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Light Music -- Is there no end to the Guild Light Music series The Golden Age of Light Music? I hope not. I have lost track of how many CDs from that series I have reviewed in the past (there are now 56 of them); and I begin to feel sorry for the producers who have to make up yet another name for a new collection of orchestral music recorded in the late 1940s and through the 1950s.

"Melodies for Romantics" is one of the best, including as it does such familiar selections as "The Boy Next Door," "A Foggy Day," "The Man I Love," "The Night is Young and You’re so Beautiful," "Love is Where you Find It," "Temptation," "Jealousy" and "I’m in the Mood for Love." It is wonderful how the words come back over the years just hearing these marvelous melodies. I leave the curious to discover the rest of the program.

For some reason, the songs are arranged out of chronological order so that the first 10 are in stereo, the rest in mono.

Among the orchestra leaders featured on this CD are Conrad Salinger, Frank Cordell, Robert Farnon, Angela Morely, Morton Gould, Frank De Vol, Warren Barker and Frank Chacksfield -- most of whom would be more familiar to British listeners than to Americans.

There are program notes giving brief information about most of the selections and conductors. In short, Guild has turned out another winner. This, like the other 55 discs in the series, is most highly recommended for casual listening and a good deal of nostalgia.

Frank Behrens reports on classical and Broadway music as well as recordings of books and plays for the Arts & Entertainment section.

GLCD 5163 The Golden Age of Light Music - The 30's Revisited

In many ways the 1930s was a troubled decade, opening with a prolonged period of hardship for the world following the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and ending with the outbreak of the Second World War. Radio was gradually becoming common in the home, and weekly visits to the cinema (now that they 'talked') helped to relieve the gloom. Gramophone records slumped badly from their peak sales at the end of the 1920s, but fortunately new recordings were still being made and light music (partly through its wide use in broadcasting) regularly featured on the lists of new releases. People like Eric Coates, Jack Payne, Louis Levy, Jack Hylton, Ambrose and the Commodore Grand Orchestra became household names, and they are just some of the varied ensembles featured in Guild Music's third salute to the 1930s (the previous nostalgia trips are on GLCD5106 and GLCD5116)

GLCD 5162 The Golden Age of Light Music - The Hall of Fame Volume 3

This collection is intended as a tribute to talented musicians who have made an important contribution to our enjoyment of Light Music, either as conductors, composers or arrangers – and occasionally as all three. Like the two previous CDs in this series (GLCD 5120 & 5124), in order to qualify for inclusion in any kind of Hall of Fame there is a pre-requisite that recognition should already have been given for outstanding achievement. The Guild “Golden Age of Light Music” series is compiled by enthusiasts who understand that keen collectors probably already have many of the “best of” pieces in their music libraries. So you are not being offered a compilation featuring only the best known works performed by each orchestra, but a careful choice which mixes the familiar with – occasionally – the unknown.

GLCD 5161 The Golden Age of Light Music - European Tour

Once again it’s time for Guild’s ‘Golden Age of Light Music’ series to take another musical tour around Europe, prompted by so many appealing works created by talented composers from near and far. In the world of music you do not have to be a native to express the beauty in a favourite location: the saying “the onlooker sees more of the game” sums it all up quite well. The first four tracks visit the home countries of the British Isles, before setting out for a varied selection of melodies either created in the places they salute, or else written and performed from far away as tributes to places worshipped from afar. With names such as Robert Farnon, George Melachrino, Mantovani, Michel Legrand and David Rose involved the result has to be a most satisfying and nostalgic musical tour.

GLCD 5160 The Golden Age of Light Music - Light and Lively

Although the title of this collection rightly suggests that there is a wealth of ‘Light and Lively’ music on offer, there are some more gentle – even restful – numbers to provide a welcome contrast. The opening track, Robert Farnon’s famous Derby Day, finds the master of light music in top form, although the competition is tough from the likes of Percy Faith, Helmut Zacharias, Florian ZaBach, Richard Hayman, Frank Chacksfield, Ray Martin, Acquaviva, Frank Cordell, Mishel Piastro, David Rose and Sidney Torch. Among some special gems are the Gérard Calvi instrumental which became a worldwide hit as One of those Songs when lyrics were added; also a marvellous ‘Hollywood-sounding’ tour-de-force from Joe Leahy with his Theme from Studio X.

GLCD 5159 The Golden Age of Light Music - More Strings in Stereo!

When record buyers started to embrace the new wonder of stereophonic sound towards the end of the 1950s they realised that the added dimension allowed them to hear and appreciate far more of the music than had previously been possible. Conductors and arrangers adapted their styles to take full advantage of this leap in the technology of sound reproduction, as already demonstrated in the recent Guild CD “Strings And Things Go Stereo!” GLCD 5153. In this collection there are further examples of superb performances from the orchestras of George Melachrino, Nelson Riddle, Angela Morley, Robert Farnon, Percy Faith, Morton Gould, Les Baxter, David Carroll – and even the London Symphony Orchestra playing one of Eric Coates’ most popular melodies.

GLCD 5158 The Golden Age of Light Music - That’s Light Musical Entertainment

This compilation is largely inspired by the great Conrad Salinger, one of the creators of the sound of the Hollywood musicals in their glory days, although his name means nothing to most people. But Salinger's "That's Entertainment" is probably second only to Irving Berlin's "There's No Business Like Show Business" as a great show business anthem, and it sets the scene for many examples of outstanding melodies from films and the stage. Performances by top orchestras such as Wally Stott, Percy Faith, Andre Kostelanetz, George Melachrino and David Rose testify to the creative genius of all the composers involved. The finale offers a suite from the largely forgotten film "Since You Went Away", composed and conducted by Max Steiner.

GLCD 5157 The Golden Age of Light Music - A Box of Light Musical Allsorts

Variety is the keynote in this extremely varied collection, ranging from the Broadway stage (the exciting opening number from "The Hot Mikado") to the golden age of Hollywood (Alfred Newman's atmospheric theme for "A Letter To Three Wives"). As usual in Guild CDs there are some classics of Light Music, so you won't be surprised to find a major Eric Coates 'Phantasy' - "The Three Bears", and pieces by the likes of Clive Richardson, Angela Morley (Wally Stott) and Ray Martin. Lesser known composers incude Horace Dann (his unfairly neglected "Worester Beacon") and Cecil Milner, who arranged for many top conductors from Charles Williams to Mantovani.

GLCD 5156 The Golden Age Of Light Music - Picking Strings

This collection features some 26 different orchestras and over 30 composers all with one specific aim in mind – to create great music with the strings to the fore. Newcomers to the Guild Light Music series include the talented French composer and conductor Gérard Calvi plus, from the other side of the Atlantic, Don Gillis, Florian Zabach, George Cates and Pépé Gonzalez (a pseudonym for an unidentified classical conductor from South America). Guild ‘regulars’ are also out in force, with Frank Chacksfield, Ray Martin, Clive Richardson, Trevor Duncan and Angela Morley represented in fine compositions that will delight light music purists. There are also some much requested gems from Kermit Leslie, Florian ZaBach and Roger Roger, making this a truly vintage compilation that will be welcomed by existing Guild ‘Golden Age’ fans, and newcomers to the series alike.

GLCD 5155 The Golden Age Of Light Music - Music For Romantics

When Long Playing records really caught the public’s attention as the 1950s wore on, many were collections of romantic music played by light orchestras. This era was recaptured by Guild Music in the CD “Amor Amor: Music for Romance” GLCD 5133, and the response from collectors has clearly indicated a desire for more. This time the selection is even more exciting, because it has been possible to include some recordings from the early days of stereo, which have now fallen into the public domain. Among the finest exponents of this kind of music you’ll discover George Melachrino, Frank Cordell, Robert Farnon, Frank Chacksfield, Sidney Torch, Ron Goodwin and Angela Morley alongside American ‘greats’ such as Morton Gould, Frank De Vol, Warren Barker, David Rose, Glenn Osser, Leroy Holmes and the legendary Hollywood arranger Conrad Salinger.

GLCD 5154 The Golden Age Of Light Music - Musical Kaleidoscope - Volume III

Guild Music's first two "Musical Kaleidoscope" CDs (GLCD 5139 & 5140) were well received, judging by the requests for more of the same. It seems that many people enjoy a wide variety of musical styles, rather than just one theme for a compilation. Each new Guild Light Music CD now includes compositions specifically requested by enthusiasts around the world, and music lovers in Britain, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and the USA will all be hearing their special favourites in this collection. The final two tracks are a bonus for those who still remember when "The Phantom Raspberry Blower Of Old London Town" (a Jack the Ripper pastiche) was an eight-week comic serial as part of the hugely popular "The Two Ronnies" BBC-TV comedy series. An important ingredient was the choice of music, and the two titles regularly heard – Desperate Moment and Sinister Street No. 1 – are now available for the first time on a commercial CD.

GLCD 5153 The Golden Age of Light Music - Strings And Things Go Stereo

Light Orchestras were much in demand when stereo LPs started appearing in 1957 and 1958. Although the technology had been largely perfected in 1933 by Alan Blumlein at EMI (an early example featuring the Ray Noble Orchestra was featured on the Guild CD "In Town Tonight – The 1930s Volume 2" - GLCD 5116), two decades were to pass before record companies felt the time was right to persuade the public to buy the necessary equipment. Mantovani's first stereo album sold over one million copies, and other famous conductors such as George Melachrino, Nelson Riddle, Robert Farnon, Morton Gould, Frank Cordell, David Carroll, Richard Hayman, Norrie Paramor and Les Baxter (all featured on this CD) were quick to embrace the opportunities offered by the latest technical advances in high-fidelity sound.

GLCD 5152 The Golden Age of Light Music - FROM STAGE AND SCREEN

Music has helped to create the right atmosphere for many theatrical productions since time immemorial, and during the last century another art form – namely filmed entertainment – has continued this well established custom. Long before the movie pioneers learned how to link pictures on screen with recorded sound, numerous musicians were employed to provide an accompaniment to the flickering images, helping to lull the audience into the right frame of mind, although it has been suggested that another motive was to smother the sound made by the noisy film projectors. Whatever the true reasons, by the time films started talking towards the end of the 1920s a musical accompaniment was deemed essential by producers and audiences alike. This created a wonderful opportunity for composers to exploit the new medium and the result was a truly astonishing outpouring of melodies of all kinds, from composers and lyricists of varying talents. Alongside the shows and musicals were the purely dramatic films which required a different kind of music to establish just the right background, and a number of leading 'serious' composers, normally active in classical fields, found themselves being offered prestigious commissions. In this collection we salute the backroom boys whose music has meant so much, whether memorable songs from fondly recalled shows and films, or distinctive orchestral scores especially for the cinema.

GLCD 5151The Golden Age of Light Music – GOING PLACES

The title of this collection is self-explanatory, but it is far more than just a selection of pieces associated with different parts of the world. Once again Guild has discovered a rare recording, never before made available commercially, which will appeal to everyone interested in television nostalgia. It is a response to the inclusion of Scherzetto for Children in the "Childhood Memories – Volume 2" CD (GLCD 5144). This was the piece commissioned by the BBC in the early 1950s as a prelude to children's TV programmes each day. A similar work depicting the music of the four countries of the British Isles – England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – was heard every evening. Max Saunders was the composer of Fantasy on National Airs and, as with the Scherzetto, the piece (believed to have been recorded in 1951) was performed by the BBC Television Orchestra conducted by Eric Robinson. These two works have not previously been available on any commercial recordings, so a unique part of British television history has now been preserved for posterity. Another 'first' on this CD is an arrangement by Ronald Hanmer (from his own private collection) of the French folksong Sur le Pont d'Avignon.

GLCD 5150 The Golden Age of Light Music - STRING FEVER

"String Fever" celebrates Guild Music's 50^th compilation in its 'Golden Age of Light Music' series, which was launched early in 2004. Since then over 1,200 recordings have been rescued from possible obscurity and made available once more to collectors around the world. The number of different orchestras featured exceeds 200 and more than 400 composers have had their works offered to a new and appreciative audience. The first Guild CDs received a warm welcome from music critics: writing in The Independent, Rob Cowan summed up his complimentary review with the words: "This is the real thing with a vengeance!"  As the series has progressed new releases have widened the original scope in terms of repertoire, often in response to suggestions from enthusiastic supporters, and credit must also be given to a number of collectors around the world who so willingly supply their own copies of rare items. It almost seems as though a crusade has developed to ensure that Light Music is preserved for posterity. Thus this 50^th Guild 'Golden Age of Light Music' CD "String Fever" is far more than simply an enjoyable collection of pleasant music that is easy on the ear: it is a recognition that world-wide there are many people who appreciate a welcome alternative to the sounds usually pouring forth from their radio sets.

Page revised Friday November 13 2009