Robert Docker (5 June 1918 – 9 May 1992) was an English composer, arranger and pianist, especially noted for his orchestral arrangements and original

light music Light music is a less-serious form of Western classical music, which originated in the 18th and 19th centuries and continues today. Its heyday was in the mid‑20th century. The style is through-composed, usually shorter orchestral pieces and ...

compositions.Philip Scowcroft
7th Garland
Retrieved 17 November 2010 The son of a

Paddington Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed b ...

gas worker, he was educated at North Paddington Central School, and with the aid of a London County Council Scholarship was able to study viola, piano and composition at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

. His viola professor at the RAM was James Lockyer. During World War II, he was a sergeant in the

King's Royal Rifle Corps The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United Sta ...

stationed in Northumberland. He was later married to the viola player Meryl Unsworth and in later life resided in Suffolk.Biography
Naxos Music, Retrieved 17 November 2010 He was particularly noted for his orchestral arrangements. His first was broadcast in 1936 and his arrangements of popular tunes were regularly heard on BBC radio programmes such as '' Friday Night is Music Night'' (where for many years he orchestrated music for Sidney Torch) and ''Melodies For You''. He was widely associated with the

BBC Concert Orchestra The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British concert orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five BBC orchestras which is not a full-scale sym ...

BBC Concert Orchestra history
bbc.co.uk, Retrieved 17 November 2010 and in 1990, the BBC broadcast two one-hour programmes entitled ''The Musical World of Robert Docker''. His lighter original compositions include the "Air and Jig" for violin, cello and piano, "Cornet Cascade" and "Jolly Roger" for

brass band A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting primarily of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands (particularl ...

and "Fairy Dance Reel", "Penny Whistle Tune", "Pizzicato Minuet", "West Indian Dance", "Tabarinage" and "Scène du Bal". He also composed a number of more serious works for orchestra including ''Legend'' and ''Pastiche Variations'' for piano and orchestra, the ''London Rhapsody'' for piano and orchestra and completed another larger work, ''Opus 40'', for the 40th Anniversary tour of the

just before his death in May 1992. This was premiered (posthumously) in Ipswich in August 1992.

References

1918 births 1992 deaths 20th-century English classical musicians 20th-century English composers Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music Brass band composers British Army personnel of World War II English light music composers King's Royal Rifle Corps soldiers {{UK-composer-stub