GLCD 5125  Child Hood Memories Reviews & Broadcast

THE GOLDEN AGE OF LIGHT MUSIC Childhood Memories DANISH STATE RADIO ORCHESTRA Conducted by ROBERT FARNON - NEW CONCERT ORCHESTRA Conducted by CEDRIC DUMONT - LOUIS VOSS AND HIS ORCHESTRA - DOLF VAN DER LINDEN AND HIS ORCHESTRA - WEST END CELEBRITY ORCHESTRA - INTERNATIONAL RADIO ORCHESTRA - REGENT CLASSIC ORCHESTRA - NEW CONCERT ORCHESTRA Conducted by DOLF VAN DER LINDEN - QUEEN’S HALL LIGHT ORCHESTRA Conducted by SIDNEY TORCH - RAY MARTIN AND HIS CONCERT ORCHESTRA - CHARLES SHADWELL AND HIS ORCHESTRA - NATIONAL LIGHT ORCHESTRA - LONDON CONCERT ORCHESTRA - ROGER ROGER AND HIS CHAMPS ELYSEES ORCHESTRA   01 Playtime 13 Dance of the blue Marionettes 23 Skippy 27 Children's Overerture

Contents:

The carefree years of childhood have for centuries provided inspiration for writers and composers, often conjuring up happy memories that seem far remote from the realities of everyday life. At times we all need to escape into a world where problems seem non-existent, and it is hoped that the music in this collection will provide just that welcoming refuge.

Canadian born Robert Farnon (1917-2005) is featured as both composer and conductor in this collection. Light Music enthusiasts will not need reminding of his tremendous influence on this area of the international music scene during the second part of the last century. Playtime, which opens our CD, was written specially for his son Paul. The composer once revealed that he picked out the melody on the piano, with very young Paul on his knee, forcing him not to spread his arms too wide which explains why the notes are close together on the keyboard.

Bruce Campbell was one of several writers who owed much to his association with Robert Farnon, whom he assisted on radio shows and films. He was a fellow Canadian, who actually came to Britain some years before Farnon, and played trombone with various British bands during the 1930s. Campbell became a frequent contributor to various mood music libraries. He has two melodies in this collection – Children’s Hour and Skippy – the latter still familiar to older TV viewers in Britain as the theme for “Seeing Sport”.

Edward White (1910-1994) enjoyed considerable acclaim with his Runaway Rocking Horse when it emerged as one of the most popular pieces of light music in the immediate post-war years – the version by the Orchestre Raymonde can be heard on Guild GLCD5102. But he was to achieve even greater success a few years later with Puffin’ Billy (featured on Guild GLCD 5101), thanks to its use in Britain as the signature tune of “Children’s Favourites”, and as the theme for “Captain Kangaroo” in the USA.

Frederick George Charrosin (d. 1976) was a prolific composer of mood music, with many titles to his credit. He also created numerous arrangements for various ensembles broadcasting regularly on the BBC, and his Playbox became familiar during the 1950s.

Dolf van der Linden (real name David Gysbert van der Linden, 1915-1999) was the leading figure on the light music scene in the Netherlands from the 1940s until the 1980s. As well as broadcasting frequently with his Metropole Orchestra, he made numerous recordings for the background music libraries of leading music publishers such as Boosey & Hawkes, Charles Brull and Paxton, often under various pseudonyms such as Nat Nyll and David Johnson. Peter Pan was one of his own compositions for Paxton, and it was chosen as the theme for a popular US TV show. Dolf’s commercial recordings (especially for the American market) were often as Van Lynn or Daniel De Carlo.

From Peter Pan we move on appropriately to Tinkerbell, one of many charming creations by Angela Morley (b. 1924). Today she is widely regarded as one of the finest English arrangers and film composers, although her early career (when she was known as Wally Stott) really took off when she provided the music for numerous “Goon Show” broadcasts on BBC Radio in the 1950s.

Henry Croudson (1898-1971) was born in Leeds, and he chose to pursue his career as an organist in the North of England. His many admirers in the cinema organ fraternity believe that, had he worked for a major London cinema in the 1930s, he could have become as famous as many of his contemporaries such as Sidney Torch, with whom his rhythmic style was often compared. Like many colleagues in the 1920s, he found employment in cinemas accompanying silent films, leading in the 1930s to regular engagements in the best northern cinemas. He made his first broadcast for the BBC on the Wurlitzer organ of the Paramount Theatre, Leeds, on 19 December 1934, and in the following year recorded the first of more than 20 records for Regal Zonophone. In 1940 – partly due to difficult wartime conditions – Henry and his wife Edna became managers of a public house in Leeds. However he did not desert the cinema organ and made welcome, but increasingly occasional, appearances in various parts of the country. In 1945 he worked on a film starring Wilfred Pickles, and was later invited to appear at the Gaumont in London’s Haymarket, where he remained for three years. When the Rank Organisation dismissed all its remaining cinema organists, Henry joined the music publishers Arcadia, and he was later with Chappell & Co. Interestingly some of his most enjoyable compositions were accepted by the rival firm Bosworth & Co., who recorded Little Boy Blue included on this CD. [Henry’s other works already on Guild include Rhapsody in Rhythm – GLCD5104, and Jack and Jill – GLCD5115]. In 1959 Henry once again became a publican – this time at the Red Lion Inn in Nazeing, Essex, before ill health forced him to retire ten years later. He died on 30 November 1971, shortly after his 73^rd birthday.

Joseph Engelman is remembered in Britain for his involvement with light orchestras in the Midlands during and following the Second World War. He was a prolific composer of light music, particularly suites as illustrated by his contribution to this collection. The tracklisting details for his “Children’s Playtime” suite provide a classic example of the way in which production music publishers of the time often used largely fictitious names as the performers of their music. The matrix numbers of these four movements are within seven of each other, strongly suggesting that they were all recorded on the same day with the same musicians in the studio. Bosworth chose to give the impression that three different orchestras were involved, but it is probably safe to assume that all four titles were recorded by the Louis Voss Orchestra in the summer of 1950, even though they may not all have been released at the same time.

Trevor Duncan (real name Leonard Trebilco, 1924-2005) became a full-time composer during the 1950s, partly due to the success of High Heels (on Guild GLCD5124), which made the light music world sit up and take notice. His suite Children In The Park has long been sought after by keen collectors, and the first movement Dancing For Joy is actually the most complete segment in a work which contains many separate short fragments, composed especially for use by radio, television and films.

Leslie Judah Solley (1905-1968) was at one time a Member of Parliament for the Thurrock constituency in Essex. As ‘Leslie Clair’ he was also known in music circles, and the London publishers Chappell & Co. recorded Clair’s best-known piece Dance of the Blue Marionettes for their Recorded Music Library in 1947 with Sidney Torch conducting the Queen’s Hall Light Orchestra. Somewhat surprisingly this was arranged not by Torch, but by Len Stevens, yet Torch himself had arranged and performed this work on 5 April 1933 when he played the Christie Organ at the Regal Cinema, Marble Arch, London, for a popular Columbia 78.

Ray Martin (1918-1988) was one of the biggest names in British popular music during the 1950s.  His own compositions were among some of his biggest successes (notably Marching Strings), but our choice for this collection is his little-known Fun Fair which he recorded shortly before his career in Britain really started to take off.

The ‘fair’ theme is maintained with Dancer at the Fair by John Fortis, who is presumably the same composer who worked with James Littlefield on several New York ice revues during the mid-1940s. Dancer at the Fair appears to pre-date this period, and for a while it enjoyed popularity as a novelty number with dance bands as well as light orchestras. Here it is played by Charles Shadwell (d. 1979) and his orchestra, recorded in 1947 when Shadwell could be heard regularly on BBC radio broadcasts, notably “ITMA” and “Music Hall”, which always ended with his own march Down with the Curtain. Another Shadwell composition is Lulworth Cove (on GLCD5107).

Kenneth Essex (real name Rufus Isaacs) seemed to have a gift of being able to compose numerous bright and frothy numbers, and his works were published by many mood music companies. Helter Skelter is typical of many of his works with a bright and breezy ‘outdoor’ feel about them. Some of his other pseudonyms include Derek Dwyer, Howitt Hale and Claude Vane.

Vivian Ellis (1903-1996) is famous for his shows (such as “Bless The Bride”) but he is also an accomplished light music composer – notably for Coronation Scot (on GLCD5120). Jolly Juggler may also be familiar to some, although it should be mentioned that the attractive appeal of many Ellis creations is due to their arrangement. Like some of his contemporaries, Vivian Ellis possessed the precious skill of being able to conjure up a strong melody, although he preferred to leave it to others to orchestrate his creations. Unfortunately those responsible were seldom credited, so researchers can only assume that the final polish was applied by people such as Cyril Watters, Sidney Torch and the afore-mentioned Len Stevens who were employed by his publishers to perform such tasks for their fellow writers.

Roger Roger (1911-1995) was a leading figure on the French music scene for many years, and his fine compositions and arrangements also won him many admirers internationally. Thanks to his contract with Chappells, in the 1950s Roger’s quirky compositions became available to radio, television and film companies around the world, one of the earliest being The Toy Shop Window (La Vitrine aux Jouets) on Guild GLCD 5119. His works often possessed a childish air, and Clowneries fits neatly into this collection.

Volumes could be written about Charles Williams (1893-1978) (real name Isaac Cozerbreit) who became one of the major figures in British Light Music. Although he excelled at film scores, by far the greatest volume of his composing skills was employed in mood music, providing hundreds of works for Chappell alone, many of them also conducted by him. However on a few occasions his music was accepted by other mood music publishers and one of those rarities was Model Railway from Boosey & Hawkes. Williams’ The Music Lesson is one of his many commercial recordings from EMI’s Columbia label.

Douglas Brownsmith (1902-1965 - he preferred not to use his first name which was Reginald) was a pupil at St Paul’s Choir School. His first big success as a composer came in 1927 when Down the Mall – written in collaboration with Tony Lowry - was published. In the following years it was heard frequently in radio broadcasts by organists and light orchestras, and commercial recordings were made by Philip Green (on Guild GLCD5116) and Charles Shadwell. The newly-formed BBC Dance Orchestra under Henry Hall made its first broadcast (and Columbia recordings) in March 1932, and Douglas Brownsmith was one of a fine team of arrangers, working alongside his colleague Tony Lowry and famous names such as Phil Cardew, Sid Phillips, Peter Yorke, Ronnie Munro and the American Van Phillips. One of his compositions, Hush Hush Hush Here Comes The Bogey Man (credited on the label to Lowton and Benson, actually Messrs. Lowry and Brownsmith) was on the other side of the famous Henry Hall record of Teddy Bears’ Picnic. Douglas also wrote under the pseudonyms ‘Ray Benson’ and ‘Douglas Hamilton’ which hid the true identity of the composer of other popular songs such as Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (recorded by Jack Payne and the BBC Dance Orchestra) and Wrap Your Arms Around Me (recorded by Henry Hall). After the Second World War, production music publishers needed a vast amount of original orchestral compositions to service the requirements of radio, films and the emerging television stations around the world: Bosworth (who issued Time For Fun And Games on this CD), Boosey & Hawkes, Charles Brull and Francis Day & Hunter all published a number of his works.

We conclude this collection of Childhood Memories with a major work from Roger Quilter (1877-1953). The delicately dancing Children's Overture dates from 1914 and was inspired by a volume of nursery rhymes called ‘Baby's Opera’. The tunes are put together with supreme sensitivity and skill, and orchestrated with rare transparency. Sidney Torch must have felt empathy towards this work, because his 1949 recording for Parlophone has long been regarded as the definitive version, and this reissue is surely long overdue.                                 David Ades

Page revised Monday October 09 2006