View source for Eric Coates

{{short description|English composer (1886–1957)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
[[File:Eric-Coates.jpg|thumb|alt=middle-aged white man with centre-parted short hair|Coates, {{circa|1925}}]]
'''Eric Francis Harrison Coates'''{{refn|Coates's parents originally intended to christen him "Francis Harrison", and changed their minds to add the first name. The ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'' article (2001) is headed "Coates, Eric [formerly Frank Harrison Coates]"; a later biography, by Michael Payne (2012) records that Coates's birth certificate contains all three given names.<ref name=p11>Payne, p. 11</ref>|group= n}} (27 August 1886 – 21 December 1957) was an English composer of [[light music]] and, early in his career, a leading [[violist]].

Coates was born into a musical family, but, despite his wishes and obvious talent, his parents only reluctantly allowed him to pursue a musical career. He studied at the [[Royal Academy of Music]] under [[Frederick Corder]] (composition) and [[Lionel Tertis]] (viola), and played in [[string quartet]]s and theatre [[Pit orchestra|pit bands]], before joining symphony orchestras conducted by [[Thomas Beecham]] and [[Henry Wood]]. Coates's experience as a player added to the rigorous training he had received at the academy and contributed to his skill as a composer.

While still working as a violist, Coates composed songs and other light musical works. In 1919 he gave up the viola permanently and from then until his death he made his living as a composer and occasional conductor. His prolific output includes the ''[[London Suite (Coates)|London Suite]]'' (1932), of which the well-known "Knightsbridge March" is the concluding section; the waltz "[[By the Sleepy Lagoon]]" (1930); and "[[The Dam Busters March]]" (1954). His early compositions were influenced by the music of [[Arthur Sullivan]] and [[Edward German]], but Coates's style evolved in step with changes in musical taste, and his later works incorporate elements derived from jazz and dance-band music. His output consists almost wholly of orchestral music and songs. With the exception of one unsuccessful short ballet, he never wrote for the theatre, and only occasionally for the cinema.

==Life and career==

===Early years===
Coates was born in [[Hucknall|Hucknall Torkard]], Nottinghamshire, the only son, and youngest of five children, of William Harrison Coates (1851–1935), a medical [[general practitioner]], and his wife, Mary Jane Gwyn, ''née'' Blower (1850–1928).<ref>Payne, p. 9</ref> It was a musical household: Dr Coates was a capable amateur [[flute|flautist]] and singer, and his wife was a fine pianist.<ref name=dnb>Self, Geoffrey. [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/32464 "Coates, Eric (formerly Frank Harrison Coates)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. {{ODNBsub}}</ref>

As a child, Coates did not go to school, but was educated with his sisters by a [[governess]]. His musicality became clear when he was very young, and asked to be taught to play the violin. His first lessons, from age six, were with a local violin teacher, and from thirteen he studied with George Ellenberger, who was once a pupil of [[Joseph Joachim]].<ref name=p11/> Coates also took lessons in [[harmony]] and [[counterpoint]] from Ralph Horner, lecturer in music at [[University of Nottingham|University College Nottingham]], who had studied under [[Ignaz Moscheles]] and [[Ernst Richter]] and was a former conductor for the [[D'Oyly Carte Opera Company]].<ref>Pratt and Grove, p. 246; Jones, Keith and Gordon Goldsborough [http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/horner_rj.shtml "Ralph Joseph Horner (1848-1926)"], Manitoba Historical Society. Retrieved 27 September 2018; and Rollins and Witts, p. 30</ref> At Ellenberger's request, Coates switched to the [[viola]], supposedly for a single performance; he found the deeper sound of the instrument to his liking and changed permanently from violinist to violist.<ref>Coates, pp. 39–40</ref> In that capacity he joined a local string orchestra, for which he wrote his first surviving music, the ''Ballad'', op. 2, dedicated to Ellenberger.<ref>McDonald, p. 3</ref> It was completed on 23 October 1904 and performed later that year at the [[Albert Hall, Nottingham]], with Coates playing in the viola section.<ref>Bratby, Richard (2019) [https://www.chandos.net/chanimages/Booklets/CH20036.pdf Notes to Chandos CD 20036]</ref>

[[File:Tertis-and-Corder.jpg|thumb|left|alt=portraits of two white men of mature years, one with a full head of dark hair, one bald, both with moustaches|Coates's professors: [[Lionel Tertis]] and [[Frederick Corder]]]]

Coates wanted to pursue a career as a professional musician; his parents were not in favour of it, but eventually agreed that he could seek admission to the [[Royal Academy of Music]] (RAM) in London. They insisted that by the end of his first year there he must have demonstrated that his abilities were equal to a professional career, failing which he was to return to Nottinghamshire and take up a safe and respectable post in a bank. In 1906, aged twenty, Coates auditioned for admission; he was interviewed by the principal, [[Alexander Mackenzie (composer)|Sir Alexander Mackenzie]], who was sufficiently impressed by the applicant's setting of [[Robert Burns|Burns]]'s  "[[A Red, Red Rose]]" to suggest that Coates should take composition as his principal study, with the viola as subsidiary. Coates was adamant that his first concern was the viola. Mackenzie's enthusiasm did not extend to offering a [[scholarship]], and Dr Coates had to pay the tuition fees for his son's first year, after which a scholarship was granted.<ref>Payne, pp. 17–18 and 19–20</ref>

At the RAM Coates studied the viola with [[Lionel Tertis]] and composition with [[Frederick Corder]]. Coates made it clear to Corder that he was temperamentally drawn to writing music in a light vein rather than symphonies or oratorios. His songs featured in RAM concerts during his years as a student, and although his first press review called his two songs performed in December 1907 "rather obvious",<ref>"Concerts", ''The Times'', 13 December 1907, p. 12</ref> his four Shakespeare settings were praised the following year for the "charm of a sincere melody".<ref>"Royal Academy of Music", ''The Times'', 16 December 1908, p. 11</ref> and his "Devon to Me" (also 1908) was credited by ''[[The Musical Times]]'' as "a robust and manly ditty, worthy of publication".<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/904550 "Royal Academy of Music"], ''The Musical Times'', Vol. 49, No. 779 (9 January 1908), p. 31 {{subscription required}}</ref>

Coates was fortunate in his viola professor. ''[[The New York Times]]'' called Tertis the first great protagonist of the instrument,<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/04/obituaries/william-primrose-77-is-dead-violist-knowen-for-purity-of-tone.html "Obituary: William Primrose"], ''The New York Times'', 4 May 1982, p. 31</ref> and ''[[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians|Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'' ranks him as the foremost player of the viola.<ref>Forbes, Watson. [https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.27716 "Tertis, Lionel"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press, 2001 {{subscription required}}</ref> He was also regarded as a great teacher,<ref>White, p. 145</ref> and under his tutelage Coates developed into a first-rate viola player.<ref name=dnb/> While still a student he earned money playing in theatre orchestras in the [[West End theatre|West End]], including the [[Savoy Theatre|Savoy]], where he played for several weeks under [[François Cellier]] in a [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] season in 1907.<ref>McDonald, p. 5; and Rollins and Witts, p. 21</ref>

===Professional violist and composer: 1908–1919===
[[File:Hambourg Quartet 1908.png|thumb|upright=1.25|alt=four musicians with string instruments in a posed group photograph|The Hambourg Quartet, 1908: l. to r. [[Jan Hambourg|Jan]] and [[Boris Hambourg]], Orry Corjeac and Eric Coates]]
In 1908 Coates's studies at the RAM came to an unexpected end when Tertis had to drop out of a tour of South Africa as a member of the [[Boris Hambourg|Hambourg]] Quartet, a leading string ensemble; he arranged for Coates to be invited to fill the vacancy. Coates resigned his scholarship at the academy and joined the tour. At about this time he began to be troubled by pain in his left hand and numbness in his right, which were symptoms of the [[neuritis]] that affected him throughout the remaining eleven years of his career as a violist.<ref>McDonald, p. 6</ref> After working with the Hambourg Quartet, Coates was violist of the Cathie and [[William_Henry_Walenn#Musical_family|Walenn]] quartets.<ref name=times>"Mr Eric Coates", ''The Times'', 23 December 1957, p. 8</ref>

Alongside his busy playing career, Coates had several early successes as a composer. The [[soprano]] Olga Wood, wife of the conductor [[Henry Wood]], sang Coates's "Four Old English Songs" at [[the Proms]] in 1909; the music critic of ''The Times'' wrote that they were "tuneful, somewhat in the manner of Mr. [[Edward German]]", and showed the influence of [[Arthur Sullivan]] in the word-setting.<ref>"Music", ''The Times'', 17 September 1909, p. 9</ref> The songs were taken up by other prominent singers including [[Gervase Elwes]], [[Carrie Tubb]] and [[Nellie Melba]].<ref name=ponder>Ponder, Michael (1995). Notes to Naxos CD 8.223806</ref> The composer's many collaborations with the lyricist [[Frederic Weatherly]] began with "Stonecracker John" (1909), the first of a succession of highly popular ballads. Wood was the dedicatee of the ''Miniature Suite'', the last movement of which was encored when he conducted its first performance, at the Proms, in October 1911.<ref name=dnb/>

In early 1911 Coates met and fell in love with an RAM student, Phyllis (Phyl) Marguerite Black (1894–1982), an aspiring actress, who was studying recitation. His affections were reciprocated but her parents were doubtful of Coates's prospects as a husband and provider. Although he continued to compose, he was concentrating for the time being on playing the viola for his principal income, first with the [[Thomas Beecham|Beecham]] Symphony Orchestra, and, from 1910, with Wood's [[Queen's Hall]] Orchestra. He played under the batons of composers including [[Elgar]], [[Delius]], [[Holst]], [[Richard Strauss]], [[Debussy]], and virtuoso conductors such as [[Willem Mengelberg]] and [[Arthur Nikisch]].<ref name=boosey/> This work gave him the necessary financial security to marry Phyllis in February 1913. They had one child, [[Austin Coates|Austin]], born in 1922.<ref name=dnb/>

Coates was declared medically unfit for military service in the [[First World War]], and continued his musical career. The war brought about a severe reduction in work, and the couple's income received a welcome boost from Phyllis's acting engagements. As her career progressed, she appeared with other rising performers including [[Noël Coward]].<ref>"The Theatres", ''The Times'', 21 September 1922, p. 8</ref>

In 1919 Coates gave up playing the viola.{{refn|The obituaries of Coates in ''The Times'', ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'' and ''The Musical Times'' give the year as 1918,<ref name=times/><ref name=mg/><ref name=mt>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/937603. "Eric Coates"], ''The Musical Times'', 99, no. 1380 (1958), p. 99</ref> but later sources including ''[[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians|Grove]]'', the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Coates's biographer Michael Payne, and Coates in his memoirs, give the year as 1919.<ref name=dnb/><ref name=grove>Self, Geoffrey. [https://doi.org/10.1093/go/9781561592630.article.06001 "Coates, Eric"], ''Grove Music Online'', Oxford University Press 2001 {{subscription required}}</ref><ref>Payne, p. 52; and Coates, p. 75</ref>|group= n}} His contract to lead the section in the Queen's Hall orchestra expired and was not renewed. Some sources ascribe this to Coates's wish to pursue a full-time career as a composer;<ref name=mt/> others say that his neuritis affected his playing;<ref name=boosey>[http://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main.cshtml?composerid=3365&ttype=BIOGRAPHY&ttitle=Biography "Eric Coates"], [[Boosey and Hawkes]]. Retrieved 29 September 2018</ref> Coates himself said that Wood valued reliability more than virtuosity, and had become exasperated by Coates's frequent absences conducting his compositions elsewhere.<ref>Coates, p. 194; and McDonald, p. 10</ref>

===Full-time composer: 1920s and 1930s===
Whether or not Wood had lost patience with Coates as a violist, he regarded him well enough as a composer to invite him to conduct the first performance of his suite ''Summer Days'' at a Queen's Hall [[the Proms|Promenade concert]] in October 1919, and to engage him for repeat performances of the piece in 1920, 1924 and 1925,<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/events/works/ceb139ea-f987-4448-a961-b3b07bf5db97 "Summer Days"], BBC Proms performance archive. Retrieved 29 September 2018</ref> and for more of his orchestral works including the suite ''Joyous Youth'' (1922) and the premiere of ''The Three Bears'' (1926).<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e946v2 "Prom 43, 30 Sep 1922 Queen's Hall"] and [https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/epbfhn "Prom 47, 7 Oct 1926 Queen's Hall"], BBC Proms performance archive. Retrieved 29 September 2018</ref>  The latter, one of three of Coates's most substantial works, labelled "Phantasies", was inspired by the children's stories that Phyllis Coates read to their son; the others were ''The Selfish Giant'' (1925) and ''Cinderella'' (1930).<ref>Kay, Brian (2002). Notes to Chandos CD 9869 {{oclc|754451222}}</ref>

[[File:Eric Coates - Chiltern Court Baker St NW1 5SR.jpg|thumb|left|upright|alt=exterior of expensive residential block of flats|[[Chiltern Court, Baker Street]], Coates's London home 1930–1936. A [[blue plaque]] by the door commemorates him.]]

What Coates's biographer Geoffrey Self describes as "a not-too-onerous contract with his publisher" stipulated an annual output of two orchestral pieces – one of fifteen minutes' duration and one of five – and three ballads.<ref name=grove/> Coates was a founder-member of the [[PRS for Music|Performing Right Society]], and was among the first composers whose main income came from broadcasts and recordings, after the demand for sheet music of popular songs declined in the 1920s and 1930s.<ref name=grove/><ref>Payne, pp. 46 and 56</ref>

Between the First and [[Second World War|Second]] world wars, Coates was in demand as a conductor of his own works, appearing in London and seaside resorts such as [[Bournemouth]], [[Scarborough, North Yorkshire|Scarborough]] and [[Hastings]], which then maintained substantial orchestras devoted to light music.<ref name=archive/> But it was in the studio that he made the most impact as a composer-conductor. Beginning in 1923 he made records of his music for [[Columbia Graphophone Company|Columbia]], which attracted a substantial following. Among those who bought his records was Elgar, who made a point of buying all Coates's discs as they came out.<ref name=archive>[https://doi.org/10.1093/odnb/9780192683120.013.32464 "Coates, Eric"], ''Dictionary of National Biography'' archive, Oxford University Press. Retrieved 29 September 2018. {{ODNBsub}}</ref><ref>McDonald, p. 12</ref>

Although he and his wife maintained a country house in Sussex, Coates found city life more stimulating, and was more productive when at the family's London flat in [[Baker Street]]. The views from there across the roofscapes prompted his ''[[London Suite (Coates)|London Suite]]'' (1933), with its depictions of [[Covent Garden]], [[Westminster]] and [[Knightsbridge]].<ref>McDonald, pp. 13 and 20</ref> The work transformed Coates's status from moderate prominence to national celebrity when the [[BBC]] chose the "Knightsbridge" march from the suite as the [[signature tune]] for its new and prodigiously popular radio programme ''[[In Town Tonight]]'', which ran from 1933 to 1960.<ref>Payne, p. 110</ref> 

Another work written at the Baker Street flat that enhanced the composer's fame was ''[[By the Sleepy Lagoon]]'' (1930), an orchestral piece that made little initial impression, but with an added lyric became a hit song in the US in 1940,{{refn|The lyric was written by [[Jack Lawrence (songwriter)|Jack Lawrence]].<ref>Payne, p. 241</ref>|group= n}} and in its original instrumental version became familiar in Britain as the title music of the BBC radio series ''[[Desert Island Discs]]'' which began in 1942 and (in 2023) is still running.<ref>Payne, p. 159; and [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnmr "Desert Island Discs"], BBC. Retrieved 29 September 2018</ref>

===Later years: 1940–1957===
During the early part of the Second World War, Coates composed little until his wife suggested he might write something for the staff at the [[Red Cross]] depot where she was a volunteer worker. The result, the march "Calling All Workers" became one of his best known pieces, benefiting from use as another BBC signature tune, this time for the popular series ''[[Music While You Work]]''.<ref name=dnb/> At the BBC's request he wrote a report on light music on radio, completed in 1943. Some of his findings and recommendations were accepted but, according to a biographical sketch by Tim McDonald, Coates "failed to bring about any significant lessening of the inherent snobbery within the Corporation which tended to take a rather dismissive view of light music".<ref>McDonald, p. 16</ref>

Coates was a director of the Performing Right Society, which he represented at international conferences after the war in company with [[William Walton]], [[A. P. Herbert]] and others.<ref>Payne, p. 17</ref> His autobiography, ''Suite in Four Movements'', was published in 1953. The following year one of his last works became one of his best known. A march theme occurred to him, and he wrote it out and scored it with no particular end in view. Within days the producers of a forthcoming film, ''[[The Dam Busters (film)|The Dam Busters]]'', asked Coates's publishers if he would be willing to provide a march for the film. The new piece was incorporated in the soundtrack and was a considerable success. In a 2003 study of the music for war films, Stuart Jeffries commented that the closing credits of ''The Dam Busters'', with the march as a valedictory anthem, would make later composers of such music despair of matching it.<ref>Jeffries, Stuart. [https://www.theguardian.com/film/2003/jan/31/artsfeatures.dvdreview "Listen with prejudice"], ''The Guardian'', 31 January 2003, p. B14</ref>{{refn|Another reviewer wrote in the same year: "The Dam Busters March is undeniably a masterpiece of British light music flying high and proud. It is sung on football terraces, particularly when England plays Germany. It echoes repeatedly through ''[[One of My Turns]]'', a song on [[Pink Floyd]]'s [[The Wall]] album. It can be heard, reiterated, during the climax of [[George Lucas]]'s ''[[Star Wars]]''. It is at once rousing and as cosy as an old [[Labrador Retriever|labrador]]."<ref>[[Jonathan Glancey|Glancey, Jonathan]].[https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2003/may/06/artsfeatures "Bombs away"], ''The Guardian'', 6 May 2003, p. A6</ref>|group= n}}

[[File:Eric Coates - Golders Green Crematorium.jpg|thumb|Plaque dedicated to Coates, his wife and son at Golders Green Crematorium]] 
On 28 November 1957 Coates made one of his final public appearances at a fund-raising dinner for the [[Musicians Benevolent Fund]] held at the [[Savoy Hotel]], playing dulcimer in the premiere performance of [[Malcolm Arnold]]'s [[Toy Symphony (Arnold)|Toy Symphony]]. On 17 December, he suffered a [[stroke]] while at the family's Sussex house and died in the Royal West Sussex Hospital, [[Chichester]] after four days there, aged 71.<ref>Payne, p. 218</ref> He was cremated at the [[Golders Green Crematorium]].<ref>"Funeral: Mr. Eric Coates", ''The Times'', 27 December 1957, p. 8</ref>

==Music==
{{See also|List of compositions by Eric Coates}}

In ''[[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians|Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'', Geoffrey Self writes that Coates consistently recognised and accommodated new fashions in music. As contemporary reviewers observed, his early compositions showed the influence of Sullivan and German, but as the 20th century progressed, Coates absorbed and made use of features of the music of Elgar and Richard Strauss.<ref name=grove/> Coates and his wife were keen dancers,<ref>Self, p. 87</ref> and in the 1920s he made use of the new syncopated dance-band styles.<ref>Payne, p. 80</ref> ''The Selfish Giant'' (1925) and ''The Three Bears'' (1926) show this distantly jazz-derived aspect of Coates's music, with chromatic counter-melodies and use of muted brass.<ref>Payne, p. 72</ref>

Self sums up the characteristics of Coates's music as "strong melody, foot-tapping rhythm, brilliant counterpoints, and colourful orchestration".<ref name=dnb/> Coates derived the effective orchestration of his scores from his rigorous early training, experience in theatre pits of the practicalities of orchestration and arranging, and from hearing the symphony orchestra from the inside as a viola player.<ref name=archive/> In the works of some composers, orchestral viola parts are frequently uninteresting to play,<ref>Payne, p. 37</ref> and having had to do so in Beecham's and Wood's orchestra, Coates was determined that his own compositions would have interesting and colourful music for every instrument of the orchestra.<ref>Coates, p. vii</ref>

Coates and his music attracted a certain amount of snobbery:<ref name=mg>"Eric Coates", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 23 December 1957, p. 8</ref> ''The Times'' characterised his music as "fundamentally commonplace … but well written, easy on the ear and lightly sentimental … superficial but sincere".<ref name=times/> In its obituary notice, ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'' took issue with such a dismissal, and preferred the French attitude of cherishing ''petits-maîtres'' for what they were rather than condemning them for what they were not: "better to write second-class masterpieces than fail to be a second Beethoven".<ref name=mg/>  One of Coates's most important musical gifts was the ability to write memorable tunes – "a genuine lyrical impulse" as ''The Manchester Guardian'' put it. On first meeting him [[Ethel Smyth|Dame Ethel Smyth]] said, "You are the man who writes tunes", and asked him how he did it.<ref>Payne, p. xv</ref>

===Orchestral===
[[File:Eric Coates plaque Selsey.jpg|thumb|alt=The text of the plaque reads "This view across the sea to Bognor Regis inspired Eric Coates to compose "By the Sleepy Lagoon" in 1930. It became the BBC signature tune for "Desert Island Discs"|Blue plaque at [[Selsey]], commemorating the composition of "By the Sleepy Lagoon"]]
Coates's orchestral works are the core of his output, and are the best known.<ref name=grove/> He wrote a few works outside his normal genre – a rhapsody for saxophone and orchestra in 1936 and a "symphonic rhapsody" on [[Richard Rodgers]]'s "With a song in my heart" – his only treatment of music by another composer. The most extended of his orchestral works (at just under 20 minutes in length) is the tone poem ''The Enchanted Garden'' (1938), derived from an abortive ballet on the theme of the Seven Dwarfs, originally composed for [[André Charlot]].<ref>[http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Sep/Coates-orchestral2-CHAN20148.htm Eric Coates: ''Orchestral Works Volume 2'', reviewed at MusicWeb International]</ref> But in the main his orchestral works fall into categories: suites, phantasies, marches and waltzes, plus a stand-alone overture and other short orchestral items.<ref name=grove/> 

Of the thirteen suites, the most often played are the ''London Suite'' (1932), ''London Again'' (1936) and a later work, ''The Three Elizabeths'' (1944),  alluding musically first to [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]], then [[Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother|Elizabeth of Glamis]] (the then queen consort), and finally the latter's elder daughter, the future [[Elizabeth II]]. The suites generally follow a pattern of robust outer movements with a more reflective inner movement.<ref name=grove/> Of the seven stand-alone waltzes, the best known, "By the Sleepy Lagoon" (1930), is described as a "valse-serenade", although over the years it has been rendered as a [[Beguine (dance)|beguine]],  a slow waltz and a slow [[fox-trot]].<ref>McDonald, p. 15</ref>

In his orchestral scores Coates was particular about [[metronome]] markings and accents. When conducting his music, he tended to set fairly brisk tempi, and disliked it when other conductors took his works at slower speeds that, to his mind, made them drag.<ref>Lace, Ian. "John Wilson – Conductor, Arranger, and Eric Coates Archivist", ''Fanfare'' Vol. 21, Issue. 6,  (July 1998), pp. 44-49</ref>

===Songs===
Coates's first published works were the "Four Old English Songs", written while he was still a student at the RAM.<ref name=ponder/> By the end of the 20th century his songs had become much less well known than his orchestral music, but when they were written they were an essential and highly popular part of his output. ''Grove'' lists 155 songs, beginning with the three Burns settings (1903) that favourably impressed Mackenzie, and ending with "The Scent of Lilac" (1954) to words by Winifred May.<ref name=grove/>

By the mid-1920s the demand for ballads and other traditional types of song was in decline, and Coates's output dropped accordingly. The violist and music scholar Michael Ponder writes that Coates, who was principally interested in writing orchestral music, found writing songs limiting and did so chiefly to fulfil his contract with his publisher.<ref name=ponder/> Nevertheless, Ponder considers that some of Coates's later songs show him at his finest. He praises "Because I miss you so" and "The Young Lover" (both 1930) for their "rich, glorious melodic vocal line" supported by "subtle piano writing that maintains the unity and intensifies the colour and effect of the vocal line". Almost all the songs, whether from the composer's early, middle or late periods, are in a slow or fairly slow tempo. Ponder comments that Coates's last songs were on a grander scale, perhaps influenced by the big numbers in [[West End theatre|West End]] and [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] shows.<ref name=ponder/>

Coates chose texts by a wide range of authors, including Shakespeare, [[Christina Rossetti]], [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]; among those whose words he set most often were Weatherly, Phyllis Black (Mrs Coates), and [[Royden Barrie]].{{refn|Barrie was a pen name used by Rodney Bennett (1890–1948), father of the composer [[Richard Rodney Bennett]].<ref>Meredith and Harris, fifth page of Chapter 2 in Kindle edition</ref>|group= n}} On one occasion he wrote his own words: "A Bird's Lullaby" (1911).<ref>Payne, p. 233</ref>

===Other music===
Coates always conceived his music in orchestral terms, even when writing for solo voice and piano. Despite his background as a member of three string quartets, he composed little chamber music. ''Grove'' lists five such works by Coates, three of which are lost. The two surviving pieces are a minuet for string quartet from 1908, and "First Meeting" (1941) for viola and piano.<ref name=grove/> Similarly, although he learned a substantial part of his craft while playing in theatre orchestras, Coates wrote no musical shows. When he toured with the [[London Philharmonic Orchestra]], conducting his own music, in 1940, the reviewer in ''The Manchester Guardian'' urged him to find a librettist and write a comic opera: "He ought to succeed greatly in that line. He is quick-witted, has a gift for lilting melody, deals in spicy and exhilarating harmony, and scores his music with a brilliancy that tells of experienced craftsmanship".<ref>"Palace Theatre", ''The Manchester Guardian'', 20 November 1940, p. 6</ref> Coates did not follow the paper's advice. His biographer Geoffrey Self suggests that he simply lacked the stamina, the aggressiveness or possibly the inclination to write for the musical theatre.<ref>Banfield, Stephen. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/964751 "Coates of Many Colours"], ''The Musical Times'', Vol. 129, No. 1745 (July 1988), p. 348 {{subscription required}}</ref>

The few ventures Coates made into drama were for the cinema rather than the theatre. His orchestral phantasy ''Cinderella'' was first heard in the film ''[[A Symphony in Two Flats]]'', and he contributed the "Eighth Army March" to the 1941 war film ''[[Nine Men (film)|Nine Men]]'' and the "High Flight March" to ''[[High Flight (film)|High Flight]]'' (1957).<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20180930193652/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2baa88c4da "Eric Coates"], British Film Institute. Retrieved 30 September 2018</ref> As noted above, his most celebrated piece of cinema music, "[[The Dam Busters March]]", was not written specially for the film. With these exceptions, Coates declined the offers from producers in Britain and the US who continually sought to secure his services. He realised that film music is liable to be cut, rearranged, or otherwise changed to meet the requirements of directors, and, mindful of such difficulties encountered by [[Arthur Bliss]] in composing the score for ''[[Things to Come]]'', he did not wish his music to be subjected to similar treatment.<ref>McDonald, p. 28</ref><ref>Self, p. 93</ref>

==Notes, references and sources==
===Notes===
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===References===
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===Sources===
* {{cite book | last= Coates | first= Eric | title= Suite in Four Movements: An Autobiography | year= 1986|orig-year= 1953| location =London  | publisher= Thames | isbn= 978-0-905210-38-4}}
* {{cite book | last= McDonald | first= Tim | title= Eric Coates: ''Notes to CD 8.223455''| year= 1993| location= Hong Kong| publisher= Marco Polo | oclc= 761492527}} 
* {{cite book | last=Meredith | first=Anthony |author2=Paul Harris| title=Richard Rodney Bennett: The Complete Musician | year=2010 | location= London| publisher=Omnibus | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_klXv3mfPZoC&q=Richard+Rodney+Bennett:+The+Complete+Musician |isbn= 978-0-85712-588-0}}
* {{cite book | last= Payne | first= Michael | title= Life and Music of Eric Coates | year= 2016| location= London| publisher= Routledge | isbn= 978-1-138-27149-4}}
* {{cite book | last= Pratt | first= Waldo Selden |author2= George Grove |title= American Music and Musicians | url= https://archive.org/details/grovesdictionary00grovrich | year= 1920| location= New York | publisher= Macmillan | oclc= 86049167}}
* {{cite book |last=Rollins |first=Cyril |author2=R. John Witts |title=The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Gilbert and Sullivan Operas: A Record of Productions, 1875–1961 |publisher=[[Michael Joseph (publisher)|Michael Joseph]] |location=London |year=1962 |oclc=504581419}}
* {{cite book | last=Self | first= Geoffrey| title= In Town Tonight: A Centenary Study of Eric Coates|year= 1986| location= London | publisher= Thames | isbn=978-0-905210-37-7 }}
* {{cite book | last= White | first= John | title= Lionel Tertis: The First Great Virtuoso of the Viola| year= 2012|orig-year= 2006| location= Woodbridge, Suffolk | publisher= Boydell | isbn= 978-1-84383-790-9}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb name|id=0167630}}
* {{AllMusic|class=artist|id=q7174|label=Eric Coates}}
* {{discogs artist}}
* {{MusicBrainz artist|id=76edf08f-d673-407c-9402-5552cc382f49}}
* [http://robertfarnonsociety.org.uk/index.php/legends/eric-coates Biography at the Robert Farnon Society]
* {{IMSLP|id=Coates, Eric}}

{{Eric Coates}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coates, Eric}}
[[Category:1886 births]]
[[Category:1957 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century English classical composers]]
[[Category:20th-century English male composers]]
[[Category:20th-century British violists]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music]]
[[Category:English classical violists]]
[[Category:English film score composers]]
[[Category:English light music composers]]
[[Category:English male film score composers]]
[[Category:People cremated at Golders Green Crematorium]]
[[Category:People from Hucknall]]