Music and Film
Film music is popular with our member orchestras. We have a comprehensive collection in our library worth exploring.
Arthur Benjamin
Arthur Benjamin was an Australian-born composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher. Among his best known light orchestral works are Jamaican Rumba and the dramatic Storm Clouds Cantata (written for the Alfred Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much). He studied at the Royal College of Music in London under Sir Charles Villiers Stanford and Frederick Cliffe, eventually becoming a professor of piano at the College in 1926, mentoring notable students like Benjamin Britten.
He was known for blending classical forms with accessible, often “exotic” or rhythmic elements. His music spans orchestral, chamber, vocal, and operatic genres.
We have the score to his Waltz and Hyde Park Galop, a lively orchestral suite composed in 1947 for the film An Ideal Husband. It showcases his flair for Light Music and cinematic scoring.
These two movements form a charming diptych that reflects Benjamin’s skill in writing music that is both evocative and accessible. The Galop in particular has a buoyant, almost cartoonish quality, making it ideal for outreach or youth-friendly listening hours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpedNy21C-0&list=RDwpedNy21C-0&start_radio=1
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.
Amy Beach
Amy Beach (1867–1944) was the first successful American woman composer of large-scale art music, renowned for her Gaelic Symphony and Piano Concerto in C-sharp minor.
A child prodigy, she sang in harmony at age two and composed waltzes by age four. Amy was largely self-taught, as societal norms at the time restricted her from formal European training. She studied scores and theory independently, becoming one of the most respected American composers of her time.
We have her Gaelic Symphony available for loan from our library.
Search our Music by Women Composers listing
Listen…
What makes your audiences smile?!
Here is a suggestion that would make a perfect programme filler or encore.
Side Walk - Charles Williams
Repertoire Ideas
Here are works being borrowed from our library by member groups:
Slipper and the Rose (arr A Morley) - Sherman Brothers
Nights of Gladness - Ancliffe
Will You Remember - Romberg
The Waltzing Cat - Leroy Anderson
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 is a suggestion:
Oh My Beloved Father (O Mio Babbino Caro) - Puccini
Composer Spotlight
Archibald Joyce
Archibald Joyce (1873–1963) was a prolific English composer and bandleader known as the “English Waltz King,” celebrated for his elegant and sentimental dance music.
Joyce specialized in short waltzes and salon pieces that were widely performed in ballrooms and by light orchestras. His music was known for its lyrical charm, romantic melancholy, and accessible elegance, often compared to continental salon composers.
Nicknamed “The English Waltz King” for his mastery of the genre, his works were part of the White Star Line’s orchestra repertoire, and some were likely played aboard the Titanic!
Here is Song of Autumn, one of many of his works available from our library.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icvLDkt7dYM&list=RDicvLDkt7dYM&start_radio=1
Contact us on lmsliborders@gmail.com for more information about the music we have by this composer.
Looking Ahead…
Wherever your musical journey takes you in 2026, the Light Music Society is here for you!
The Library will be closed from the 18th of December until the 7th of January.
Please ensure that you get your New Year music requests to us as soon as possible and from all of us at the Light Music Society, Merry Christmas and a Happy Light-Music-Making New Year!
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.
Orchestral Music sets for sale
Is your music group looking to buy some orchestral music?
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