Histories

W.H. Myddleton was a name well known to orchestras and bands earlier in the century, primarily for classical arrangements and his potpourris, of Welsh melodies, entitled The Leek (1920), or English melodies The Rose, or American melodies By the Swanee River and, in cake-walk rhythm, Down South. All these were published in piano, orchestral and band versions, Down South even for mixed voice chorus. He was more than just an arranger, as his output included several original pieces for piano like Eventide ("Le declin du jour") Opus 7 and songs, of which Lorna Doone achieved some popularity.
Myddleton's arrangements were very popular; so, over many decades, effectively up to the present time and especially for military and brass bands, were those of the Godfrey family, a musical dynasty stretching over four generations. Best known among them was Sir Dan Godfrey, founder of the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra, initially a military band, of course, and its conductor from 1893 to 1934 and the encourager of dozens of British composers, for all of which he was knighted in 1922 and given a Honorary Fellowship of the RCM the next year. The "founder" of this dynasty was Charles ("the first") (1790-1863), who began the family's association with military music by playing bassoon in the Coldstream Guards Band in 1813. He became Bandmaster in 1825, retaining that position until his death, although he retired from the Army in 1834. In 1831 he had become a Musician in Ordinary to the King and from 1847 he edited Jullien's 'Military Journal', one of the earliest of military band publications.
Charles Godfrey I had five sons, three of whom became military bandmasters. Eldest of these was Daniel Godfrey I (1831-1903), father of the Bournemouth Godfrey, who, after study at the Royal Academy of Music, became Bandmaster of the Grenadier Guards in 1856, holding that position for forty years and taking the Band to Boston in 1872 where it did much for Anglo-American relations, not at their most cordial at the time in the aftermath of the Civil War. The Band played several times at Windsor for the Queen. In 1887 be became the first Army bandmaster to achieve commissioned rank. After retiring from the Army he formed his own band and again visited the United States. He founded a music instrument business, Dan Godfrey Sons, in the Strand. He was responsible for many arrangements and a number of original compositions - marches, quadrilles and waltzes. His first composition for the Grenadier Guards was the march, The Return of the Guards, which marked their reappearance in England after service in the Crimean War. The waltzes The Guards, Hilda and Mabel achieved huge popularity as military band novelties, as piano solos and even as songs. Dance bands played them almost to death; their tunes were on the lips of errand boys. Examples of Dan I's dance music extracted from Doncaster dance programmes of the 1860s, 1870s and 1880s are the waltzes Helen, Golden Beauty, Belgravia, Blush Rose, Little Nell, Christine and Dream of the Ball, the galops Daybreak, Orpheus and Bon Jour, the lancers Knight of St Patrick, Christies, Polo (then a new game) the polkas Garden Party, Holly Bush and Merry Tunes and the quadrilles Christmas Echoes, Belgian Quadrille and Young Friends, Old Friends. Does any of this music survive?
Both Charles II and Dan I composed prolifically for the ballroom. In 1872-3 Doncaster ballrooms heard the valse Christine, the quadrilles Christmas Echoes and Young Friends and the lancers Knight of St Patrick (all by Dan I) and the valses Princess Louise, Love's Dream and Royal Bridesmaid and the lancers Irresistible by Charles II.
The Bournemouth Godfrey, Dan II (1868-1939) trained at the RCM and, unable to obtain an Army position as he had not been to Kneller Hall, conducted the band of the Corps of Commissionaires (1887-9) and the (civilian) London Military Band (1889-91) before going to conduct opera in Johannesburg in 1891-3 prior to giving the rest of his energies to Bournemouth. His arrangements were many and, as I can personally testify, they are still played. He composed dance music, marches and songs, although the song In the Starlight may be by his son Dan Godfrey III (1893-1935) - both Dan II and Dan III were known, confusingly at varying times, as "Dan Godfrey Junr." The latter studied at the RAM, like his grandfather, and played in the Coldstream Guards Band like his great grandfather, although he was never its Bandmaster. Instead he directed resort orchestras at Harrogate, Blackpool and Hastings and worked for the BBC in its early years, both at Manchester and Savoy Hill, often conducting the Wireless Orchestra. In 1928 he, like his father before him, sailed for South Africa where he was, until his sadly early death, Musical Director to Durban Corporation, thus, like his father, spreading the gospel of municipal music.
We return to the second bandmaster son of Charles Godfrey I: Adolphus Frederick Godfrey, known as "Fred" (1837-82). Like his brothers he studied at the Royal Academy and he took over from his father as Bandmaster of the Coldstream Guards in 1863, holding the appointment until 1880. Of his many arrangements, arguably the most popular was the Marguerite Waltz, on themes from Gounod's Faust. His Recollections of Meyerbeer was in Dan Godfrey II's first programme at Bournemouth while his variations for bassoon and (orchestra), Lucy Long, was for many years a favourite at the early Henry Wood Promenade Concerts. (Fred's selection, Recollections of England also appeared at the Proms in their early years).
Fred's brother Charles Godfrey II (1839-1919) studied at the RAM with George MacFarren and Lazarus and played the clarinet in Jullien's orchestra. At the age of twenty he became Bandmaster of the Scots Fusiliers, moving in 1868 to be Bandmaster of the Royal Horse Guards, where he remained until 1904, from 1899 as a commissioned officer. At various times he was Professor of Military Music at the RCM and the Guildhall School. He adjudicated at the British Open Brass Band Championships in Manchester for many years prior to the Great War (his brass band arrangements of Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha and Gems of Mendelssohn were the respective test pieces at the 1902 and 1904 National Championships). He edited the Army Military Band Journal and founded the Orpheus Band Journal. His selections were widely used. They included Chevalier's Coster Songs, Quadrilles on H.M.S. Pinafore, the "descriptive Imperial Fantasia", Our Empire and a potpourri, Recollections of London, of waltzes and polkas but, curiously, mainly by foreign composers. Original compositions included songs like The Golden Wedding and Oh What a Happy Land is England and a Song without Words (1886), for small orchestra.
Charles Godfrey II's two sons both contributed much to light music in this country, though in widely differing ambiences. Charles George Godfrey, or Charles Godfrey III (1866-1935), went to the RAM, like his father but did not enter the Army, becoming Bandmaster of the Corps of Commissionaires in 1887, shortly before his cousin Dan II took it over, and then, from 1887-97, of the Crystal Palace Military Band. Later he was Musical Director of the orchestra at Buxton Spa (1897-8) and at the Spa, Scarborough (1899-1909, the years immediately before Alick Maclean's brilliant reign there). Arthur Eugene Godfrey (1868-1939) was educated at St. Paul's Choir School and the RAM, later working as an accompanist, as adviser to publishing firms and as Musical Director in various theatres, notably of the Alhambra Theatre in Glasgow (1921-9). His compositions were varied and included a String Quartet, ballads like A Fairy Fantasy, The Happy Isle, Lord of the Sea and Stand United, the barn dance, Happy Darkies, which was programmed by his cousin Dan II during his first Bournemouth season and a reasonably successful comedy, Little Miss Nobody, produced in 1898 at the Lyric Theatre, which ran for 200 performances and also had a brief American run. Landon Ronald wrote some of the music, but Godfrey was responsible for most of it.
Arthur Eugene's death and that of the Bournemouth Godfrey within months of each other in 1939 effectively ended the musical contributions of this remarkable family, contributions which had endured for more that a century and had touched every aspect of the light forms of music-making - military and brass bands, the resort orchestras, dance music and the theatre - whether in performance or the compiling of arrangements and original compositions. British music's debt to them (and not just to Dan II, whose abilities were rightly recognised in his lifetime and whose life is well known from his own memoirs, written in 1922, and from the works of others) is a considerable one and should not be forgotten.