Light Music - are we allowed to discuss this at the UC site?

[Albion]

Did Lehar compose 'light music'?

In 1902 he produced one of the finest waltzes ever written, Gold and Silver. From the turn of the twentieth-century onwards he mainly concentrated on operetta composition, but drew a number of stunning waltzes from these works including Ballsirenen (The Merry Widow), Luxembourg (The Count of Luxembourg) and those based on Eva, Where the Lark Sings, Gipsy Love and Guiditta. There is an excellent recording of these by Willi Boskovsky and the Wiener Johann Strauss Orchester (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leh%C3%A1r-Waltzes-Franz/dp/B00005NPJC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1283589768&sr=1-2) - that dreaded cover again, I'm afraid! Otherwise very little of his independent dance music has been explored.

[Christopher]

see my string on Eugen Doga - he fits perfectly into this mould.

[alberto]

Surely he did.
Best known is the marvellous konzert-waltz "Gold und silber", recorded , among many, by Lehar himself (Decca), Barbirolli (Pye), Boskowsky.
The invaluable CPO has produced a series of records where operetta excerpts or "serious" (really never too much) works are mingled with concert waltes or other dances (for instance CPO 761-2 and 891-2-cond.M.Jurowski; 423-2 cond. Seibel).

[edurban]

Henry Hadley, during his student days in Germany wrote a goodly number of orchestral waltzes, polkas and galops (the Torpedo Galop is one of my favorites.)  He obviously didn't take these seriously, I don't think any were published, and the scores now slumber in the Hadley collection at NYPL Lincoln Center.  Enough for a very spirited and delightful CD, I think, although I haven't looked at them in years.  You'd only need a chamber orchestra....

David

[eschiss1]

not entirely unpublished; Hadley published an Annie Polka with Ditson in 1884 - see here for at least a partial online scan. the site also has a Clara mazurka Ditson published the next year.  They are, mind, piano/piano4h versions.  so i find myself mistaken since you did say orchestral dance music- though the site does have those, in parts - i think rarely score also - for some other composers.

note in passing- LoC American Memory site from which those two are selected, has a huge trove of music - not at all entirely by American composers; e.g. the first edition of Schumann's op118 kindersonaten is there - by American/US publishers over a certain time period scanned. not very well-scanned, I think- lots of deskewing and cropping needs to be done to get it to look nice - but the service is by me very very much appreciated, i at least will say...

[Gareth Vaughan]

IIRC we had a discussion on the old forum about Leroy Anderson's Violin Concerto - a piece he was supposed to have written (according to some sources) but which doesn't seem to exist.

[TerraEpon]

Never heard that about Anderson...

His Piano Concerto is utterly fabulously wonderful and should be essential listening for every person here, though

[Steve B]

Eric Coates-the master; "Rhodesia" march, central section, contains, one of most moving nobilmente tunes I know, very longbreathed. Steve

[JimL]

Not only do I believe Leroy Anderson composed a violin concerto, I'm fairly certain I remember having heard a radio broadcast of it (from an LP, I think) when I was about 14 or 15 (1974-75).

[Paul Barasi]

Even Wagner wrote the occasional light opera?!

[Gareth Vaughan]

Not only do I believe Leroy Anderson composed a violin concerto, I'm fairly certain I remember having heard a radio broadcast of it (from an LP, I think) when I was about 14 or 15 (1974-75).

Yes, I remember now your saying so on the old forum, Jim - but, as I recall, we all looked long and hard and couldn't come up with any definite leads (either as to the broadcast you heard, or the current whereabouts of a score). Maddening.

[TerraEpon]

Perhaps someone arranged his music into a faux-concerto for violin and orchestra? Sounds plausible anyway.