Suite in Four Movements: An Autobiography

Among the best-loved names in English music today is that of Eric Coates. As a composer, both charming and stirring, he is responsible for two of our national signature tunes - the Knightsbridge March from his London Suite, which heralds In Town Tonight, and the tune which cheered and roused countless millions to greater effort during the war years, Calling All Workers. Here now is his autobiography: a story destined to fill the gaps in those untold private pictures which form around our favorite writers, actors and composers. This book opens with an Allegretto Pastorale, the scene of the author's boyhood among the fields and lands of Nottinghamshire and in the happy circle of family and friends. The youngest son of the local doctor, Eric Coates' musical gifts showed themselves at an early age, and developed unfettered in an environment of affectionate guidance and interest. The second movement of gathering tempo - Lento-Andante-Allegro - follows the young man's career as a student at the Royal Academy of Music and his beginnings as a viola player and composer. This is a story of endless fascination, introducing names which have passed into our life and culture. There are pictures of friends, tutors and professional acquaintances, among them Lionel Tertis, Sir Thomas Beecham, Sir Henry Wood, Elgar, W.S. Gilbert, Richard Strauss, Claude Debussy and so many more. And always, the thread of a personal life, and experiences as hilarious as the episode of the "Celtic quartet". Romanza in modo variazione is the romantic third movement. This is Mr. Coates' own love story, and one of the few true examples of the fairy-story formula "and so they lived happily ever after." Through this and the final Rondo we see the development of the young composer, from his first song success with Stonecracker John to the public figure we know today, whose Knightbridge March created a sales record in gramophone recordings and is known, with his other delightful compositions, throughout the world.