British Light Music, a Personal Gallery of 20th Century Composers.

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Eric Coates, Haydn Wood, Albert Ketelbey, Alfred Reynolds, Hubert Bath, Billy Mayerl, Richard Addinsell and many more. British light music, immensely tuneful and always well crafted, was enormously popular in the early to mid-twentieth century. It has been largely ignored by music dictionaries and serious critics, yet for so long it played an important part in the lives of millions. Not only have changing fashions pushed it into the background, but many of the institutions which nourished it - theatre orchestras, resort orchestras, salon orchestras of all kinds, ballad concerts and of course the BBC - have largely disappeared, changed out of all recognition, or lost interest. Some of its sub-genres, especially brass and symphonic band music and film and television music, still hold up well and there are other signs that interest in light music generally is steadily reviving. This completely reset edition of a major work on the subject, by a life-long enthusiast for the genre, containing short essays on many of the field’s most celebrated composers, will help to lead the way. Ernest Tomlinson, doyen of living light music composers, contributes a thoughtful and challenging Foreword.