Programme 10
 

On

Resonance

104.4 fm

. 

Caravan

Bohemian Band

Edison Bell Winner

3741

7503 O

Nov 1922

N/A

Wana - Fox Trot

Silver Stars Band Conducted by Albert W. Ketelby

Regal

G7961

73405

July 1923 C

C. Friend

In Other Words - From "The Bing Boys are Here"

George Robey with Alhambra Orchestra

Columbia

L1035

6806

May 1916 C

Clifford Grey & Nat D.Ayer

Excelsior

Hughes Macklin & Thorpe Bates

Columbia

L1301

76100

June 1919 C

Balfe, Longfellow

The Disorderly Room

Tommy Handley & Company

Zonophone

2900

yy10289 I W yy10290 II W

Mar 1927

Blore

Lacquer Lady

Melville Gideon

HMV

C1284

Cc 8917-3

Sept 1 1926

Gideon

 The composer as a recording manager and conductor - A convoluted song from revue - A popular ballad as my grandmother would have heard it - The previous two song parodied, and lots more besides - A painting comes to life, theatrical effects in the 1920s.

 

Excelsior

 

The shades of night were falling fast,

As through an Alpine village passed

A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,

A banner with the strange device,

Excelsior!

 

His brow was sad; his eye beneath,

Flashed like a falchion from its sheath,

And like a silver clarion rung

The accents of that unknown tongue,

Excelsior!

 

In happy homes he saw the light

Of household fires gleam warm and bright;

Above, the spectral glaciers shone,

And from his lips escaped a groan,

Excelsior!

 

"Try not the Pass!" the old man said;

"Dark lowers the tempest overhead,

The roaring torrent is deep and wide!"

And loud that clarion voice replied,

Excelsior!

 

"O stay," the maiden said, "and rest

Thy weary head upon this breast!"

A tear stood in his bright blue eye,

But steel he answered with a sigh,

Excelsior!

 

"Beware the pine tree's withered branch!

Beware the awful avalanche!"

This was the peasant's last Good-night,

A voice replied, far up the height,

Excelsior!

 

At break of day, as heavenward

The pious monks of Saint Bernard

Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,

A voice cried through the startled air,

Excelsior!

 

A traveler, by the faithful hound,

Half-buried in the snow was found,

Sill grasping in his hand of ice

The banner with the strange device,

Excelsior!

 

There in the twilight cold and gray,

Lifeless, but beautiful he lay,

And from the sky, serene and far,

A voice fell, like a falling star,

Excelsior!


The Disorderly Room

 

USEFUL REFERENCES:

Cliff Friend

http://songwritershalloffame.org/notable_bio.asp?notableWriterId=14

Tommy Handley

http://www.radioacademy.org/halloffame/handley_t/index.shtml

http://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/radio/itma.htm

"Tommy Handley" by Ted Kavanagh   Hodder & Stoughton 1940
"The ITMA Years"    Futura Publications 1975

The Co-Optimists

http://www.nodanw.com/shows_c/cooptimists.htm

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