Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 5 days ago
Reginald Foresythe and his New Music play "Berceuse For An Unwanted Child", a rather melancholic lullaby composed by Foresythe.
THE NEW MUSIC OF REGINALD FORESYTHE
Reginald Foresythe, piano, arranger, directing: Bill Apps and Cyril Clarke - clarinet / Bill Barclay and Jimmy Watson - alto saxophone / Jack Ambrose - tenor sax / Claude Hughes - bassoon / Jack Collier - string bass / George Elrick - drums
Recorded in London, February 9th, 1934
CA 14332-1…….Berceuse For An Unwanted Child…….Columbia CB-726
One might define Foresythe's New Music as 'chamber dance music'. In a review of Columbia CB-787 (the other side of which is "Garden Of Weed"): P. Mathison Brooks, the editor of the Melody Maker and, later, Rhythm magazine, described the New Music as: "….intellectual refined music all in a mode of Foresythe's own, exploiting counterpoint in place of the overworked block harmony of the average dance band orchestration and composing to a mood rather than a situation". Music critic Stanley Nelson, writing in The Era, echoed this assessment of Foresythe's music, stating: "He is doing what I have advocated for years as the logical way to use jazz. That is he avoids almost entirely block orchestral effects and relies on counterpoint to intertwine his glorious melodic lines. There is nothing new about this, Bach and the rest of them did it years ago. But it is certainly new in dance band arranging".
Reginald Foresythe and his New Music play "Berceuse For An Unwanted Child", a rather melancholic lullaby composed by Foresythe.
THE NEW MUSIC OF REGINALD FORESYTHE
Reginald Foresythe, piano, arranger, directing: Bill Apps and Cyril Clarke - clarinet / Bill Barclay and Jimmy Watson - alto saxophone / Jack Ambrose - tenor sax / Claude Hughes - bassoon / Jack Collier - string bass / George Elrick - drums
Recorded in London, February 9th, 1934
CA 14332-1…….Berceuse For An Unwanted Child…….Columbia CB-726
One might define Foresythe's New Music as 'chamber dance music'. In a review of Columbia CB-787 (the other side of which is "Garden Of Weed"): P. Mathison Brooks, the editor of the Melody Maker and, later, Rhythm magazine, described the New Music as: "….intellectual refined music all in a mode of Foresythe's own, exploiting counterpoint in place of the overworked block harmony of the average dance band orchestration and composing to a mood rather than a situation". Music critic Stanley Nelson, writing in The Era, echoed this assessment of Foresythe's music, stating: "He is doing what I have advocated for years as the logical way to use jazz. That is he avoids almost entirely block orchestral effects and relies on counterpoint to intertwine his glorious melodic lines. There is nothing new about this, Bach and the rest of them did it years ago. But it is certainly new in dance band arranging".
