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Studio
portrait of
Cecil Milner.
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If any readers had doubts about the important work carried
out by the ‘backroom boys’ of the music industry,
this fascinating life story will certainly be an eye-opener!
Rarely seeking the limelight themselves, they often created
the sounds we all grew to love so much.
OUT OF THE SHADOWS: THE CECIL MILNER STORY (1905-1989)
by Colin Mackenzie and Timothy Milner
Cecil Milner has sometimes been described as one of light
music’s respected "backroom boys", a statement
which, we would argue, does not do full justice to his prolific
career in music. In his prime Milner was a craftsman, his
arranging and composing skills being among the best in the
business. Although film music was his forte, he was also part
of the light music scene for many years, including a lengthy
and successful association with Mantovani which began in 1952.
We cannot estimate how much music Cecil was responsible for,
the list seems endless. There are several hundred compositions,
arrangements and incidental pieces of music, but to arrive
at an accurate total is impossible. The reason for this is
simply explained and it concerns his arrangements of other
composers’ work. Music publishers paid Cecil a standard
fee for each arrangement he made, and that was the end of
it. He could only claim royalties for arrangements when scoring
a non-copyright piece of music, and it is these that show
up in his royalty statements. The others do not. We must thus
turn to the correspondence in Cecil’s archives to locate
some - but not all - of the details of his many arranging
commitments.
At least we are able to pigeonhole his contribution to music
into six main categories:
firstly, there were his early classical compositions; then
a large amount of incidental music composed for films, interspersed
with arrangements of other writers’ work. His own light
music compositions were used for all sorts of purposes and
there were also various pieces of cueing music devised for
mood music libraries.
Finally, there were his arrangements for Mantovani. Of these
we estimate a total of over 250 during a period of 22 years.
It is these, in particular, that remind us that Mantovani,
a perfectionist who demanded the very best from those who
worked for him, would not have employed Cecil as one of his
main arrangers had there been anything remotely second-rate
about him.
Even so, some of the light music cognoscenti view
Cecil as just another arranger among many and not a very prolific
one at that. Others profess ignorance of his career. One much
respected British light music composer, a contemporary of
Milner’s, when asked at a meeting of the Robert Farnon
Society if he knew Cecil Milner, replied that he had never
heard of him.
Admittedly, the very nature of the man has contributed to
his lack of modern day recognition. Like many of his associates,
Cecil did not seek the limelight and never courted publicity.
It was just not part of his nature; he really wanted none
of that. He relied on his compositions and arrangements to
enhance his reputation, leaving a variety of music publishers
to distribute his own work around the world.
In further considering why his worth has not been fully recognised,
it is only in recent times that the arranger has been acknowledged
as a craftsman in his own right. During Cecil’s main
period of activity, which embraces much of his time with Mantovani,
it was unusual for light orchestras to include the accredited
name of an arranger on the record label or the album sleeve.
Thus his name was rarely before the general public or even
light music buffs.
We should understand, too, that Cecil wrote a relatively
small number of full-length (i.e. over three minute) melodies.
He was just too busy arranging other work. Except for his
earliest classical compositions which are bound in hardback,
he did not keep any copies of his own work, preventing us
from assessing its full volume. Additionally, his work was
automatically retained by film companies and mood music libraries
as their property. Franck Leprince, a respected musician and
arranger, informs us that "until the 1970s it was unusual
for the composer of a film score to be allowed to keep any
of his sheet music after recording the score." Even so,
you might assume that there would be a stockpile of Cecil’s
film arrangements awaiting discovery somewhere or other until
Franck explains that "the great studios in the USA and
in England all burned pile after pile of original scores and
sheet music, simply because they were always running out of
space."
Applying this criterion to the smaller film studios, Timothy
Milner is convinced that many of his uncle’s film and
incidental music arrangements were disposed of or thrown away.
Ominously, a comment in a recent letter he received from a
leading music publisher tends to confirm this view: "The
sheet music for pretty well all our old production music titles
has disappeared long since, if it even survived beyond the
recording session. Nobody in those days expected that background
music would be of any interest to future generations."
Nevertheless, there are existing sheets for original Milner
works held in the British Library including Aerial Activity,
Cloud Drifts, Pursuit, Shipwreck, Mailed Fist, Fly Past, Downland,
Russian Marching Song, Saluting Base and State Drive.
Of the many others, however, there is little or no trace anywhere.
As you might guess, Timothy (who can be contacted on 01304-852493)
wishes to hear from any reader who can throw light on the
whereabouts of his uncle’s missing compositions, arrangements
and film music.Fortunately, there are enough surviving letters
from musicians and music publishers in Cecil’s archives
to provide us with a rare insight into the professional activities
of a "musical composer & arranger" (as Cecil’s
invoices were headed). In relating his life story, we intend
to prevent him being typecast in the future as a mere run-of-the-mill
arranger who really didn’t achieve very much.
Cecil’s story begins on 20 April 1905 in Merton, Wimbledon,
as the first born son of Ernest Edward Milner. Originally
from Chesterfield, Ernest was involved with the Elder Dempster
shipping business in Liverpool before coming to London in
1903 to help shape the future of Elders and Fyffes. Known
as "The Great White Fleet", the company’s ships,
numbering over 100, transported passengers to the West Indies
and, as the name Fyffes implies, imported bananas and fruit
from the Caribbean and Cameroon. After spending 55 years in
the company’s service as a much respected director, secretary,
treasurer and chief accountant, Cecil’s father retired
on the last day of 1953.
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Cecil
Milner and Clive Richardson
with their wives.
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In whatever spare time he had in the 1920s, Ernest founded
the Wimbledon Lyric Players, an amateur operatic group which
still exists to this day. Married to Marie Elizabeth Martindale,
they had two sons: Geoffrey Ernest, who followed his father
into the shipping business - between them they accumulated
some 90 years of service - and Edward Cecil, whose precocious
talent made it inevitable that he would follow a career in
music. As a youngster, Cecil took part in his father’s
amateur dramatics - a family photograph shows him dressed
up as Charlie Chaplin - and he would even play piano with
his brother on clarinet when the Lyric Players put on a production.
Geoffrey married Dorothy McBean, formerly a glamorous actress
and dancer on the West End stage. At one period she understudied
her close friend Jessie Matthews. Cecil, on the other hand,
married Phyllis Platel, a fellow student at the Royal Academy
of Music, just before the outbreak of war at St Paul’s
RC Church, Dover on 12 August 1939. During WW2 Geoffrey, who
held an extra master’s certificate, became Lieutenant
Commander G. E. Milner, MBE, RD in the Royal Naval Reserve.
He was mentioned in dispatches and awarded an MBE for courage,
resolution and endurance when his cruiser was torpedoed by
a German U boat in the South Atlantic in 1942 with the loss
of over 450 men. During his distinguished merchant naval career
he became a member of the Institute of Naval Architects.
The Milner family home was Orkney at 40 Merton Hall Road,
Wimbledon. From an early age both brothers were keenly interested
in music, Cecil playing classical piano at London music festivals
at the age of nine, his brother at 10. In those early days
Cecil was a guest at a meal given to honour Puccini at one
of the London hotels. The brothers attended King’s College
in Wimbledon, where Cecil obtained credits in History, Latin,
English, French, German and Mathematics. He later attained
a certain fluency in Spanish and Russian.
During the General Strike of April 1926 Cecil volunteered
to be a temporary special constable in the Wimbledon area.
At this age (21) he was already well known in London music
circles, for a letter from the Wimbledon Conservatoire of
Music, dated 4 February 1927, invited him to the formation
of a local flute club.
Funded by his father at 14 guineas a term, Cecil attended
the Royal Academy of Music in Marylebone Road from 1924 until
1932. Tutored on piano by Ambrose Coviello, then Claude Gascoigne,
he studied composition and harmony under Norman O’Neill,
the noted composer. A postcard written by O’Neill in
1927 drew Cecil’s attention to a comment or review -
it is not clear which - by Harold Thompson, given to O’Neill
by Basil Cameron, the famous conductor. In describing Thompson
as "one of the best critics we have", O’Neill
cautioned Cecil not to "let that swell your head!"
A friend of Elgar and Delius, O’Neill’s early death
in March 1934 at the age of 58 resulted from complications
arising after a collision with a milk cart in central London.
He had been a strong source of inspiration and encouragement
to Cecil, as well as being a close friend, and his passing
came as a great shock. Following the ordinary curriculum at
the Royal Academy, Cecil had two weekly lessons of one hour
each on piano and one on composition. Harmony and counterpoint
were also given as a one hour weekly lesson, although, unusually,
Cecil’s administrative record gives no indication that
he received harmony until 1928. Cecil, who possessed absolute
perfect pitch, was instructed in aural training, too, as well
as sight reading, score reading and transposition.
As well as collecting half a dozen bronze and silver medals,
he earned the highest awards, the Academy’s certificates
of merit for aural training (1928), pianoforte (1929) and
conducting (1932), the latter shared with Cedric King Palmer.
He also shared the Oliveria Prescott Prize of full scores
with Beryl Price in 1932 as a distinguished student of composition.
Marking his success, his proud father presented him with a
splendid Bechstein Boudoir grand piano, which is still in
the possession of the Milner family today.
One of Cecil’s first compositions, In a Pine Forest,
a nocturne for orchestra, was performed at the Festival of
British Music at the Royal Hall, Harrogate on 26 July 1929,
under the baton of Basil Cameron, the renowned conductor associated
for many years with the Sir Henry Wood promenade concerts.
Unfortunately, the concert programme, prepared in advance,
credited the piece to "Eric" Milner. Cecil had better
luck, however, when a photograph of himself with Percy Grainger
was captioned in the Yorkshire Evening News of 25 July, for
he found himself described as a "famous composer"!
As well as the Australian born Grainger (1882-1961), Cecil
was on friendly terms with other luminaries of light music
including his life-long friend Clive Richardson (1909-98),
also Roger Quilter (1887-1953), Richard Addinsell (1904-77),
Vivian Ellis (1903-96) and Cedric King Palmer (1913-99), all
of whom possessed a sound knowledge of classical music.
King Palmer, in particular, contributed some 600 works to
the recorded libraries of several London music publishers,
a path Cecil was to follow, and conducted popular arrangements
of the classics on BBC radio during the 1940s and 1950s. In
later years, both he and Clive Richardson used to gather with
Cecil for their annual summer reunion at the Milner holiday
home in St Margaret’s Bay.
Basil Cameron also conducted Cecil’s Pastoral Suite
for Orchestra at Hastings on 28 February 1930, and performed
another of his works, Spanish Rhapsody. Meanwhile,
one of the country’s leading conductors, Dan Godfrey,
directed the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra in performances
of the Pastoral Suite in the concert hall of the Bournemouth
Pavilion. In Stephen’s Lloyd’s biography of Godfrey
(later Sir Dan), he is profiled as the founder and conductor
of the first British "permanent fully-salaried municipal
orchestra", a man who was prepared to give up and coming
talent a chance to have their compositions aired. Apparently,
Godfrey approved of Cecil’s Pastoral Suite for
he made a transcription of it for military band.
For young Milner there were even more ambitious projects
ahead. After translating G. Martinez Sierra’s Margarita
en Ia Rueca from Spanish, he adapted the work into libretto
for a two act opera Engracia, composed between 1930
and 1932. This was probably the work that won him the Oliveria
Prescott prize for a composition of outstanding merit. After
Milner himself had conducted the aria from the opera at the
prestigious Queen’s Hall in March 1932, Engracia
was staged the following December in the Royal Academy of
Music’s theatre under the baton of B. Walton O’Donnell.
The well-known singer Janet Hamilton-Smith (later Bailey),
who starred in the West End musical Song Of Norway
in the 1940s, sang the aria on one of these occasions. At
one period Norman O’Neill planned to have the opera staged
in one of Germany’s leading opera houses, but the contract
could not be honoured because of a fire.
Cecil’s other compositions of this period included a
Quartet for Strings in D minor, a Fugue in A minor,
three songs for sopranos, and a String Quartet no 1 in
G (Variations for Orchestra) performed in the Duke’s
Hall of the Royal Academy. In September 1930 he was offered
a sub-professorship at the Royal Academy, but turned it down
perhaps because he was too busy or because he did not wish
to seek publicity. He was always quiet and retiring and eschewed
the limelight.
It comes as a surprise then to learn that while making his
name as a classical musician Cecil was a member of the five
piece Eclipse Dance Orchestra for some five years. A band
photograph identifies him playing on trombone, but this accomplished
musician was equally proficient on saxophone (alto, soprano
and tenor), clarinet, violin and viola, timpani and, of course,
piano. He supplied orchestrations for the band which, alas,
was not recorded by any of the major labels.
One of the Academy’s most promising students was now
at the crossroads: having become a Licentiate of the Royal
Academy, should he now follow a career in classical music
or look elsewhere for opportunities? On leaving his alma mater
he caused some ripples by starting to arrange and compose
music for stage, concert hall and film. This was undoubtedly
where the money was to be made, and Cecil hastened to follow
several of his contemporaries into the business of orchestrating
black and white movies and newsreels produced by the Gaumont
British Picture Corporation from studios at Lime Grove in
Shepherd’s Bush.
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Informal
snapshot of
Cecil Milner
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Louis Levy, its managing director, valued Cecil’s contributions
highly, as did its senior music editor, Bretton Byrd, a composer,
conductor and pianist who had joined the company in 1930 after
playing piano in silent movie cinemas. Byrd, who described
himself as a specialist in film music direction, composition
and conducting with expertise in the exact synchronisation
of music with action, often worked with Cecil during the next
twenty years. Milner was part of a team that included the
likes of Hans May, Hubert Bath, Jack Beaver and Mischa Spoliansky,
all ultimately well known in light music circles.
A trade publication, the British Film and Television Yearbook
(1955-56) lists Cecil as the composer and orchestrator
of about 50 movies, usually in collaboration with others.
In fact, he was involved in many more films for Gaumont British
and Gainsborough as well as others. Initially preparing music
with Byrd for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes,
Milner found work, too, on Hey Hey USA, Bank Holiday,
The Citadel and They Drive by Night (all from 1938),
Inspector Hornleigh, So This Is London, Murder Will
Out, Confidential Lady (all in 1940) and Dressed to
Kill, The Good Old Days and Carnival.
A list in his handwriting also shows that he "dealt
with" Gaumont British between 1939 and 1941 for films
such as Neutral Port, For Freedom and I Thank You
and assisted Byrd on the Warner movies George & Margaret,
Two For Danger, That’s The Ticket, The Briggs
Family, The Midas Touch and Hoots Mon. He was associated,
too, with Denham Studios for Busman’s Honeymoon
and the Gilbert and Sullivan company for A Window in London,
both in 1940.
In his long career Cecil scored for British Lion, MGM, Twentieth
Century, Errol Flynn Theatre movies and the Douglas Fairbanks
Jr. series of TV films, more of which later. His incidental
music was used in Gaumont newsreels, Pathé Pictorials,
BBC and ITV newsreels, documentaries and advertising features.
It should be understood that in the late 1940s and early 1950s
some 12 million people visited cinemas annually around the
British Isles so the market for films of all sorts was a strong
one. In the early 1950s several of Cecil’s mood music
library titles were extensively featured in American movie
productions. The list of film shorts is a formidable one,
perhaps numbering over 200 titles, with most of the music,
probably drawn from existing compositions, appearing in such
diverse productions as Rembrandt, Princess Margaret, Tanganyika
Today, Bushtucker Man, Thirteenth Green, Farnborough,
Capital City, Mau Mau and even Glen Orbits the Earth!
Some of the titles formed part of the popular Scotland Yard
film and TV series during the 1950s. Among episodes for which
Cecil received royalties were The Missing Man (1952),
The Candlelight Murder (1953), Night Plane To Amsterdam,
Fatal Journey, The Mysterious Bullet and The Blazing
Caravan (1954), Murder Anonymous and The Silent
Witness (1955), The Wall of Death, Destination Death
and The Case of the River Morgue (1956), The Mail
Van Murder, The White Cliffs Mystery and The
Case of the Smiling Widow (1957), Night Crossing
(1958), The Ghost Train Murder and The Unseeing
Eye (1959) and The Last Train (1960).
The theme music was Milner’s Mailed Fist, first
assigned to Chappell on 31 May 1951. In production from 1952
to 1961, the series started out as a cinema second feature
before transferring to television. Made at Merton Park Studios
in South West London, the episodes concentrated on true-life
cases drawn from the annals of Scotland Yard and were fronted
by the well-known criminologist Edgar Lustgarten.
Milner’s work for Louis Levy at Gaumont British continued
in difficult circumstances throughout the War. When his associate
Charlie (Charles) Williams left the company in 1943, Cecil
wrote to the corporation to ask for assurances that Williams’
departure would not affect his own work there. Levy’s
reply was reassuring: "I have been very satisfied with
your work for us of late, and, according to our plan, you
should be very busy for us in the near future."
In collaboration with Bretton Byrd, who, as we have noted,
had overall responsibility for the company’s film scores,
Cecil was busy before and after the War. Interestingly, Byrd’s
letter to Cecil in October 1947 outlines some of the difficulties
associated with preparing film music. No doubt many other
light music arrangers at that time felt as exasperated as
Byrd did: "I have been definitely promised the next picture
by Mr Corfield, and he has expressed great satisfaction over
the last job, mainly because I was able to keep to his original
budget in spite of retakes due to recording technical trouble".
He concluded, "It’s terrible, he admits he knows
nothing about music, and his one concern is that whatever
goes into the picture as background music, should not interfere
with the dialogue, trite as it is."
As Byrd found soon afterwards, supplying scores for films
was a surprisingly precarious business. He contacted Cecil
in November 1950, lamenting that he was without work. "Unfortunately,
the film prospects that I had been promised have all faded
away," he wrote, "and in spite of having written
hundreds of letters after work, I’ve had no success of
any sort. With the exception of the film Tony Draws A
Horse I’ve had no work since August 1948, so if
you hear of anything, or have too much at once to do perhaps
you will kindly remember me."
By September 1954 he had experienced a partial change of
fortune, for, in enclosing music cue sheets for Milner’s
arrangements, he wrote more positively: "I hope soon
to have news of the next series of films, and will contact
you as soon as I know the position. I am doing a small film
in the meantime, but it is possible that the next series may
start in about a month’s time."
Byrd was referring here to the "Douglas Fairbanks Jr
Presents" series of TV films, known in America as Rheingold
Theatre. Cecil’s incidental music, with Byrd writing
for the opening and closing titles, was used for Second
Wind, Double Identity, Goodbye Tomorrow, The Heirloom,
Rain Forest, One Way Ticket, Four Farewells in Venice
and The Last Knife, all completed between February
and July 1954, and The Treasure Of Urbano (1955). The
last time we encounter Byrd in the Milner archives is his
settlement of an account of £104:2:6d in July 1955.
Cecil Milner was also involved in providing short musical
cues which lasted only a few seconds, but scoring for films
formed only part of his labours. In his hey day he had dealings
with all the main music publishers: Chappell, Francis Day
& Hunter, Bosworth, Liber-Southern, Boosey & Hawkes,
Charles Brull, Berry, Peter Maurice, Keith Prowse, Decca’s
Burlington and Palace and several others.
Cecil’s busiest period seems to have been in the late
forties and early fifties when he composed and arranged for
several mood music libraries. Many of the publishers ran their
own record labels - Berry had Conroy, Boosey & Hawkes
used the Cavendish name, Harmonic was a Charles Brull label
and so on - and the recordings were offered to those film
producers, newsreel companies and radio producers who required
theme and background music.
Before examining Cecil’s orchestrations and arrangements
in more detail, perhaps we should consider the difference
between an orchestrator and an arranger, for these words are
often freely interspersed.
According to Franck Leprince, there is a significant difference
between the two:
"Basically, ‘orchestration’ is the setting
out on paper the exact notation of, say, a solo piano part
of a given piece, onto separate parts, for a required combination
of instruments to perform. Into this, consideration is taken
for the range, pitch, number and transposition of each instrument.
Ultimately, the instruments are able to reproduce the piece,
exactly as the published version, with maybe a little imagination
used, to vary the tone colour."
On occasions Cecil performed the duties described above,
but, more often than not, he was a top flight arranger. "What
an arranger does is far more," continues Franck. "He
will literally turn an old piece into a new one, a tired piece
into a vibrant one, a sad piece into a happy one. For example,
a gifted musician with imagination can turn a song by the
Beatles into a piece for a string quartet, sounding as though
Haydn had originally written it ... arranging is an art, whereas
orchestration is a type of mathematics."
In the British Library collection there are eight Milner
printed arrangements which collectively add up to the tip
of an iceberg: a Clive Richardson piece Sonia (1943)
for Keith Prowse, Reginald King’s Song of Paradise
(1946), Where Water-Lilies Dream (1947) and
Amourette (1948) for Peter Maurice, Norman Warren’s
Brief Interlude (1949), Charles Williams’ Sally
Tries the Ballet (1950) and Mai Jones’ Rhonda
Rhapsody (1951) for Lawrence Wright, and Williams’
well known Sleepy Marionette (1950) for J. R.
Lafleur, a subsidiary of Boosey & Hawkes.
Cecil’s connections with Williams remain to be fully
explored, but, as we shall show, information from the Milner
archive reveals that the two were closely linked. Originally
Isaac Cozerbreit of Polish extraction, Charles (Charlie) Williams
was a conductor and composer who worked on the first British
sound movie in 1929, Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail. He
began work for Chappell’s music library at EMI’s
Abbey Road in 1942, and one of his earliest recordings, Cecil’s
Russian Marching Song (1942), was made there
with the Queen’s Hall Light Orchestra. Williams and the
QHLO also recorded Cecil’s Cloud Drifts, a short
two minute piece originally written in 1943, the longer Saluting
Base, recently revived in Guild Light Music’s GLCD
5140, and Pastoral, Drama, Romance and Naval,
all brief play-ins and play-outs lasting from 12 to 22 seconds.
We know of several Milner arrangements recorded by Williams,
among them Rendez-vous (1944) Manuel Ponce’s Estrellita,
and Circus Parade, Orderly Sergeant and Commentator’s
March (all from 1950). Cecil also scored Mantovani’s
Gipsy Legend (1952), which Williams recorded, receiving
£15 from Lawrence Wright for his troubles, which was the going
rate for a score of this type. Also arranged for Wright was
Rhonda Rhapsody, recorded by Williams on 31 October
1951. Earlier, Cecil made a special arrangement of Love
Steals Your Heart for a QHLO broadcast in 1945, and no
doubt there were several others.
A collaboration of sorts materialised in May 1947 when Cecil
arranged Williams’ musical spectacle Transport Cavalcade
(words by L. du Garde Peach) which celebrated the Jubilee
of the Transport & General Workers Union. It was performed
at London’s Scala Theatre over a two week period, with
Cecil even helping to audition some of the artistes who appeared
in the show. He was paid the considerable sum of £188,2/6d
for his endeavours. The grateful organiser Edward Genn wrote
to Cecil from Transport House: "You certainly seem to
have had a very big job in scoring the music for the above
event. I had no idea it was going to run into so many pages
- it seems to me like a young Grand Opera".
In September 1949 Cecil received a Bosworth cheque for preparing
five unspecified Williams works. He arranged the Williams’
compositions Starlings (1945), and Model Railway
and Prairie Rider (both 1950), and for the former he
received £15:12:6d; for the latter it was a payment of £16:5:0d.
Both were recorded by Lafleur with the New Concert Orchestra
under Jack Leon.
Milner worked, too, with Williams on the film While I
Live in 1947, which produced the famous mini-concerto
The Dream Of Olwen, and later prepared this classic
melody for the music publishers Lawrence Wright in 1950. In
June 1948 he received £86:5:0d from Edward Dryhurst Productions
for orchestral scoring for the film Noose, written
by Williams and Dryhurst, and was paid for his part in the
ensuing Columbia recordings. In 1949 he arranged The Laughing
Violin, which is probably the arrangement used by Charles
Williams in his recording featuring Reg Leopold on solo violin.
For Harefield Productions in 1950-51 Cecil scored portions
of Williams’ music for the film Flesh and Blood,
and its main theme Throughout the Years was recorded
by Columbia. Another title arranged by Milner for Chappell
and Williams was Beggar’s Theme from Last Holiday,
also recorded on Columbia. Williams’ The Falcons
(scored by Cecil for Lawrence Wright) and Thrill of the
Curtain appeared on disc, the latter by the Melodi Light
Orchestra.
Other titles that Williams produced, probably using Cecil’s
scores, were Quebec Concerto (1949) and Romantic
Rhapsody (1952). For unidentified titles recorded by Williams
for Columbia on 28 August 1951 Milner received a payment of
£71:17:6d, which implies quite a lot of arranging. In 1952
Cecil prepared some short fanfares for Williams, using trumpet
and organ, and in December of that year came up with some
special arrangements for his Columbia recordings at Abbey
Road. He also scored Long Live Elizabeth and Yeomen
of England, made by Williams for Columbia. In 1954 he
was still working for Williams, for Columbia paid out £95
to him for unspecified work on 26 November and 16 December.
No doubt Cecil arranged more scores for Williams that we are
still unaware of, for, as Journal Into Melody readers
will attest, this particular conductor-composer had a prodigious
output.
By the late 1930s Cecil was living in West Wickham, near
Bromley, Kent. His home was at Hazlehurst, 33 Wood Lodge Lane,
where he resided until his death in 1989. The locals would
comment, "here comes the composer," as he walked
into the shops at West Wickham. One of the principal features
of his well-kept garden - where he loved cultivating flowers
- was an elaborate fish pond that had three tiers with a bridge
going over the top and water cascading underneath!
In 1953 Cecil and Phyllis were divorced and he never remarried,
although he had a close relationship with Francesca Gray which
lasted many years. It was Francesca who stimulated his interest
in antiques, leading to the possession of several Dutch oils.
He did much of his composing at the other family home in St
Margaret’s Bay near Dover, finding quiet seclusion, unique
views across the straits of Dover and splendid walks along
the white cliffs with his dogs. He took many photographs of
the south coast forelands and quiet Kent villages and had
some of his work published in Amateur Photographer of 6 January
1937 (price three pence!) with an accompanying article. At
home he had a dark room where he developed his own photographs.
Among Cecil’s earliest non-film music compositions were
the incidental numbers Charlotte and Emily for Alfred Sangster’s
play The Brontes, originally produced at London’s
Royalty Theatre. They were played by Reginald King in a 1936
BBC radio programme. A trawl of the Milner archive reveals
that he was kept occupied during the War with many assignations
besides film work. In October 1941 he was invited by the BBC
(from an address in Evesham) to arrange the Boccherini Minuet
for its Casino Orchestra conducted by Rae Jenkins. Another
score he provided for the same orchestra was My Old Dutch
in January 1942. For Chappell in the same year, he worked
on Song of the Bow, Wonderful World of Romance, The Little
Irish Girl, Sink Sink Red Sun, Tomorrow, The Venetian
Song and Trees.
In partnership with Clive Richardson, Cecil wrote additional
music for the radio adaptations of the films Ziegfeld Girl
and Sis Hopkins in 1942. In October 1944 he received
£70 for work on the public relations film Some Like It
Rough, which he and Clive orchestrated together. Another
collaboration came on a similar film, Down At The Local.
During the summer of 1943 Cecil concluded a special orchestration
of Pale Hands I Loved (Kashmiri Song), also a Mikado
Selection for the BBC. In 1944 there were arrangements
of Richard Addinseli’s Tune In G for Keith Prowse
and Paul Lincke’s The Glow Worm for Hawkes &
Son.
The following summer both Cecil and Cedric King Palmer were
busy helping with arrangements for Concert Productions of
Dean Street in Soho. In February 1945 Cecil billed Chappell
for £96:5:0d for scoring Highland Lament, Pine Forest,
Starlings, Highland Mist, Highland Welcome and Searchlight
and several lesser titles, among them Siamese Cat, Fog
Scene and Resistance.
Among other post-war commitments there was a special arrangement
of I Cover The Waterfront for the BBC’s
Majestic Orchestra in August 1945, and a new scoring of Greensleeves
for Boosey & Hawkes and Jay Wilbur who recorded and
broadcast it in January 1946. In October 1947 Cecil scored
parts for HMV’s King Wenceslas, and there was
payment, too, in January 1948 for his work on The Toad
Comes Home from Wind In The Willows, a recording
that was made in America. One of Cecil’s major contributions
to light music has recently come to light, this being his
arrangement of Vivian Ellis’ Coronation Scot for
Chappell’s mood music library (No. 424 in their orchestral
works series). Until recently, it had always been assumed
that the original arrangement was the work of Sidney Torch,
who made the famous Columbia 78 with the Queen’s Hall
Light Orchestra in 1948 when it was used as the theme for
the Paul Temple radio series. But it was Charles Williams
who conducted the QHLO for the very first recording on C275
in 1946, although Torch later recorded a new version with
his own orchestra for Parlophone in 1952.
Of Cecil’s other arranging credits in the late forties
and early fifties we will mention but a few: Royal Lady
(1953) for Lawrence Wright, and numerous titles for Chappell
including The Brabazon, Late Night Final, Said the
Bells, They Ride by Night, Battleship Grey and
Shadow of War (all 1950), Skyline (Theme
from Rhapsody), The Young Ballerina, Happy-Go-Lucky
and The Good Earth (all 1951), High Adventure, General
Inspection, I Name This Ship and Birdcage Walk
(all 1952) and Proud Capital (1953).
One of the well known names emerging from Cecil’s correspondence
is that of pianist Billy Mayerl, who, in discussing an arrangement
he was seeking in February 1945, took a swipe at the "lying
Dutchman". The object of his vitriol was the shrewd,
cost-conscious Dutch general manager of Keith Prowse! With
him in mind he pithily observed, "Publishers are all
the same. I have fought with them for over 20 years and have
yet to find one who accepts the fact that composers and arrangers
eat as well as they do!"
After Cecil’s score eventually arrived, Mayerl wrote
from Bournemouth, "I’m simply delighted with it,
just everything I wanted, nothing I did not want and it is
singularly free from mistakes. Just a C# missing in the flute
part in bar 20, that’s all I had to correct. No, there
is nothing I wish altered, toned down or strengthened. I am
terribly pleased with it." Billy even thought that Cecil’s
bill for £22 was too low and rounded it up to £25!
Writing to Cecil again some eight years later about a title
earmarked for Charles Williams, Mayerl wrote whimsically:
"I have just completed another ‘piece of nonsense’,
a rather fastish novelty type and after Charles Williams’
comments on my orchestrations, I feel perhaps I ought to give
it to you to score! When I see you, I will play it at you
and you can tell me whether it is orchestral or not."
As already revealed, Cecil was on very friendly terms with
the composer-arranger Clive Richardson, who was a great friend
of his family and godfather to Timothy Milner. Clive’s
first wife Eileen often went on holiday with Cecil’s
wife Phyllis while the two composer-arrangers stayed at home
working. Three and a half years younger than Cecil, Clive
also studied at the Royal Academy of Music, in particular
violin, clarinet, trumpet, trombone and timpani. Like Cecil
he was an all-rounder, at one time the travelling accompanist
to the cabaret singer Hildegarde, on other occasions involved
with the Gaumont British Films set-up in the late 1930s.
Richardson was a giant of a man, standing 6 feet 9 inches,
who was a born raconteur with a remarkable memory. His conversation
was invariably entertaining, but on one occasion he disclosed
to Timothy Milner how envious he was of Cecil; after all,
having access to his family’s private means, he - unlike
Clive - did not have to work for a living, and there was also
his regular work with Mantovani. Nevertheless, they were great
comrades and Clive often spent his holidays at the Milner
holiday home near Dover and visited the family homes in Wimbledon
and Poole. A note from Clive to Cecil in settlement of an
account in March 1955 reveals how close they were: "The
score came out very well and I was, as usual, very impressed
with your orchestral treatment as was everybody else. My only
regret was that your lumbago prevented you from coming along
as we should have all very much liked you to have been there
with us." As if to underline their friendship, the note
was affectionately signed off in French, "Toujours a
toi" and "Meilleurs amities." In earlier times
Cecil did several arrangements for Clive and the Lawrence
Wright company including Prelude to a Dream (1950).
It was Clive who was one of Cecil’s seconders when he
was accepted into the Savage Club on 6 November 1947. Proposed
by Billy Mayerl, his other supporters included the violinist
Edward Stanelli and musicians Charlie Williams, Tony Lowry
and Charles Shadwell. Clive himself had been a member of this
club for the arts and music since 1944, two years after Mantovani
was accepted. Norman O’Neill, Cecil’s late tutor,
was a member, too, before his untimely death, and Cedric King
Palmer, another of Cecil’s musical friends, eventually
joined in 1961.
Between 1946 and 1950 some of Milner’s own compositions
were given air time by Gilbert Vinter and the Midland Light
Orchestra. Flags in the Square, which first appeared
in a Light Programme show in December 1946, was formerly known
as Road To Victory in 1943; the name change occurred
after its acceptance for publication by Bosworth in October
1944. In thanking Vinter, Milner informed him that "a
rather sugary piece" called Lovelorn Lady might
be of interest to him, and the conductor duly obliged with
a broadcast in February 1947. The melody was recorded by the
Regent Classic Orchestra for the Bosworth music library.
Cecil wrote to Vinter in March 1948 concerning one of his
pieces for Harmonic Music:
"The publishers like the tune and want to get out a
commercial arrangement but I would first like to have a good
broadcast with a proper combination such as yours." Including
detailed notes on how the opus should be tackled, Cecil was
anxious that Paris Fashions should be played "rather
languidly". It was first broadcast by the Midland Light
Orchestra a couple of months later.
When Cecil revealed that he had created a new arrangement
for Boosey and Hawkes titled Fantasietta on Greensleeves,
Vinter, asking for it to be sent along, commented that "I
think it is probably time that we had something to replace
the beautiful, but eternal Vaughan Williams." The piece
was used in the film Lakeland Story and was
conducted by Charles Groves, the conductor of the Bournemouth
Municipal Orchestra, at the Winter Gardens in Bournemouth.
Milner’s Trysting Place was also broadcast
by Vinter in Music for Teatime in September 1949.
In January 1950 Cecil commended Vinter to his pastoral allegretto,
Primrose Dell, "a rather cheerful tune which comes
off quite well in a record that has just been made."
This delightfully melodic piece, recorded by the Harmonic
Orchestra under Hans May, has happily resurfaced in Guild
Light Music’s GLCD 5112. Another piece from 1950, Playground,
assigned to Chappell in July, was included by Vinter in the
radio programme Morning Music in March 1951.
Other compositions were written as "interlude music"
including Downland, used once in a ploughing sequence.
Assigned to Chappell in March 1950, it was recorded in Luxembourg
by L’Orchestre de Concert under Paul O’Henry and
recently appeared in the Living Era Twilight Memories
compilation (CD AJA 5419). in the early 1950s Downland
was often used in minor American TV productions with other
pieces composed by Cecil such as Lovelorn Lady, Pastorale,
Primrose Dell, Abbey Ceremony, Tiysting Place, Paris
Fashions and Cloud Drifts.
Midsummer Gladness, assigned to Charles Brull in March
1955, was recorded by the Symphonia Orchestra under Ludo Phillip
and has appeared in Guild Light Music’s compilation GLCD
5138, as has the Milner arrangement of Charles Wakefield Cadman’s
I Hear a Thrush at Eventide, recorded by the New Concert
Orchestra under Jay Wilbur (GLCD 5143).
Additionally, the titles Classic Event (from 1949),
Ringmaster and In Line Ahead (1950) and Men
At Work (1951) have been listed by Boosey & Hawkes
in three archive compilations drawn from the Cavendish label.
Such titles were often in demand for newsreels and documentaries,
as shown in Cecil’s royalty statements from the early
1950s. As far as we are aware, many of Cecil’s other
compositions which appear on music library recordings are
awaiting re-discovery. Our knowledge is incomplete, but we
know that Air Lift (from 1951, re-titled Fly Past
in 1952) and State Drive (also from 1951) were recorded
by the Melodi Light Orchestra for Chappell. Then there were
the recordings of Playground (1950) by the New Concert
Orchestra (Cavendish), Sea Power (1947) by the New
Century Orchestra (Francis Day & Hunter) and the "shortie"
Mounting Tension (1952) by the Continental Theatre
Orchestra (Bosworth). Shadow on The Blind (1949), Angry
Mob, Gun Man, and Sunlit Fields (from 1950), Vigil,
Smash and Grab (1951) and Resolute Avenger (1952),
all pieces lasting about a minute and a half, and the play-ins/outs
Frolic and Screen Pageantry were recorded by
the International Radio Orchestra, again for Bosworth.
For Harmonic’s music library (later Charles Brull Ltd),
Cecil wrote other short compositions such as Tragic Desolation
and Power Plant, assigned in October 1951, and Ticker
Tape and Piston Rod, from March 1952, each lasting
just over a minute. Lido and the full length Melody
for Lovers were recorded in Paris in October 1953, but
Cecil was unable to attend the recording.
Others written for Charles Brull include Abbey Ceremony
(1950), Windsor Greys (1954), Department Store
(1956), Amnesia and Wide Horizon (1957), Gracious
Queen (1958), Summit Meeting and Children and
Animals (1960), Le Mans, Comedy Team, Caxton
Hall, Pioneers and Show Place (1961), and Romantic
Vista (1963). As was usual, Harmonic/Brull and Milner
shared the performance and broadcasting fees with the composer
receiving additional sheet music publication payments, the
proceeds from sound films and mechanical rights as well. A
similar arrangement operated with Bosworth and others. In
the summer of 1952, Charles Brull, the Czech born managing
director of the company which bore his name, died while on
a business trip, but the business continued and is still represented
to this day in Berlin.
For Frances, Day & Hunter Milner composed Solemn Moment
(1947) and Coat of Arms and Lowland Stream (assigned
in June 1952). For Berry and the Conroy record library he
wrote Master Mariner, Rescue, Mechanical Handling,
Teleprinter, Air News and Blaze of Brass (a series
of short fanfares) in 1959. Others for Chappell include Pursuit
and Aerial Activity from 1943 and Shipwreck
(1948).
In the early 1950s Cecil began scoring for Mantovani, whose
career had taken off after Ronald Binge’s arrangement
of Charmaine had become a roaring success in America.
After Binge’s departure in 1952, Monty looked around
and took stock, before asking Cecil to join him, possibly
on a casual basis at first.
Cecil may have first encountered him through the Savage Club,
but there is some evidence that they had tenuous contact as
early as July 1952 when Cecil began arranging Monty’s
composition Gipsy Legend for Charles Williams through
Bill Ward, the general manager of Lawrence Wright. A revised
commercial score was finalised for Wright in October of that
year, after it had been recorded by Williams.
By now well known in music circles, Cecil probably felt that
he was privileged to join Mantovani, as this would help keep
him in full employment. Their first collaboration was the
eventual million selling Strauss Waltzes album in September
1952. Cecil was paid the healthy sum of £119 by Monty for
his scores and had no further claim on them, except for performance
rights.
Mantovani later assigned and transferred the 14 non-copyright
waltz arrangements to Decca for a fee of £303:2:6d. Through
no fault of Mantovani, Cecil later found that he was not receiving
any royalty payments for seven of the pieces he had arranged:
Artist’s Life, Roses from the South, Wine, Women and
Song, Morning Papers, A Thousand and One Nights, Vienna Blood
and Accelerations Waltz. He raised the matter with
the Performing Rights Society in November 1953 and after much
correspondence began to receive royalties for his work. This
episode serves as a good example of how Cecil kept a very
close eye on his royalty payments; after all, they were his
bread and butter.
At first Mantovani turned to Cecil for orchestrations of
light classical pieces or Christmas songs such as Joy to
the World, Nazareth and O Little Town of Bethlehem.
He was duly paid £75 by Decca for these scores. There was
a fine arrangement, too, of Delibes’ Waltz from Naïla,
recorded with pianist Stanley Black in February 1953, earning
Cecil a payment of £16:10:0d from Decca.
In the early fifties, Monty, with an eye on the American
market where he was selling albums galore, set about recording
suites of songs by the leading operetta composers Victor Herbert,
Sigmund Romberg and Rudolf Friml. In due course Cecil contributed
ten of the arrangements, among them such perennial favourites
as I’m Falling in Love with Someone, A Kiss in the
Dark, Serenade from The Student Prince, Deep in My
Heart, Song of the Vagabonds and Only a Rose.
In 1955 Mantovani invited Cecil to come up with five more
arrangements for a Favourite Melodies from the Operas
album. A year later there were four more scores for An Album
of Ballet Melodies, for which Cecil received a fee
of £167:16:6d from Decca, a substantial amount in those days.
For his last mono album, The World’s Favourite Love
Songs (1957), Cecil expertly arranged You Are My Heart’s
Delight, My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose, Drink to Me Only
with Thine Eyes, Ich Liebe Dich and For You
Alone.
Later that year he prepared Strauss’ Perpetuum Mobile
and Chaminade’s Autumn for a Concert Encores LP,
then made one of his first "popular’ song arrangements
for Mantovani, this being the movie opus An Affair to Remember.
In between times, he helped out on scores for Monty’s
television shows.
Even so, he did not stop working in other directions. From
time to time he helped out the BBC’s Majestic Orchestra,
such as in late 1949 and early 1950 with scores for Novello’s
Some Day My Heart Will Awake, Boulanger’s Avant
de Mourir (My Prayer) and Darewski’s If
You Could Care. There was some routine work for bandleader
Philip Green in 1952 before a letter in February 1953 from
composer Donald Phillips of Skyscraper Fantasy fame
confirmed Cecil’s arrangement of his Bathing Beauty
Waltz, for which Lawrence Wright paid out £18:17:6d. There
were orchestrations, too, for EMI 12 inch 78s, such as Novello’s
Dancing Years and Glamorous Nights. In January
1955 Milner worked on a new arrangement of Osmar Maderna’s
Cavalcade of Stars for a New Majestic Orchestra broadcast.
Some scores for Charles Brull followed in 1955 and 1956, prompting
a letter from the company asking for brief notes on his life
for publicity purposes.
In May 1956 Cecil received a message from his friend Cedric
King Palmer expressing concern about the small fees background
music was attracting on television. It suggested that a joint
appeal might cause the Performing Rights Society to revise
its system of allocating points which was penalising composers
of such music. We learn from this letter that Ronald Hanmer,
Hans May, Palmer himself and others had already taken up the
cudgels.
A letter from veteran light music composer Reginald King
in March 1959 was most complimentary. ‘Very many thanks
indeed for your letter and the score of my new tune, which
arrived by the same post from Eric Adams. I feel delighted
with it from every aspect, particularly the way in which you
have so skilfully distributed the woodwind and yet at the
same time leaving the melody complete on the strings where
required."
A less welcome letter from the Berry music company came through
the post in April 1962. Revising the allocation of mechanical
fees for works in the Conroy library, it advised Cecil that
the publisher would now receive 70% of the fees and the composer
30%, instead of the usual 50-50 split. Berry gave its reasons
as increased costs in production and promotion in the international
field. When music publishers Charles Brull wrote to Cecil
at the beginning of May to propose the same percentages, it
quoted the ever increasing costs incurred by the company in
producing its library and the difficulties of competing on
equal terms with those foreign mood music libraries which
were exploited both here and abroad. It was perhaps an indication
that the golden era of the mood music composer-arranger was
over.
Between 1952 and 1974 Cecil scored over 250 pieces of music
for Mantovani, some of these the more expansive classical
interpretations he required, but others definitely more popular
in style. Nevertheless, the brilliant Roland Shaw was always
available to score the more contemporary songs that required
a touch of taste. By 1958 Mantovani was making more use of
Cecil’s talents, requiring him to factor his skills on
several more "popular" titles. For the Continental
Encores album Milner prepared a major version of Autumn
Leaves and in More Mantovani Film Encores
the delightful Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera Sera)
was a triumph. Surprisingly, Monty rarely used Milner’s
composing talents, which was a pity. There were the tour curtain
raisers Gala Night (1966), renamed Masquerade,
and Night Out (1970), but that was about all except
for The Frightened Ghost, and Percussion on Parade
(1960) written to show off the skills of percussionist Charlie
Botterill. Unfortunately, none of these concert pieces was
ever recorded.
Relations with Monty were invariably cordial and there was
a fine business friendship between the two men. As proof of
this, Monty once signed a record brochure, "to Cecil
with my grateful thanks for your very fine work." Apart
from making music together they had a shared interest in cameras
and often compared photographs. At Christmas there were warm
exchanges, there were letters and holiday postcards, too,
and more than once Cecil was invited down to the Mantovani
home at Branksome Park in Poole, Dorset.As revealed in Mantovani’s
biography, the late Tony D’Amato, Mantovani’s record
producer, remembered Cecil with great affection. "Always
a welcome sight was the shy and ultra-reserved Cecil Milner,
Mantovani’s mainstay arranger and orchestrator who arrived
at Decca studios like a country squire on an outing to the
big city," he recalled. "Harris tweed jacket with
toggle buttons and leather-reinforced elbow patches at the
sleeve, peering through the thickest glasses, Cecil resembled
not so much a music arranger as he did a game warden."
By now at the height of his powers, Cecil contributed seven
titles to the American Scene album recorded
in January and June 1959. The sheer bravura of Turkey In
the Straw and a colourful interpretation of Yellow
Rose of Texas were combined with some lovely arrangements
of songs by Stephen Foster. On another worthy album, Songs
to Remember, Cecil was entrusted with the grand sounding
Blue Star, also Tonight from West Side Story,
as well as A Very Precious Love and Vaya con Dios.
For Operetta Memories he delivered five beautiful arrangements,
among them the Frasquita Serenade and the Waltz
from The Gipsy Princess.
The following year both Mantovani and Milner pooled their
arranging talents to deal with a large recording schedule
of show and film tunes such as Shall We Dance from
The King and I, the Sundowners theme and show
songs of the calibre of Mr Wonderful and I Feel
Pretty. Cecil also found the time to arrange The Carousel
Waltz, Ascot Gavotte, A Trumpeter’s Lullaby and Seventy-Six
Trombones. When Mantovani brought out his Italia
Mia LP in February 1961, Cecil was well and truly let
off the leash. Much of this beautiful album was drawn from
the light classics, which gave Milner the opportunity to score
seven titles, including the traditional Variations on Carnival
of Venice which ends with a delightful fugue and Tchaikovsky’s
Theme from Capriccio Italien. In the latter the theme
was played as originally envisaged as a slow, warm sentimental
melody, then as a re-scored rousing piece. Unusually, Monty
also entrusted Cecil to make an arrangement of his own lovely
opus Italia Mia.
Throughout the sixties and into the seventies Mantovani,
who was always very busy, had to rely greatly on first rate
material from Cecil and his other main arranger Roland Shaw.
In this short article it would be inappropriate to provide
an exhaustive list of Cecil’s achievements, but we should
at least recall some of the highlights. For Songs of Praise
(1961) he arranged ten of the 14 titles including Abide
with Me, Eternal Father and a wonderfully stirring version
of Onward Christian Soldiers, recorded with the Mike
Sammes choir and an augmented orchestra in Kingsway Hall,
Holborn. There were six Milner arrangements for American
Waltzes in 1962, four more in Classical Encores
including the vibrant Hungarian Dance No 5, and the
superb Oliver! suite scored for an American issue.
In the same year Cecil contributed his memorable arrangement
of The Big Country and his dramatic reworking of Charles
Williams’ Jealous Lover, both for the Great
Films - Great Themes LP. He was also main arranger of
Mantovani’s album with the tenor Mario del Monaco. For
A Song for Christmas in 1963 Cecil scored seven titles
including O Thou That Tellest Good Tidings, recorded
with the orchestra and organist Harold Smart at Kingsway Hall.
Normally a choral work, this magnificent four and a half minute
extract from Handel’s Messiah remains one of the
highlights of Mantovani’s - and Milner’s - career.
The Mantovani/Manhattan album in 1963 brought forth
the dramatic Slaughter on Tenth Avenue and the
lovely The Belle of New York among others, also Milner’s
novel interpretation of Take the A Train. The Ellington/Strayhorn
classic was originally written to chart the progress of a
New York subway train that fizzed from Manhattan to Harlem,
but Milner, himself a steam train enthusiast and supporter
of the Bluebell Railway in Sussex, conceived the song as something
quite different. Where Ellington swung, Milner chugged! His
refreshing score painted a picture of a much more sedate steam
train, causing some mirth behind the scenes. When Tony D’Amato
protested to Monty in good humour that New York had not seen
that sort of train in 50 years, Monty responded with a smile,
"This is what comes of going about only by taxi!"
In 1964 there were two substantial Milner medleys in Folk
Songs Around The World and a captivating look at
Catch a Falling Star which set the Incomparable
Mantovani album alight. In 1965 he wrote six arrangements
for The Mantovani Sound and eight for Mantovani
Ole, including Fiddler on The Roof, Spanish Gypsy
Dance and Mexican Hat Dance. In the Mantovani
Magic album which celebrated Monty’s 25 years at
Decca in 1966, Cecil’s arrangements of I Wish You
Love and Stardust stood out.
For later albums he excelled with the likes of Ben Hur,
What Now My Love, My Cup Runneth Over, Hora Staccato,
Gypsy Carnival, the Gypsy Dance from Carmen,
If I Were a Rich Man, Theme from The Virginian,
the Elvira Madigan Theme, I Will Wait For
You, A Lovely Way to Spend An Evening, Isn’t It Romantic
and many more. We should not forget, too, a delightful scoring
of the old favourite When the Lilac Blooms Again for
an album issued in German speaking countries and Australia,
and those three lovely arrangements, using a chorus, of What
a Wonderful World, Sunrise Sunset and You’ll
Never Walk Alone for Mantovani Memories. In short,
when working with Mantovani Cecil Milner never lost his touch.
During the late 1960s guitarist Ivor Mairants interviewed
Mantovani for a guitar magazine. On being asked how he and
Cecil agreed on the titles that contained guitar solos, Monty
told Mairants that Milner’s "great worry is, of
course, that as an orchestrator, he understands the guitar
extremely well and as such likes to feature the guitar in
its full capacity as a solo instrument. When guitars are featured
in that way they have a character all of their own and give
a piece a certain touch which only that particular instrument
can give, and he selects what I think are very suitable passages
in the score for the guitars."
Mantovani continued, "Sometimes he’s a bit naughty
with it and makes it technically difficult; he forgets that
not all guitarists are such experts and, therefore, we have
to take a bit of time in the recording studios so that the
poor guitar player can have a go at it’, as we call it."
Nevertheless, Monty concluded, one would find that most recordings
had come out extremely well.
Correspondence between Monty and Cecil is sparse, mainly
because they would have contacted each other by telephone,
but in two late communications that have survived, Monty demonstrated
his complete confidence in his long-time arranger. In one
note he wrote, "Just mark what type of rhythm you want,
and let the drummer work on it. This is what everyone does
today, which saves a lot of thinking!" In another he
commented, "Here are your last two titles which are quite
good for a change and will give you some scope for orchestration.
Please do them in any way you want, not to worry about rhythms
if they should not fit your ideas." Sometimes in Mantovani’s
concert programmes Milner had the lion’s share of the
arrangements. The most notable example was on the 1970 British
tour when there were 15 of his scores in the 22 titles, among
them the concert opener Night Out. Special concert
arrangements he made down the years include a Fantasy on
Brahms Airs, prepared with violinist David McCallum for
the 1963 British and American tours, Fantasy on Nautical
Airs and The Heart of Tchaikovsky, both
from 1967, the Irish Washerwoman (1968) and a pot-pourri
of show themes, Broadway Scene, from 1971.
During the sixties and seventies Monty’s tour-ending
concerts at the Royal Festival Hall were always special occasions.
After one of them, Timothy Milner tried to gain entry to the
"green room" with his girl-friend, but was barred
by Mantovani’s ever- zealous manager, George Elrick,
who, having thought they were autograph hunters, sent them
packing! Fortunately, when the mistake was realised, a messenger
ran after the chastened couple to invite them back for the
hospitality they had been hoping to receive as guests of Cecil
Milner!
Throughout those golden years Cecil earned decent royalties
from Decca’s publishing arm, Palace Music. These ranged
from £1,261 in 1967 and £1,102 in 1969 to £1,154 and £1,063
for six monthly periods in 1971 and 1972. 1973 was a particularly
good year, for up to 30 September Cecil was paid £3,207. After
Mantovani retired in 1975, Cecil wound down his activities
as a composer and arranger. His good friend Clive Richardson,
on the other hand, continued composing until two or three
months before he died. Cecil was content, however, to live
quietly with his dogs and enjoy his antiques. Royalties from
his various activities and income from his own investments
ensured that he led a very comfortable existence.
Cecil stopped working at the age of 69, leaving an impressive
body of work produced over a period of forty years. Gradually,
however, his familiarity with his own music publishers diminished,
although royalties were paid out on a regular basis until
he died. At various stages he received fees from sources in
South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Belgium, Spain, Japan,
Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and the Philippines.
Cecil’s total royalty calculations for the year ending
4 April 1984 show that he earned £4,837, a decent sum of money
in those days. In the last year of his life, his total royalties
between April 1988 and March 1989 amounted to a relatively
healthy £4,601.
After Mantovani died in March 1980 after a long illness,
Cecil wrote his own tribute to his friend’s family: "It
may perhaps be of some comfort that his many colleagues who
enjoyed the great pleasure of Monty’s friendship are
sharing your sense of grief. He was universally loved, and
I never remember hearing a single derogatory word spoken of
him. A fine musician and a fine man."
On 25 November 1989 Cecil died in relative obscurity aged
84, after suffering a heart attack at home in West Wickham.
There were just six people who attended his funeral, including
Clive Richardson, his second wife Unity and members of the
Milner family. Cecil’s arrangements for Mantovani of
Onward, Christian Soldiers, Abide With Me and
others were played at the funeral service on 8 December when
he was laid to rest in a quiet corner of the St Margaret’s-at-Cliffe
village churchyard. Although recognition of his worth has
been slow in the past 20 years, the name of Cecil Milner has
received more prominence in recent times. His earlier work
is now emerging in CD compilations and most of his arrangements
for Mantovani have appeared in the Vocalion series which has
prospered since 2001. On 1 October 2006 Radio 3 presented
a concert dedicated to the memory of Humphrey Carpenter, the
writer, broadcaster and musician, in which Cecil’s arrangement
of Coronation Scot was intriguingly revived by the
BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by Ronald Corp. In January
2008 there were ten of Cecil’s arrangements played in
the Mantovani gala revival concert at Poole in Dorset.
In conclusion, we feel that Cecil Milner deserves his share
of the limelight. While perhaps not one of the leading lights
of British 20th century light music - we have in mind Mantovani,
Melachrino, Farnon, Goodwin, Torch and Williams and one or
two others for that accolade - he was nevertheless a most
valued, prolific and versatile member of his profession.
His steadfast work for Mantovani alone would justify such
a claim, but deserving of more recognition, too, is his remarkable
career elsewhere which we have outlined in this article. Hopefully,
more of his compositions and arrangements will be brought
out of obscurity to support our belief that he was a substantial
force in film and light music.
Sources and acknowledgements:
The Cecil Milner archive - in the possession of Timothy
Milner;
Edward Cecil Milner’s student record - Bridget Palmer,
assistant librarian, Royal Academy of Music library, special
collections and archives, letter of 8 April 2008;
Cecil Milner and Gilbert Vinter correspondence (1946-1952)
- BBC Written Archives Centre, Caversham Park, also the Milner
archive;
Concerning orchestrators and arrangers - Franck Leprince,
e-mail of 25 July 2008;
Norman O’Neill - A life of music by Derek Hudson, Quality
Press 1945, pp 120-122;
The guitar and the orchestra: Ivor Mairants asks the questions
and Mantovani supplies the answers - extract from BMG Magazine,
quoted in Mantovani’s British tour programme, April 1972;
Sir Dan Godfrey Champion of British composers by Stephen Lloyd,
Thames Publishing 1995;
Clive Richardson (1909-1998) by David Ades in Journal Into
Melody, issue 138, March 1999, pp 6-8;
Clive and Unity Richardson A personal reminiscence by Tony
Clayden in Journal Into Melody, issue 138, March 1999, pp
8, 10;
Mantovani - A lifetime in music by Cohn MacKenzie, Melrose
Books 2005, pp 147-149 et passim
This article first appeared as a three-part feature
in ‘Journal Into Melody’ – the official magazine
of The Robert Farnon Society, issues 178 (December 2008),
179 (March 2009) and 180 (June 2009).
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