Ronald Binge (1910-1979) is not a household name in his native England, nor probably anywhere else for that matter, but he wrote two pieces of light orchestral music that I have liked for almost all of my life.
Ronald was born in the English Midlands in the city of Derby, he was from a working class background and started his musical career whilst in the RAF during the Second World War. His most famous work is Elizabethan Serenade.
The other Binge composition I have a fondness for is Sailing By (1963) which is the signature tune for the BBC Shipping Forecast after midnight at around 00.45 GMT. This is the daily/nightly weather forecast for shipping in the Atlantic, the North Sea, English Channel and UK coastal waters.
It is a strange and mysterious forecast of visibility and the wind speed given in knots. When I was a kid it would make me think of the hymn For Those In Peril On The Sea.
In the middle of all that angst however it is a highly comforting melody, especially when the rain and wind is lashing against the window pane and you wish all sailors well.
My fascination with the Shipping Forecast drove me to solemnly donate a portion of my pocket money to the Lifeboat Society whenever I was taken to the coast by my parents. It is morally uplifting I think.
So here they are then, Elizabethan Serenade and Sailing By....you can almost taste the salt in the wind when you listen to the Sailing By.
The second piece Elizabethan Serenade was composed in 1951 and was a familiar tune from BBC radio when I was a little kid. I can't remember a time when I didn't know that tune and I have always liked it.
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dnoakes wrote on Jun 28, '09, edited on Jun 28, '09
Wow. Talk about coincidence! I heard this very composition recently for the first time as some incidental music for the newer movie "Confessions of a Shopaholic" my wife and I saw. Loved it. I wondered who composed it and the title, which I didn't catch in the credits.
And now, within scant hours, Chief Talent Spotter AA puts the spotlight up on it---and its by none other then the late music dynamo Ron Goodwin. He did many great television and film scores including the haunting theme music from "The Prisoner", as well as memorable work on "The Battle of Britain" (1969) with Sir William Walton , "Where Eagles Dare" (1968), "The Omega Man" (1971), et al.
Or some of my answer...Ronald Binge composed it; Ron Goodwin led the orchestra.
"Sailing By" is new for me. A marvelous piece of music. I can see why you found it so inspiring. There is something awesome about the sea and those who brave it that only a fine composer can capture.
Talk about coincidence! I heard this very composition recently for the first time as some incidental music for the newer movie
A coincidence indeed Doug, synchronicity as Jung would have it no doubt.
I had no idea that Elizabethan Serenade is featured in Confessions of a Shopaholic, a film I had not yet come across ( I take it it is Elizabethan Serenade and not Sailing BY in the film?).
When I was a boy Elizabethan Serenade was the theme tune for a favourite children's TV series of Edith Nesbit's book The Railway Children which she wrote in 1906. I think The Railway Children has been made several times for cinema over the years, but for me it is synonymous with Elizabethan Serenade and the television series of my childhood.
Thanks for the additional info on Ron Goodwin's career, I had known of him but not in the detail you have given here about his film score history.
"Sailing By" is new for me. A marvelous piece of music. I
Yes Doug....and I still listen to it on the Shipping Forecast any time I have BBC Radio 4 on at 00.50 hours Greenwich Mean Time.
Here is a taste of it with added musical sounds by the Peoples Palace who say in their introduction to the clip:-
The BBC Radio 4 shipping forecast, a British institution and still relevant for today's mariners. I find the narration has a hypnotizing quality, and I hope this film translates that feeling. The shipping forecast is broadcast on BBC Radio 4, three times a day.
dnoakes wrote on Jun 29, '09, edited on Jun 29, '09
Uhhhhh... I need to make a slight correction---in my attempt to give the composer Ron Goodwin rave reviews I also gave him too many credits.
It was actually Ron Grainer, a Australian fellow, who composed the music to "The Prisoner" and the film "The Omega Man", amongst other fine work.
"The Case of the Two Ronnies" is now solved. I blame the parents for having such bad imagination on the first names of their respective musical prodigies.
re is a taste of it with added musical sounds by the Peoples Palace who say in their introduction to the clip:-
The BBC Radio 4 shipping forecast, a British institution and still relevant for today's mariners. I find the narration has a hypnotizing quality, and I hope this film translates that feeling. The shipping forecast is broadcast on BBC Radio 4, three times a day.
The music and video clips makes the forecast into a work of art.
I thought BBC 4 would just say something like "Today and tonight the North Sea will be rough. Notice it's always rough this time of year, isn't it? Stay off it then! Not worth it really. Keep to the dock. Only an Icelandic git would be out this time of year. All right then, you stubborn igits, you were warned!"
dnoakes wrote on Jul 27, '09, edited on Jul 27, '09
I don't know anything about Mr. Binge, either, but I had to come back because the serenade sounds lovely--like the end of one of those Jane Austen films where everything turns out swell and marriage breaks out like the pox!
Even the grubby tenants on the land are happy and its bright and sunny, and there are no officers going off to get shot at by Napoleon's Old Guard around Belgium,no trouble down at the mill, and, best of all, no dirty vicars.
Dirty vicars have been a problem around here for years Doug. No soon as you lift your tea cup and they're on you in a flash, can't help themselves the doctors say. Thanks for highlighting that social scourge by posting this excellent video Doug.
n as you lift your tea cup and they're on you in a flash, can't help themselves the doctors say. Thanks for highlighting that social scourge by posting this excellent video
You're most welcome, AA. The American Medical Association has identified the "Dirty Pastor" problem here as well. Fresh from seminary, newly-minted leaders of the flock will ofttimes unexpectedly lunge at buxom members of the laity during Bible Studies, post-sermon coffee-and-cake get-togethers and even during the sacred annual church rummage sale!
Talk about coincidence! I heard this very composition recently for the first time as some incidental music for the newer movie 
