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.

Anthony Hedges (5 March 1931 – 19 June 2019)

An English composer whose output covered most musical genres. His orchestral music included two symphonies, a Sinfonia Concertante, concertinos for flute, horn, trumpet, bassoon, Variations on a theme of Rameau, together with a substantial number of light music compositions. Works for chorus and orchestra include Bridge for the Living, (for which Philip Larkin wrote the text), The Temple of Solomon (a Huddersfield Choral Society commission), The Lamp of Liberty, (commissioned by Hull Philharmonic Orchestra for the Wilberforce bicentennary), I Sing the Birth (Canticles for Christmas) together with a number of large-scale works for massed junior choirs and orchestra which have been widely performed. Hedges' chamber-music output was extensive, from solo to ensemble works and his vocal compositions were equally numerous and varied. He also published a considerable amount of educational music. Often regarded primarily as a light-music composer due to the large number of recordings of his light orchestral music, such works in fact represented only a small portion of his overall output.

  WIKIPEDIA

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