There are some 81 volumes of Guild’s ‘Golden Age of Light Music’
currently available. If one allows an average of 28 tracks per
CD, this makes a grand total of about 2268 pieces of music.
Now, I imagine that some listeners will think that Guild must
be scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel to find good
material for any subsequent releases. In fact, I was beginning
to wonder myself how much more of this kind of music is still
hidden away. The answer is given as part of the liner-note discussion
of Anthony Mawer and his delightful and trippy Painted Carousels.
In fact, Mr Mawer (1930-1999) is a new boy to this series. Hailing
from Sale in Cheshire, and a Manchester Grammar School lad,
he was largely self-taught. However in the ten years between
1955 and 1965 he contributed some 500 titles to the De Wolfe
sound library. If all this music were ‘rediscovered’ there could
be a further 17 or 18 volumes just of his music!! And I am sure
that many of the other composers represented on this CD will
have similar large libraries of music attributed to them.
This is a strong selection of music that explores a wide range
of moods and imagery. Included are a few standards such as Errol
Garner’s Misty, Cole Porter’s Begin the Beguine
and Lerner & Loewe’s ‘They Call the Wind Maria’ from Paint
your Wagon. Big name ‘classical’ composers such as Hugo
Alfvén with his Summerdance and Nino Rota’s film score
for ‘La Vita Dolce’ rub shoulders with the masters of the ‘light
music’ genre such Robert Farnon’s Sea Shore and Charles
Williams’ Theme from ‘The Apartment’. Incidentally, Farnon’s
work is one of the most evocative pieces on this CD – complete
with chorus of sea-gulls and the magical piano playing of Rawicz
and Landauer.
But what is really impressive with this CD is the number of
composers that are largely new to the light music revival scene
- at least to my understanding of it. These include the German
Ernst Fischer with his attractive Suite: South of the Alps,
which for me is the discovery of this disc. It manages to capture
the spirit and romance of Italy’s Mediterranean coast in the
shadow of those great mountains. Interestingly, this work also
includes a ‘concertante’ part for cinema organ and balalaika,
although this is not overdone ...
Other composers that are less mainstream than Farnon and Williams
include Peter Dennis and his evocative Bright and Breezy
which gets the proceedings off to a bouncy start. Harry Warren’s
Carnival is perfect descriptive music – although the
carnival is in Latin America and not Liverpool or Grimsby! Ragazza
Romanza is a lovely tune by a composer simply billed as
‘Roberts’. Toy Town Trumpeters by William Davies is a
predictable fun piece that once upon a time would have had some
kind of vogue on Children’s Favourites. And Laurie Johnson (theme
music for The Avengers and The Professionals)
contributes the romantic theme music from ‘Tiger Bay’. Sheer
heaven!
The American Sir Chauncey, whose real name is the slightly-less
glamorous Ernie Freeman, conducts Christian Bruhn and Georg
Buschor’s good string piece, Midi-Midinette. E Bello
by a certain Dante Vignali is a moody number that balances strings
and brass and sheer sultry romance. Kristina is a lady
I would like to meet: I imagine that she impressed Maurice Grabmann
too!
I really enjoyed the zippy Stringendo by Ivor Slaney.
Musicians will know that this title means ‘gradually faster
– pressing forward’: the piece lives up to its title. Dancing
Daffodils by Johnny Steggerda is another one of those effervescent
little pieces of light music that typifies the genre. Cyril
Watters’ contribution Up and Coming is equally as effective
whilst Mariano Marquina and his Spanish Gypsy Dance manages
to conjure up the sultry summer sun of Spain. The fascinating
Sweet Sue by Victor Young and a rather quirky musical
portrait of San Francisco complete this musical feast.
One amusing thing I noticed on this CD are the number of people
sometimes involved in creating a piece of music – for example
Vincent Youmans, Otto Harbach, Herbert Stothart, Oscar Hammerstein
II and Reg Owen were all involved in presenting the listener
with 1:52 worth of Bambalina: Havergal Brian managed
to compose the massive Gothic Symphony all on his own!
Yet every one of these pieces is a joy and a pleasure to listen
to. Certainly, after recently reviewing the intense John Joubert
Symphony No.2 (In memory of those killed at Sharpeville 21/3/60)
it was a welcome relief and a bit of indulgent escapism. However,
there is an important point. Each of the works presented on
this latest Guild Light Music series can be regarded as a ‘mini-masterpiece’
– not necessarily moving and shaking the artistic world, but
being attractive and well-wrought and displaying superb workmanship,
imagination and invention.
The only downside to this CD is that Guild do not give the dates
of all the composers in the track listings or the liner notes:
not all of them can be easily found on the Internet!
Finally, this is a series than can probably continue indefinitely:
roll on the next 81 releases!
John France
Track-listing
Peter DENNIS (1922-1994)
(real name Dennis Alfred Berry) Bright And Breezy
(1959) The Grosvenor Studio Orchestra [3:03]
Charles WILLIAMS (1893-1978)
(real name Isaac Cozerbreit) Theme from 'The Apartment'
(original title ‘Jealous Lover’) (1960) Billy Vaughn and his
Orchestra [2:22]
Harry WARREN (1893-1981) Bob
RUSSELL (1914-1970) Carnival (1957) Les Baxter
and his Orchestra [2:44]
Alan Jay LERNER (1918-1986)
Frederick LOEWE (1901-1988) arr.
Robert FARNON (1917-2005)
‘They Call the Wind Maria’ (from 'Paint Your Wagon') (1960)
Robert Farnon and his Orchestra [2:17]
ROBERTS Ragazza Romanza
(1960) The Melachrino Orchestra conducted by George Melachrino
[2:32]
Anthony MAWER (1930-1999)
Painted Carousels (1960) Cosmopolitan Orchestra Conducted
by Phillipo Andez [2:28]
Errol GARNER (1921-1977) Johnny
BURKE Misty (1960) The Knightsbridge Strings
[2:58]
William DAVIES (1921-2006)
Toy Town Trumpeters (1960) The Crawford Light Orchestra
[2:43]
Laurie JOHNSON (b.1927)
‘Tiger Bay' - Theme from the film (1959) The Pinewood Studio
Orchestra conducted by Philip Green [2:56]
Nino ROTA (1911-1979)
‘La Dolce Vita' (Theme from the film) (1960) Manuel and the
Music of the Mountains ('Manuel' is Geoff Love) [2:14]
Christian BRUHN (b.1934) Georg
BUSCHOR (1923-2005) Midi-Midinette (1960)
Sir Chauncey (real name Ernie Freeman) [2:39]
Cole PORTER (1891-1964) arr.
Brian FAHEY (1919-2007) Begin
the Beguine (from 'Jubilee') (1960) The Starlight Symphony
conducted by Cyril Ornadel [4:35]
Dante VIGNALI E Bello
(1957) George Melachrino conducting the Orchestra of the 6th
San Remo Festival [3:02]
Vincent YOUMANS (1898-1946)
Otto HARBACH (1873-1963) Herbert
STOTHART (1885-1949) Oscar HAMMERSTEIN
II (1895-1960) arr. Reg
OWEN Bambalina (1960) Reg Owen and his Orchestra
[1:52]
Maurice GRABMANN Kristina
(1960) The Brussels New Concert Orchestra [2:54]
Robert FARNON Sea Shore (1960) Rawicz and Landauer
at two pianos, with Angela Morley and her orchestra (as 'Wally
Stott' on disc label) [3:20]
Ivor SLANEY (1921-1998)
Stringendo (1960) Hilversum Radio Orchestra conducted
by Hugh Granville [1:40]
Arthur Dieudonne CHARLIER
Place Du Tertre (1960) The Brussels New Concert Orchestra
[2:43]
Johnny STEGGERDA Dancing
Daffodils (1955) Guy Luypaerts and his Orchestra (as 'Guy
Lupar' on LP label) [2:18]
Cyril WATTERS (1907-1984)
Up and Coming (1960) The Westway Studio Orchestra [2:38]
Mariano MARQUINA Spanish
Gypsy Dance (1960) Jaques Leroy and his Orchestra [1:42]
Bronislaw KAPER (1902-1983)
Walter JURMANN (1903-1971) Gus
KAHN arr. Carmen DRAGON
(1914-1984) San Francisco (1960) Standard School
Broadcast Orchestra conducted by Carmen Dragon [2:45]
Victor YOUNG (1900-1956)
arr. Melle WEERSMA Sweet
Sue (1936) Jack Hylton and his Orchestra [4:09]
Hugo Emil ALFVÉN (1872-1960)
Summerdance (1957) Orchestra conducted by Hugo Alfvén
[2:00]
Ernst FISCHER (1900-1975) South
Of The Alps Suite – ‘In a Harbour Town’ [3:16]; ‘Terrace
by the Sea’ [3:22]; ‘Street of Flowers’ [3:16]; ‘Tarantella’
[3:18] (1937) Concert Orchestra conducted by Bruno Seidler-Winkler.
Stereo: tracks 2, 4, 5, 12, 13: rest in mono
Dates refer to recording, not composition. ADD
GUILD LIGHT MUSIC GLCD5180 [78:54] 
