It has been announced that John Miles, the musician who composed the 1976 pop hit 'Music' has died. He was 72.

The epic ballad with the immortal opening lines of 'Music was my first love/ And it will be my last/Music of the future/And music of the past' reached number 3 in the UK charts and was soon picked by other artists — including brass bands.

Brass band arrangements

Almost immediately they got their hands on a variety of arrangements — some legal (you can get takes on it by Philip Sparke, Alan Fernie and Derek Broadbent) and others a little more dubious in origin.

It has since been performed thousands of times in concerts by bands at all levels across the world.

Record World at the time described the 5-minute work with its inventive 7/4-time signature as: "Another endearing and sophisticated pop opus. An exceptionally well-constructed tune, each segment is held together with lucid production polish. A triumph."

Half an hour

It was in fact written in half an hour by Miles during a break in a recording he was doing in Leeds.

Miles performed regularly at the Last Night of the Proms and also received an outstanding contribution prize at the Progressive Rock awards in 2017.

He was married to his wife, Eileen, for more than 50 years, and had two children and two grandchildren.