London Suite (Coates)

Last updated

The London Suite, also known as London Every Day, is a suite of orchestral music by the English composer Eric Coates.

Contents

The Suite was completed in 1933 when Coates was 47. [1]

It consists of three movements:

I. Covent Garden (Tarentelle)
II. Westminster (Meditation)
III. Knightsbridge (March)

The work was extremely popular when it was first published, no doubt helped by part of the third movement, Knightsbridge, being used as the theme tune for a BBC Radio chat show programme called In Town Tonight which was broadcast initially on the National Programme from 1933 and then switched to the Home Service in 1939 where it continued until 1960. The BBC received such a large number of requests for the name of the piece by post that they had slips of paper printed specifically to help with the demand. [1]

Gerrard Williams arranged the military band edition of the suite for Chappell's Army Journal. Paul V. Yoder also arranged the march for Chappell & Co.

Orchestration

The London Suite is scored for:

Violin I & II
Viola
Cello
Bass
Flute I & II
Clarinet I & II
Oboe I & II
Horns I – IV
Trumpets I & II
Trombones I & II
Harp
Timpani
Percussion: Triangle, Side Drum, Bass Drum, Cymbals (clashed), Cymbal (suspended), Glockenspiel, Tubular Bells and Gong.

London Again

Such was the popularity of the London Suite that in 1936 Coates wrote a sequel to it called the London Again Suite; the title pre-empted critics that he was writing about "London again". [2] [3] The movements are as follows:

I. Oxford Street (March). A busy shopping thoroughfare.
II. Langham Place (Elegie). Langham Place is the location of BBC Broadcasting House.
III. Mayfair (Valse). A fashionable and expensive residential area of London.

The second movement references the composer's close association with the BBC, being based on a B♭ B♭ C motif; this movement quotes the "Knightsbridge" March made famous by In Town Tonight and concludes with the chimes of Big Ben which closed down broadcasting for the day. [3] The work received its premiere by the BBC Theatre Orchestra under Stanford Robinson. [3]

Other "London" works by Coates

Related Research Articles

<i>The Planets</i> Orchestral suite by Gustav Holst

The Planets, Op. 32, is a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1917. In the last movement the orchestra is joined by a wordless female chorus. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the Solar System and its supposed astrological character.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Coates</span> English composer (1886–1957)

Eric Francis Harrison Coates was an English composer of light music and, early in his career, a leading violist.

Clive Edward Hazzard Strutt is an English composer. He was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, England, and he was educated at Farnborough Grammar School.

The Suite for Variety Orchestra is a suite in eight movements by Dmitri Shostakovich. The work consists of a collection of movements which derive from other works by the composer. It is also named Suite for Variety Stage Orchestra, for example in Derek Hulme's Shostakovich catalogue.

In Town Tonight is a BBC radio programme that was broadcast on Saturday evening from 1933 to 1960. It was an early example of a chat show, originally presented by Eric Maschwitz.

The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, Op. 34, is a 1945 musical composition by Benjamin Britten with a subtitle Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell. It was based on the second movement, "Rondeau", of the Abdelazer suite. It was originally commissioned for the British educational documentary film called Instruments of the Orchestra released on 29 November 1946, directed by Muir Mathieson and featuring the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Malcolm Sargent; Sargent also conducted the concert première on 15 October 1946 with the Liverpool Philharmonic in the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, England.

English Folk Song Suite is one of English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams' most famous works. It was first published for the military band as Folk Song Suite and its premiere was given at Kneller Hall on 4 July 1923, conducted by Lt Hector Adkins. The piece was then arranged for full orchestra in 1924 by Vaughan Williams' student Gordon Jacob and published as English Folk Song Suite. The piece was later arranged for British-style brass band in 1956 by Frank Wright and published as English Folk Songs Suite. All three versions were published by Boosey & Hawkes; note the use of three different titles for the three different versions. The suite uses the melodies of nine English folk songs, six of which were drawn from the collection made by Vaughan Williams’ friend and colleague Cecil Sharp.

<i>Pelléas et Mélisande</i> (Sibelius) Incidental music by Jean Sibelius

Pelléas et Mélisande, JS 147 is incidental music by Jean Sibelius for Maurice Maeterlinck's 1892 play Pelléas and Mélisande. Sibelius composed in 1905 ten parts, overtures to the five acts and five other movements. It was first performed at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki on 17 March 1905 to a translation by Bertel Gripenberg, conducted by the composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English Dances (Arnold)</span> Compositions by Malcolm Arnold

English Dances, Op. 27 and 33, are two sets of light music pieces, composed for orchestra by Malcolm Arnold in 1950 and 1951. Each set consists of four dances inspired by, although not based upon, country folk tunes and dances. Each movement is denoted by the tempo marking, as the individual movements are untitled.

<i>Façade</i> (entertainment) A series of poems often recited over music

Façade is a series of poems by Edith Sitwell, best known as part of Façade – An Entertainment in which the poems are recited over an instrumental accompaniment by William Walton. The poems and the music exist in several versions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Light music</span> British musical style of "light" orchestral music

Light music is a less-serious form of Western classical music, which originated in the 18th and 19th centuries and continues today. Its heyday was in the mid‑20th century. The style is through-composed, usually shorter orchestral pieces and suites designed to appeal to a wider context and audience than more sophisticated forms such as the concerto, the symphony and the opera.

<i>The Bassarids</i> Opera by Hans Werner Henze

The Bassarids is an opera in one act and an intermezzo, with music by Hans Werner Henze to an English libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, after Euripides's The Bacchae.

<i>The Wand of Youth</i>

The Wand of Youth Suites No. 1 and No. 2 are works for full orchestra by the English composer Edward Elgar. The titles given them by Elgar were, in full: The Wand of Youth First Suite, Op. 1a (1869–1907) and The Wand of Youth Second Suite,.

Tolga Kashif is a British born musical conductor, composer, orchestrator, producer and arranger of Turkish Cypriot descent.

Roger Roger was a French composer of light orchestral music and film scores, as well as a conductor and bandleader. His aliases included Eric Swan and Cecil Leuter, the last being a pseudonym he used for his electronic music productions, of which he was somewhat of a pioneer. He is best known for his intricately composed and arranged orchestral contributions to commercial production music during the 1950s and 1960s, many of which have more recently achieved wider recognition. He helped revive the musical exotica genre with his album Jungle Obsession in 1971.

The Severn Suite, Opus 87, is a musical work written by Sir Edward Elgar. It is a late composition, written in 1930, the result of an invitation to write a test piece for the National Brass Band Championship. It was dedicated to his friend, the author and critic George Bernard Shaw.

<i>Belshazzars Feast</i> (Sibelius) Incidental music by Jean Sibelius

Belshazzar's Feast, JS 48, is incidental music by Jean Sibelius to a play of the same name by the journalist, poet and playwright Hjalmar Fredrik Eugen Procopé (1868−1927).

Suite of Old American Dances is a 1949 concert band work by Robert Russell Bennett. Chappell Music published the condensed score and parts in 1952. This score gives the overall duration of its five movements as 16:30. Hal Leonard Corp. published a full-score edition, prepared by Edward Higgins, c. 1999. The numerous commercial and archival recordings of the piece since the 1950s provide a measure of its popularity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gloria (Jenkins)</span> Sacred choral composition by Karl Jenkins

Gloria is a sacred choral composition by Karl Jenkins, completed in 2010. It is an extended setting of the Gloria part of the mass in Latin, on the text of the Gloria in three movements, interpolated with two movements on other texts, Psalm 150 in Hebrew and a song derived from biblical verses in English. Spoken passages from sacred text from four religious traditions are part of the composition. It was published by Boosey & Hawkes in 2010. Gloria is often performed together with the composer's Te Deum.

<i>Soirées musicales</i>

Soirées musicales,, Op. 9, is a suite of five movements by Benjamin Britten, using music composed by Gioachino Rossini. The suite, first performed in 1937, derives its title from Rossini's collection of the same name, dating from the early 1830s, from which Britten drew much of the thematic material.

References

  1. 1 2 Robert Farnon Society. robertfarnonsociety.org.uk. Retrieved on 2017-01-30.
  2. Coates Eric – The London Suite Archived 2011-09-27 at the Wayback Machine . bhso.org.uk. Retrieved on 2011-05-30.
  3. 1 2 3 Michael Payne, The Life and Music of Eric Coates (Routledge, 2016), p.111