Elizabethan Serenade

Elizabethan Serenade was written towards the end of the composer’s fruitful association with Mantovani - an association which started in 1935 when Binge was taken on to write all the arrangements for the Tipica Orchestra and which ended sixteen years or so later, partly because he felt that Mantovani was taking too much credit for the “cascading strings” sound that Binge himself had invented. First performed as Andante cantabile by Mantovani in 1951, Elizabethan Serenade acquired its present title at the suggestion of Binge’s publisher. It was then adopted as the signature tune for the BBC’s popular Sunday morning series Music Tapestry - which made it as familiar in the 1950s as the same composer’s Sailing By is today (by virtue of its regular appearance before the Shipping Forecast on Radio 4).

Actually, there is a strong family likeness between Elizabethan Serenade and Sailing By, both of which sustain an attractively shaped string melody against a more active background of flute and clarinet figurations. And both of them are based on one main theme with a central development section. But whereas Sailing By is supported by conventional slow-waltz accompaniment, much of the charm of Elizabethan Serenade is created by the peculiarly limping rhythm of its bass line.