A 230th GARLAND OF BRITISH LIGHT MUSIC COMPOSERS
We start with two composers called Edwards, both active, according
to their
publication dates, around 1960 and both producing lightish music for
solo piano, but not related so far as I know. Stewart Hylton Edwards'
titles include Two Aquarelles and Variations on an African
Theme, both from 1960; Robert Owen Edwards published Children
at Play, Three Dances (both 1959) and Arabesque, Clog Dance
and Lament (all 1960). Also from that period or thereabouts,
we may put in a reference to Donald Edge, a prolific arranger,
especially for the BBC, of traditional tunes and varied medleys. Much
more recently, Iain Grandage has written incidental music, most
recently (2001) for D.J. Britten’s play Pembroke Arcadia, on
BBC Radio.
Gilbert Gunn was yet another of those lesser known conductor/composers
for the English musical theatre. The one show for which he wrote the
score was All for Joy (1932), a musical farce, which after a
provincial run, surfaced at the Piccadilly Theatre for 23 performances.
And to balance him with another similarly named, but again unrelated
composer/arranger, there is Douglas Gunn, whose Four Irish
Folksongs, set for recorder ensemble, were published in 1975.
Finally Malcolm Davidson (1891-1949), London-born to a Scots
family and trained at the RCM in Stanford’s time there and at Cambridge
University, is worth a mention for his quite popular A Christmas
Carol, settings of sundry Scots traditional songs for male voices
and, from 1924 the three sketches for viola and piano entitled The
Day’s Walk: Morning on the Hills, Siesta and The
Travelling Circus.
Philip L Scowcroft
November 2001
Philip's book 'British Light Music Composers' (ISBN 0903413 88 4) is
currently out of print.
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