LOLLIPOPS? You might wonder why a CD of light music should be titled lollipops. As a group, we have always ended our concerts with a few encore pieces from our lighter repertoire. This has become one of our trademark qualities and our audiences always seem to enjoy a little Joplin or a Gershwin tune after a more serious classical programme. A lollipop, in the musical sense, was a term first used by Sir Thomas Beecham in connection with music played at his concerts. For him a lollipop was an encore in complete contrast to the dramatic, rousing endings to his programmes. He introduced the lollipop, generally a ‘syrupy, soapy, soothing piece’, to ‘reduce the audience’s emotional temperature’. Everyone would then leave the concert hall calm and happy. When we first decided to make a CD we thought putting together a series of our favourite lollipops might make an attractive recording. Each piece featured on this CD has been used as an encore by us. Not all, however, are of the soothing nature favoured by Sir Thomas. Some, such as Fiddle-Faddle, are fast and furious because, contrary to Sir Thomas, we feel that it does little harm to the audience to leave a concert on an emotional high. We hope you enjoy it! THE COMPOSERS Gershwin features many times in our collection. Born in Brooklyn in 1898, he is remembered as one of America’s most gifted composers of popular songs, musicals, operas, piano and orchestral works. His songs are timeless and make for good lollipops ranging from the relaxing sounds of Summertime to the jazzy beats of Slap That Bass. Summertime, probably one of his best known songs, is a firm favourite with us. It was written for the opera Porgy and Bess which was composed during a stay on an island near Charleston, South Carolina. The melody is clearly influenced by the vocal music and life style of the black community on the island. In the opera it appears in three different guises showing Gershwin’s ability as both musical dramatist and orchestrator – the latter skill acquired as a pupil of Ravel. ’S Wonderful has always proved a popular lollipop. We particularly like the way the arranger has cleverly interwoven a theme from Handel’s Messiah (For Unto Us a Child is Born) into the arrangement. Our Love is Here to Stay provides a more relaxed lollipop with its lazy rhythms and beautiful melody, whereas Just Another Rhumba incorporates the distinctive rhythm of the Rhumba dance contributing a foot-tapping finale to any concert. Like Gershwin, Cole Porter also features on many occasions in this collection. Born into a rich family in Peru, Indiana in 1893, his musical talent was spotted at an early age. Despite his obvious musical expertise, however, he was encouraged to study Law at Harvard but after a year he transferred to music. Over his lifetime he produced some beautiful and witty songs, many of which we have found suitable for use as lollipops. The popular melody of Let’s Do It provides an amusing encore. We have found a particularly good adaptation of this humorous Porter song in the arrangement by Bill Thorp. Drawing upon Porter’s lyrics “in shallow shoals even English soles do it…” Thorp introduces a ‘fishy’ slant to the piece cleverly interweaving a theme from Schubert’s Trout Quintet into the composition. You may spot a reference to Jaws in the cello part! Anything Goes and Just One of Those Things contribute upbeat, lively and jazzy style lollipops whereas Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye has more of a melancholy feel to it. Perhaps this could reflect the fact that it was written shortly after Porter suffered a major tragedy, losing a leg in a riding accident. We only feature one song by Richard Rodgers on this collection although we feel it is certainly a well-chosen melody. My Funny Valentine from the show Babes In Arms displays Rodgers’ trademark qualities of inventiveness and music imbued with emotion. In this arrangement the viola plays the main theme, a beautiful melody with moments of powerful emotional intensity – almost the sort of ‘syrupy, soapy, soothing piece’ Sir Thomas would have favoured as a lollipop – but with the words the song takes on a more tragic hue. It seems that everybody loves a little Joplin and ending a concert with a Rag or two always goes down well. Brought up in a musical family, but contrary to his father’s wishes, Scott Joplin left home to become a musician. By 1885 he had arrived in St. Louis where he first came into contact with the black pianists who were beginning to formulate the Ragtime style. Joplin was a prolific writer of Ragtime and we only had room for Ragtime Dance and Roseleaf Rag on this collection. Both Rags were originally written for piano. Ragtime Dance is described as a stop time two step where for brief periods the music stops allowing other sounds to fill the space – in our case a wood block struck by our producer! Leroy Anderson was famous for composing light music full of humour and therefore his compositions make ideal material for lollipops. We have chosen two pieces for this collection both originally written for string orchestra. Fiddle-Faddle, written in 1947, makes a perfect flashy lollipop. The first violin is in almost perpetual motion throughout the piece with much rapid string crossing and high-speed movement up and down the fingerboard. Plink Plank Plunk was written in 1951 and, like the title suggests, involved each player (especially the first violin) in high-speed pizzicato. Leroy Anderson was famous for writing music containing novel orchestral effects and so, in the spirit of his music, we thought we’d add some of our own. We include one work by Bernstein, the rousing song New York, New York from the Broadway musical On The Town. The arrangement of this song provides an invigorating and stimulating lollipop. The lively and persistent melody clearly reflects the hustle and bustle of life in a busy city, complete with automobile horns! Makin’ Whoopee is the only arrangement of a Walter Donaldson song we have included in this collection. The melody is light hearted and humorous, both characteristic qualities of Donaldson’s song writing along with the notion of the subtext in the lyrics… Manning Sherwin’s memorable and timeless song A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square works very well as a lollipop. In this arrangement, the beautiful melody is accompanied by imitations of the trills and chirps of birdsong and the soaring high passage from the first violin is reminiscent of Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending. We include one work by Karl Suessdorf, Moonlight in Vermont, in this collection. In the arrangement used for this recording the beautiful melody is played alternately by the viola and violins. This tune was written in 1944 and it conveyed a real feeling of nostalgia to soldiers separated from their families and homeland. We hope you find our collection of lollipops colourful – we enjoyed recording it for you. Cath  Ali Nerissa Christine THE LOCHRIAN ENSEMBLE Four young university and music college graduates first formed the Lochrian Ensemble in 1991. Since then the group has become one of the leading chamber ensembles in the South West of England and is in great demand for a wide variety of engagements ranging from festival concerts to television and film recordings. The ensemble has collaborated with the English composer Colin Bayliss in the production of a double CD of his complete string quartets. The last quartet in the collection, in locrian mode, is dedicated to them. The group has a special interest in music by women composers and aims to raise the profile of this rarely performed repertoire through concerts and educational workshops. The Lochrian Ensemble has performed nationwide and future plans include concerts at festivals in both Germany and Canada. It welcomes the opportunity to work with other musicians to form both larger and smaller chamber groups. The ensemble has subsequently performed a wide variety of repertoire from the chamber music genre as well as accompanying choral works and operatic productions. THANKS Thanks also to Maria Mason and Georgina Pastou (make-up) and Keith Flower (photography). Tosca and Bramble (each felis domesticus) also provided material for Plink, Plank, Plunk (track 13).