Light music is orchestral music, which originated in the 19th century and continues until the present day. The style is a less "serious" form of Western classical music, featuring usually shorter orchestral pieces of mood music or concert music. Light music is often grouped with 'Easy Listening". On our stations playlist you will hear a mix of instrumental light music and excerpts from traditional forms of music. (beautifulmusic.uk, beautifulinstrumentals.com and classicalmusic.network)
the music
Before Late Romantic orchestral trends of length and scope separated the trajectory of lighter orchestral works from the Western Classical canon, classical composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Joseph Haydn won as much fame for writing lighter pieces such as Eine Kleine Nachtmusik as for their symphonies and operas. Later examples of early European light music include the operettas of composers such as Franz von Suppé or Sir Arthur Sullivan; the Continental salon and parlour music genres; and the waltzes and marches of Johann Strauss II and his family. The Straussian waltz became a common light music composition (note for example Charles Ancliffe's "Nights of Gladness" or Felix Godin's "Valse Septembre"). These influenced the foundation of a "lighter" tradition of classical music in the 19th and early 20th centuries...from the likes of Binge and Coates to Farnon.
Charles Ancliffe was an Irish born composer of light music, chiefly remembered for his marches and waltzes. Charles Ancliffe was born in Kildare, Ireland, the son of an army bandmaster. After studying at the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall, he followed in his father's footsteps by becoming a bandmaster himself. From 1900 to 1918 he was Bandmaster of the First Battalion, South Wales Borderers, seeing much service in India. During this period he wrote many popular pieces of music including marches such as The Liberators, and Castles in Spain. He also composed dozens of short genre pieces, often styled 'intermezzo' or 'entr'acte', several songs and ingeniously titled suites such as Below Bridges. which had the titles Wapping Old Stairs, Poplar and Stepney Church, — all London bridges.
Around the time of the First World War Ancliffe composed many waltzes, and it is mainly for these that he is remembered. These included Hesitation, Alpine Echoes, and Smiles Then Kisses, the titles reflecting the age in which they were written. Several of these enjoyed renewed popularity with the fashion for ‘olde-tyme dancing’ after World War II.
WIKIPEDIA
Date of Birth 1880, County Kildare, Ireland
Date of Death 20 December 1952, Richmond, Surrey, England, UK (heart attack)
Birth Name Charles William Ancliffe
