Ronald Binge: Faire Frou-Frou

Most enthusiasts of British Light music will know the name of Ronald Binge for his masterly Elizabethan Serenade with its gentle evocation of an era long past as well as portraying an optimistic future under our present Queen. Other listeners may have been enchanted by the coquettish Miss Melanie or have nodded off hearing ‘Sailing By’ just before the BBC Home Service/Radio 4 late-night Shipping Forecast. However, fewer will have encountered the...

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Ernest Tomlinson: 'Fairy Coach' & 'Cinderella Waltz'

A few weeks ago I posted about Ernest Tomlinson’s delightful ‘Little Serenade’ which is justly regarded as one of his most popular works.  The piece was derived from some incidental music written for a radio play, with the ‘book’ by Roy Plumley and libretto by Henrik Ege, called The Story of Cinderella. This was broadcast on Christmas Eve 1955. What I had not realised is that two more numbers from this production are also available on CD. What...

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Percy Whitlock: The Ballet of the Wood Creatures

The Ballet of the Wood Creatures is a deliciously scored miniature wholly in the tradition of British light music. Straight away on the opening one is reminded of Tchaikovsky’s ballet music, then somehow it slips effortlessly into a delicious essay of all that is best in miniature writing. The scoring is delightful - with lovely gentle cymbal clashes creating the emphasis in a typically 'light' tune. The woodwinds are playing little figurations...

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Sir Charles Villiers Stanford The Complete Organ Works Vol. 1

Charles Villiers STANFORD (1852-1924)Fantasia and Toccata, Op.57 (1894) Sonata No.1 in F, Op. 149 (1917) Six Preludes, Op.88:  Minuet; Chaconne; Prelude (in the form of a Toccata); Prelude on the Easter Hymn; Pastorale; Prelude on Tallis's Canon, Op. 88 (c.1903) Sonata No. 2, Op. 151 (1917) Daniel Cook (The Organ of Salisbury Cathedral)Priory PRCD1095 The organ works of Charles Villiers Stanford are not a part of his output with which I am familiar....

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Greville Cooke: Cormorant Crag and other piano works

Ever since discovering a mimeographed copy of Greville Cooke’s Cormorant Crag in the pages of the British Music Society Journal (Volume 04, 1982), I have regarded it as one of my musical aims in life to hear that piece. It is an evocative title that appeals to my sense of the picturesque. A study of the score reveals sea-music of the first order in a style that is romantic, nods to Bax and is deliberately overblown.   It is way beyond my technical prowess (Grade 6⅓) on the piano so there is no potential for me to play...

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Charles Villiers Stanford: Part Songs

Charles Villiers STANFORD (1852-1924)Birmingham Conservatoire Chamber Choir/Paul SpicerSOMM CD0128 Track Listings are at the end of the review.  Three things can be said in introduction to this excellent new CD from SOMM (for the concerns I have, see below). Firstly, looking at the catalogue of Charles Villiers Stanford’s part-songs reveals that he wrote around a hundred examples of the genre. The earliest was ‘Six Part Songs’ Op.33 which...

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Adam Saunders: Overture Pirates Ahoy!

I first came across ‘pirates’ in Morecambe when I was about 5 years old.  Amongst many happy days spent playing cricket on the wide expanse of sand, exploration of Happy Mount Park, excursions on the miniature railway and splashing in the lido was Moby Dick. This was an old cargo schooner that had been built just down the coast at Glasson Dock in 1887 as the ‘Ryelands’.  In the late nineteen–forties she had been purchased by Disney/RKO...

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An Important New Study of Sir Hamilton Harty by Jeremy Dibble

Hamilton Harty: Musical Polymath Jeremy DibbleBoydell Press, Boydell and Brewer ,390ppISBN: 9781843838586£45.00I still find it incredible that my late father met Sir Hamilton Harty. It was after we had been listening to the composer’s Piano Concerto on the radiogram that he casually mentioned the story. One afternoon (c.1932) he had come home from school (in Audenshaw) and had been shown into the ‘parlour’ and introduced to Harty who had been visiting...

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Arnold Bax: Magician by Yorke Bannard,

This short article was published in The Musical Standard October 13, 1917. It was written at a time when Arnold Bax was beginning to establish a reputation for himself. However it was before the composer had declared himself as a symphonist. The article needs little commentary, however I have provided a handful of footnotes.  I have also provided new musical examples.Arnold Bax is a front bencher in our English Musical Constitution. In that...

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Charles Villiers Stanford: The Complete Works for Violin & Piano

Charles Villiers STANFORD(1852-1924)CD1 Violin Sonata No. 1 in D major, Op. 11 (c.1877) Three Intermezzi, Op. 13 (1879) Legend (c.1893) Album Leaf (c.1899) Six Irish Dances, selected and arranged for violin and piano (c.1922/23) Five Bagatelles in valse form, Op. 183 (pub.1921) CD2Six Irish Fantasies, Op. 54 (1893) Five Characteristic Pieces, Op.93 (1905) Three Irish Airs, arranged for violin and piano (c.1922/23) Four Irish Dances, Op.89 Nos. 1,...

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1964-2014 – Great British Music reaching their Half-Centenary

1964 was another hugely impressive a year for new works by a whole variety of British and Commonwealth composers.  This ranges from the ‘elder statesman’, Havergal Brian, aged 87 who began his 22 Symphony and completed a Concerto for Orchestra and a Cello Concerto, to a very youthful Michael Finnissy presenting his ‘Song 6’ for ensemble. There was a wide variety of styles apparent, with contributions from the relatively conventional William Alwyn and Malcolm Arnold to the more experimental works of David Bedford and John Tavener. ‘The Manchester...

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