Light Music - are we allowed to discuss this at the UC site?

[febnyc]

The British seem to have a monopoly of composers of so-called "light" music - Sidney Torch, Robert Farnon, Haydn Wood, Eric Coates, Albert Ketèlby and so many others.  I truly enjoy this music and have been collecting, inter alia, many of the discs in Guild's wonderful series, "The Golden Age of Light Music."  And so much of this music verges on the symphonic - that I wonder where the "light" part begins and where it leaves off.  Anyway, it's all quite a treat for me and often an entertaining break from the "serious" stuff.

On the subject I want to single out a true American treasure - Leroy Anderson.  Although he did write a broadway show (Goldilocks) and a very good piano concerto - it is for his lighter concert pieces that he is known.  And how marvelous they are!  Anderson, in three or four minutes, could paint a mini-tone picture for orchestra.  Some of my favorites are Serenata, Saraband, Blue Tango (this actually made No.1 on the US popular hit parade for weeks and weeks in 1952!), Sleigh Ride and The Waltzing Cat.  I also dream of being the soloist in Anderson's The Typewriter - on an old upright Underwood, perhaps.  And there are so many other delights.  Explore this page, perhaps?  http://leroyanderson.com/music.php.

Any other devotees of light music?

[Alan Howe]

No problem with this thread as far as I'm concerned...

[TerraEpon]

I love light music, and Anderson is indeed a favorite composer (but unfortunately his list of arrangements is VERY extensive, so it's hard to compile a concrete works list for him...). I make it a point to buy every recording of his piano concerto, which I can't say for, well, any other piece of music that I can think of at the moment (though I used to with Gaite Parisienne -- another fantastic piece of what could be called light music, though of a different sort).

[Delicious Manager]

The British seem to have a monopoly of composers of so-called "light" music - Sidney Torch, Robert Farnon, Haydn Wood, Eric Coates, Albert Ketèlby and so many others. 

Careful! Robert Farnon was Canadian. I worked with him once before his Parkinson's Disease was very pronounced. A great man!

In the light of the renewed (and absolutely justified) interest in the symphonic music of John Foulds, I think it would be rather nice if more of his 'light' music was made available (apart from the Celtic Lament).

I think Shostakovich's so-called 'Ballet Suites', the Suite for Jazz Orchestra and the Suite for Variety Orchestra (until recently known erroneously as the 'Jazz Suite No 2') would also count as 'light' music, as would perhaps some of Ibert's lighter scores.

[sdtom]

There is a good five volume set of Anderson available on Naxos.
http://sdtom.wordpress.com/2008/08/30/leroy-anderson1/
I've only tackled one of the five but the first volume is a good one and well worth exploring.
I for one am glad to see a small amount of getting out of the box a little bit with this site. My talking about some Russian material and now this I feel is positive for our fine board and members.
Thomas

[febnyc]

Careful! Robert Farnon was Canadian. I worked with him once before his Parkinson's Disease was very pronounced. A great man!

In the light of the renewed (and absolutely justified) interest in the symphonic music of John Foulds, I think it would be rather nice if more of his 'light' music was made available (apart from the Celtic Lament).

Yes, indeed - Farnon was born Canadian.  He did make England his home, however.

Dutton recently has issued a disc of lighter works by John Foulds.  http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDLX7252

[mbhaub]

Light music certainly belongs here because it is an endangered species! Not that long ago, things like Danse Macabre, the Carmen suites, Peer Gynt, Espana, Hungarian Rhapsodies, Les Preludes and the like were played often. But now, they're a rarity. Concert have gotten too serious and the lighter bon-bons have disappeared. And it's really a shame. Even so-called pops concerts now are more oriented towards pop music, broadway, jazz and such. Two seasons back during the Leroy Anderson centennial year I played a glorious all-Leroy concert. All the faves and some lesser known ones. 90 minutes of it. I was delighted to see the response of the younger players many of whom had never even heard, much less played, that music. In the US, Anderson's music used to be heard on TV late night as theme music for movies and such. But in the cable era, that's gone. And much light music was familiar to many of us from the Warner Bros. cartoons. But those are not so well known anymore, so another generation of kids doesn't know the lighter classics.

The Marco Polo series of British music, and the ASV and Hyperion disks were a revelation. This is superior light music. Dated, sometimes hokey, and often sickingly sweet, much of it is delightful, inventive, and I'm glad it's been recorded. I discovered that I love Ketelby. That guy could sure write tunes! Corny some of it surely is. But I can't think of a better encore for a concert that 'Appy Hampstead (Bank Holiday).

And who out there, besides the Naxos stable, does this music anymore? When they were alive Karajan, Beecham, Ormandy, Fiedler, to name a few played this music. Are there any big names out there today who do it?

[JimL]

No, and that's the damn shame of it!  Even some of the works covered in this forum (and on a few CDs) would qualify as 'light' music, IMHO.  Surely the PCs of Herz fall into this category (especially the later ones).  If they can't gain a following in the concert hall they surely could on the lawn before an outdoor stage on a summer eve!

[chill319]

Didn't all the great masters intentionally write amounts (sometimes copious amounts) of light music? I can hardly think of one who didn't (well, Bruckner, perhaps). IIRC Brahms, for example, played a Herz piece at his debut recital. And we all probably know he was a fan of Johann Strauss, Jr., and tried his hand at gypsy tunes with some success...

[eschiss1]

Didn't all the great masters intentionally write amounts (sometimes copious amounts) of light music? I can hardly think of one who didn't (well, Bruckner, perhaps). IIRC Brahms, for example, played a Herz piece at his debut recital, was a fan of Johann Strauss, Jr., and tried his hand at gypsy tunes with some success...

Brahms famously - if I remember? -- wrote on a Strauss waltz, not, unfortunately, by Johannes Brahms... (this may be apocryphal, of course. A check reveals a 1904 book by Daniel Gregory Mason, a contemporary, quoting him to that effect, but I don't know.)
Eric

[TerraEpon]

Well it d

Didn't all the great masters intentionally write amounts (sometimes copious amounts) of light music?

Depends how you're defining it, really. Certainly staring in the classical era there were a lot of 'lighter' music wirrten (divertimenti/serenades/etc) including by Mozart, Haydn, and so on, as well as simply dances which of course almost 'all the masters' partook in, as well as some specialized composers such as the Strausses, Waldteufel, Lumbye, Sousa, etc
But on the flip side, you have LIGHT MUSIC, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_music, (and what the OP seemed to have been talking about), which is really a more early 20th century sort of genre that, in a sense, could be called 'traditional classical music with popular sonics' or something. They tend to be catchy and relatively simple, but at the same time elegant and well formed.

[febnyc]

Just to emphasize the point - the Guild label's "The Golden Age of Light Music" is a treasure trove for you who enjoy this stuff.  I've collected five or six of the titles and am impressed.  There's so much to choose from it's almost overwhelming.

[FBerwald]

Y not Waldteufel . The 11 disc Marco polo collection is wonderful. ooooooooohhhhh So many waltzes to chose from!!!!!!

[albion]

In the light of the renewed (and absolutely justified) interest in the symphonic music of John Foulds, I think it would be rather nice if more of his 'light' music was made available (apart from the Celtic Lament).

There is an excellent new disc from Dutton containing some of Foulds' lighter music (with at least one further disc to follow):

http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.asp?prod=CDLX7252

I have always had a soft-spot for the youngest of the three Strauss brothers, Eduard (1835-1916) and treasure an old Intercord double-LP set (which I have since transferred to CD) entirely devoted to his sadly-neglected works. Whenever a New Year concert comes round, I judge it on how much (or usually, how little) of Eduard's music is played. Initially Marco Polo were going to cover his output in their complete Strauss Edition, but having got through Johann II and Josef (which I assiduously collected), the ongoing Johann I series has had such a long gestation that I suspect Eduard will not get a look-in, even selectively. Another excellent Viennese composer is Carl Michael Ziehrer (1843-1922) - Marco Polo came up trumps with four discs of his dance music and one of his operetta overtures. Whether you use the label 'light' or not, this music is first-rate: it might not be to everyone's taste but for sheer craft, tunefulness and memorability it outstrips a good many concert-hall standards.

[Alan Howe]

Did Lehar compose 'light music'?