Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not

[callmemadam]

I grew up in a wireless household, and we’re not talking internet access here. Listen With Mother and Children’s Hour got my total concentration but there was a whole lot more that was just on, and which I took in without really listening: Housewives’ Choice and Music While You Work, Woman’s Hour, In Town Tonight, The Archers, Two Way Family Favourites and, most evocative of all now, the Saturday teatime football results. "Queen of the South: One. Heart of Midlothian: One." How romantic the names sounded. What this meant was that before starting school I absorbed a whole lot of British light music without being aware of it: Coronation Scot, Elizabethan Serenade, The Knightsbridge March and so on.

In my teens I totally despised all that. It was Beatles or Bach for me and I hated light music, even poor old Tchaikovsky, as much as I hated Frank Sinatra and any song that sounded like a ballad. Older and perhaps wiser I came to appreciate the artistry of Sinatra and the craftsmanship of the composers of the Light Programme music. Now, one of my favourite CDs is the Classic FM Essential British Light Music compilation. So I was pleased to hear a programme on Radio 4 yesterday about Eric Coates, The King of Light Music , which is available on Listen Again. I can’t explain why hearing The Dambusters now brings tears to my eyes but I do know that Eric Coates is a better composer than he used to be given credit for.

Comments

[land-girl.livejournal.com]

This is interesting as it is something I had been thinking about writing about this week. I watched a programme about Radio 2 on BBC4, and some of the pieces (Humphrey Lyttelton, Folk on 2) made my heart sing, while the others (The Organist Entertains, Friday Night is Music Night, etc.) made me shudder. Light classical music leaves me utterly cold, and I wondered whether it was because it brought back negative memories of my childhood, but maybe, for some of us, it is just a taste that we acquire with age? I loathed Glen Campbell and The Carpenters in the 1970's and I'm very fond of them now :-)

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it's because they rekindle not complete memories but the sensation of happy or secure times? It can be comforting to reencounter some stuff years after you've forgotten about it - although I don't think I'll ever learn to love my mum's country & western!

Callmemadam, is Coronation Scot the one that's used for the Paul Temple programmes, the one that's an aural depiction of a train journey?

[land-girl.livejournal.com]

I think that is probably true: I may come to appreciate light music in time, but it probably won't be for nostalgic reasons, because that music reminds me of sitting in the cold kitchens of the bearded old ladies we would periodically visit as children :-) My parents and grandparents were more Beatles or Bach, as callmemadam said ... light classical music was all about duty visits ....

I do like RVW's film scores, though. Does that count as light classical?

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

It's comfort music, definitely. Sometimes the best can be too much for you. Same with books, really.

Coronation Scot = Paul Temple: yes!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Back again replying to mimmimmim (why won't these comments thread themselves as they are supposed to?). I used to hate country & western but I like the folk/rock/country fusion stuff and I really like Lyle Lovell. You can hear some interesting music on Bob Harris Country, which I catch occasionally.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I should have an icon like that!

I recorded that BBC 4 programme to watch but I was disappointed. I was hoping for a 'how the Light became R2' documentary and it seemed to be all about Desmond Carrington, whom I never listen to, and mad people who guess what he's going to play. There's some excellent stuff on R2 but I tend to catch it occasionally by accident.

I know what you mean about light classics. Part of my hatred was rebellion aganst my father, I'm sure. Now, that radio music has a Proustian effect which is no longer unpleasant.

[land-girl.livejournal.com]

You are very welcome to use the icon! It comes from a wonderful Ladybook that hartleyhare bought for me when I got my job, about shopping on the internet.

I thought the programme was interesting (once we got beyond the Desmond Carrington bit) but needed a thread of continuity running through it: it certainly wasn't about how the Light became Radio 2, as it was billed to be ...
And what was all the stuff with the horsey woman??

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

And what was all the stuff with the horsey woman??
Programme makers seem to like to make out radio listeners to be madly eccentric. Perhaps we are!

PS Thanks for the icon info. I have hundreds of Ladybird books which are probably wonderful sources of icons. Watch this space! I need a revamp.