LONDON LIGHT MUSIC MEETINGS GROUP

October 13th 2024
at the Lancaster Hall Hotel

It was a chilly but fine day for our Autumn Gathering at the Lancaster Hall Hotel. It was destined to be a very special meeting as Hilary Ashton (daughter of light music maestro, Ernest Tomlinson) had kindly agreed to come down from her home in Lancashire, to give an extended talk about her father's career – 2024 being the centenary of his birth.

However, she phoned to say that, not only had her intended train to London been cancelled, but her planned return train had suffered the same fate – meaning that she wouldn’t be able to stay for the whole meeting – quite understandable in the circumstances. The situation was also complicated when a "first time presenter" phoned Tony Clayden that very morning to say that he wouldn’t be coming as he wasn't feeling very well! Tony then contacted André Leon to ask if he could step-in and do a presentation, despite having only an hour or so to prepare it! André, being the professional that he is, did just that –and saved our bacon!

Obviously, the carefully printed programmes were now of little use – as the order (and content) had to be changed.

Just after 2.00pm Tony welcomed us, opening with Robert Farnon’s The Big Night.

Next, there followed a paraphrase of Happy Birthday from Robert Docker in honour of Bob's daughter Beverley, and her husband Adam, who were present. They share the same date of their birthdays, which just happened to be the previous day !

This was followed by Trevor Duncan's composition 'High Heels' – the title track of a new CD released by Iain Sutherland and featuring his concert orchestra. Happily, Iain Sutherland is still with us, having recently celebrated his 88th birthday. Indeed, I had the pleasure of talking to him a few weeks ago.

Tony then played us Harry Engelman's Fingerprints, played by Paul Guinery. This is the title track from the third CD of solo piano music on the EM label featuring Paul, whose name may be familiar from the days when he was a BBC Radio 3 announcer. With his 'other hat on', he is an exceptionally gifted virtuoso pianist who so obviously relishes performing this type of music – and doing it so well.

It was now time for Hilary Ashton's audio-visual presentation on the life and work of her father, the late Ernest Tomlinson. She naturally opened with 'Little Serenade', this being ET's most famous work.

Born and educated in Lancashire, he obtained degrees from Manchester University and the Royal Northern College of Music.

After National Service in the RAF, he made his home in London. One of his first compositions is a piece entitled Aerofantasy, from which we heard an excerpt.

ET used the alias of 'Alan Perry' for his background music, or music which he felt was not up to the high standards which he set for himself. Personally, I consider some of them quite delightful !

Ernest composed the Cinderella Suite for a radio play. From this suite we heard Fairy Coach and The Cinderella Waltz. In 1953 he composed This Sceptred Isle for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Hilary then went on to talk about the origins of the Light Music Society – formed in the mid-fifties by Harry Dexter, who had appealed in the 'Radio Times' for interested parties to contact him – because, although the airwaves were awash with light music at this time, the BBC were already taking steps to 'commercialise' their programmes and composers such as ET were finding it progressively difficult to get their works performed.

Light music on radio was provided by a number of BBC staff orchestras dotted around the country, each of which broadcast several times every week.

The BBC also engaged theatre orchestras and smaller 'outside' ensembles, each with their own distinctive styles. These were made up of top session musicians.

Hilary mentioned one BBC executive, Sir William Glock, (Head of the Music Department from 1959 to 1972) who detested these small orchestras, his personal taste (!) being for avant-garde atonal compositions ("squeaky gate music").

Ernest Tomlinson wrote serious pieces as well as light music. He also turned his hand to jazz, and we heard part of the first movement of his Symphonia 62 and part of his Concerto for Five Saxophones.

ET was adept at writing music to accompany TV test cards, which were transmitted during the day in the era before the advent of full daytime television broadcasts.

He also wrote works based on traditional folk music – and we listened to an excerpt from his First Suite of English Folk Dances.

In later years Ernest assumed his father's role – that of chorus master. We then listened to an excerpt from a composition commissioned for the opening ceremony of a reservoir - the largest artificial lake in the country, in Northumberland - Kielder Water.

One fateful day, ET was visiting the BBC Music Library with a view to obtaining the parts for one of his compositions and, upon asking, was told "Oh they’re in that skip over there"!

Horrified, Ernest investigated and found that hundreds of light orchestral pieces, many by top composers, were being thrown out by the BBC! Of course, Ernest rescued them and so was born the "Library of Light Orchestral Music", running alongside the revived Light Music Society. This action enabled orchestras (both amateur and professional) to entertain lovers of this important genre of music for many years to come – and still does! There are literally thousands of items in this collection, which is continually growing.

Hilary concluded her presentation with a recording by a Canadian quintet playing an ET original, simply called Pastorale.

It was obvious to all that Hilary has a huge respect and love for Ernest and his works and her visit to us (despite difficult travelling conditions) was appreciated by all.

As this was probably the longest presentation to our group for many years, this summary is inevitably rather condensed, so you will be pleased to know that, with the benefit of modern technology, you can watch and listen to the entire presentation here.

At this point we took our first interval.

Suitably refreshed, we reassembled as it was time for my own presentation of music recorded from the radio back in the mid-sixties. I started with three pieces from a broadcast in a series called Music in the Air, featuring the London Light Concert Orchestra, guest conducted by Alexander Faris. Their first piece was John Carmichael's Morning Call followed by Blue Waters which, as far as I can ascertain, was written by BBC producer, James Warr. The final item from this broadcast was a rarely played, but quite delightful composition by Ernest Tomlinson entitled Georgian Miniature.

We then turned to the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra, under their conductor, Iain Sutherland, for an intriguing and unusual composition by composer / conductor Raymond Agoult, entitled Back to Baroque.

Then we had another Agoult composition, this time played by Raymond Agoult and his players –dedicated to the maestro's wife and called Betty Dear.

Turning to the silver screen, we listened to a selection of Frank Loesser's music for Hans Christian Anderson, in a very polished performance from Louis Voss and his Kursaal Orchestra. I mentioned that Voss hated this title, which had been bestowed upon the orchestra by the BBC, for which they regularly performed on radio broadcasts. We stayed with this ensemble for a Latin number by Gilbert Vinter, entitled Young Hopeful.

Finally, we sampled a 1954 edition of 'Morning Music' as Jack Leon and his orchestra took us out in a Blaze of Glory by Abe Holzmann, the American composer of the similarly-titled famous march Blaze Away.

It was time for our second interval.

The final section of our afternoon's entertainment was provided (at literally a couple of hours notice) by André Leon, a regular presenter at our meetings. The intended subject for this spot was 'London', so André started with Robert Farnon's Westminster Waltz and this was followed by the Knightsbridge March by Eric Coates, in a recording by the BBC Concert Orchestra.

By way of contrast, we listened to a 1944 recording of Maybe It’s Because I’m A Londoner from Billy Cotton and his band and, in similar vein, The Lambeth Walk played by Ambrose and his orchestra (with Eddie Cantor).

The ceremonial side of London was then represented by The British Grenadiers played by the Coldstream Guards' band. We then heard the voice of Vera Lynn and A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square (Sherwin).

It was then back to the Band of the Coldstream Guards playing The Trap by Ron Goodwin. This piece – originally featured in the eponymous film – has become very familiar as the theme-tune for the London Marathon. After listening to Charles Williams and the Queen's Hall Light Orchestra play their signature tune, Voice of London, we heard Eric Coates' familiar march Calling All Workers.

André Leon brought his presentation to a close with the chimes of Big Ben followed by Oranges and Lemons.

Tony Clayden then closed the meeting and invited us back on May 18th 2025, when he, together with Alexander Gleason, will be presenting a special extended feature on the music of Ron Goodwin, whose centenary occurs next year.

Tony bade us farewell with a solo piano arrangement of Roger Quilter's Country Dance played by Paul Guinery, once again taken from the aforementioned CD.

© Brian Reynolds October 2024

The next LLMMG meeting will take place at the Lancaster Hall Hotel on Sunday 18th May 2025 – All are welcome, please tell your friends !