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Frederick George Charrosin, who died in 1976, composed
fairly prolifically – mainly orchestral miniatures, single
movements rather than suites, many of them suitable for the
shelves of the publishers’ recorded music libraries (Paxton,
Boosey and, again, Bosworth were the publishers most favoured
by him). They included Fireside Gypsies, Foreboding, Playbox
(an intermezzo), Trickery (a caprice), the pasodoble
Don Carlos, Busy Business, Keep Moving, Stealth, Hiker’s
Highway, Scaramouche, Dive Bomber (an indication he was
active during the Second War, in which he suffered the loss
of a son killed in action), Mysterious March, Festival
in Seville and two pieces for piano (or xylophone –
and as such very popular at the time – or piccolo) with
orchestra, Snowflakes and the waltz, Zita.
It was, however, his colourful arrangements that were most
in demand for orchestras performing on the "wireless",
especially in the post Second War period. I well remember
the frequency with which his name cropped up in the orchestral
programmes listed in the "Radio Times", as the arranger
both of popular classics (one popular example, of dozens,
maybe hundreds, was of Brahms’ Hungarian Dances)
and as the compiler of medleys like Juvenalia (a nursery
rhyme selection), Anglia, an "English fantasia",
Fantasie Slave, The Land of the Shamrock and Fantasie
on Themes of Liszt. The many light orchestras of that
rich era owed him a great deal.
© Philip Scowcroft
This profile first appeared in ‘Journal Into Melody’
September 2007
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