Eric Coates

Eric Francis Harrison Coates ( born August 27, 1886 in Hucknall, † December 23, 1957 in Chichester ) was an English composer and violist.

Life and work

Eric Coates was the son of a doctor and showed an early interest in music. He received lessons in Nottingham, first on the violin, then the viola at Georg Ellenberger ( himself a disciple of Joseph Joachim ), also in harmony with Ralph Horner. From 1906 he studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where Lionel Tertis his viola teacher was, but Coates was at the instigation of the Institute Director Alexander Mackenzie, who recognized his talent, also studied composition under Frederick Corder. 1912-1919 worked Coates first violist in the Queen's Hall Orchestra under Henry Wood, also in other orchestras under many renowned conductors. At a concert tour of the Hambourg String Quartet to South Africa he took Lionel Tertis. However, the Viola ability Coates was due to a neuritis of the left hand in 1919 and devoted himself entirely to composition.

As a composer, Coates was in 1909 with the song Stone Cracker John, with words by Frederic Weatherly - known - with whom he entertained a lifelong collaboration. 1911 Wood took his Miniature Suite at the Proms in the program. As a result, Coates became one of the most important representatives of the so-called " British Light Music " as the composer of numerous catchy orchestral suites, fantasias, marches and waltzes. There were about 160 songs, to texts his wife Phyllis Black or of Arthur Conan Doyle. Stylistically, he was initially influenced by Arthur Sullivan, but also took influences on German music, such as Richard Strauss, as its color instrumented orchestral works show.

Some of the compositions by Eric Coates became signature tunes British radio and television programs, such as the march Knightsbridge from London Suite (1933 ) for the BBC program " In Town Tonight" for nearly 30 years. The march Calling All Workers opened the program " Music While You Work " during the Second World War. The 1942 weekly broadcast of the cultural program of the BBC broadcast Desert Iceland discs is initiated until today ( 2012) with the orchestral piece By the Sleepy Lagoon by Coates. Halcyon Days from The Three Elizabeths Suite was posthumously (1967 ) theme tune of the BBC TV series The Forsyte Saga. Coates also wrote parts of the music for the film The Dam Busters.

Eric Coates was a founding member and director of the Performing Right Society, also appeared as a conductor of his own music in appearance and in 1953 published his autobiography under the title "Suite in Four Movements". His son Austin Coates (1922-1997) came also out as a writer.