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.

Eric Coates (27 August 1886 – 21 December 1957) was an English composer of light music and a viola player.



English Heritage Eric Francis Harrison Coates was born in Hucknall in Nottinghamshire to William Harrison Coates (d. 1935), a surgeon, and his wife, Mary Jane Gwynne, hailing from Usk in Monmouthshire. After studying at home with a governess, Eric enrolled (1906) at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he received viola lessons from Lionel Tertis and studied composition with Frederick Corder. From 1910 he played in the Queen's Hall Orchestra under Henry J. Wood. Wikipedia Eric Coates, the composer of familiar music ("Sleepy Lagoon", "Knightsbridge"). His music was featured regularly over the BBC and sold hundreds of thousands of records. Died from stroke, 21 December 1957, Chichester, West Sussex, England, UK. Warner Chappell