The Romantic Rainbow

No doubt the most important figures in 20th century light music were Eric Coates in Britain and LeRoy Anderson in the United States. However, there are a host of other composers who produced first-rate work.

One of the best of these lesser-known, but no less talented, composers was Hadyn Wood, who lived from 1882 to 1959. If I had to choose any composer to introduce someone to light music, it would be Haydn Wood.

Wood was born in Yorkshire town, but the family moved to the Isle of Man, and it was there he lived as a youngster. He would always have affection for his childhood home, writing much music for the island. Wood early exhibited an enormous musical talent, and he became known as a child prodigy. He was giving recitals before he was a teenager. By the time he was 15 he was studying at the Royal College of Music on a scholarship. Gradually, he became more and more interested in composition, producing such fine and “serious� works as a Piano Concerto. He probably would have continued to pursue serious classical music had he not had the good fortune to meet and marry the soprano Dorothy Court, a popular singer of the day. Wood wrote for his wife any number of lyrical ballads that made the two of them considerable amounts of money. It’s been estimated that the song Roses of Picardy alone earned him 100,000 pounds in one year—an immense sum for the day.

Wood wrote a considerable amount of light music for orchestra, too.

Vol. 1, under the Marco Polo label (a company, by the way, that has issued a good many fine CDs of little known music), provides a brilliant look at Wood’s light music. There is “Sketch of Dandy� which is a charming, delightful piece (and charm is something we have in too little supply nowadays). I defy anyone to show me a more incredibly beautiful melody than that of “Serenade to Youth�. Like many light music composers Wood was not shy at all about depicting modern life. (In fact, one of these days I’m going to write an article about how light music composers are actually far more modern in their outlook than so-called serious composers.) His suite “London Cameos� is a delightful look at that metropolitan area. “The City� is a portrait of the business heart of Britain. Wood actually shows how business can be exciting and vibrant. “St. James’s Park in Spring� is a thrilling picture of that famous park bursting with all the vitality of Spring. “The Seafarer� was dedicated, as Wood himself says “in admiration to all the brave men who go down to the sea in ships�. It is at turns heroic, joyful, meditative, and ultimately triumphant. “Apollo�, an overture, is a passionate depiction not only of the Greek god, I would maintain, but of the sun and all its life-giving qualities. “Joyousness� is a concert waltz of swirling happiness.

The first CD was evidently popular enough for Marco Polo to issue a Vol. 2 of Haydn Wood’s works. Wood’s titles are always spot on. “A May-Day Overture� is a good example. This is a musical tone poem of some seven minutes long that depicts, first, a peaceful calm dawn. Then a heady dance tune breaks out, filled with uninhibited gaiety and energy, and we are witness to all of a May Day’s festivities. “Sololoquy� is an introspective look at a warm summer day where one is filled with certainty about the sheer goodness of being alive. “Variations on a Once Popular Humorous Song� is boisterous, jolly good fun. I know, I know, I can hear you say, how can a set of variations be jolly good fun? But Wood does infuse the piece with just that. Some of the variations actually had me laughing. Listen to the pompous climax and think of a fat monarch, say, singing away while everyone listens in mock admiration. (I don’t mean fat in the sense of the body, by the way, but rather a mental state where there is little intellectual muscle but a good deal of pomposity.) Behind the energetic writing, however, Wood displays a remarkable skill in variation writing, not to mention orchestration. “Suite: Paris� is another of Wood’s admiring depictions of a modern city. There is a lilting waltz that has outbursts of sheer gaiety, a lovely mediation with a beautiful melody on the Tullieries Garden, and a rousing march, “Montmartre�, which perhaps as more in common with cabarets than it does military bands. You can almost see the cancan dancers.

In a more serious vein is Wood’s Piano Concerto in d minor. It is a passionate, lyrical piece in the style of Rachmaninoff.

“Roving Fancies� is a short, lyrical piece by Wood on a disc titled The Golden Age of Light Music—1940. It launches immediately into a lovely melody. The Guild Light Music recordings, by the way, are an excellent way to be introduced to a number of composers. This CD, for instance, has pieces from such diverse composers as Robert Farnon, Jack Strachey, Sidney Torch, and Geroge Melachrino, not to mention Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers (as more famous names), as well as Haydn Wood.

The Queen’s Hall Light Orchestra, another label that has an extensive list of light music records, is an ensemble that has performed and recorded much light music through the years. It has recorded Wood’s “Snapshots of London Suite�. This three-movement suite has something of the wide-eyed tourist’s view about it. “Sadlers Wells� is a hectic, lively piece. “Queen Mary’s Garden, Regents Park� is a lyrical look at that bucolic area of London, and “Wellington Barracks� is another of Wood’s jaunty marches.

As this music will illustrate, Haydn Wood deserves to be recognized as a major figure in the field of light music.

While there are a number of other CDs containing isolated Wood pieces, these CDs will give the listener an excellent introduction to Haydn Wood’s music:

Haydn Wood, Marco Polo, 8.223402.

Haydn Wood, Vol. 2, Marco Polo, 8.223605.
Both of these discs may be out of print, but they are well worth seeking out on the second-hand market.

Holbrooke, Piano Concerto No. 1, Wood, Piano Concerto in D minor, Hyperion,
CDA67127.

The Golden Age of Light Music—1940, Guild Light Music, GLCD5102.
Contains Wood’s short piece, “Roving Fancies�.

The Queen’s Hall Light Orchestra, Vol. 2 , Vocalion, CDEA 6061.
Contains Wood’s Suite “Snapshots of London�.

For those of you in the Ohio area, you have a real treat in the Ohio Light Opera. This group stages professional performances of many well-known and little-known composers of light opera music—commonly called operettas. Performances go from June through July and into early August. The group is based at the College of Wooster, which is within easy driving of Cleveland, Akron, or Columbus.

This year, like every year, has some real gems that will probably be the only time you will get to hear them. “Maytime” by Sigmund Romberg would certainly be at the top of my list. Or how about “A Soldier’s Promise” by Emmerich Kalman? It too would be a must-hear. And the “White Horse Inn” is sheer magical fun with incredible melodies. Besides these, there are works by Gilbert and Sullivan and Johann Strauss II, some of the more famous composers of operettas.

The Ohio Light Opera Orchestra will be playing a Fourth of July concert, which promises to be great fun.

For those of you who don’t live in the Ohio there is no cause to despair, for the Ohio Light Opera has a number of CDs available of past performances. There are several recordings of one of my favorite operetta composers: Victor Herbert, who was active in America in the early years of the 20th century. There is his fairly well-known “Naughty Marietta.” But the company also offers real rarities. Try “Eileen,” “Sweethearts,” or “The Red Mill.” These CDs are filled with gorgeous melodies, and some haven’t been heard in literally decades. In some cases these recordings are their CD premieres. There are also several CDs by Rand’s favorite, Emmerich Kalman: “The Bayadere,” “Autumn Maneuvers” and “Der Zigeunerprimas.” This is your opportunity to understand why she so enjoyed this master of the light forms. An added advantage is that many of these recordings are sung in English, so you don’t have to wrestle with a foreign language.

Oh, I’ll be the first one to say that many of these plots are outlandish, if not downright nonsensical. But that is the whole point: light-hearted fun, not meant to be taken too seriously, an evening’s entertainment. But I would argue that an evening’s entertainment is a major accomplishment.

If you like operettas, I would highly recommend that you take a look at the Ohio Light Opera’s website. It has a treasure trove of musical delights. If you don’t like opera, these just might change your mind.

Ayn Rand, although I don’t know that she spoke of it in public, privately enjoyed the operettas from the turn of the century. The music of Emmerich Kalman was especial favorite, it seems. She wrote to a radio announcer: “As you can see, I don’t ask for heavy classics, but only for what is called ‘light concert classics.’ They are really the most delightful form of music and the one most seldom heart.� Another time, she wrote to Duane Eddy and thanked him for a recording he sent her of “Will “ O’ the Wisp�. She wrote, “You have given me a powerful source of my personal ‘benevolent universe.’�

So it surprises me that not more of the readers of Rand’s books have not sought out light music. This is especially surprising, for the field of light music has produced many fine CDs (there has been, in fact, something of an explosion in the field in the 90s), exemplifying the “benevolent universe,� of which Ms. Rand was so fond.

I will try, through this blog, to alert readers to the wealth of beauties that await them in this too little-known field.

In all frankness, light music is a term that is not easy to pin down. Even authorities and experts in the field have a hard time agreeing on what exactly is light music. Is dance music light music? Is movie music? How about pop songs? Are musicals light music? Is the music of Richard Rogers, for instance, classical music, musicals, or light music? Perhaps easier might be to simply discuss some of the common attributes of this type of music.

Virtually all experts and authorities agree that light music is, first and foremost, melodic. And melody, while it seems almost axiomatic in music, is a very difficult thing to master musically—just listen to most modern compositions in the classical field in, say, the last twenty years. How many times have you leaft the concert hall humming the new piece you had just heard? When you listen to a piece of light music it will be instantly accessible and instantly hum-able.

Second, light music is rhythmic—indeed, it is oftentimes infectiously so. In other words, it is toe-tapping music.

Third, whatever emotion light music elicits, there is in the field, as one liner note writer has observed, “an absence of angst�. You will find no tragedy in light music. In an emotional sense, light music presents a world that is, for the most part, sunlit. There is gaiety, there is exhilaration, there is charm (something nowadays too rarely seen or heard); there are great paeans of sheer sensual beauty and delight, there are unabashed love songs, there are dances; there is laughter, there are smiles. Oh, occasionally there is a wistful or melancholy moment, but such moments are rare and feel—even as you experience them—fleeting.

In a phrase, light music makes you feel that life is worth living and you are worthy of sheer delight.

In the days ahead, I’ll talk about a number of composers and CDs in the field of light music. Hopefully, you’ll find something that will bring you as much pleasure as I have had listening to this music. As Rand said, it is “really the most delightful form of music.�