Ray Martin (Raymond Stuart Martin; born Kurt Kohn and later anglicised his name) (11 October 1918 – 7 February 1988) was an Austrian-British orchestra leader. He was noted for his light music compositions.

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

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Bradley Torreano stated, "Ray Martin created a legacy for himself in British

popular Popularity or social status is the quality of being well liked, admired or well known to a particular group. Popular may also refer to: In sociology * Popular culture * Popular fiction * Popular music * Popular science * Populace, the total ...

music through his work with his orchestra during the 1950s. His regular appearances on radio and television kept him in the public spotlight, while his position at

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company of the same name in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succ ...

made him an influential producer at the label. His use of pseudonyms has blurred the path of his career through the years, making his many contributions even harder to keep track of. But his original compositions are what really made him popular; tracks like "Marching Strings" have become stables 'sic''of many public and city bands and orchestras since their release".

Career

Raymond Stuart Martin was born as Kurt Kohn into a liberal Jewish family in

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Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. His first steps into music came training as a violinist. He studied at the Imperial Academy of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna. In 1938, he immigrated to England and was a

Carroll Levis Carroll Richard Levis (March 15, 1910 – October 17, 1968) was a Canadian talent scout, impresario and radio and television broadcaster, mainly working in Britain. Biography Born in Toronto and brought up in Vancouver, he grew up wanting to be ...

discovery. Around this time, Ray was viewed by the British government as possible German spy during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, so he was arrested and placed on the ship

HMT Dunera HMT (Hired Military Transport) ''Dunera'' was a British passenger ship which, in 1940, became involved in a controversial transportation of thousands of "enemy aliens" to Australia. The British India Steam Navigation Company had operated a prev ...

that took him and many others to Australia where he was interned at Hay, Tatura and Loveday prisoner of war camps. He returned to England in October 1941, joining the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

having been officially cleared. As he was multilingual, he served in the Intelligence Corps for six years. He became an arranger and composer for the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

Band. During this time, he also managed to rescue his brother who was imprisoned in a concentration camp or possibly a prisoner of war camp. After the war's end, he worked in radio for the

British Forces Network The British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) provides radio and television programmes for His Majesty's Armed Forces, and their dependents worldwide. Editorial control is independent of the Ministry of Defence and the armed forces themselve ...

in Hamburg, Germany, and later formed his own orchestra for a programme called ''Melody from the Sky'' which had over 500 broadcasts. Martin became the conductor of the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

Northern Variety Orchestra, and also worked for

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

as a record producer and arranger. Whilst working as an executive and talent scout for EMI/Columbia in the early 1950s, he spotted

Ruby Murray Ruby Florence Murray (29 March 1935 – 17 December 1996) was a Northern Irish singer. One of the most popular singers in the British Isles in the 1950s, she scored ten hits in the UK Singles Chart between 1954 and 1959. She also made pop chart ...

, and was the first to put her on record. During this period, he wrote many scores for TV and movies, including the score to the acclaimed

Diana Dors Diana Dors (born Diana Mary Fluck; 23 October 19314 May 1984) was an English actress and singer. Dors came to public notice as a blonde bombshell, much in the style of Americans Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren. Dors was pr ...

film ''

Yield to the Night ''Yield to the Night'' (also titled ''Blonde Sinner'' in the US) is a 1956 British crime drama film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Diana Dors. The film is based on the 1954 novel of the same name by Joan Henry. The storyline bears a ...

'' in 1956. He moved to the US in 1957, where he worked on both

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and

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productions. In 1959, he arranged two LPs of Classic US Television Themes named ''Impact'' and ''Double Impact'' on RCA-Victor for

Buddy Morrow Buddy Morrow (born Muni Zudekoff, aka Moe Zudekoff; February 8, 1919 – September 27, 2010) was an American trombonist and bandleader. Career On a scholarship at age 16, Morrow studied trombone with Ernest Horatio Clarke (1865–1947) at Juill ...

and his Orchestra, one of the first such collections on record. Martin composed more than 2,000 works, many of which were recorded for

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

and

Polydor Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

. He returned to the UK in 1972, but was comparatively unproductive. In 1980, he moved to South Africa, where he died after suffering from cancer, aged 69, in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

Selection of his light music titles

* "Melody from the Sky" * "Once upon a Wintertime" * "Blue Violins" * "Waltzing Bugle Boy" * "Airborne" * "Ballet of the Bells" * "Tango of the Bells" * "Marching Strings" (composition credited to Marshall Ross, a pseudonym) – was used as the

theme tune Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

for BBC school quiz show, '' Top of the Form'' * "Begorrah" * "The Sound of Sight"

Chart singles

*"Blue Tango (1952) – UK No. 8 *"Swedish Rhapsody" (1953) – UK No. 4 *"The Carousel Waltz" (1956) – UK No. 24

References

External links

Robert Farnon Society: Ray Martin biography (by David Ades)
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Ray 1918 births 1988 deaths Musicians from Vienna Ivor Novello Award winners British male conductors (music) Austrian record producers British record producers RCA Victor artists Deaths from cancer in South Africa Light music composers Easy listening musicians 20th-century British conductors (music) 20th-century Austrian conductors (music) 20th-century composers 20th-century Austrian musicians 20th-century Austrian male musicians

Career

Selection of his light music titles

Chart singles

References

Further reading

External links