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Site Search: Use the search box to find an artiste, composer, title, or venue on this site |
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Listening position: Relax with your choice(s) of beverage, in a place of your choosing, alone, or with members of your household |
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Royal Air Force March Past Sir Henry Walford Davies (1869-1941) 1930 recording, The Band of His Majesty's Royal Air Force conducted by Flight Lt John Henry Amers (1866-1946) Amers had a distinguished military music career. At 16 he joined the Band of the 16th Lancers. He served with that regiment and with the 2nd Life Guards, before entering Kneller Hall Royal Military School of Music, and from there he went on to direct the Band of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. In 1918 he transferred to the RAF and directed their Band from 1920 to 1931. He went to France to direct No. 1 A.S.D (No.1 (Northern) Aircraft Supply Depot) Orchestra and concert party. He toured with them through France, Belgium and Germany, before returning to the School of Music. It was Amers who secured this recording contract for the Band of HM RAF, along with several others. Early disc recordings like this were made by band members standing around Columbia's large studio and playing to a single central microphone. That meant the take had to be perfect as there was no splicing in back then. The band is now The Central Band of the Royal Air Force. |
Heart of Oak Royal Navy & Royal Marines March (also Royal Canadian Navy and and Royal New Zealand Navy) William Boyce (1711-1779) Text: David Garrick (1717-1779) If you'd like to hear more from the Royal Marines Band, here they are, performing at the 2013 Basel Tattoo. Sorry about the commentator, but I think you'll see what he means when he says "bilden sie hier einen Anker". ───────────────
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The Corps of Army Music (CAMUS) was formed in 1994 as key to the promotion and re-organisation of music in the British Army. This is the newest Corps of the Army. It is based at Kneller Hall, along with the Royal Military School of Music (founded 1857).
All the then Directors of Music were to join the Corps, the number of bands was to be reduced from 69 to 30, and musicians from 2,000 to 1,000. Many will recall those gloomy days; yet more was to come. A 2006 review further reduced the bands from 30 to 23. Like all military units the Corps has its March - The Music Makers, composed by Ian Lee Mitchell in 2010. It was accepted as the Corps' quick march one month after Mitchell had completed his army career. The march is played here by the Band of the King's Division. Although based at Catterick they are pictured here in front of Kneller Hall itself. At Kneller Hall the Corps runs a Summer School for young musicians who hope to have a career in military music-making. Here are the 60 students from 2013 putting on a pretty reasonable show, with The British Grenadiers, a tune that has been known since the early 1600s. The Drum Major is also one of the students. |
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Six Million Women (The Home Front Song)
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Unmentioned in Despatches
Some of them never come home to fanfares, they dump their kit-bags down at the door, kiss their wives and let their children wrestle them down to the kitchen floor, switch the telly on, pour out a whiskey, search for the local football score. Some of them skip the quayside welcome, dodge the bunting and cannonade, make their landfall in silent harbours, nod to the coastguard, but evade the searchlight of public scrutiny like those engaged in the smuggling trade. Some of them land at lonely airfields far removed from the celebration, hang their flying gear in a locker, cadge a lift to the railway station, make for home and take for granted the short-lived thanks of a grateful nation. Some of them miss the royal salute, the victory parade along the Mall, the fly-past, the ships in formation passing the cheering crowds on the harbour wall. Remembered only by friends and relatives, some of them never come home at all Written for VE 75 by poet Peter Wyton ──────────────────
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Lili Marleen Poem: Hans Leip (1898-1983) Music: Norbert Schulze (1911-2002) Sung by: Marlene Dietrich |
Leip wrote the text while serving in the army during World War I. The poem was originally titled Das Mädchen unter der Laterne - The Girl under the Lantern. He reportedly combined the nickname of his girlfriend with that of a nurse. The poem was later published as Das Lied eines jungen Soldaten auf der Wacht - The Song of a Young Soldier on Watch, in 1937, now with the final two (of five) verses added by Leip. It was set to music by prolific film music composer Norbert Schultze in 1938 using a tune he had written for a toothpaste advert ! |
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Pennsylvania Six-Five Thousand (1940) Music: Jerry Gray (1915-1976) Lyrics (not on this recording): Carl Sigman (1909-2000) Miller takes this number at a gentler pace than we are used to hearing it at these days. Carl Sigman wrote the lyrics of the Love Story hit Where Do I Begin? Jerry Gray had a long musical career with his own band in residence at the Venetian Room of the Fairmont Hotel, Dallas, Texas. He contributed to many hits over the decades. |
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In the Mood / Dans l'Ambiance Joseph Matthews Wingy Manone (1900-1982) Lyrics: Andy Rezaf born Andriamanantena Paul Razafinkarefo (1895-1973) performed by Glenn Miller and his Band from The Swing Band Project Vol 3 (naxos 2020 remastered) |
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We can't commemorate World War 2 without including these two favourites from Forces' Sweetheart - Vera Lynn.
(There'll be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover (1941) Sung by Vera Lynn in 1984 (D-Day 40 years) Music: Walter Kent (Walter Maurice Kaufman) (1911-1994) Lyrics: Nat Burton (born Schwartz) (1901-1945) We'll Meet Again Music and lyrics by Ross Parker (1914-1974) and Hughie Charles (1907-1995) They also wrote There'll Always be an England |
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Eric Coates Symphony Orchestra Eric Coates, conductor composed by Eric Coates from London Suite (1933) 3 Knightsbridge (March) This is the theme tune used for the BBC radio programme In Town Tonight which ran on Saturday nights from 1933 to 1960, starting on the BBC National Programme and continuing on the BBC Home Service. Alternatively, you might enjoy listening to the complete London Suite, and its follow-on the London Again Suite. |
Orchestre Symphonique Opus 31 Guilhem Boisson, director Eric Coates (1886-1957) London Suite/London Every Day (1933) 1 Covent Garden (Tarantelle) 2 Westminster (Meditation) 3 Knightsbridge (March) I'm getting a hint of 'Cherry Ripe' in Covent Garden, more 'meditation' than one might expect from today's Westminster, and then in Knightsbridge I am tempted to 'stop the mighty roar of London's traffic to bring you... In Town Tonight'. It would all be nicer if his brass could play in tune, but we can't have everything - there is a war on, you know. |
London Symphony Orchestra Sir Charles Mackerras, conductor Eric Coates London Again Suite (1936) 1 Oxford Street (March) 2 Langham Place (Elegie) 3 Mayfair (Valse) Some may notice the Bb Bb C motif in Langham Place, in honour of the institution with which Coates enjoyed a long and happy association. Eric Coates also wrote the Dam Busters March, With a Song in my Heart, Calling All Workers (remember Music While You Work?) and Desert Island Discs' By the Sleepy Lagoon, as well as music that became the start-up themes for BBC Television and, later, Associated-Rediffusion, and others used by ATV Associated TeleVision and by Television Wales and the West. Such pioneering days! |
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I was concerned to avoid today's selection feeling too nationalistic for a British audience, a people who have such a broad, mixed, and blended heritage.
Two and a half centuries ago a German composer moved to England and soon became an English composer. He ran annual concerts raising funds for London's Foundling Hospital for children, and was appointed a Governor of the Hospital. So our final work today is this performance of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah, by members of College Church, Wheaton, near Chicago Illinois. I hope you find the fun they are having in lockdown truly, and positively, infectious. |
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3pm: AGM Piano Concert - Guest pianist: Marina Kan
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No 14, Moonlight Rachmaninov: Piano Sonata No 1 in D minor Grieg: Lyric Pieces to access the concert webpage: please click on the Date or on Marin Kan's photo Venue: this website and a place of your choosing |
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Music on Thursdays - Online
Concert for St George's Day and to commemorate the Birth of Shakespeare video recordings of folk and traditional works, music that Shakespeare almost certainly heard, a lovely setting by William Mathias, and some Vaughan Williams to access the concert webpage: please click on the Date, the flag, or Shakespeare's Birthplace Venue: this website and a place of your choosing |
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Music on May Day - Online
video recordings of May Day Morning in Oxford, folk & traditional tunes, Lei Day, The Beatles, Soloviov-Sedoï, Scarlatti, and Vaughan Williams to access the concert webpage: please click on the Date or the Maypole and Dancers Venue: this website and a place of your choosing |
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Never miss a concert . . .
Our weekly* newsletter tells you about upcoming concerts and other local music events *weekly - only during the weekly concert season, occasional at other times |
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