Welcome to new Corporate Member, The Light Music Society

New Corporate Member The Light Music Society introduce its range of activities to help keep Light Music in the public consciousness

Based in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, The Light Music Society (LMS) is a long-standing organisation founded in 1957 with Eric Coates as its first president. Later presidents included Sir Arthur Bliss and Ernest Tomlinson, and the current president is composer and arranger, Peter Hope. The society is the custodian of the Library of Light Orchestral Music, with approximately 40,000 sets of orchestral and dance band music.

Magna House in Long Preston, North Yorkshire – home of The Light Music Society

Light Music bridges the gap between classical and popular music,  although its boundaries are often blurred. It is music with an immediate appeal; to entertain and enjoy. It has a strong emphasis on melody designed to appeal to a wider audience than more serious forms of the Western classical music tradition.

Our library includes most of the works by the 'core' light orchestral composers including Coates, Tomlinson, Anderson, Farnon, Wood, German, Ketèlbey, Duncan, Hope and others, as well as an extensive range of light classical orchestral sets covering most of the major composers. These include arrangements which could suit youth or small ensembles. The library has popular overtures, waltzes, marches and polkas from Viennese composers as well as an extensive selection of show music and TV and film themes.

The Library of Light Orchestral Music

The LMS online database represents over 4,000 composers and lists more than 25,000 titles with further updates happening all the time. If you are after a piece but not sure if the library has it, contact our library team and they will be happy to investigate. You’ll be surprised what they have!

LMS already supports some Making Music member groups and we look forward to sharing our wonderful resources with many more of the Making Music community.

Whether you want to borrow music, carry out research or are passionate about Light Music, please join the society and help us grow this vital national resource.

COVID 19: Our Library can help your ensemble now

During this difficult time of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is light at the end of the tunnel and soon groups will be back playing together. The LMS Library has many works for smaller ensemble, which, given that social-distancing challenges that will continue for some time, is an opportunity for groups still to play – albeit in reduced forces. Our online database has detailed instrumentation of many of works listed, and if this information is not available, please contact our library team who will be happy to help.  

Let’s work together to enable all our music community to get back playing!

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