Can anyone clarify what exactly this is?? I have seen compilation discs, particularly Naxos, of what is termed as British Light Classics - I didn't recognise the composers but as someone who likes the Bax, VW & Holst brigades, I feel I need to know more BUT the word light is also a bit off putting as it makes me think wishy-washy!

Please shed some light on the 'light'!

When I was small there was a thing on called Music while you Work, to which my mum did house work. I always just somehow associated that with light music. Orchestral music that was bright, brisk and bustling. Full of obvious tunes that could be whistled to. Frequent use of chirpy pizzicato. I should imagine it was piped into factories and offices. It was very much the music of postwar reconstruction and increased productivity. Then again, I can remember an announcer saying "This is the light programme". Perhaps light music was what was broadcast on the light programme, as opposed to stuff that was heavy, that you had to actually sit down and concentrate on. I'm not sure I'd want a CD of it untill I had finished listening to all the heavy stuff in a couple of hundred years or so. In many ways, if it's what I thik it is, it's probably the exact opposite of metal. :-)

Light music
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Light music is a generic term applied to a mainly British musical style of "light" orchestral music, which originated in the 19th century and had its heyday during the early to mid part of the 20th century, although arguably lasts to the present day.

The style is a less "serious" form of Western classical music, featuring through-composed, usually shorter orchestral pieces and suites designed to appeal to a wider audience than more serious compositions. The form was especially popular during the formative years of radio broadcasting. The style is also known as mood music or concert music, and is often grouped with the easy listening genre. However, "mood music" (in the United States, at least) is more often used to describe recorded music played in the background at a dinner, party, or other social occasion.

Origins

The genre has its origin in the seaside orchestras that flourished in Britain during the 19th and early 20th century. These played a wide repertoire of music, from classical music to arrangements of popular songs and ballads of the time. From this tradition came many specially written shorter orchestral pieces designed to appeal to a wider audience. Notably, even serious composers such as Sir Edward Elgar wrote a number of popular works in this medium.

However, it was in the 1930s, with the introduction of radio broadcasting by the BBC that the style found an ideal outlet, particularly after the BBC Light Programme was launched in 1945, and featured programmes such as Friday Night is Music Night and Music While You Work. The halcyon days of the genre can be said to date from this period until the early 1960s.

Style

The light composer Ernest Tomlinson has been quoted as saying that the main distinction of light music is its emphasis on melody.] This is certainly a major feature of the genre, although the creation of distinctive musical textures in scoring is another aim, for example the close harmony of Robert Farnon or Ronald Binge's "cascading string" effect, which became associated with the "sustained hum of Mantovani's reverberated violins".[6] Often, the pieces represent a mood, place or object, for example Farnon's Portrait of a Flirt and feature musical jokes at the expense of more "serious" works. The genre's other popular title "mood music" is a reference to pieces such as Charles Williams' A Quiet Stroll, which is written at an andante pace and has a jaunty, cheery feel. Light music pieces are usually presented individually or as movements within a suite, and are often given individual descriptive titles. These titles can sometimes be unusual or idiosyncratic, such as Frederic Curzon's "Dance of the Ostracised Imp".

The music is often linked to the easy listening and beautiful music genres. In the 1950s and 60s many light composers wrote royalty-free music for use in film and television, for example Trevor Duncan's March from a Little Suite being used as the theme to Dr. Finlay's Casebook in the 1960s. Eric Coates' marches were popular choices as theme music. The "Dambusters March", possibly his most famous work, was used as the title theme to the 1954 film and has become synonymous with the film and the mission itself.[7] Other Coates works used as theme music include "Calling All Workers" for Music While You Work, "Knightsbridge" for In Town Tonight and "Halcyon Days" as the theme to The Forsyte Saga.

Several pieces of light music are used on BBC Radio 4 to the present day, with Eric Coates's "By the Sleepy Lagoon" being the theme of Desert Island Discs, Arthur Wood's "Barwick Green" the theme of The Archers and Ronald Binge's "Sailing By" preceding the late-night shipping forecast.

Decline and resurgence

During the 1960s, the style began to fall out of fashion on radio and television, forcing many light composers to re-focus their energy on writing more serious works or music for film. Robert Farnon completed several symphonies in the later part of his life, and other composers were involved in writing more serious works for the concert hall.[8] The light composers' skills of classical orchestration and arrangement were appreciated by composers such as John Williams, with both Angela Morley and Gordon Langford asked to help orchestrate his film scores for Star Wars and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial amongst others.

Many orchestras specialising in playing light music were disbanded. Small palm court orchestras, once common in hotels, seaside resorts and theatres were gradually lost in favour of recorded music. The BBC began to discard its archive of light music, much which was fortunately saved by composer Ernest Tomlinson, and is now kept at his Library of Light Orchestral Music. However, the genre was kept in the public consciousness by its use in advertisements and television programmes, perhaps as a nostalgic reference to the past.[12]

During the 1990s, the genre began to be re-discovered, and original remastered recordings were issued on compact disc. This was followed by new recordings of light music by orchestras such as the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, the New London Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra, as well as continued public concerts by orchestras such as the Cambridge Concert Orchestra, the Scarborough Spa Orchestra and Vancouver Island's Palm Court Light Orchestra. The style also found a new home on BBC Radio 3 on Brian Kay's Light Programme, although this programme was discontinued in February 2007.

Light music in other countries and eras

Although the genre was most prevalent in the United Kingdom, light music exists in many countries, particularly in America, which has many popular light pieces by composers such as Leroy Anderson, Ferde Grofé and George Gershwin. It can also be argued that many famous works of classical composers class as being similar to light music, for example Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. On the Continent, salon music is a variant on the genre found throughout the 19th and early 20th Centuries. The waltzes of Johann Strauss II and his family are notable examples of early European light music, with the Straussian waltz becoming a common light music composition.

The genre is often associated with the easy-listening orchestral arrangements of Mantovani, Percy Faith and Henry Mancini, although with the exception of Mancini these composers are better known for their arrangements rather than through-composed original compositions.[

In Canada, light music can still be heard on some of the radio channels that specialise in classical music. Light music, particularly the music of Robert Farnon and Leroy Anderson, is often used as background music in stores and shopping malls.

Adam, I do believe I heard some this very evening on Radio 2: Alan Titchmarsh. Briefly. You could try it.

Brian Kay's programme was a great pleasure whenever I had time to hear it. There was a lot of excellent music that was otherwise difficult to find. But maybe some of the music has moved to R2.

Alan Titchmarsh - surely the ultimate deterrent!!! ;-)

Hi Stephen - that just about covers it. I would have been tempted to have left the bit about Wikipedia off and taken the credit for all that knowledge myself!

Adam,

I've read the very long Wikipedia article, which is of historical interest and explains its demise: it is very much the music of my parents' generation (the 30s- early 1950s) but became passe. There was one BBC orchestra (the Midland Light Orchestra) which broadcast light music until (I think) up to the early 60s when it was disbanded. Interestingly enough, a piece by the Birmingham composer Ketelbey ( a leading light music composer) was dusted off for the Proms this year. They last for 3-6 minutes (and thus tended to fill a 78 side); they usually had a melody-countermelody- melody ('ABA') structure and were easy on the ear. The best were well-crafted and memorable.
There is a small body of enthusiasts who like this music, and both Naxos and Hyperion have made several CDs of British Light Music to accommodate their tastes - I have a few on my shelves next door to film sound tracks.

Excellent postings by both Stephen and Mondoro. The term also seems to have been used just to describe popular classics. Years ago my family had a 12 LP set called Festival of Light Classical Music from Readers Digest; it contained everything from Mozart (Eine kleine Nachtmusik) to Wagner (Siegfried's Rhine Journey) but was heavy on Strauss walzes and shorter Tchaikovsky pieces (inevitably 1812). One of the British labels (possibly Chandos) did do a series of British Light Music which was the sort of stuff (Ketelby, Coates etc) mentioned in Stephen's posting.

Glad Eric Coates got a mention - his London Suite is probably quintessential light music, made familiar to many by introducing the old "In Town Tonight" programme. Strange it is not so popular now, since everything else seems to need to be light (or lite !) such as beer, mayonnaise and yoghurt.

I suppose Coates is best known now for his Dambusters' March; not sure how many people know he wrote it - I didn't until I bought a Lyrita disc of his music conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. The disc also contains his Three Bears Phantasy, Summer Days Suite and more.