Guild GmbH Switzerland

In 1955 the English composer Anthony Mawer (1930-1999) started contributing occasional mood
music pieces to London publishers De Wolfe, before joining the staff in 1959, where he remained until
1965. During this period he composed almost 500 titles exclusively for them, and Countrywide is just one
of many delightful melodies he has created – this is his fifth to reach a wider audience through Guild.
Gérard Calvi (real name Grégoire Elie Krettly, born 1922) first came to the attention of the public
in his native France when he contributed the music in 1948 to a show called “Les Branquignols”, with
Robert Dhéry adding witty lyrics to his quirky melodies. The following year he composed the score
for “La Patronne”, launching a career in mainly European films that would continue for the rest of the
20th Century. By far his best known cinematic work was for the “Asterix” films, but Calvi was equally
at home in the theatre and recording studios, and writing popular songs – over 300 in total. Probably
his most successful composition internationally was One Of Those Songs - thanks to Will Holt adding
the English lyric to a catchy orchestral piece called Le Bal de Madame de Mortemouille (on Guild
GLCD5160). Tonnerre Sur La Louisiane is his seventh composition to date included on a Guild CD.
Richard (Warren Joseph) Hayman (b. 1920) started at the age of 18 as a harmonica player in Borrah
Minevitch’s Harmonica Rascals, but he wisely decided to concentrate more on arranging and conducting.
He worked on the MGM musical “Meet Me In St. Louis” and was put under contract by Mercury
Records in 1950, for whom he made many singles and albums, the best-seller being his version of Ruby
from the film “Ruby Gentry”. Over a period of more than 30 years he also arranged for the Boston
Pops, serving as back-up conductor for Arthur Fiedler. An established Guild favourite (this is his 23rd
appearance), on GLCD5191 he conducted Corrida by Dominico Savino (1882-1973), and this time he
features the same composer’s sultry Twilight On Las Pampas.
The Canadian composer Robert Joseph Farnon (1917-2005) produced such a wealth of light music,
that it is hardly surprising that some of his catchy numbers are still unknown to many people. Such a
piece is Headland Country, and it would be surprising if he didn’t have his beautiful homeland in mind
when he composed it.
Bruce Campbell was one of several writers who owed much to his association with Robert Farnon.
He was a fellow Canadian, who actually came to Britain some years before Farnon, and played trombone
with various British bands during the 1930s including Ambrose, Jack Harris, Jack Hylton, Sid Millward,
Hugo Rignold and Lew Stone. Campbell assisted Farnon on his post-war BBC radio shows, and
eventually became a frequent contributor to various mood music libraries. Trotting Class was written for
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Initially this collection of Light Music was intended to reflect the scenic beauty of our world, but
it soon became apparent that composers often took a different view – the opening track is a good
example. Sometimes the word ‘nature’ means anything about our planet which is non-human, so
this automatically encompasses the animal world, in all its myriad of forms. In total this offers many
opportunities for composers to give their creative juices full rein, which explains why “Nature’s Realm”
is certainly much more varied, and hopefully exciting, than the sequence of serene melodies which the
album’s title originally suggested.
Johann Strauss II (1825-1899) conditioned his nineteenth-century audiences to expect charming
waltzes, so it must have come as quite a shock to them when they saw Unter Donner und Blitz on the
programme for the first time in 1868. Somehow the familiar English title Thunder and Lightning sounds
less dramatic, but arrangers and orchestras ever since that first performance over 140 years ago have
managed to create a big impact with Strauss’s Opus 324. The arrangement by Sidney Torch, MBE (born
Sidney Torchinsky 1908-1990) avoids the percussive excesses of some versions, while still retaining the
excitement of one of the most famous works of the ‘Waltz King’.
From thunder and lightning it is a natural progression to the accompanying storm, and probably the
most famous piece of music that conjures up the sultry conditions that often lead to a storm’s climax
was composed by Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck, 1905-1986). Stormy Weather is said to have been
co-written with Ted Koehler at a party in 1933. Whether or not this is strictly true, there is no doubt that
the weather exerted a benign influence on Arlen, who composed Over The Rainbow for “The Wizard of
Oz” in 1939, even though the song almost ended up on the proverbial cutting-room floor. Our version
of Stormy Weather, arranged and conducted by Morton Gould (1913-1996), bears all the hallmarks of
quality to be expected from one of America’s most honoured musicians.
Peter Yorke (1902-1966) provides two compositions for this collection. It seems likely that Frank
Chacksfield (1914-1995) recorded his Misty Valley in 1954 hoping that it might emulate the success of
his big hit Ebb Tide a year earlier. Later we hear Fireflies, a catchy number Peter wrote for the Chappell
Recorded Music Library.
Viennese Raymond Stuart Martin (1918-1988) was born Raymond Wolfgang Kohn, but after he fled
from the Nazis and settled in England before the outbreak of World War 2 he chose to be known as ‘Ray
Martin’. He became one of the biggest names in British popular music during the 1950s, and many of his
own instrumental recordings were either waltzes or tangos. Tango In The Rain is by the prolific German
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