Cockaigne (legendary name of an imaginary country, later humorously applied to the home of the cockneys) evoking memories of the busy life of London.

Elgar was born in Broadheath near Worcester the son of a Worcester organist and music- seller. He was a long time violinist and teacher, but gradually came forward as a composer, the English festival system giving him the chance to do so.

His Enigma Variations at the age of 42 placed him in the in the first rank. A distinctive British composer, temporally welcomed in other countries only to fall into the background of public consciousness later. His music has both tenderness and is masterly in its orchestration .

Coates began his orchestral composing career in a style owing much to Edward German, but he quickly added his own thoroughly individual features, not least the incorporation of the syncopated dance-band idiom popular in the 1920s.

The saxophone was particularly associated with that and other up-tempo styles and it is perhaps no accident that Coates wrote a Rhapsody for alto sax at a time when little concerted music had been penned for it. Coates' work, however, primarily explores the instrument's lyrical possibilities.

Coates was probably the greatest British composer of light music in the 20th century. He was born in Hucknell, Notts. and studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, taking viola with Lionel Tertis and composition with Frederick Corder. But it was as violist that he earned his living with the famous Queen’s Hall Orchestra under Sir Henry Wood.

His compositions included the stirring march for the Eighth Army to mark their Alemain victory in 1942, the Dambusters March for the film and the Sleepy Lagoon dated from 1930 is used as the signature tune for Desert Island discs. Other composers of note, were masters of light music while hoping, desperately in some cases, to be masters of something a little more serious. Eric Coates was happy to be 'the King of Light Music' .

Johan (Jean) Julius Christian was born in Hämeenlinna, a small town north of Helsinki. When the boy was only two, his father died, heavily indebted, and the family had no choice but to live with Sibelius's maternal grandmother. In 1875, comes his first composition: "Vesipisaroita" (Drops of Water) for violin and cello. In the spring of 1880, he started taking violin lessons, and thus the violin cast its spell on him.

In the autumn of 1885, Sibelius moved to Helsinki, to study law at the University. At the same time, he enrolled in the Helsinki Music Institute, the present Sibelius Academy. Sibelius abandoned his legal studies, when music took up all his time - initially by the violin and then increasingly by composition. During 1889-90 he continued his studies in Berlin where he was early on enamoured with the operas of Richard Wagner, Tchaikovski and Borodin. Later he developed a style that was entirely his own.

The Karelia Suite was originally composed as scenic music for a festival and lottery in aid of education in Viipuri province of Karelia, Finland in 1893. The idea was to foster Finnish culture in this border area near Russia and its highlight was a series of tableaux depicting scenes from Karelian history.

Huzza (an archaic word meaning approval or delight ) is the music chosen by the panel of judges as the winner of the Richard Davis composers competition. The object of the competition was to provide an opportunity and a challenge for composers to submit an original fully orchestrated piece of music of about 5 - 7 minutes duration suitable for performing by the Westbourne Orchestra on the occasion of its 75th anniversary in the year 2005. The composers’ new music is required to reflect the pride the members feel in belonging to an orchestra with such a long successful tradition and the joy they feel in celebrating the anniversary.

Paul was a peripatetic instrumental teacher for 14 years and has been composing since 1998. The competition has disciplined him to complete a short piece in a style suitable for a specific group. He hopes to continue to compose on a more professional basis. He has commented that the Westbourne Orchestra are a group of dedicated amateur musicians who deserve every encouragement in order to continue their valuable work in performing music for the local community.

George Bizet Alexandre Leopold Cezar was trained by his parents, who were musical, and admitted to the Paris Conservatoire just before his tenth birthday where he became a brilliant pianist. Bizet's exceptional powers as a composer were already apparent in the products of his Conservatoire years, notably this Symphony in C, a work of precocious genius dating from 1855 (but not performed until 1935). In 1857 Bizet shared with Lecocq a prize offered by Offenbach for a setting of the one-act operetta Le Docteur Miracle; later that year he set out for Italy as holder of the coveted Prix de Rome.

Bizet was convinced that in Djamileh he had found his true path, one which he followed in composing his operatic masterpiece, Carmen. The work. however, was condemned for its 'obscene' libretto, and the music was criticized as erudite, obscure, colourless, undistinguished and unromantic. The reception of Carmen left Bizet acutely depressed. He fell victim to another attack of quinsy and, in June 1875 to the two heart attacks from which he died.