Despite strict training, Coates developed a light orchestral style of his very own. His tunes have stood the test of time and resonate with us today, though he was regarded as something of a rebel in his day.
Eric Coates is best remembered for composing The Dam Busters March. His rousing tune is used as the theme to the 1955 movie of the same name directed by Michael Anderson and starring Richard Todd and Michael Redgrave. The tune has become as iconic as the movie itself and demonstrates that popular music (even though not in the mould of ‘pop’ as we know it, or rock ‘n’ roll, that had recently arrived in the UK from the USA) could be great music.
Coates didn’t write the march specifically for The Dam Busters film but was approached to write a piece for it. In fact, Coates didn’t like composing for the cinema, nevertheless, he was persuaded that the film was of “national importance” by his publisher, Chappell & Co. Of course, the heroic nature of The Dam Busters March, is somewhat in the style of Edward Elgar (see Pomp and Circumstance March No 1, Land of Hope and Glory by Sir Edward Elgar 1857 – 1934) was perfect for the film.
Style
Interestingly, Coates composed the tune in 1954, toward the end of his life and after a period in the 1920’s when critics had all-but ignored him after he had started to develop a style influenced by the new ‘American syncopated idiom’. (Coates is regarded as the first European composer to use it successfully in symphonic compositions).
His rebellious approach makes Eric Coates one of the outstanding candidates to be considered as ‘the British George Gershwin’. (See Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin 1898 – 1937.)
Coates’ music is also familiar to us via the enchanting theme tune to long-running radio programme, Desert Island Discs, called By the Sleepy Lagoon. Written in 1930, the seductive, melody immediately conjures imagery of peaceful solitude among palm trees and is a far cry from the urgency of The Dam Busters March.
Among the greats
Eric Coates was born in Hucknall, ironically, near Hucknall Aerodrome, which saw action as an RAF base during the Second World War. Coates went to London and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music as a viola player and composer. He was
principal viola of the Queen’s Hall Orchestra under Sir Henry Wood and also played under some of the other greats, including Elgar, German, Delius, Holst, Strauss and Debussy. It was neuritis (nerve damage) that eventually steered him towards concentrating on composition exclusively.
Coates wrote several pieces, that just as By the Sleepy Lagoon had, became well known through use as theme tunes to radio and television programmes. Knightsbridge, from his London Suite was used by BBC Radio’s In Town Tonight. Calling All Workers was the theme to Music While You Work, while Halcyon Days (Elizabeth Tudor) from The Three Elizabeths Suite became the theme to BBC television series, The Forsyte Saga.
Once said: “Wrong attitudes towards the best light music were fostering an insidious form of musical snobbery among listeners, teaching them to despise melody.”
Brief summary: Although Coates’ tunes are associated with nostalgia, it’s difficult to think of certain films or broadcasts without them. I wouldn’t be the first to consider Coates the ‘King of light orchestral music.’
Nottingham Rebels 