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A Tribute by Mike Carey
When Ronald Binge passed away on September
6, 1979, the tributes to him were led by Vivian Ellis and
Sidney Torch, such was the esteem in which the composer and
arranger was held. Ronnie, a modest, shy and self-effacing
man despite the renown his talents brought him, would have
appreciated that because throughout his life the approbation
of his peers always meant as much, if not more, to him than
those twin impostors, fame and fortune.
From his humble origins, Ronnie matured
into a consummate musician, composer and arranger without
whom the career of the orchestra leader Mantovani would certainly
have been very different. He gave much, not only to the professional
world of light music, but always had time to spare for amateur
musicians, especially brass bands, and never needed much persuasion
to write for them. We shall never know how much more would
have come from his talented pen if he had not succumbed to
cancer of the liver at the age of only 69. Even then, knowing
he had not long to live, Ronnie opted to stay at home with
his wife, Vera, rather than languish in hospital, so that
he could continue to compose. Only a day or two before his
death he wrote a piece for piano and horn especially for the
young son of his doctor.
Like many of his contemporaries, such
as Sidney Torch and Stanley Black, Ronald Binge owed much
to a musical apprenticeship which included a lengthy stint
accompanying silent films on piano or organ. In his home town
of Derby, where he was born on July 15, 1910, Ronnie organised
and played accordion in a number of small orchestras after
having, like so many musicians and singers, his first musical
experience as a chorister. His church organist, William James
Baker, also ran the Derby Conservatoire of Music, and he gave
young Ronnie his first, faltering piano lessons. Binge never
forgot, and always paid tribute to Baker in later interviews.
But it was as a member of the small orchestra at the Cosmo
Cinema, an unprepossessing little back street "flea pit"
in Derby, where Binge’s musical education really began.
The cinema work was mainly intended
to supplement Binge’s income from his day job in the
gent’s outfitting department of a town centre store.
Ronnie’s father had died from wounds suffered in the
First World War and he was now an important bread winner for
the family, which included a younger brother and sister. The
Cosmo orchestra found themselves playing everything from fox-trots
to symphonies and the whole experience at the tender age of
17 was invaluable to Binge. It enabled him to develop sight
reading, to explore the complexities of composing and gave
him his first insights into orchestration.
Ronnie left Derby in 1932 to join the
John Russell Orchestra for a summer season at Great Yarmouth.
His colleagues there persuaded him that he was good enough
to earn a living in London. He found big city life tough at
first, but managed to obtain work with a number of small orchestras
like those run by Cecil Mitchell, Don Sesta and Emilio Colombo.
Then one day he met an Italian-born violinist who was looking
for a new accordionist for his orchestra. Ronnie was engaged,
not only as an accordionist but as staff arranger. The orchestra
leader was Mantovani and Binge’s first two scores for
what was then his Tipica Orchestra -The Moon was Yellow
and Hands Across the Table - were recorded in January
1935.
He stayed with Mantovani until the
outbreak of war, broadcasting, touring and recording, but
whenever possible, staying at home to concentrate on his writing.
When war broke out, Ronnie joined the Royal Air Force, composed
a piece called Spitfire, helped Sidney Torch to run
the RAF station choir in Blackpool and met his wife-to-be
Vera Simmons, when she was the invigilator, and he the only
entrant, for an examination in German in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
After the war, Ronnie gave up playing
in order to concentrate on arranging and composing. Among
other things, he orchestrated the score for Noel Coward’s
ill-fated "Pacific 1860". Binge’s work was
just about the only aspect of it to escape a savaging from
the critics.
Importantly, Binge had also rejoined
Mantovani after the war. In 1951 his arrangement of Charmaine
catapulted the orchestra to world-wide fame, transforming
them from just another workaday outfit to one with a sound
that was instantly recognisable. It is remarkable to think
that that today there are those who, in their ignorance, seek
to diminish Ronald Binge’s contribution to Mantovani’s
success.
Eventually, Ronnie tired of the chore
of producing one arrangement after another in the same format
and went his own way, composing film scores and writing two
pieces which, seemingly will live for ever. One was Elizabethan
Serenade for which he won an Ivor Novello award. It topped
the hit parade in Germany and South Africa, had lyrics added
in German, Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch, Danish and French; there
was even a reggae version! The other was Sailing By
which still lulls Britain to sleep every night on Radio 4;
there was almost a mass insurrection by BBC listeners when
it was temporarily taken off the air in 1993.
In the 1970’s Ronnie relished
the opportunity to arrange and direct a series of LP albums
for Rediffusion. Two of them, featuring arrangements of his
own work and that of other composers, were reissued by Vocalion
in 2001. Three more were reissued by Vocalion in 2003. On
one Ronnie was able to expand his repertoire to write for
the solo guitar of Gerald Tolan. On another he was joined
by the famous Wimbledon Girl Singers who added a new dimension
to his work with their voices used like an instrumental section
on String Song, the signature tune to Ronnie’s
old Light Programme show. There’s also the opportunity
to hear Elizabethan Serenade under its later guise
of Where the Gentle Stream Flows with lyrics by the
poet Christopher Hassall. For the third album Ronnie composed
several new pieces for the strictly amateur Aldershot brass
Ensemble. It also included his Duel for Conductors,
which was written at the instigation of the BBC and first
performed at the Royal Festival Hall, where the conductors
in question were Malcolm Arnold and Harry Mortimer no less.
Ronnie’s widow Vera lives in Bournemouth
and she is always delighted to hear from anyone who enjoys
his work. She says "some music has the ability to last
because it says something to people that transcends its own
times. I think much of Ronnie’s music has this timeless
quality and I’m very happy to know that a new generation
of listeners is hearing it and enjoying it in a new way."
Mike Carey
Mike Carey is the author of "Sailing
By - The Ronald Binge Story" copies of which are available
from him at 5 The Square, Darley Abbey, Derby DE22 1DY (Tel
01332 558792) with reduced prices for RFS members. He also
presents a weekly nostalgia shown on BBC Radio Derby which
regularly features the light music of Binge, Farnon and others.
The music of Ronald Binge can
be heard on the following CDs:
"Summer Rain" / "If
You Were The Only Girl In The World" - Vocalion CDLK
4116
"The Aldershot Brass Ensemble"
/ "The Wimbledon Girl Singers" "The Romantic
Guitar of Gerald Tolan" - Vocalion CDLK 4129
"Sailing By" - Music by Ronald
Binge 2-CD collection including "Saxophone Concerto",
"Saturday Symphony" and many popular works - ASV
CD WLZ 245
Mike Carey 2004
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