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A MUSICAL ALL-ROUNDER: LEIGHTON LUCAS (1903-1982)
By Philip L. Scowcroft
Leighton Lucas, born in London on 5 January 1903 (his Canadian-born
father Clarence Lucas published drawing-room ballads), was
musically self-taught, yet he later became a Professor at
the Royal Academy of Music and also lectured elsewhere, even
on radio. He had experience, as a dancer, with Diaghilev’s
Ballet Russe between 1918 and 1921 and then as a conductor
with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre (1922-3) and in a performance
of Rutland Boughton’s opera "The Immortal Hour"
in 1923. He later conducted for the ballet (as we shall see,
he also composed for it) and, after war service in the RAF,
formed his own Leighton Lucas Orchestra to give concerts on
the BBC – perhaps elsewhere – of unfamiliar, sometimes
"modern", but always approachable, music and often
French music. I enjoyed these during my teens and they expanded
my own listening. They combined serious and light music as
the following example from 29 March 1949, transmitted as "A
Serenade" on the Third (yes, Third) Programme.
Overture: The Cambridge Ode (Boyce,
arr. Constant Lambert); Cantata by Carissimi; Gymnopeidie
No. 1 (Satie, arr. Debussy); Four Songs (Sleep, Good
Ale, Take O Take Those Lips Away and Yarmouth
Fair) (Warlock); Habanera (Chabrier); Lonely
Waters (Mocran); Song of the Sicilian Cart-Driver (Anon.);
Three Songs of The Roman Countryside (Anon.);
Kamarinskaya (Glinka).
No ego trip there as there is nothing by
Lucas himself. More recently I have heard a recording (made
from a 78) of the LLO performing on the BBC (1955) Horace
Dann’s stirringly Elgarian concert march Worcester
Beacon. He was always ready to try something new or less
well known.
When we look at Lucas’ orchestral (and
other) pieces we have to admit that several are "serious",
though invariably accessible: a Litany (for strings),
Birthday Variations (1970), three masses, many part
songs, Chaconne in C Sharp Minor and many concerted works,
a Concerto for clarinet, a Concertino for cello, Prelude,
Aria and Finale for viola d’amore, Concert Champêtre
for violin, the Sinfonia Brevis for horn and eleven
instruments and chamber music, most notably a String Trio
and a Piano Quartet. His works inclined towards brevity and
were never written in a "groove" as these and other
titles show.
There were lighter works in orchestral and
instrumental categories. In the former there were Ballet
de la Reine (for strings), Suite Francaise (1940)
and L’Europe Galante, after Campra (1939), a fruit
of his preoccupation with French music old and new, even a
few pieces of "library music" titles being Eastern
Court, Princesses’ Dance and Snake Charmer. Instrumental
miniatures included Meditation for cello and piano,
Aubade for horn, bassoon and piano, Soliloquy
and Tristesse for viola and piano, Orientale
for bassoon and piano, Disquisition for two cellos
and piano duet, Three Dances for Three (two harps and
oboe, clearly the Goossens family) and for brass band, Spring
Song and A Waltz Overture.
But we have so far only scratched the surface
of Lucas’ light music, quite a lot of which was in the
fields of ballet and film music. His interest in ballet was
reflected by his scores for The Wolf’s Ride (1935),
Death in Adagio (after Domenico Scarlatti) (1938),
The Horses (1945-6) and Tam O’Shanter (composed
in 1972-3 but never staged). He wrote for dozens of films
– many of them pre-war, wartime and post-war documentaries,
but a number of feature length issues starting with the wartime
propaganda film "Target for Tonight" (1942), very
popular in its time, I remember, "Portrait of Clare"
and "The Dam Busters" (1954). Admittedly he did
not write the most famous part of that film’s music,
which is Eric Coates’ "titles" march, bits
of which are recalled later in the film, most of all at the
climactic moment when the Möhne Dam collapses.
Lucas showed a few years later that he could
write stirring marches of his own, for the films "Yangtse
Incident" and "Ice Cold in Alex", which respectively
yielded the marches The Amethyst and The Road to
Alex ("Alex" also had a Romance
published separately). Lucas also wrote for BBC Radio quite
prolifically – plays, features and the serial "Just
William", remembered with affection by the writer from
his teenage years (1940s).
One is tempted to compare Lucas with Constant
Lambert. Both were enterprising conductors, both had a great
interest in the ballet, both wrote film music. Lambert had
a sadly shorter life (Lucas lived until 1 November 1982) and
achieved more in the ballet field but less in writing for
the films. Perhaps, too, his achievement in composition generally
was more memorable, if less extensive. But Lucas’ work
deserves recall and indeed modest revival of the music.
This article originally appeared in the
Robert Farnon Society’s magazine "Journal Into Melody"
in September 2009.
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