Charles Williams (1893-1978)
wrote a huge corpus of music for the concert platform and for the film industry.
However, most of the latter is un-credited.
He is best known for the romantic tune The Dream of Olwen which was used in the 1948 film While I Live. Equally successful was the Devil’s Galop which was the theme music
to the successful radio show Dick Barton, Special Agent. Other well-known tunes are the theme music to
the long-running BBC Light Programme “Friday Night is Music Night”. For many
years he was the conductor of the Queen’s Hall Light Orchestra.
Marianne is
a delicious little concert valse written in an easy going, but typically romantic
style.
After a sad introduction
which is followed immediately by a wistful tune for woodwind supported
by strings, the main waltz tune sweeps into the picture. However the opening clarinet
theme never quite leaves the scene and we are left with the distinct impression
that Marianne is at one and the same
time a ‘tom boy’ and a ‘deb.’ Like so
much light music the listener is impressed by the formal integrity of this
short work, the balance of the themes and the surprisingly subtle orchestration.
It is difficult to date the work; there is no record on COPAC. However the recording
of this piece preserved on Guild’s Golden Age of Light Music was made in 1943.
This was likely mood music that may have been composed in the nineteen
thirties. Certainly Marianne has all
the flair of thirties fashion.
‘Marianne’ can be heard on Guild
Light Music GLCD 5107
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