Light music
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
musical style of "light" orchestral music, which originated in the 19th century and had its heyday during the early to mid part of the 20th century, although arguably it lasts to the present day.
The style is a less "serious" form of Western classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, featuring through-composed, usually shorter orchestral pieces and suites designed to appeal to a wider audience than more serious compositions. The form was especially popular during the formative years of radio broadcasting, with stations such as the BBC Light Programme
BBC Light Programme
The Light Programme was a BBC radio station which broadcast mainstream light entertainment and music from 1945 until 1967, when it was rebranded as BBC Radio 2...
featuring a playlist largely consisting of light compositions.
Occasionally known as mood music or concert music, light music is often grouped with the easy listening
Easy listening
Easy listening is a broad style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the 1950s, evolving out of big band music, and related to MOR music as played on many AM radio stations. It encompasses the exotica, beautiful music, light music, lounge music, ambient music, and space age pop genres...
genre, although this designation is misleading. Although mainly a British phenomenon, light music was also popular in the U.S. and Europe, and many compositions in the genre are still familiar through their use as film, radio and television themes.
Origins
Before Late RomanticRomantic music
Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....
orchestral trends of length and scope separated the trajectory of lighter orchestral works from the Western Classical canon, classical composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
or Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
were as noted for writing lighter pieces such as Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
Eine kleine Nachtmusik
The Serenade No. 13 for strings in G major, K. 525 was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in 1787. The work is more commonly known by the title Eine kleine Nachtmusik. The German title means "a little serenade", though it is often rendered more literally but less accurately as "a little night music"...
or the Toy Symphony
Toy Symphony
The Toy Symphony is a musical work with parts for toy instruments and is popularly played at Christmas....
as their symphonies and operas. Later examples of early European light music include the operettas of composers such as Franz von Suppé
Franz von Suppé
Franz von Suppé or Francesco Suppé Demelli was an Austrian composer of light operas who was born in what is now Croatia during the time his father was working in this outpost of the Austro-Hungarian Empire...
or Sir Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan MVO was an English composer of Irish and Italian ancestry. He is best known for his series of 14 operatic collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including such enduring works as H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance and The Mikado...
, the Continental
Continental Europe
Continental Europe, also referred to as mainland Europe or simply the Continent, is the continent of Europe, explicitly excluding European islands....
salon
Salon music
Salon music was a popular music genre in Europe during the 19th century. It was usually written for solo piano in the romantic style, and often performed by the composer at events known as "Salons". Salon compositions are usually fairly short and often focus on virtuoso pianistic display or...
and parlour music
Parlour music
Parlour music is a type of popular music which, as the name suggests, is intended to be performed in the parlours of middle class homes by amateur singers and pianists...
genres and the waltzes and marches of Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
and his family. The Straussian waltz became a common light music composition (Charles Ancliffe
Charles Ancliffe
Charles Ancliffe was a British composer of light music, chiefly remembered for his waltzes.-Life and works:Charles Ancliffe was born in Kildare, Ireland, the son of an army bandmaster....
's "Nights of Gladness" or Felix Godin's "Valse Septembre" being two examples). These influenced the foundation of a "lighter" tradition of classical music in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The light music genre as it is currently recognised probably has its origin in the seaside orchestras that flourished in Britain during the 19th and early 20th century. These played a wide repertoire of music, from classical music to arrangements of popular songs
Popular Songs
Popular Songs is the twelfth full-length album by Hoboken-based rock band Yo La Tengo, released digitally, on CD, and double LP on September 8, 2009. It is their 7th album released on Matador and the eighth album to be given Matador's Buy Early Get Now treatment...
and ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
s of the time. From this tradition came many specially written shorter orchestral pieces designed to appeal to a wider audience. Notably, even serious composers such as Sir Edward Elgar wrote a number of popular works in this medium, such as the "Salut d'Amour
Salut d'Amour
Salut d’Amour, Op. 12, is a musical work composed by Edward Elgar in 1888, originally written for violin and piano.-History:Elgar finished the piece in July 1888, when he was engaged to be married to Caroline Alice Roberts, and he called it "Liebesgruss" because of Miss Roberts’ fluency in German...
", the Nursery Suite
Nursery Suite
The Nursery Suite is one of the last compositions by Edward Elgar. Like Elgar's The Wand of Youth suites, it makes use of sketches from the composer's childhood.There are seven movements and a coda:...
and Chanson de Matin
Chanson de Matin
Chanson de Matin, Op. 15, No. 2, is a musical work composed by Edward Elgar for violin and piano, and later orchestrated by the composer. Its first publication was in 1899, though it is thought that it was almost certainly written in 1889 or 1890....
. The conductor Sir Thomas Beecham
Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
was famous for concluding his otherwise serious orchestral concerts with what he termed "lollipops", meaning less serious, short or amusing works chosen as a crowd-pleasing encore
Encore (concert)
An encore is an additional performance added to the end of a concert, from the French "encore", which means "again", "some more"; multiple encores are not uncommon. Encores originated spontaneously, when audiences would continue to applaud and demand additional performance from the artist after the...
. Influenced by the earlier "promenade concert
Promenade concert
See The PromsAlthough the term Promenade Concert is normally associated today with the series of concerts founded in 1895 by Robert Newman and the conductor Henry Wood – a festival known today as the BBC Proms – the term originally referred to concerts in the pleasure gardens of London where the...
s" held in London pleasure gardens, a similar spirit embued many of Henry Wood's early Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect T.E. Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert...
Proms
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
concerts, especially the "Last Night".
However, it was in the late 1920s with the introduction of radio broadcasting by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
that the style found an ideal outlet. This increased after the launch of the BBC Light Programme
BBC Light Programme
The Light Programme was a BBC radio station which broadcast mainstream light entertainment and music from 1945 until 1967, when it was rebranded as BBC Radio 2...
in 1945, featuring programmes such as Friday Night is Music Night
Friday Night is Music Night
Friday Night is Music Night is a long running live BBC radio concert programme featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra, broadcast most Fridays on BBC Radio 2 at 8.00pm. It is the world's longest-running live music radio programme....
and Music While You Work
Music While You Work
Music While You Work was a daytime radio programme of continuous live popular music broadcast in the United Kingdom twice daily on workdays from June 1940 until September 1967 by the BBC, initially in the Forces / General Forces Programme, and after the war in the BBC Light Programme and, in the...
. The halcyon days of the genre can be said to date from this period until the early 1960s.
Style
Ernest Tomlinson
Ernest Tomlinson is an English composer, particularly noted for his Light music compositions. He is sometimes credited as Alan Perry.-Life:...
has been quoted as saying that the main distinction of light music is its emphasis on melody
Melody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
. This is certainly a major feature of the genre, although the creation of distinctive musical textures in scoring is another aim, for example the close harmony of Robert Farnon
Robert Farnon
Robert Joseph Farnon was a Canadian-born composer, conductor, musical arranger and trumpet player. As well as being a famous composer of original works , he was recognised as one of the finest arrangers of his generation...
or Ronald Binge
Ronald Binge
Ronald Binge was a British composer and arranger of light music.-Biography:He was born in a working-class neighbourhood in Derby in the English Midlands. In his childhood he was a chorister at Saint Andrews Church , London Road, Derby - 'the railwaymens church'...
's "cascading string" effect, which later became associated with the "sustained hum of Mantovani
Mantovani
Annunzio Paolo Mantovani known as Mantovani, was an Anglo-Italian conductor and light orchestra-styled entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature. The book British Hit Singles & Albums states that he was "Britain's most successful album act before The Beatles .....
's reverberated violins". Lyndon Jenkins describes the genre as "original orchestral pieces, often descriptive but in many cases simply three or four minutes of music with an arresting main theme and a contrasting middle section."
David Ades suggests that "it is generally agreed that it occupies a position between classical and popular music, yet its boundaries are often blurred." He goes on to cite broadcaster Denis Norden
Denis Norden
Denis Mostyn Norden CBE is a former English comedy writer and television presenter. After an early career working in cinemas, he began scriptwriting during World War II. From 1948 to 1959, he co-wrote the successful BBC Radio comedy programme Take It from Here with Frank Muir...
who said that light music was "not just tuneful round the outside, but tuneful right through."
Often, the pieces represent a mood, place, person or object, for example Farnon's "Portrait of a Flirt", Albert Ketèlbey
Albert Ketèlbey
Albert William Ketèlbey , born Ketelbey, was an English composer, conductor and pianist.-Biography:...
's In a Monastery Garden
In a Monastery Garden
In a Monastery Garden is a British drama film directed by Maurice Elvey and starring John Stuart, Hugh Williams, Alan Napier, and Frank Pettingell. An Italian musician begins to steal his brother's compositions after he is jailed for shooting a prince.-External links:**...
or Edward White
Edward White (composer)
Edward George White was a British composer of light music whose compositions including Runaway Rocking Horse , Paris Interlude , Puffin' Billy and Telegoons became familiar as radio and television theme tunes.White was born in London, and was largely self-taught...
's "Runaway Rocking Horse". The genre's other popular title "mood music" is a reference to pieces such as Charles Williams
Charles Williams (composer)
Charles Williams was a British composer and conductor, contributing music to over 50 films...
' A Quiet Stroll, which is written at an andante pace and has a jaunty, cheery feel. Light music pieces are usually presented individually or as movements within a suite, and are often given individual descriptive titles. These titles can sometimes be unusual or idiosyncratic, such as Frederic Curzon
Frederic Curzon
Frederic Curzon was an English composer, conductor and musician.He was born in London in 1899, and died at Bournemouth in 1973. Curzon had a life largely associated with music - besides composing, he conducted and was both a pianist and a noted organist...
's "Dance of the Ostracised Imp".
In keeping with this tradition of levity, pieces can also feature musical jokes at the expense of more "serious" works, such as Eric Fenby
Eric Fenby
Eric William Fenby OBE was an English composer and teacher who is best known for being Frederick Delius's amanuensis from 1928 to 1934. He helped Delius realise a number of works that would not otherwise have been forthcoming....
's overture Rossini on Ilka Moor or Arthur Wilkinson
Arthur Wilkinson
Arthur Wilkinson was a British orchestral composer and arranger. He began composing while serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II, and made many contributions to film, stage shows and television.-Notable works:...
's Beatlecracker Suite, which arranges songs by The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
in the style of Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker.
Although the genre was most prevalent in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the light music tradition exists in many countries, particularly in the United States of America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, which has many popular light pieces by composers such as Leroy Anderson
Leroy Anderson
Leroy Anderson was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler...
, Ferde Grofé
Ferde Grofé
Ferde Grofé was a prominent American composer, arranger and pianist. During the 1920s and 1930s, he went by the name Ferdie Grofé.-Early life:...
and George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
. These are often associated with the "Pops orchestra
Pops orchestra
A pops orchestra is an orchestra that plays popular music and show tunes as well as well-known classical works. Pops orchestras are generally organised in large cities and are distinct from the more "highbrow" symphony or philharmonic orchestras which also may exist in the same city...
" tradition (such as the famous Boston Pops Orchestra
Boston Pops Orchestra
The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, that specializes in playing light classical and popular music....
).
The genre is often associated with the easy listening
Easy listening
Easy listening is a broad style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the 1950s, evolving out of big band music, and related to MOR music as played on many AM radio stations. It encompasses the exotica, beautiful music, light music, lounge music, ambient music, and space age pop genres...
orchestral arrangements of Mantovani
Mantovani
Annunzio Paolo Mantovani known as Mantovani, was an Anglo-Italian conductor and light orchestra-styled entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature. The book British Hit Singles & Albums states that he was "Britain's most successful album act before The Beatles .....
, Percy Faith
Percy Faith
Percy Faith was a Canadian-born American bandleader, orchestrator, composer and conductor, known for his lush arrangements of pop and Christmas standards. He is often credited with creating the "easy listening" or "mood music" format which became staples of American popular music in the 1950s and...
and Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini was an American composer, conductor and arranger, best remembered for his film and television scores. He won a record number of Grammy Awards , plus a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995...
, although with the exception of Mancini these composers are better known for their arrangements rather than through-composed
Through-composed
Through-composed music is relatively continuous, non-sectional, and/or non-repetitive. A song is said to be through-composed if it has different music for each stanza of the lyrics. This is in contrast to strophic form, in which each stanza is set to the same music...
original compositions. As a result of this association, the music is sometimes linked to the lounge music
Lounge music
Lounge music is a retrospective description of music popular in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a type of mood music meant to evoke in the listeners the feeling of being in a place — a jungle, an island paradise, outer space, et cetera — other than where they are listening to it...
, Exotica
Exotica
Exotica is a musical genre, named after the 1957 Martin Denny album of the same title, popular during the 1950s to mid-1960s, typically with the suburban set who came of age during World War II. The musical colloquialism, exotica, means tropical ersatz: the non-native, pseudo experience of Oceania...
or beautiful music
Beautiful music
Beautiful music is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s...
genres, although this is misleading, as the genre never features vocals, synthesisers or popular music instruments.
As film, radio and television themes
In the 1950s and 60s many light composers wrote royalty-free music for use in film, radio and television, and as a result, many light music compositions are familiar as theme musicTheme music
Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...
, an example being Trevor Duncan
Trevor Duncan
Trevor Duncan was an English composer, particularly noted for his light music compositions. Born in London, and largely self-taught, he originally composed as a sideline while working for the BBC...
's March from a Little Suite, used by the BBC as the theme to Dr. Finlay's Casebook in the 1960s, or Edward White
Edward White (composer)
Edward George White was a British composer of light music whose compositions including Runaway Rocking Horse , Paris Interlude , Puffin' Billy and Telegoons became familiar as radio and television theme tunes.White was born in London, and was largely self-taught...
's "Puffin' Billy" being the theme to both the BBC radio series Children's Favourites
Children's Favourites
Children's Favourites was a BBC Radio programme from 1954 broadcast on the Light Programme on Saturday mornings from 9:00. A precursor had been called Children's Choice after the style of Housewives' Choice....
and the CBS children's programme Captain Kangaroo
Captain Kangaroo
Captain Kangaroo is a children's television series which aired weekday mornings on the American television network CBS for nearly 30 years, from October 3, 1955 until December 8, 1984, making it the longest-running children's television program of its day...
.
Eric Coates
Eric Coates
Eric Coates was an English composer of light music and a viola player.-Life:Eric was born in Hucknall in Nottinghamshire to William Harrison Coates , a surgeon, and his wife, Mary Jane Gwynne, hailing from Usk in Monmouthshire...
' marches in particular were popular choices as theme music. The "Dambusters March
Dambusters March
The Dambusters March is Eric Coates' theme for the 1955 film The Dam Busters.-Origination:The composer's son Austin Coates recounted in a radio interview for the BBC that the march was not actually written for the film and had in fact been completed a few days before he was contacted by the producers...
", possibly his most famous work, was used as the title theme to the 1954 film
The Dam Busters (film)
The Dam Busters is a 1955 British Second World War war film starring Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd and directed by Michael Anderson. The film recreates the true story of Operation Chastise when in 1943 the RAF's 617 Squadron attacked the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams in Germany with Wallis's...
and has become synonymous with the film and the mission itself. Other Coates works used as theme music include "Calling All Workers" for Music While You Work
Music While You Work
Music While You Work was a daytime radio programme of continuous live popular music broadcast in the United Kingdom twice daily on workdays from June 1940 until September 1967 by the BBC, initially in the Forces / General Forces Programme, and after the war in the BBC Light Programme and, in the...
, "Knightsbridge" for In Town Tonight
In Town Tonight
In Town Tonight was a BBC radio programme broadcast on Saturday evening from 1933 to 1960 . It was an early example of the chat show, originally presented by Eric Maschwitz.Its theme music was the Knightsbridge March by Eric Coates...
and "Halcyon Days" as the theme to The Forsyte Saga
The Forsyte Saga (1967 series)
The Forsyte Saga is a 1967 BBC television adaptation of John Galsworthy's series of The Forsyte Saga novels, and its sequel trilogy A Modern Comedy...
.
Coates was also commissioned to write original marches for television stations including the "BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
March", ATV
Associated TeleVision
Associated Television, often referred to as ATV, was a British television company, holder of various licences to broadcast on the ITV network from 24 September 1955 until 00:34 on 1 January 1982...
's "Sound and Vision March" and Associated Rediffusion's "Music Everywhere". Other noteworthy television startup themes include William Walton
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...
's Granada Preludes, Call Signs and End Music
Prelude for Orchestra (Granada)
William Walton received a commission for an original composition from Granada Television in June 1961. Walton delivered the music in August 1962 as Granada Prelude, Call Signs and End Music....
for Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
, Richard Addinsell
Richard Addinsell
Richard Stewart Addinsell was a British composer, best known for film music, primarily his Warsaw Concerto, composed for the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight .-Life:...
's Southern Rhapsody for Southern Television
Southern Television
Southern Television was the first ITV broadcasting licence holder for the south and south-east of England from 30 August 1958 until the night of 31 December 1981. The company was launched as Southern Television Limited and the title Southern Television was consistently used on-air throughout its life...
, Ron Goodwin
Ron Goodwin
Ronald Alfred Goodwin was a British composer and conductor known for his film music. He scored over 70 films in a career lasting over fifty years....
's Westward Ho! for Westward Television
Westward Television
Westward Television was the first ITV franchise holder for the South West of England from 29 April 1961 until 31 December 1981. After a difficult start, Westward provided a popular, distinctive and highly regarded service to its region, until public boardroom squabbles led to its franchise not...
and John Dankworth
John Dankworth
Sir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE , known in his early career as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist and clarinetist...
's Widespread World for Rediffusion London.
Several pieces of light music are used on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
to the present day, with Eric Coates's "By the Sleepy Lagoon" being the theme of Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...
, Arthur Wood
Arthur Wood (composer)
Arthur Wood was an English composer and conductor, particularly famous for "Barwick Green", the signature theme for the BBC Radio 4 series The Archers.-Life:...
's "Barwick Green
Barwick Green
"Barwick Green" is the theme music to the long-running BBC Radio 4 soap opera The Archers. It is a "maypole dance" from the suite My Native Heath, written in 1924 by the Yorkshire composer Arthur Wood, and named after Barwick-in-Elmet....
" the theme of The Archers
The Archers
The Archers is a long-running British soap opera broadcast on the BBC's main spoken-word channel, Radio 4. It was originally billed as "an everyday story of country folk", but is now described on its Radio 4 web site as "contemporary drama in a rural setting"...
and Ronald Binge's "Sailing By
Sailing By
Sailing By is a short piece of light music composed by Ronald Binge in 1963, which is used before the late Shipping Forecast on BBC Radio 4...
" preceding the late-night shipping forecast
Shipping Forecast
The Shipping Forecast is a four-times-daily BBC Radio broadcast of weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the coasts of the British Isles. It is produced by the Met Office and broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. The forecasts sent over the Navtex...
.
Decline and resurgence
During the 1960s, the style began to fall out of fashion on radio and television, forcing many light composers to re-focus their energy on writing more serious works or music for film. Robert Farnon completed several symphonies in the later part of his life, as well as composing for television, for example ColditzColditz (TV series)
Colditz is a British television series co-produced by the BBC and Universal Studios and screened between 1972 and 1974.The series deals with Allied prisoners of war imprisoned at the supposedly escape-proof Colditz Castle when designated Oflag IV-C during World War II, and their many attempts to...
. The light composers' skills of classical orchestration and arrangement were appreciated by composers such as John Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
, with both Angela Morley
Angela Morley
Angela Morley was an English composer and conductor. Morley was born in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1924, and played saxophone in a number of dance bands, and in 1944 became a member of Geraldo's band....
and Gordon Langford
Gordon Langford
Gordon Langford is an English composer, arranger and performer. Although well known in the brass band community as a composer and arranger, he is less well known as a composer of orchestral music, despite winning an Ivor Novello award for his March from the Colour Suite in 1971.Born in Edgware,...
asked to help orchestrate his film scores for Star Wars
Star Wars
Star Wars is an American epic space opera film series created by George Lucas. The first film in the series was originally released on May 25, 1977, under the title Star Wars, by 20th Century Fox, and became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon, followed by two sequels, released at three-year...
and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and starring Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Peter Coyote...
amongst others.
Many orchestras specialising in playing light music were disbanded. Small palm court
Palm court
A large atrium with palm trees, usually in a prestigious hotel, where functions are staged, notably tea dances. Examples include the Langham Hotel , Alexandra Palace , the Carlton Hotel , and the Ritz Hotel , all in London, and the Alexandria Hotel in Los Angeles, California.The concept of the...
orchestras, once common in hotels, seaside resorts and theatres were gradually lost in favour of recorded music. The BBC began to discard its archive of light music, much which was fortunately saved by composer Ernest Tomlinson
Ernest Tomlinson
Ernest Tomlinson is an English composer, particularly noted for his Light music compositions. He is sometimes credited as Alan Perry.-Life:...
and is now kept at his Library of Light Orchestral Music. However, the genre was kept in the public consciousness by its use in advertisements and television programmes, often used as a nostalgic evocation of the 1940s and 50s.
During the 1990s, the genre began to be re-discovered and original remastered recordings by orchestras such as the Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall
The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect T.E. Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it was the home of the promenade concerts founded by Robert...
Light Orchestra were issued on compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
for the first time. This was followed by new recordings of light music by orchestras such as the Royal Ballet Sinfonia
Royal Ballet Sinfonia
The Royal Ballet Sinfonia is the Orchestra of Birmingham Royal Ballet.The Sinfonia appears with Birmingham Royal Ballet in its home town, in London and around the UK, and frequently appears with The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House and on tour...
, the New London Orchestra
New London Orchestra
The New London Orchestra, based in London, was founded by Ronald Corp in 1988, to perform rarely heard 20th century works. The Orchestra and Corp pioneered the music of Martinů, now a familiar name with concert-goers, and have helped re-establish the popularity of ‘British Light Music' through a...
and the BBC Concert Orchestra
BBC Concert Orchestra
The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five which is not a full-scale symphony orchestra....
, as well as continued public concerts by orchestras such as the Cambridge Concert Orchestra
Cambridge Concert Orchestra
The Cambridge Concert Orchestra is an amateur orchestra based in Cambridge, England, specialising in light music. The orchestra was founded in 1967 with the receipt of a large quantity of sheet music from the defunct BBC Variety Orchestra via its conductor, Charles Shadwell....
, the Scarborough Spa Orchestra
The Spa, Scarborough
The Spa, Scarborough known officially as the Scarborough Spa Complex is located in Scarborough’s South Bay and is a venue for conferences, exhibitions, entertainment and events on the Yorkshire Coast...
and Vancouver Island's Palm Court
Palm Court
Palm Court may refer to:* Palm court - a large room, usually in a prestigious hotel, where functions are staged* Palm Court - historic ballroom in Los Angeles, California...
Light Orchestra. The style also found a new home on BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
on Brian Kay
Brian Kay
Brian Kay is an English radio presenter, conductor and singer. He is well known as the bass in the King's Singers during the group's formative years from 1968 until 1982, and as such is to be heard on many of their 1970s LP recordings...
's Light Programme, although this programme was discontinued in February 2007. In 2007, BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
broadcast an evening of light music as part of a themed evening celebrating British culture between 1945 and 1955, which included Brian Kay's documentary Music for Everybody and a televised version of Friday Night is Music Night
Friday Night is Music Night
Friday Night is Music Night is a long running live BBC radio concert programme featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra, broadcast most Fridays on BBC Radio 2 at 8.00pm. It is the world's longest-running live music radio programme....
.
In the UK, U.S. and Canada, light music can still be heard on some of the radio channels that specialise in classical music, for example Classic FM
Classic FM (UK)
Classic FM, one of the United Kingdom's three Independent National Radio stations, broadcasts classical music in a popular and accessible style.-Overview:...
and XLNC1
XHLNC-FM
XHLNC-FM is a non-commercial radio station in Tecate, Baja California, Mexico, broadcasting on 104.9 MHz. It broadcasts in English and Spanish serving the Tijuana and San Diego, California, United States areas with studios in Chula Vista, California. The station was founded by...
. A nationwide participatory festival of light music called "Light Fantastic" was organised by BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
in June 2011 as part of the 60th anniversary celebrations of the 1951 Festival of Britain
Festival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...
. This included events in London, Manchester, Cardiff and Glasgow, from both professional and amateur ensembles, including a live revival of Music While You Work from a factory in Irlam near Manchester, several light music concerts from the Southbank Centre and a number of documentaries about the genre.
Light music is also frequently used as incidental music
Incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....
in radio and television programmes, for example Charles Williams
Charles Williams (composer)
Charles Williams was a British composer and conductor, contributing music to over 50 films...
' "Devil's Galop" (once famous as the theme to Dick Barton: Special Agent
Dick Barton
Dick Barton - Special Agent was a popular radio programme on the BBC Light Programme. Between 1946 to 1951 it aired at 6.45 each weekday evening and at its peak it had an audience of 15 million listeners. Despite popular belief, it was not actually the BBC's first daily serial...
) is now often used in spoofs of 1950s action programmes, such as Mitchell and Webb
Mitchell and Webb
Mitchell and Webb are a British comedy double act, comprising David Mitchell and Robert Webb . They are best known for starring in the Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show....
's The Surprising Adventures of Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar sketches.
Notable composers
There are hundreds of composers who can be considered to have written "light music", although composers whose oeuvre focussed primarily on lighter works include Charles AncliffeCharles Ancliffe
Charles Ancliffe was a British composer of light music, chiefly remembered for his waltzes.-Life and works:Charles Ancliffe was born in Kildare, Ireland, the son of an army bandmaster....
, Ronald Binge
Ronald Binge
Ronald Binge was a British composer and arranger of light music.-Biography:He was born in a working-class neighbourhood in Derby in the English Midlands. In his childhood he was a chorister at Saint Andrews Church , London Road, Derby - 'the railwaymens church'...
, Eric Coates
Eric Coates
Eric Coates was an English composer of light music and a viola player.-Life:Eric was born in Hucknall in Nottinghamshire to William Harrison Coates , a surgeon, and his wife, Mary Jane Gwynne, hailing from Usk in Monmouthshire...
, Frederic Curzon
Frederic Curzon
Frederic Curzon was an English composer, conductor and musician.He was born in London in 1899, and died at Bournemouth in 1973. Curzon had a life largely associated with music - besides composing, he conducted and was both a pianist and a noted organist...
, Trevor Duncan
Trevor Duncan
Trevor Duncan was an English composer, particularly noted for his light music compositions. Born in London, and largely self-taught, he originally composed as a sideline while working for the BBC...
, Robert Farnon
Robert Farnon
Robert Joseph Farnon was a Canadian-born composer, conductor, musical arranger and trumpet player. As well as being a famous composer of original works , he was recognised as one of the finest arrangers of his generation...
, Ron Goodwin
Ron Goodwin
Ronald Alfred Goodwin was a British composer and conductor known for his film music. He scored over 70 films in a career lasting over fifty years....
, Albert Ketèlbey
Albert Ketèlbey
Albert William Ketèlbey , born Ketelbey, was an English composer, conductor and pianist.-Biography:...
, Billy Mayerl
Billy Mayerl
Billy Joseph Mayerl , was an English pianist and composer who built a career in music hall and musical theatre and became an acknowledged master of light music. Best known for his syncopated novelty piano solos, he wrote over 300 piano pieces, many of which were named after flowers and trees,...
, Angela Morley
Angela Morley
Angela Morley was an English composer and conductor. Morley was born in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1924, and played saxophone in a number of dance bands, and in 1944 became a member of Geraldo's band....
, Ernest Tomlinson
Ernest Tomlinson
Ernest Tomlinson is an English composer, particularly noted for his Light music compositions. He is sometimes credited as Alan Perry.-Life:...
, Sidney Torch
Sidney Torch
Sidney Torch MBE was a British pianist, cinema organist, conductor, orchestral arranger and a composer of light music.Born Sidney Torchinsky of a Ukrainian Father and an Estonian Mother in London, Torch learned the rudiments of music very quickly from his father, an orchestral trombonist...
, Edward White
Edward White (composer)
Edward George White was a British composer of light music whose compositions including Runaway Rocking Horse , Paris Interlude , Puffin' Billy and Telegoons became familiar as radio and television theme tunes.White was born in London, and was largely self-taught...
, Charles Williams
Charles Williams (composer)
Charles Williams was a British composer and conductor, contributing music to over 50 films...
, Alberto Semprini and Haydn Wood
Haydn Wood
Haydn Wood was a 20th century English composer and a respected violinist.-Life:Haydn Wood was born in the Yorkshire town of Slaithwaite on 25 March 1882...
. Each of these composers worked during the "golden age" of light music from roughly 1920-1960. For a more expansive list, see :Category:Light music composers.
External links
- Brian Kay's Light Programme website, a weekly light music programme on BBC Radio 3.
- The Robert Farnon Society, offers detailed biographies of notable light music composers and arrangers.
- Philip Scowcroft's "Garland" collection, 269 articles giving brief details of some famous and lesser-known light music composers.
- Brian Reynolds' Masters of Melody website, memories of many vintage BBC radio light music programmes and the lives and careers of some of the musicians.
- The Light Music Society