The Lightning Switch is one of a series of "Musical Switches" written
around 1920.  What they are is essentially a grand medley of inter-
locking tunes.  One melody hops over to the next song and -- by the
arrangers careful selection of the melodies and which bar matches up
with what bar of the subsequent melody -- the effect was designed to
show how the first phrase of one tune could be finished off by switch-
ing it with the last chunk of another.  In one tune the Marsailleise
switches into the British Grenadiers and Dixie changes into the
Soldiers Chorus from Il Trovatore.  Some switches to look out for are:

  A Musical Switch (K J Alford) pub. Hawkes
  The Lightning Switch (K J Alford) pub. Hawkes
  Musical Memories (H Finck) pub. Hawkes
  More Musical Memories (H Finck) pub. Hawkes
  Tangled Tunes (A W Ketelby) pub. Aschberg Hopwood & Crew

A Musical Switch (Alford) has well over 70 musical fragments in it,
ending with Alford's own composition the Colonel Bogey March.  Musical
Memories similarly ends with its composers own In The Shadows.  Tangled
Tunes has no fewer than 106 chunks of different tunes.

They're fun to play once through, but all the swapping around can
get irritating when each switch plays for over 10 minutes full out.
The only time my girlfriend ever threatened to slam the piano fall
onto my fingers was when I played one of these pieces.  She said
couldn't I play one piece all the way through, as it was driving her
crazy!

Regards

Adam G Ramet
Essex U.K.