Binge - Elizabethan Serenade

A light music classic, well-known to veteran radio listeners.

Ronald Binge was a British composer and arranger of light music. This is probably his best known composition.

When it was first played by the Mantovani orchestra in 1951, it was simply titled Andante cantabile, although the original orchestral manuscript parts in Binge's own hand show the title The Man In The Street.

The name was altered by the composer to reflect the optimism of the new Elizabethan age beginning with the Accession of Queen Elizabeth II in 1952.

It was used as the theme for the popular 1950s radio series Music Tapestry, and as the play-out for the British Forces Network radio station.

The piece won Binge an Ivor Novello award and it also had chart success in Germany and in South Africa.