MUSICAL MEMORIES

“Who he?”, I asked.    Using the 3rd  movement of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, we were told how the musical form Rondo worked.  This marvellous music was played on old shellac 78 rpm records on an ancient radiogram in the corner of his classroom. I have no doubt the sound quality was not great, but to me it was the gateway to the great world of Classical Music which has been my life ever since.  He also ran a “recorder group”.  This much maligned instrument enabled many of us to read a simple line of music in Class.  At one point, he invited the more proficient of us to his home in Streatham one Saturday to make music.  What was thrilling about this visit was my first encounter with a harpsichord!  Dennis Woolley had actually made this instrument himself, I think it must have been his first.  Soon after he left his teaching post at EGS and set himself up as a harpsichord maker and his keyboard instruments were acknowledged amongst the finest in the musical world.

One of the bains of my life were the 1st year physics lesson (name redacted - Editor).  I remember he didn’t like you asking questions and enjoyed beating miscreants with a length of Bunsen burner tubing.  A hateful man who put me off sciences for life.  I think, too, that he was form master of 1A.

Dennis Woolley’s post was taken up by a young musician, David Byrt.  By the time Mr. Byrt came to the school, we had acquired an electronic organ.  I remember that Roger Pope and I played a lot for morning assembly in later years.  I think it must have been David Byrt that formed a school choir around that time.  He remained for only 2 years and left to become Director of Music of Westminster School.  He invited me one Saturday to witness the morning assembly held in the Abbey.  The service was accompanied by David Byrt on the fabulous 4 manual organ up on the screen.  After the school had dismissed, I was allowed 5 minutes of heaven playing the instrument myself.

For those of us involved in music at EGS, the advent of John Railton was an important event in our lives and in the history of the school.  That may sound very grand, but what John created at EGS was, in the 1950’s and 60’s, something quite extraordinary.  It was unique in State music education.  He arranged instrumental lessons through the local music service, began a first-class choir that rehearsed every morning in the hall before registration and a school orchestra.  The choir gave a broadcast recital on the Third Programme – the forerunner of Radio 3.                     

The programme included Britten’s Missa Brevis and the Missa Brevis by Lennox Berkeley.  Roger Pope reminded me that Berkeley turned up, unannounced to one of our rehearsals.  There were also some unaccompanied pieces.  I mention this extraordinary concert because the reputation of the school and its choir was recognised throughout the country.  In later years, attending music conferences, when asked where I had been to school, the mention of EGS provoked an extraordinary reaction.  A music lecturer from Exeter University remembered listening spell-bound to that Recital, not believing it was from a state grammar school.  He told me that he had written to John Railton asking how he did it!

John Railton’s vision was to get boys to enjoy music through performance.  He put on concerts with music that demanded large choirs as well youthful instrumentalists.  When the music was too advanced for young players, we were supplemented by adult professionals.  Not for JR were works labelled “school music”, we did the real stuff.   “Messiah” by Handel, “Belshazzar’s Feast”, by William Walton, “Cantata Academica” and “Saint Nicolas” by Benjamin Britten and “Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff.  The Orff and Walton were done with 2 pianos and percussion and organ.  The 2 pianists were Roger Pope and myself, percussion players included Chris Allen and Richard Hammett and others including Alan Benstead.  The organist was Leonard Atherton.

Academically JR was a bit of a revolutionary as well.  In order to study for OL music, you had to give up another subject.  We gave up Geography.  Our “class of 54” music group included Roger Pope, Chris Allen, Malcolm ?? and Richard Hammett.  John’s plan for us was to take OL one year early (very unusual in those days) and AL music in one year the 5th Form.   This gave John the 6th Form to give us a broad study of music outside the confines of the curriculum.  In the lower 6th we studied many different genres of music, including chamber music, solo song, symphony etc.  In the upper 6th we went back to the curriculum and studied for AL music again! Thus by the time I went to the Royal Academy of Music, I had, as a result of studying with JR, a musical knowledge way beyond that of my contemporaries – and 2 Music AL’s!

I mentioned at the beginning of this memoir that I did not forsake the school’s sporting activities entirely.  It was Chris Allen who suggested I join the Boat Club; it became a sport I much enjoyed though my piano teachers were worried about the state of my hands.  In fact, I gave up rowing at the insistence of my professor at the RAM but took it up later when I went up to Cambridge.   At EGS Mike Roswell was our enthusiastic coach (I forget the subject he taught) and he took us successfully through to the Finals of Junior Eights at Twickenham Regatta and a place high up in the Schools Head of the River.

Mike was joined on the towpath at Twickenham by a man who came briefly to the school to teach Latin.  We nicknamed him “scruffy Tom”.  I say “briefly” because eventually the HM had to get rid of him because of complaints of cruelty to which he subjected his pupils.   If you got answers wrong, his favourite punishments were hitting you with a golf ball wrapped in the long sleeves of his MA gown, and tweeking the short side burns of your hair.  I loved Latin lessons and was glad to see the back of him.  To this day, I regret not taking Latin to AL with the scholarly Mr. Saunders.

I enjoyed the 6th Form as it gave me more time to indulge in music, though looking back on it I am not sure how I fitted everything in  - prefect in charge of the choir / organ and John Railton, and rowing as a member of the 1st Eight and enjoying other extra-curricular activities.  Looking back on those 7 years, I can say honestly that I received and enjoyed a superb education.  The staff, on the whole, were masters of their subjects and taught us well.  They prepared us for higher education and life that followed.  Listening to fellow students both at the RAM and Cambridge, when we compared schools, I realised how very lucky I was.   Current recruitment advertising stresses that the teaching profession bestows the gift of learning that is a gift for life.

I have such memories and thank the men who bestowed these gifts – Messrs. Mahoney, Bland, Hillman and Mathers, George Cleare, John Benstead, Arnold Saxton.  And, of course 3 musicians, Dennis Woolley, David Byrt and John Railton.  How very lucky I was.

Alistair Jones

July, 2020

Reading John Oxley’s account of his years at EGS made me think about my own career at school.  While being an exact contemporary of John’s, my view of the school differs considerably mainly because I was a musician and not a sportsman.  Though I rowed in a very successful 1st  VIII and got my colours, this was at the end of my time at school and by no means the main focus of my extra-curricular activities.  We certainly received a well-rounded education at EGS but music, under the guidance of 3 remarkable teachers, gradually became the most important subject for me.  These were, in order, Dennis Woolley, David Byrt and John Railton. John O’s memoir gave us a progressive journey from Year 1 to Upper VI; my memoir will be a little more random as my schizoid memory offers up forgotten names and events.

While Dennis Woolley may have been the least musical of my 3 mentors, some of the things he taught us have remained over 60 plus years.  Remarkable as it may seem now, he introduced us to the name Beethoven!  

Alistair Jones’ delightful reminiscences of his time at EGS evoked many happy memories of my time there. I arrived in 1957, one of the last pupils from Lammas Primary School in Northfields which was situated next to Walpole Grammar – both long gone.

I had no special musical talent, though I enjoyed singing and one my earliest memories from Lammas was sitting on the floor in the hall in the very front row beneath the severe head teacher Miss Welham  for some sort of carol service and being in the front row means I must have been about 5. Miss Welham complimented me on singing a carol all the way through. We lived in a 1930s semi which for some reason had a very long, separate WC upstairs; its design gave it a fantastic acoustic and I used to sit up there singing hymns and choruses I had learned at Sunday school!

And so I arrived at EGS in September 1957 and was placed in Form 1A – form master Mr Hartwell who taught me French and was later to become headmaster. If I recall correctly Mr Byrt was still there but only for that autumn term and Mr Railton arrived as the new music teacher in January. He soon set about getting us singing! I think “Messiah” was his first concert – it requires a large chorus so he dragooned all the first and second year boys to be trebles whether they wanted to be or not; you were only excused if your voice had broken unnaturally early or if you really were tone-deaf. Any failure to pay attention resulted in Mr Railton vigorously waving his handkerchief in your direction. I contrived to make things easier by sitting next to a boy called David Charlton who had perfect pitch; we became good friends and although  we sadly lost touch when I left in 1962 I was delighted to be reunited with him recently through a lot of googling and to know that he is Emeritus professor of music at Royal Holloway College in Egham.  The Messiah concert was in a church in Ealing Common and I have a vivid memory of my English teacher Mr Shearn singing bass and giving his absolute all on the opposite side of the chancel.

During that first year a choir photo was taken in the school playground of the core members. As you look at the photo I am on the right hand end of the middle row with Robert Crowhurst on my right – the six boys on his right are Philips, Ory, the younger Waterson, (the late) Colin Slee who became Dean of Southwark Cathedral), Banger (who played trumpet in the school orchestra) and then a boy I think called McDonald. I am 99% certain that behind McDonald is the top of Alistair’s head! John Railton is second person in from the other end of the middle row with Leonard Atherton, the esteemed organist, on his left and more of my form are in shorts in the front row including Richard Fortey, ninth from the right, who went on to become a world renowned palaeontologist. Fourth from the right is David Charlton.

Although Alistair was three or four years my senior I remember him very well; I doubt he remembers me but it was nice to see that he remembered my father who taught him English at some stage. My father also took school parties abroad and Alistair was on one such trip to Wilderswil near Interlaken in Switzerland in 1958 (and in fact shared a room with my brother (not an OE) and Roger Waterson) and I recall him sitting down and playing the piano in the lounge of the Kurhaus Belmont Hotel which resulted in the other teacher in the party, Mr Thornhill, exclaiming “Ah, pianist’s fingers” a phrase which was often repeated in the Hillman family in later years when hearing a young aspiring pianist!

As Alastair said, Mr Railton put on concerts which were way beyond the capabilities of most school choirs and made mention of Carmina Burana; this we performed in the Central Hall Westminster with a professional soloist called John Hauxvell. It was a resounding success and an LP was made of the performance which I still possess but not having a turntable anymore I quite recently had it transferred to a CD.

One of my classmates was Robert, the youngest the three Crowhurst brothers, all excellent singers. It transpired that his father was the organist and choirmaster of St Paul’s Church, Northfields where I had been at Sunday school and I was soon singing there, acquiring a lifelong love of the Anglican choral tradition.

But Mr Railton had me hooked on singing in bigger choirs and choral societies. Alistair mentioned some of the concerts but we also put on top class carol services every December at St Mary’s Church in South Ealing Road; the first verse of “Once in Royal David’s City” was sung for a few years by Simon Stephenson who had a beautiful treble voice and the last lesson “In the beginning was the Word” was read with much gravitas by the Headmaster.

My time at EGS was cut short in 1962 when we moved away from Ealing but the last concert that summer included the last movement of Beethoven’s Choral Symphony which brought my singing time there to a fantastic conclusion.  I did go through a patch of wanting to leave the choir when I sang alto for a time when my voice was breaking (Carmina Burana time) but Mr Railton persuaded me to stick with it and I am so thankful that he did. Thanks to him and to Harry Crowhurst I have had a wonderful  lifetime of singing in church choirs, chamber choirs and choral societies and, when allowed to, hope to resume with West Sussex Philharmonic Choir.

I mentioned that I had lost touch with David Charlton. I also lost touch in 1962 with Robert Crowhurst whose father had so influenced my musical education and future life. By a remarkable coincidence we met up again in Surrey in 2011 when quite separately we were invited to take part in a scratch performance of Mozart’s Requiem, the organiser knowing us both from our respective choral societies at the time – and we now still keep in touch.

Peter Hillman

November 2020

PETER HILLMAN WITH MORE MUSICAL MEMORIES

FROM EALING GRAMMAR SCHOOL

(1957 to 1962)

ALISTAIR JONES REMEMBERS HIS YEARS

AT EALING GRAMMAR SCHOOL

(Copied from the Autumn 2020 Newsletter)

WHO ARE THE PEOPLE IN THE PHOTO?

Robin Belcher, row 2, 4th from the left, was in my year group, 1952/59.

Answers please to the Editor at

holdstock.groups@gmail.com

Dear Mr Oxley

Forgive me for writing out of the blue but I wonder if you might be able to help me.  I was at Keble College, Oxford from 1961-65 and because of my musical interests came across Len Atherton (late of Ealing GS) and sang with him and under him.  On Googling his name not so long ago I came across an article about Ealing GS wherein a Master commented that the school had this Ealonian Room where people congregated and that the school had this brilliant young pianist called Len Atherton and life was not so bad on reflection if one could spend one’s lunch hour in that room listening to Bach Brandenburg Concertos being played on the piano by Len Atherton.  I can no longer seem to find that article (Googling is a bit random) and I wondered if someone in the Old Ealonians could locate it.

I just found out on the internet that Len died on 1 April 2021, which is very sad, though we are all getting on a bit, and I wanted to retrieve that article for sentimental reasons.  

Kind regards

 John Steward, Epsom, Surrey

Dear Mr. Steward

Your letter has been passed on to me via John Oxley, Chairman of the Old Ealonians.

I was sorry to read in the letter of Leonard Atherton's passing. Alistair Jones and I were Ealing G.S. musicians in the year below Len and contemporaries of John Oxley. It is extraordinary how things coalesce.

I followed Len up to Keble from E.G.S. in 1961 and your participation in K.C. musical activity means that our paths will inevitably have crossed. You must forgive me if the intervening six decades have ensured that I can't quite recall you from your name but if you did happen to have preserved a copy of the 1962 panoramic College photo and could advise me of your location on it, I'm sure I should remember.

It was the practice at that time for the K.C. Music Society to put on concerts conducted by those reading music in successive years, and I imagine you will remember Len's performance of 'Messiah' as one of the highlights. We also did the Faure Requiem and Britten's 'St. Nicholas' in later concerts, which I conducted.

The Ealonian Room was always recognized as a 'special' room, having been set up as a memorial to those old boys who had died in World War 2.    In view of its dedication, it had clearly been designed to be something of an oasis in the midst of a crowded building.  Access was restricted, but it did contain the best hi-fi unit and grand piano [on a small platform] in the school. It would be interesting to discover the name of the Master you refer to. He obviously has some very clear memories of that period, though I wouldn't be certain about one or two points of detail.

Much though we would all have coveted the title 'brilliant young pianist", there was, I think, only one pupil, John Sivell, who truly merited it at that time in terms of a well-developed natural pianistic fluency.

Len could certainly play the piano well, but he was primarily an organist, taught [if I remember correctly] by a very senior London specialist, Douglas Hawkridge.

By the time he left school he already had a couple of conservatoire diplomas under his belt. Interestingly, that seemed to me to be the high-water mark of his concentration on the organ. I don't recall his appearing as an organist [other than playing for the occasional church service] at Oxford, though I do recollect his taking harpsichord lessons with the legendary George Malcolm for a while. However, it did seem to me that he was edging towards aiming for a conducting career during his second and third years at Keble, and it was no surprise that he opted for a postgrad. year on the conducting course at the Guildhall School of Music in Drama in London.

It was at that point that I more or less completely lost contact with him, though I gathered he had a very successful year at the Guildhall. Significantly, not long after that I read an article in some journal in which he was interviewed and announced his intention of developing his conducting experience through working in the USA.

It's clear from the biographies you have drawn our attention to that - as I suspected would happen - after a while he settled well into the American university system as a conductor and practical musician, receiving what I am sure were well-deserved honours and accolades, and taking guest-conductor appointments in various parts of the world.

A very personable man, it was work that suited him and various comments on the websites testify to his popularity. Of the various photographs on the websites, I found the one on the Indiana Public Radio site very accurately represented Len as I remember him.

I'll be in touch if I have any luck in tracing your exact article, but I hope this will have been of some help.

Kind regards

Roger Pope

LEONARD ATHERTON

Writing to the Old Ealonians’ Chairman, John Oxley, John Steward enquired about Leonard Atherton.  Enquiries among our group resulted in the following reply from Roger Pope, a contemporary of Mr Atherton.

JH (Ed)