Four Centuries dates from 1941. Coates represents each century from the seventeenth to the twentieth with an appropriate dance - the seventeenth with a hornpipe, the eighteenth with a pavane and tabourin, the nineteenth with a waltz, and the twentieth with ‘rhythm’, which introduces saxophones and syncopation. Herman Lindars, to whom this score is inscribed, was a professionally trained musician as well as a successful industrialist. He was the founder of the Sheffield Symphony Orchestra. Eric Coates is particularly remembered for his valse serenade ‘By the Sleepy Lagoon’ which introduces the BBC’s Desert Island Discs, and for his ‘Dam Busters March’. Old tape repair at head of front paper wrapper, and some wear to spine.
