DANCE; 14 "BABES IN ARMS" FILM SELECTION; 15 THERE’S THAT LOOK IN YOUR EYES AGAIN; 16 MUSIC FROM THE MOVIES 1938 – SELECTION
ASV CDAJA5445
In the middle years of the 20th century the name ‘Louis Levy’ 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 films, Levy was one of the most influential figures in British film music in the 1930s and 1940s. 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.
Louis Levy (1893-18 August 1957) began his famous long-running BBC radio series "Music From The Movies" on 6th January 1936. His aim was to allow listeners at home to enjoy the same lush orchestral sounds they were now accustomed to hearing in the cinema. He further extended this ideal to his commercial recordings, and the excellent results he achieved can be heard in this collection. The rich sounds emanating from his large orchestra are all the more impressive when one realises that electrical sound recording was barely ten years old when some of these 78s were made.
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 (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).
His roster of vocalists included several who were much in demand during the 1930s. The many British dance bands of the period rarely treated their singers with much respect (the possible main exception being Al Bowlly), and on their commercial 78s they often hired whoever happened to be available on the day. Sam Browne appeared on even more sides than the seemingly ubiquitous Bowlly, perhaps surprising when one learns that Browne apparently couldn’t read music, but could pick up a new tune after only one play through. Others familiar on Levy’s 78s included: Edward Molloy, who became a big hit in post-war seaside concert parties, and eventually found his deserved fame in London’s West End; Robert Ashley, a tenor who was killed in World War II; Janet Lind, from Melbourne, Australia, who died there in 1986, aged 81; Gerry Fitzgerald who arrived in Britain from Toronto in 1934, and returned to Canada after war service in the RAF, but died young; and Eve Becke, originally a pianist who sang with many of the top British bands.
Although it is generally accepted that Louis Levy was a figure-head, rather than an active participant in the creation of the music he conducted, there is no denying that he composed one of the most famous marches from the early British film industry – Music From The Movies. He used it as his signature tune on the radio, and snatches of it opened and closed several of his 78s. The regular Gaumont British cinema newsreel (with the town crier waving a bell) was distinguished by its use as the opening fanfare.
Louis Levy has left us with a fine legacy of film music which portrays so vividly the time when it was created. Some of the vocals may now sound dated, but that is not to deny their period charm. Many recording artists today would envy the large budgets which Levy was allowed by HMV and Columbia. For some reason they sometimes dropped the ‘Gaumont British Symphony’ title from his orchestra, but on most of his recordings it really was a symphony orchestra, often comprising some 65 players. The primitive microphones of the 1930s struggled to capture the performances in the studio on wax, but today’s sound restoration techniques have extracted more of the music from those coarse grooves that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago. RFS member Alan Bunting has done a superb job with his magical CEDAR equipment!
David Ades
