FRANK CORDELL  

Frank Cordell (1918-80) was one of the most highly respected arrangers in London after the War, with hundreds of discs to his name, as musical director for numerous recording artists of the 1950s. However, he also happened to be a talented composer in his own right, and showed his worth in such films as Khartoum (with a main theme rivalling Elgar) and Cromwell. From this score, he adapted some of the music associated with the character of King Charles I (played in the film by Alec Guinness) for the Galliard for strings - very much a parody of the music of the time, but in the last bars belying its true vintage with some Warlockian chromatic harmonization.