I’m dreaming of a “light” Christmas.
It is with great excitement that I announce the impending launch of a brand-new show, to be broadcast weekly from my current home-away-from-home, KWAX, the radio station of the University of Oregon.
As you may know, I’ve always had a soft spot for the confectionary genre known as British Light Music. This is a kind of music that was once widely enjoyed in theaters, at seaside resorts, on popular radio programs, and even as background to enhance the shopping experience. It was certainly a fertile field for anyone looking to pluck a memorable signature tune. (For a prominent example in the U.S., one need look no further than Captain Kangaroo, who poached Edward White’s “Puffin’ Billy.”) British Light Music will be well-represented, alongside light music from other sources, on “Sweetness and Light.”
Depending on the week, we’ll also hear selections from ballet, highlights from operetta, dollops of film music, waltzes, marches, parlor music, and piano miniatures of a kind once familiar from Grandma’s piano bench. I suppose now GREAT-Grandma’s piano bench. In short, undemanding fare, calculated to charm and to cheer and to help you forget your worldly woes.
With Christmas only days away, this week’s playlist will include several works evocative of wintry scenes (including the original version of “Jingle Bells,” published in 1857, and rendered as a hilarious parlor song), incidental music from a now-forgotten Christmas pageant (spearheaded by Reginald Owen, who went on to play Ebenezer Scrooge in a 1938 film version of “A Christmas Carol”), ingratiating selections by two composers associated with the movies (Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Henry Mancini), and some steaming bowls of keyboard wassail (courtesy of Billy Mayerl and Percy Grainger).
This is the first show produced entirely in my home studio. Now that I’ve got it down, we can also expect fresh installments of “Picture Perfect” and “The Lost Chord” in the coming year.
“Sweetness and Light,” my third syndicated show, will take its inaugural bow this Saturday, December 23, at 8 a.m. PST. (That’s 11 a.m. here on the East Coast.) Sweeten your morning and lighten your spirit by listening at the link.
Stay positive, embrace beauty, and have a happy holiday!
Captain Kangaroo’s got some ’splainin’ to do
Leave a Reply