Library News, February 2025

Posted on 28th February, 2025

Music and film

Film music is extremely popular with our member orchestras. We have a comprehensive collection in our library well worth exploring.

John Addison

Addison is best known for his film scores. He won an Academy and a Grammy Award in the Best Original Score for the music to the 1963 film Tom Jones. He also won a BAFTA Award for A Bridge Too Far (1977). His other film scores included A Taste of Honey (1961), Smashing Time (1967), The Honey Pot (1967), Sleuth (1972), Swashbuckler (1976) and the television series Centennial (1978). He composed the theme music for the television series Murder, She Wrote, for which he won an Emmy.

This is his theme from Reach for the Sky.

Contact our Library team for further information.

Women composers

We are exploring the many works in our catalogue by women composers and arrangers.

With over 100 women represented, there is plenty to discover.

Phyllis Tate

Tate was an advocate of the fight for gender equality in music. In her own words, she honestly described the role women play in music, and the challenges they faced during her time:

What is it, then, that has prevented women rising to really great heights in Composition? Is the reason partly a biological one, that in the woman creator there is something of a dichotomy, and that the process of giving birth to the human species is in conflict with the imaginative side of creativity – that this division of energy saps just that extra strength and inspiration needed to trigger off and sustain the full scale masterpiece? Another and more down to earth reason could well be the burden of domestic responsibilities. In the great majority of cases, these still rest on the woman's shoulders. I suppose the ideal would be more sex equality, with man contributing a bigger role in the more mundane activities of life. Will this ever happen? Perhaps not in my time, but I would like to feel that in the not too distant future a female Wagner might arise (with, no doubt, a Mr. Wagner in the background meekly doing the household chores). (Phyllis Tate)

Here is Hampstead Heath by Phyllis Tate

Browse works by women composers here.

Listen

What makes your audiences smile?!
Here is a number that would make a perfect programme filler or encore.

On the Track - Jack Simpson

Repertoire ideas

Here are works being borrowed from our library by member groups:

Hymn to the Fallen - John Williams

Little Suite No.2 - Malcolm Arnold

Vanity Fair - Anthony Collins

Serenade for Small Orchestra - Bourgeois

Our Classical World

Our library is not just about light music. We have a significant collection of lighter opuses from the western classical tradition.

Here are some suggestions:

Walk to the Paradise Garden - Delius

Pizzicato from Sylvia - Delibes

Composer Spotlight

Eric Coates is arguably one of the most recognisable Light Music composers with his March from The Dam Busters and Calling all Workers often performed. You may be less familiar with these two works, the first of which exists both as a song and an equally beautiful orchestral work.

Bird Songs at Eventide

Holborn March

Light Music News

One of our longest standing Society members is the composer Carlo Martelli. Best known in Light Music circles, perhaps, is his piece Persiflage for string orchestra, but Carlo has also written extensively for string quartet (both as composer and arranger). His Op. 4 Symphony has been released on CD and was praised to the rafters by the likes of Sir Malcolm Arnold. two of his operas are now available to listen on CD and download (The Curse of Christopher Colombus and The Monkey's Paw) and his work is also heard in a number of films, including Hammer's Curse of the Mummy's Tomb!

Recently, Carlo was interviewed by Alessandro Paiano on Resonance FM and the interview can be heard HERE

Savings Available

Can your group benefit from ordering more orchestral sets from LMS?

Music groups can order multiple orchestral sets at a reduced rate. Here are the details.