In recent years, something of a niche market has developed in the field
of light classics: I'm thinking especially of the Marco Polo series, and
Hyperion's three British Light Music CDs and American Light Music Classics.

I was attracted to the most recent in the field, ASV's British Light Music
Discoveries on their mid-price WHL label, by the fact that each of the
three CDs so far available contains something rare by Malcolm Arnold, one
of my very favourite composers.  These included a work I had heard only in
its military band guise, The Duke of Cambridge March, which is in the usual
Pomp and Circumstance format.  Elgar would never have written the highly
exuberant opening section, but the "big" tune in the middle is the equal
of any written by Elgar or anyone else.

The CDs' other attraction is that the music is mainly by composers whose
work doesn't seem to have appeared in other collections.  For example, I
have been very taken with Three Dances by David Lyon.  The second is a pas
de deux whose simplicity and unexpected harmonies make it a real winner.
Strangely, the suite's major influence seems to be Copland, and, at one
point, Mahler - there's nothing noticeably British.

Even ten years ago, I would have passed up such music as not worth the
trouble but taken on its own terms, it can give a great deal of pleasure.
There's also the enjoyment of reading a title that means nothing by a
composer you've never heard of, and finding the music has been part of your
consciousness for years.  It seems that nostalgia still is what it used to
be.

Richard Pennycuick
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