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Ronald Binge: Ronnie created the Mantovani sound

Ann Hodgkin looks at the life and works of the brilliant Derby-born composer Ronald Binge, including his war service.

During the Second World War years, Ronald Binge continued to work with Mantovani, and played on many of his recordings, when his leave allowed. He also continued composing, and his new work included a piece called Spitfire written as a tribute to the famous fighter plane.

While in Blackpool where he was stationed, Ronnie (as he was known) started to learn to speak German. He approached the subject with characteristic dedication and soon became fluent. He was promoted to sergeant and posted to Northumberland.

He continued his German studies there and, in 1944, went to Newcastle on Tyne to sit an exam in the subject.

The exam was overseen by an attractive young lady called Vera Simmons. Afterwards, Ronnie asked her out for a coffee and, a year later, the couple were married.

Vera was a great support to her husband and was very good at handling the business aspect of his career.

So, Ronnie returned to London and civvy street at the end of the war with the advantage of Vera as a willing assistant, enabling him to concentrate on his writing and arrangements. The couple settled in a flat in Acton, West London.

Light music continued to flourish and Ronnie was in great demand.

Mantovani was invited by Noel Coward to play for his new musical, Pacific 1860, at the Theatre Royal, in Drury Lane, and, on Mantovani’s recommendation, Ronnie was employed to orchestrate the show.

In spite of the fact that the leading lady was Mary Martin, the show only ran for four months.

Ronnie was still writing arrangements for Mantovani, as well as for bandleader Geraldo, and was also under contract to a large publishing house who had first refusal of any new compositions he wrote.

Mantovani usually recorded with a modest 12-piece orchestra, but he and his record company, Decca, were looking for a more unique and memorable sound.

Ronnie had long been interested in the way that composers of church music utilised the manner in which voices echoed around cathedrals, and he set out to recreate the effect.

He wrote arrangements for a larger orchestra with 18 violins playing in sequence, to mimic the echo of the sacred music.

The violins were divided into groups, and each group was called upon to sustain a different note in turn, to simulate the reverberation of voices.

The total number of instruments needed to produce the sound was 45 and, at first, Decca’s chairman, Sir Edward Lewis, was cautious about the cost of the venture.

Fortunately, he had enough faith in the skills of both Ronnie and Mantovani to agree to the expenditure.

Mantovani’s cascading strings became a huge hit, Ronald Binge had created a sound that no one had ever made before.

The BBC gave Mantovani a new series called Saturday Rhapsody for which Ronnie continued to write the arrangements.

It proved so popular that a second series was commissioned called Sunday Rhapsody. Ronnie negotiated an agreement with Mantovani to allow two of his own compositions to be played each week.

The first song to be arranged in the new style was Charmaine, which had been written by Arno Rapee in 1926.

Mantovani’s recording was in the Hit Parade for nine weeks in 1952, and was popular on both sides of the Atlantic.

It earned a gold disc, and Mantovani soon became a multi-millionaire.

Although it was widely recognised that Ronnie was responsible for the amazing new sound, this modest man never really received the accolade he deserved.

In 1952, when their current contract with the BBC came to an end, Ronnie and Mantovani went their separate ways – the orchestra leader to tour most of the world with his cascading strings, and his arranger to find new outlets for his compositions.

By this time, Vera and Ronnie had moved out of the city to Purley.

Their daughter, Margaret, had been born in 1947, followed by a son, Christopher, in 1956.

Ronnie continued to work for the BBC, writing arrangements and new works for their light orchestras. He had his own successful series on the BBC light programme which was called, String Song.

He also worked on many film scores.

His first had been for a pre-war film called Thirteen Men and a Gun. During the 1950s, he wrote many more, including the score for Dance Little Lady, starring Mai Zetterling and Mandy Miller.

He also composed music for the brass bands that were popular at the time.

He was invited to conduct many popular orchestras, both here and on the continent. His knowledge of German was extremely useful, and he recorded regularly with German radio orchestras.

The family moved twice more. First to Sussex, and then eventually to Hampshire.

When television was in its infancy, popular recordings of light music were selected to introduce the new programmes.

Ronnie’s melody The Water Mill became well known when it was used as the signature tune for the television adaptation of The Secret Garden.

In all, Ronald Binge composed almost 500 melodies for every mood, with such diverse titles as Acrobat, Lenin Hills, Summer End and Young at Heart.

His best known melody is probably Elizabethan Serenade which had lyrics set to it in several languages, including German, French, Dutch and even Norwegian.

It topped the best-seller lists in various countries, South Africa and Germany being two of them.

In 1957, the piece was awarded the ultimate accolade when it received an Ivor Novello award.

A close second in popularity is Sailing By which was chosen by the BBC to introduce the shipping forecast on Radio 4.

Such was its popularity that, in 1993, when a decision was taken to axe the recording, a public outcry ensued.

In the end, the BBC bowed to public pressure and reinstated it.

Sadly, in the early 1970s, Ronnie was diagnosed with cancer.

He recovered, and continued to pursue his passion for composing, but the cancer returned, and he died in September 1979, aged 69.

At the suggestion of his biographer, Derby writer Mike Carey, a plaque was placed in the foyer of the Derby Assembly Rooms as a memorial to Ronnie.

At a ceremony attended by his widow, Vera, and his daughter, Margaret, it was unveiled by the mayor, John Fuller.

But the best memorial to this remarkable man from Derby is his music, which can still regularly be heard on radio stations throughout the world.

• Ronnie created the Mantovani sound

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County:  Derbyshire
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This article is from the Derby Evening Telegraph and is reproduced online here.