Undoubtedly the greatest exponent of American light orchestral music pure and simple was Leroy Anderson (1908–1975). Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he was educated at the New England Conservatory and at Harvard University, and then played the double bass and became freelance conductor and arranger for the Boston Pops and other orchestras. It was in the years immediately after World War II that he produced a remarkably successful sequence of short orchestral pieces full of delightful melody and inventive effects and admirably reflecting his own modest and unassuming nature. One of the pieces is the lilting waltz
Belle of the Ball (1952).
from notes by Andrew Lamb © 1998
