LEGENDS OF
LIGHT MUSIC
John Holliday
John Cottam
Holliday was born in London in
1887 and studied at the Guildhall
School. He was pianist (touring
England, America and Canada as
Albert Chevalier’s
accompanist –
Holliday’s wife was née Ivy
Chevalier – and also as a
solo pianist), chorus master for
many years at Drury Lane and
composer. He served in both World
Wars, in the Honourable Artillery
Company in 1914-1918 and in the
Observer Corps between 1940 and
1944.
His portfolio of
compositions affords considerable
variety, not least in its song
content although must are light
hearted in character. Some were
written for concert parties like
the Co-optimists and Five
O’Clock Follies. One fancies
Turn Again Whittington figured in
pantomime. Others were ballad
like in character, like The Bells
of Home, The End of the Road,
Here to You, A Morning Prayer,
Likes and Dislikes, The Old Home
and When All the Children Pray;
Sealights, a sequence of three
songs explore differing maritime
themes. Chumleigh Fair and The
Town Crier were lively numbers;
The Missus and Isuggests the
music hall, while When Noah Went
Sailing and another sequence, of
six brief songs,Odds and Ends,
were suitable for children.
Much of
Holliday’s output was indeed
aimed at children. Many of his
orchestral items were arranged by
others. Arthur Wood of Barwick
Green fame, did the honours for
the "danse
fantastique"Punchinello, the
children’s march Tom Tiddler
(recently I heard that a scratch
orchestra near Newbury was
reviving this), the dances Dodman
Rock and Dickon O’Devon and
possibly also the Morris
DanceSkipton Rig (which could
almost have found a place in
Arthur Wood’s My Native
Heath). H M Higgs orchestrated
the children’s dances May
Day at Helston, Zennor and Keltic
Dance; others helped out with
Hampstead Heath (Easter Monday),
Greeze Dance (Old Cornish Custom)
and Frontier March. Cap and
Bells, a Children’s Suite,
made up of arrangements of the
five nursery rhymes Boys and
Girls,London Bridge, Sing a Song
of Sixpence, Little Bo-Peep and
Pop Goes the Weasel was given
orchestral form by Frank Tapp.
Philip Scowcroft
This biography
first appeared in ‘Journal
Into Melody’, December 2010.
Three compositions
by John Holliday are available on
Guild Music’s ‘Golden
Age of Light Music’ CDs:
GLCD5107 Frontier
March
GLCD5107 May Day At Helston
GLCD5118 Dickon O’Devon
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