the music

Before Late Romantic orchestral trends of length and scope separated the trajectory of lighter orchestral works from the Western Classical canon, classical composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Joseph Haydn won as much fame for writing lighter pieces such as Eine Kleine Nachtmusik as for their symphonies and operas. Later examples of early European light music include the operettas of composers such as Franz von Suppé or Sir Arthur Sullivan; the Continental salon and parlour music genres; and the waltzes and marches of Johann Strauss II and his family. The Straussian waltz became a common light music composition (note for example Charles Ancliffe's "Nights of Gladness" or Felix Godin's "Valse Septembre"). These influenced the foundation of a "lighter" tradition of classical music in the 19th and early 20th centuries...from the likes of Binge and Coates to Farnon.

Otto Cesana (July 7, 1899 - December 1, 1980)

Otto Cesana was born in Brescia Provincia di Brescia Lombardia, Italy Passed away in Bronx County New York, USA on December 1, 1980. Full Cesana biography

Cesana arranged and orchestrated music for network radio, the screen and the Radio City Music Hall in New York, and conducted a noted 1941 Town Hall concert of his own works. Noted Brazilian music critic José Domingos Raffaelli feels the composer should be associated with lighter forms of music, writing "...in my opinion easy listening music is the kind of music played by the string orchestras of Mantovani, David Rose, Peter Yorke, and others." Cesana began his study of the piano in 1909. One fact beyond dispute is that the man liked to learn; he had many teachers and became adept at organ, orchestration, and harmony. He turned out compositions and arrangements for radio stations and the Hollywood film studios and began premiering his original works in the early '40s at prestigious venues such as New York City's Town Hall., Cesana was contracted by Columbia alongside company such as Ray Conniff. ---notes from biography by Eugene Chadbourne. 

 VIDEO: Otto Cesana - Ecstasy Full Album GMB