LIBRARY NEWS September 2025

Posted on 26th September, 2025

Music and film

Film music is popular with our member orchestras. We have a comprehensive collection in our library worth exploring.

Arnold Bax

Arnold Bax’s Oliver Twist score (1948) is a fascinating outlier in his output – written reluctantly for David Lean’s adaptation of Dickens, yet brimming with vivid characterisation and orchestral colour. Fagin’s Romp is especially notable for its mischievous energy and dramatic closure, capturing both the impishness of Fagin and the film’s emotional resolution. We have a version in our library.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQXKMHff_ZE

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.

Emma Dorothea Barcroft

Emma Dorothea Barcroft (1885–1958) was a multifaceted English composer, pianist, radio broadcaster, and music educator whose work spanned early 20th-century salon music, children’s repertoire, and orchestral sketches inspired by travel and folklore.

Barcroft’s output includes piano miniatures, songs, and orchestral arrangements, often published by Boosey & Co., Weekes & Co., and Collard Moutrie.

Highlights include her First African Suite: Swahili Sketches (1923): A five-movement suite arranged by Sydney Baynes, reflecting her travels in Kenya.

Barcroft was affectionately known as “Auntie Dorothy” on BBC Birmingham’s Children’s Hour, which she led until 1935. She also presented Woman’s Hour in the early 1920s, making her a pioneering figure in British radio.

Search our women composer listing - https://www.lightmusicsociety.com/services

Listen

What makes your audiences smile!

Here is a suggestion that would make a perfect programme filler or encore.

Bats in the Belfry - Billy Mayerl

Repertoire ideas

Here are some works works currently or recently on loan from our library:

Las Vegas - Laurie Johnson

Waltz from Three Bears - Eric Coates

Brighton Hike - Archibald Joyce

Pirates of Penzance Selection - Sir Arthur Sullivan

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:

The piece was composed by Philip Green (1910–1982), based on a melody from Paganini's Violin Concerto No.1, and was featured in the 1946 movie The Magic Bow.

Here, it is performed by Louis Levy & His Orchestra, with Reginald Leopold on the violin.

Romance from The Magic Bow - PaganinI/Green

Composer Spotlight

Fred Hartley

Fred Hartley (1905–1980) was a Scottish pianist, composer, conductor, and a key figure in British Light Music. His work is marked by charm, rhythmic vitality, and a knack for evocative titles that conjure mood and place.

Born in Dundee, and trained at the Royal Academy of Music, Fred was the son of conductor William Hartley. He first broadcast as a solo pianist in 1925; formed the Novelty Quintet in 1931, was regularly featured on BBC radio and eventually became head of BBC Light Music in 1946, shaping the sound of mid-century British broadcasting.

He also used the pseudonym Iris Taylor, under which he penned numerous piano miniatures like Cuckoo in Love and Starry Night.

The Hampden Roar by Fred Hartley available from our library.

Here is a recording prepared in Sibelius NotePerformer by LMS member Andy Bate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7c6YkMvd4s&list=RDP7c6YkMvd4s&start_radio=1

Looking ahead