Of all the publishers’ libraries of mood music Bosworth was always one of the most engaging. Guild has here collated some prime specimens from 1937 to 1953. The most hard working band was that of Louis Voss though Bosworth’s own house band makes an appearance as do a number of light ensembles with plausibly high falutin’ names. The honesty-first London Bijou Players certainly make up in style what they may lack in heft. The items here were recorded to be used on newsreels and television as well as film and other sources. So in the main they’re pert, rather formulaic, tightly structured and musically cogent, instantly colourful and evocative and scored with acumen. A number are staples of the Light Music repertoire – Charles Williams, Ketèlbey and Haydn Wood amongst them – but there are plenty of far less well-known items to tickle the nostalgic buds.

Once such is the Playful Pelican, a piece of pert kitsch from the busy pen of Peter Yorke, though following it with the cosmopolitan Buddha’s Festival of Love makes for an entertaining contrast – plenty of Festival, very little Buddha. Louis Voss’ was an enterprising band but he can’t match the composer’s own various recordings of Wedgewood Blue – Ketèlbey’s own discs always had a certain frisson. Busy Business by Frederick Charrosin, one of the composers not labouring under an alias here ("Claud Vane" and "Kenneth Essex", decent sounding chaps, were actually Rufus Isaacs) is a wittily orchestrated affair – piano, pizzicati, and strong brass. And in one of those trademark Guild mood switchers The Ballet Dancer is all aerial grace and agility.

Charles Williams was one of the most accomplished of all these composers contributing a spruce piece of Elgarian Nauticalia in Cutty Sark and great sensitivity in Serenade to a Mannequin – it’s much better than its title. The title track goes to Peter Yorke and it’s positively luscious in its out-of-doorsness; all charabanc trips to the country, and romantic vistas. Not sure about the sound though – it sounds somewhat desiccated and as if rather too much noise reduction has been employed. Period concerns are represented – Speedway for example and the Sabre Jet. There are plenty of passing pleasures – the gorgeous tune in Henry Croudson’s Jack and Jill. Then there’s Travel Centre, a sign of the times when the age of the Holiday Abroad was fast approaching and a fine selection generally.

I needn’t mention the notes, which are characteristically wide ranging, though a number of the composers’ biographies have been covered before. I’m still of the opinion that too much top has been taken off but the sound is certainly not displeasing.

Jonathan Woolf

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