A01=Michael Payne
Arthur Bliss
austin
Author_Michael Payne
Ballad Concerts
BBC Orchestra
British Light Music
British light music historical analysis
British orchestral tradition
Category=AVC
Category=AVLA
Category=DNB
Chopin
Christopher Hassall
composers
Dam Busters
edward
Edward German
Elizabeths Suite
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Faber Music
german
haydn
Haydn Wood
Henry Wood
HMV
Julian Herbage
lagoon
light
light classical repertoire
Light Music
Light Music Composers
London Suite
Miniature Suite
musicology research
promenade
Prs
Queen's Hall
Queen's Hall Orchestra
Queen’s Hall
Queen’s Hall Orchestra
Royal Academy alumni
Selfish Giant
signature radio themes
sleepy
Sleepy Lagoon
Superb
twentieth century composers
W6 8BS
wood
Product details
- ISBN 9781138271494
- Weight: 550g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 17 Nov 2016
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Eric Coates (1886-1957) is perhaps the most familiar name associated with British light music. Sir Charles Groves said that 'his music crackled with enthusiasm and vitality. He could write tunes and clothe them in the most attractive musical colours'. Coates won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, and from 1912 to 1919 he was principal viola of the Queen's Hall Orchestra under Sir Henry Wood. He also played under such conductors as Elgar, Delius, Richard Strauss, Debussy, and Beecham. It was, however, as a composer of orchestral music that he found his greatest success. Beginning with the Miniature Suite, written for the 1911 Promenade Concerts, he forged an enviable reputation as a composer. By the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most popular and highest-paid British composers, with a string of popular works flowing from his pen. Coates' music has become indelibly entwined with such popular radio programmes as the BBC's In Town Tonight, which was introduced by the 'Knightsbridge' March and Desert Island Discs whose signature tune for the past forty years has been By the Sleepy Lagoon. Perhaps his most memorable work was his march for the Dam Busters film. Michael Payne traces the changing fortunes of the career of the man who composed some of Britain's best-known music. In many ways, Coates' story is the story of British light music, and Payne's study offers a fascinating insight into the heyday and decline of the British light music tradition.
Michael Payne was born in Lancashire and received his first musical training as a chorister at Blackburn Cathedral. He read music at Durham University and received his Ph.D., with a dissertation on the music of Eric Coates, in 2007.
