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The Dodo Was Really a Phoenix: the Renaissance and Revival of the Recorder in England 1879- 1941

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The Dodo Was Really a Phoenix: the Renaissance and Revival of the Recorder in England 1879- 1941 The Dodo was Really a Phoenix: The Renaissance and Revival of the Recorder in England 1879-1941 Alexandra Mary Williams Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy March 2005 Faculty of Music University of Melbourne ii Abstract This study provides a critical analysis of the modern renaissance and popularization of the recorder in England, examining the phenomena and placing them within their broader musical and cultural contexts. It explores the roles of the principal protagonists and institutions, arguing that a confluence of different agendas—musical, educational and social—within an environment of changing conditions, was crucial to the successful revival of an instrument, which in Victorian England had no living tradition at all. There was a clear relationship between the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century scholarship on the recorder and the desire to learn more about England’s ‘golden age’ of music during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Even before the 1870s, scholars represented the recorder as an obsolete instrument. By the 1890s and particularly from 1900, there were a few people playing the instrument in public, most notably Canon Galpin and Arnold Dolmetsch. Unquestionably, Dolmetsch’s work with the recorder between 1900 and the late 1920s was crucial to the subsequent mass revival. Changes in educational ideas and doctrine between the World Wars led to children’s music classes including active instrumental music making, in part to stimulate a sense of cultural identity. From 1926 the bamboo pipe gradually became the melodic instrument most commonly used in English schools, until Edgar Hunt, inspired by Arnold Dolmetsch’s Haslemere concerts, conceived of a popular recorder revival. Hunt began to import inexpensive German recorders, and to research and publish pre-Classical recorder music. From 1935 the recorder began to usurp the place of the bamboo pipe in English elementary schools. Concurrently, musical and educational authorities were encouraging domestic music making, for social and musically nationalistic reasons, often linking it with Elizabethan music making. The idea that a strong musical knowledge across all demographics could enable the nation to become ‘a land with music’ once more was invoked in many of the activities undertaken between the Wars. The work of The Society of Recorder Players, established in 1937, was significant and had long-term consequences for the success of the popular revival, as well as for the relative status of the recorder. At the same time, classes established by Edgar Hunt at Trinity College of Music as well as new compositions for the recorder helped to legitimize the instrument. This thesis addresses a number of gaps in previous research, by exploring thoroughly the history of the recorder in England between 1879 and 1941, utilizing extensive primary source materials—many hitherto overlooked—; by examining linkages between the recorder’s increasing usage and the various strands of the English musical renaissance; and by determining why the recorder was so highly popular when other instruments—notably the bamboo pipe—appeared to have similar attributes. iii © Alexandra Mary Williams 2005 iv THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE Faculty of Music TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN This is to certify that the thesis presented here by me for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy comprises only my original work except where due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used. Name in Full: Alexandra Mary Williams Date: March 2005 v Acknowledgements It would not have been possible to research or write this thesis without the support and assistance of a number of people. Grateful thanks go to my supervisors, Dr Michael Christoforidis and Dr Megan Prictor for providing inspiration and practical advice at all stages of my work. I am absolutely indebted to a number of people in England, who opened their homes to me, and helped me, with trust and warmth, in my research. Their knowledge and time was given generously, and I cannot thank them enough for the insights and treasures that they provided. In particular, I would like to express my deepest possible gratitude to Mr Edgar Hunt and his daughter, Mrs Rosemary Marciniak, who, besides giving lengthy and candid interviews, gave me copies of Mr Hunt’s unpublished memoirs, and the notes he had made for them. They also provided original photographs and a complete set of The Amateur Musician. The Dolmetsch family, especially Greta (Mrs Carl Dolmetsch) and Jeanne Dolmetsch, and their associates, including Mrs Shelagh Godwin, gave of their knowledge just as generously, in both oral and written form. They flung open their archives at Haslemere in order to facilitate my research. I will always remember with great pleasure the days that I spent at their home, ‘Jesses,’ gradually becoming aware of the breadth and depth of the activities of Arnold and Carl Dolmetsch. Similarly, Mr and Mrs Layton and Christine Ring, in the most hospitable way, provided extraordinarily detailed and fascinating illumination upon the early days of the mass recorder revival. The time and kindness that they gave to me was truly wonderful and I treasure the memories of my visits to their home in Northumberland and to the Newcastle chapter of the Society of Recorder Players. I particularly want to thank Mr and Mrs Edward and Shirley Drake most profusely for helping me research the bamboo pipers’ movement. With enormous kindness and trust, they made accessible invaluable resources including The Piping Times from the privately held archives of the Pipers’ Guild. Shirley Drake also spoke at length about pipers’ experiences, work and raison d’être. All of this was information that is available nowhere else and it was indispensable to this thesis. It was Shirley Drake, too, who enabled me to participate in several meetings of The Pipers’ Guild; a playing meeting; a committee meeting; and a class vi taught by Mr Robert Rich, which involved pipe making and playing. Many thanks go to Mr Rich, who gave of his time and recollections so generously. I am also very grateful to Mr Alan Woolgar of Schott’s of London, who reminisced at length, with clarity and good humour about decades of Schott’s work with recorders. The integrity shown by all these people in their search for truth in the cause of music, musicians and historical research was a model and an inspiration. With their knowledge, sincerity and candour they also enabled me to have a tiny glimpse of a past time, with all the fascinating and poignant convolutions that make up the human experience in any age. Dr Christopher Bornet, Archivist and Records Manager at the Royal College of Music Library London; Mr Roger Pope, Warden of Trinity College of Music, Greenwich, London; and Dr Hélène La Rue, Curator of the Bate Collection, Oxford, kindly allowed me to access their archives. In addition, Dr La Rue most helpfully allowed me to handle and play many of the recorders from the Edgar Hunt Collection. I also received valuable input from Dr Darcy Kuronen, Curator of Musical Instruments, Boston Museum of Fine Arts; and Dr Margaret Birley, Keeper of Musical Instruments, Horniman Museum, London; staff at the Percy Grainger Museum, Melbourne; Mr John Turner; Mrs Patricia Duke; Dr Suzanne Robinson; and Mr Ian Burk. Many thanks go to Lena Vigilante and the staff at the University of Melbourne Music Library, as well as the staff of Interlibrary Loans at the Baillieu Library, who accessed so many seemingly unobtainable resources. Also, thanks are due to Suzanne Haring, Russell Grigg and Kerry Murphy for their help with translations. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the University of Melbourne and the Music Faculty through an Australian Postgraduate Award, a Melbourne Abroad Scholarship, and the Postgraduate Music Scholarship. The staff of the Music Faculty, including Associate Professors Kerry Murphy and Cathy Falk, also provided me with encouragement and excellent advice throughout my candidature. Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family, who gave me practical technical support, as well as unfailing encouragement. They include Dean Grieve and Digby Green, with whom I stayed during my research sojourns in England, John and Alexia Williams, Philip Mullarkey, David Black, Ann Morgan, Jane Schleiger, Maggie Fooke and Jane Libbis. Thank you all so much indeed. vii Contents Page Abstract: ii Declaration: iv Acknowledgements: v Table of Contents: vii List of Illustrations: ix Abbreviations: xi Introduction: 1 Chapter 1: The Recorder as Dodo: The Beginnings of its Renaissance in England 21 1.1. The recorder in nineteenth-century England: 22 1.2 The English musical renaissance and the early recorder revival: 28 1.3 Early-modern scholarship on the recorder in England: 38 Conclusion: 54 Chapter 2: The Recorder as Phoenix: A Live Instrument Once More 55 2.1. Canon Francis Galpin and the recorder: 56 2.2. The Dolmetsch family: 61 2.3. Edgar Hunt: 94 Conclusion: 100 Chapter 3: The Recorder in Schools: From Art Instrument to ‘Plastic Fantastic’ 103 3.1. The purposes of school music education: 1870-1924: 104 3.2. Changes in educational ideals and processes: 1924-1941: 108 3.3. Instruments in schools: 111 3.4. The recorder enters the school classroom: 126 3.5. Hunt and mass-produced recorders: 134 3.6. Issues surrounding the displacement of the bamboo pipe by the recorder in schools: 147 Conclusion: 159 Chapter 4: The Backbone of British Music: Amateurs and the Recorder 163 4.1. Amateur instruments: inexpensive, portable and ‘easy to play:’ 164 4.2. ‘Home music’ for adult amateurs: 167 4.3. The nature and pursuit of ‘Englishness’ in music making: 171 4.4. Art music for growing numbers of amateurs in the 1930s: 177 4.5. Hunt makes recorder repertoire available to the public: 189 4.6.
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