Eric COATES
(1886 – 1957) The Dam Busters
– Film Theme (1954)
DAVIS
Jenny Wren
Robert FARNON
(1917 – 2005) Smiles ‘N’ Chuckles
Jaime TEXIDOR
(1884 – 1957) Amparito Roca (1925)
Ronald BINGE
(1910 – 1979) Flash Harry
Arthur PRYOR
(1870 – 1942) The Whistler and
his Dog (1905)
John Philip
SOUSA (1854 – 1932) High
School Cadets
Easthope
MARTIN (1882 – 1925) Evensong
John BELTON
(pseudonym for Tony
LOWRY and Douglas
BROWNSMITH (1902 – 1965)) Down
the Mall (1927)
P BEECHFIELD-CARVER
The Jolly Airman
Harry PARR-DAVIS
(1914 – 1955) Sing As We Go (1934)
Jack STRACHEY
(1894 – 1972) Eros in Piccadilly
Eric COATES
Knightsbridge (from London Suite)
Eduard WAGNES
Die Bosniaken Kommen
Joseph BERGEIM
Music in the Park
Arnold STECK
(pseudonym for Major
Leslie STATHAM MBE) (1905 –
1974) Royal Review
Vivian DUNN
(1908 – 1995) Cockleshell Heroes
– Film Theme
Hermann STARKE
With Sword and Lance
Edrich SIEBERT
(pseudonym for Stanley
SMITH–MASTER) (1903 – 1984)
Over the Sticks
Tony LOWRY
Golden Spurs
James L TARVER
(b 1916) El Charro
Kenneth J
ALFORD (pseudonym for Frederick
Joseph RICKETTS) (1881 – 1945)
The Great Little Army (1916)
Roger BARSOTTI
(b 1901) New Post Horn Galop
A E SIMS
March of the Royal Air Forces
Association
Karl KOMZAK
(1850 – 1905) Vindobona
Alexander
BORODIN (1833 – 1887), arranged
by Dan GODFREY
(1868 – 1939) Prince Igor Ballet
Dances (1869/1887)
Band of H M Grenadier Guards/Capt
George Miller (Knightsbridge, Starke);
Band of The Queen’s Royal Regiment/Roger
Barsotti (Barsotti); Band of The Royal
Marines School Of Music/Vivian Dunn
(Dunn); Band of The Royal Netherlands
Navy/Capt G Nieuwland (Lowry, Steck);
BBC Wireless Military Band/B Walton
O'Donnell (Borodin, Martin, Parr-Davies);
Black Diamonds Band (Pryor); CWS (Manchester)
Band/Alex Mortimer (Siebert); Deutschmeister
Kapelle/Julius Herrmann (Komzak, Wagnes);
Fodens Motor Works Band (Belton);
Grand Massed Bands/James Oliver (Alford,
Sousa); Grenadier Guards Band/Major
F J Harris (Binge, Tarver, Texidor);
Irish Guards Band (Bergeim); William
Lang (Cornet Solo) Black Dyke Mills
Band/Arthur O Pearce (Davis); New
Era Symphonic Band/Michael John (Farnon);
The RAF Central Band/Squadron Leader
A E Sims (Beechfield-Carver, Dam Busters,
Sims, Strachey)
Transferred from various 78 rpm discs
recorded between 1929 and1955 ADD
GUILD LIGHT MUSIC GLCD 5147 [78:40]
Seemingly long
gone are the balmy hot summer Sundays
when every local park had a well
kept bandstand which boasted live
music from an ensemble, brass or
military, where light classical
was the fare – and we loved it!
But it’s not that long ago! Who
can forget the scene in The Ipcress
File (1965) where the traitor
Major Dalby meets Harry Palmer whilst
the band plays an arrangement of
Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro Overture?
That’s the kind of music this disk
celebrates.
Starting with a
vital performance of the March,
The Dam Busters which Eric Coates
wrote, but actually didn’t write,
for the film of the same name! When
Coates received the commission to
write the theme music he told the
studio that he had recently completed
a new march and would it suit their
purposes? It did, and it’s now impossible
to think of the film without that
great tune coming to mind. But how
easily it could have been called
March, Leytonstone High Road.
Would it have the popularity it
now has had it had that title? Ultimately
who cares, it’s a great piece of
music and it receives a fine performance
here.
Jenny Wren
is the typical kind of cornet solo
which was always heard on those
lazy Sunday afternoons in the park.
Farnon’s Smiles ‘N’ Chuckles
is a glorious piece of nonsense,
full of wah–wah mutes and smooth
saxes.
The first novelty,
as Henry Wood had it, is Jaime Texidor’s
Amparito Roca. Jaime Texidor
Dalmau was born in Barcelona, and
was a saxophonist who subsequently
conducted the Banda Música
del regimiento 68, Melilla and the
Banda del Círculo Instructivo
Musical, Valencia. With his experience
he was well equipped to write for
band and this is a marvellous example
of an up–tempo dance piece.
Flash Harry
was the musicians nick–name for
Malcolm Sargent but whether Binge’s
jolly work has anything to do with
that person is anybody’s guess.
This is great fun. The Whistler
and his Dog is a well known
piece but who can name its composer?
I wonder which member of the Black
Diamonds Band did the sound effects?
Sousa’s High School Cadets
is a quick march, new to me, and
given a really bouncy performance
by the Massed Bands. Martin’s Evensong
is a beautiful work which easily
lends itself to the sustained sound
of wind band. Down the Mall
is a jaunty march which was a big
success on its appearance. Incidentally,
Brownsmith and Lowry, the joint
composers hidden behind the pseudonym,
both worked in the 1930s as arrangers
for the BBC Dance Band when it was
under the directorship of Henry
Hall.
The Jolly Airman
is another up–beat march–cum–quickstep.
Harry Parr Davies had a short career
but still managed to create some
of the most memorable songs for
British films in the years leading
up to World War II, the best known
being Pedro the Fisherman,
Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodbye
and Sing as You Go: this
last was introduced by Gracie Fields
in the film of the same name. He
also wrote several songs for George
Formby Films.
Jack Strachey is
probably best known for the delightful
In Party Mood. Eros is
Piccadilly is like taking a
fast stroll round the Circus and
taking in the various sights. Eric
Coates’s Knightsbridge March
is, perhaps, the least successful
performance here for I feel that
it does need strings to play the
marvellous melody he has written,
clarinets simply don’t do it for
me here. It’s a fine arrangement
whether I like it or not!
Die Bosniaken
Kommen and Music in the Park
are excellent examples of strutting
marches, while Royal Review
is a much more impressive piece
of work, majestic and serious.
Lieutenant–Colonel
Sir Vivian Dunn studied conducting
under Henry Wood and B Walton O’Donnell
and as a violinist he was a founder
member of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Aged only 22 he was commissioned
as a lieutenant in the Royal Marines
as director of music for the Portsmouth
Division of the Corps. He was appointed
lieutenant–colonel and director
of music for the Royal Marines in
1953. He was the first military
musician to be knighted. Dunn was
a reluctant composer but the march
Cockleshell Heroes, written
the film of the same name, is a
fine example of the real military
march written by someone who knew
this kind of music inside–out.
With Sword and
Lance is a very conventional
march but Over the Sticks
is an hilarious evocation of a chase
(after the fox, perhaps) complete
with the posthorn call. Golden
Spurs is much in the manner
of the early Grandstand TV title
music.
James L Tarver
was born in del Rio, Texas and as
a trumpeter played in dance and
military bands as well as orchestras.
As a composer he has written extensively
for wind band. El Charro
is a very obvious south–of–the–border
piece.
Known as the British
March King, Kenneth J Alford wrote
a lot of marches which are always
entertaining, the best known being
Colonel Bogey. The Great
Little Army was the name given
to the British Expeditionary Force
– the British Army sent to the Western
Front in France and Belgium on the
outbreak of World War I. The same
name was later given to the British
Forces in Europe from 1939 to 1940.
Roger Barsotti
was, for fifteen years, bandmaster
of the Queen’s Royal Regiment, then
for 22 years bandmaster of the London
Metropolitan Police Band. More recently,
Barsotti wrote Motorsport
- the theme music for BBC1’s F1
coverage. He wrote much music for
band including marches, galops and
novelty numbers – xylophone solos
and the like – and his New Post
Horn Galop is a brisk romp punctuated
by the post horn call. Sims’s March
of the Royal Air Forces Association
contains a wonderful piccolo solo,
in the manner of Sousa’s Stars
and Stripes Forever.
Vindobona
is a solid and dependable composition,
complete with masses of cymbals
and drums. The disk ends with Dan
Godfrey’s superb arrangement of
the Polovtsian Dances from
Borodin’s opera Prince Igor.
What a performance it is! Virtuoso
playing from all sections of the
band but what else would you expect
from the BBC Wireless Military Band
and its conductor B Walton O'Donnell
at the height of their powers in
1934? And in excellent sound too!
This is a slightly
different kind of programming compared
to much of the rest of this series
but then the subject demands that.
It’s a most engaging collection
of pieces, some you’d never hear
these days, and their rehabilitation
on this disk is most welcome. Despite
the age of many of the recordings
the sound is very good indeed –
they’ve all been cleaned up without
any loss of bloom in the top most
register. Perhaps this won’t be
welcomed by as many listeners as
some of the others in this light
music series, but it is most enjoyable
and very well worth investigating.
Bob Briggs
GUILD LIGHT MUSIC GLCD 5147 [78:40]
