Well, when an orchestra is delighted, I start worrying. 'When we played it, it really sounded beautiful and the whole of the orchestra was delighted with it. When given the arrangement for what would become their first hit, 'Charmaine,' Mantovani had misgivings. Decca invested in the expensive idea, which Mantovani called 'a mass of strings.' Work began on an album to be released in 1952, which would make Mantovani famous worldwide. He now suggested that they dramatically increase the size of the string section of the orchestra.
Binge, a musician in Mantovani's orchestra, had already been experimenting with arrangements that might replicate the long reverberating sound of composer Claudio Monteverdi, who had written works to take advantage of the spatial properties of the acoustic in large cathedrals. In 1951, record label Decca wanted Mantovani's 12-piece orchestra to produce something that would rival the big American concert orchestras. The cascading strings effect was first developed by British composer/arranger Ronald Binge in 1951 for Annunzio Paolo Mantovani and his Mantovani Orchestra, with whom the sound would be most associated. with the style of easy listening known as beautiful music. Cascading strings (also sometimes known as 'tumbling strings') is an arrangement technique of British light music.
