What: Palm Court Light Orchestra
When: Today (2 p.m.) and Friday (2:30 p.m.)
Where: Charlie White Theatre, 2243 Beacon Ave. in Sidney (Thursday) and Dave Dunnet Community Theatre, 2121 Cadboro Bay Rd. in Oak Bay (Friday)
Tickets: $36 ($15 for students) from Ivy’s Bookshop (2188 Oak Bay Ave.), Munro’s Books (1108 Government St.) and Long and McQuade (756 Hillside Ave.)
Charles Job, the founder and longtime conductor of Victoria’s Palm Court Light Orchestra, has close to 2,000 sets of light orchestral music in his archive, and has been dipping into his collection for the past three decades.
The 26-piece orchestra will kick off its 31st season this week with yet more from Job’s personal stash of songs. The program, entitled Grand Hotel, will feature everything from Teddy Bears’ Picnic to selections from Jerome Kern’s Broadway musical Sunny.
Victoria soprano Amy Steggles will beon hand to perform, and is expected to showcase her voice on notable material from Ivor Novello, Gilbert and Sullivan, and Lerner and Loewe, among others.
“I wanted to go retro, in a sense, and go back to the basic traditions of palm court music — music repertoire from the 1920s and ’30s, when palm court orchestras existed,” said Job, who turned 70 on Wednesday. “We’re working through our library, but I’m never going to be able to play everything I’ve got.”
There’s several reasons for that, he added. For one, the orchestra performs only six times a year. In addition, the audience for light orchestral music — which became massively popular during dances in the courtyards of hotels during the early 20th century — is shrinking.
Job is not sure how much longer the orchestra will continue, in fact.
“We shall disappear in the next few years. Whether any of this music will ever be played again, it’ll be interesting. Music years ago was so much a part of live entertainment. It’s much less so now. Culture ischanging and things are slipping into the past.”
The Palm Court Light Orchestra is facing a scenario similar to the one faced by organizers of symphony pops concerts around the world, including the Victoria Symphony. Older audience members are dying, Job said, and new ones are not taking their place. “It was once an obvious thing to do. But it’s not so obvious anymore. Some of it will survive, but I don’t think live performances will progress.”
He’s not ruling out a comeback, however. There was a time, centuries ago, when the music of Mozart and Beethoven wasn’t even performed after it fell out of favour with listeners, Job said. “It’s not continuous in our society’s evolution at all. [Mozart and Beethoven] have survived, but many composers of that period haven’t. It is, in the end, entertainment. Somebody has to be interested in hearing it.”
The genre was at an all-time low in 1987, when Job put the Palm Court Light Orchestra together. But he believed there was an audience for light orchestral music in Victoria, and made sure the players assembled were professionals. The quality of the product was paramount, he said.
“I started the orchestra just at the right time. Light orchestral music was pretty much over. The sort of stuff that we play, it pretty much slipped into the past. I guess I caught it during a wave. It’s a very difficult thing to describe the experience. Bringing something back, and then watching it go away again.”
Job said he will ride the wave for as long as he can, and is still doing everything in his power to produce quality programming. For future programs in the 2017-18 season — My Funny Valentine in February and April Showers in April — he’s focusing on the songs of Rodgers and Hart. He’s also a big fan of songwriting team Rodgers and Hammerstein, whose popular Flower Drum Song will be performed during Grand Hotel performances at the Charlie White Theatre in Sidney (Thursday) and Dave Dunnet Community Theatre in Oak Bay (Friday).
“That’s all gorgeous stuff. In many ways, Lorenz Hart’s lyrics were less commercial than [Oscar] Hammerstein’s, but they are very sophisticated.”
Jobs leads what is considered the only palm court orchestra in saʴý and one ofthe few anywhere in the world that does this repertoire exclusively. Though the audience is shrinking, and some of light orchestral music’s notable names have endured swings in popularity, the music isworth celebrating, he said.
“Light music has always been viewed with some suspicion by the cultural elite. George Gershwin was a great composer, but he made money — and I guess you’re not supposed to do that.”