Frederic Curzon

Frederic Curzon (4 September 18996 December 1973) was an English composer, conductor and organist, associated with the theatre, early cinema and light music. He sometimes wrote under the pen names Graham Collett and Harold Ramsay. He moved to the New Victoria Cinema in 1935, and in 1938 gave up salaried employment to concentrate full time on composition. That year he composed the music for the high profile 1939-1949 radio comedy series ITMA (It's That Man Again), starring Tommy Handley. From 1939 and throughout the war he conducted at Llandudno Pier. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s he continued to perform organ music for frequent broadcasts at the BBC Theatre Organ.

He was encouraged as an orchestral concert composer by the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra conductor Dan Godfrey and by the music publisher Ralph Hawkes, and was appointed head of Boosey & Hawkes’s Light Music department, where he was an early contributor of mood music or library music, pre-written, royalty-free cues for newsreels, documentaries, radio and eventually television.

Curzon married Gladys Marian Fowler in 1937. - where he died in 1973.

Music While there are some songs in the ballad style and some solo piano pieces, Curzon's light music for the concert hall was mostly orchestral. Examples include The Spanish Suite: In Malaga (1935) and the Robin Hood Suite (1937), as well as single movement overtures and character pieces such as The Boulevardier (1941, perhaps his best known piece), the Cascade Waltz (1946), Dance of an Ostracised Imp (1940) and Punchinello (1948) which were all popular in their day. A Marco Polo CD of orchestral music was issued in 1992. Fanfare No. 4 Fanfare No. 5 "For a Merry Occasion" Fanfare No. 6 "Westminster" Galavant (1949) Punchinello miniature overture (1948) Robin Hood Suite (1937) Salon Suite (1942) Saltarello for piano and orchestra (1952) Serenade of a Clown (1939) Simonetta, Serenade (1943) Spanish Suite: In Malaga (1935) Vanguard overture