A 274th GARLAND OF BRITISH LIGHT MUSIC COMPOSERS
We start with two “similarly named, though unrelated, composers. David H Kemp wrote ballads, two of which were Bashful Tom (1912) and Border Cradle Song. He may well have been Scots; certainly William Somme Kemp (he sometimes dropped the “William”) made his career as a bandleader in Scotland after the Second World War in which he spent time in a POW camp and while there composed a song in foxtrot rhythm entitled I Come Home to You (it was published, having reached the UK via the Red Cross).
Patricia Williams is a singer of lightish cabaret songs and she composes a considerable number of them herself of which we can exemplify Appetite For Love, The Amoeba, The Graffitus and Commuter Blues.
Bernard Rolt was a composer of ballads either side of the Great War, examples being Amethyst, Rose and Pearl, The Moon Upon the Chimney, River Thames and, perhaps most popular in his output, The Rose of the Riviera.
Around the same time Raymond Roze was in demand for incidental music for the “legitimate” theatre, plays to which he contributed including The Merchant of Venice, Julius Caesar and Nell Gwyn, from which a six movement orchestral or piano suite (Romance Sans Paroles, Valse Lente, Patrouille, Gavotte, Menuet and Polonaise) and a song were extracted and published. His orchestral portfolio also included Extase d’Amour.
Finally, piccolo solos were common (and very popular) either side of 1900 but I have discovered a duet for two piccolos and orchestra in polka rhythm entitled The Two Nightingales and credited to the Victorian composer George Roe.
Philip L Scowcroft
Enquiries to Philip at
8 Rowan Mount
DONCASTER
S YORKS DN2 5PJ
Philip's book 'British Light Music Composers' (ISBN 0903413 88 4) is
currently out of print.
E-mail enquiries (but NOT orders) can be directed to Rob Barnett
at rob.barnett1@btinternet.com
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