Eric Coates

Combining a natural facility for indelible melody with foot-tapping rhythms, Eric Coates became the most successful composer in the light music tradition. Born into a musical Nottinghamshire family in 1886, Coates started out as a viola player in several ensembles and orchestras, until his increasing absences from rehearsals due to his second career as a composer led him to give up playing in 1919. Taking his lead from Gilbert and Sullivan and the lighter side of Elgar (who in later life became one of Coates’ biggest fans), Coates developed an uncanny ability to compose tuneful, whistleable music that created the magical impression of having always existed. “By the Sleepy Lagoon” (1930), “Knightsbridge” (part of the London Suite, 1933) and “Calling All Workers” (1940) were all adapted as radio theme tunes. Most popular of all, however, was “The Dam Busters March”, one of his last compositions (he died in 1957) and the theme for the popular 1955 war film starring Richard Todd and Michael Redgrave.