'Not Too Calm' - a Preview of the Selected Letters of John M Thomson and Frederick Page
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'not too calm' - a preview of the selected letters of John M Thomson and Frederick Page BY MARTIN LODGE T THE TIME of his death in September 1999, music The 'selected letters' collection covers the whole period historian John MansfieldThomson lefta number of their correspondence, ending with Page's death in 1983. A of projects unfinished. One of these projects was an At present the material is in an unfinishedcondition, autobiography. In the course of my duties as executor of remaining as Thomson had selected and partly edited it his literary estate, I subsequently discovered the begin when fate overtook him in 1999. As such the collection nings of autobiographical writing on John's computer hard is not ready forpublication, but requires a fair amount of drive, and it was possible to include these fragmentsin the furthereditorial work. Together the selected letters total 2003 book JohnMansfield Thomson:Notes towards a biogra about 160 pages of typescript, including numerous foot phy'. notes finishedor begun by Thomson. These notes provide Another unfinishedproject of Thomson's was an edited informationon people referredto in the letters, contextual collection ofletters exchanged with Frederick Page. Over background to some observations and sometimes explana a period of twenty fiveyears the two friendsmaintained tions of particular circumstances or outcomes of topics a lively correspondence. The letters exchanged between under discussion in the correspondence. 1959 and 1984 were written respectively in London, where John MansfieldThomson was bornin Blenheim in Thomson worked in music books publishing and editing, 1926, but at the age of IO was sent to Nelson College as a and in Wellington, where Page led the creation of a new boarder. While he was there, both his parents died within a Music Department at Victoria University. Both Thomson few years of each other. This early separation fromparents and Page were giftedwriters, and the correspondence is full and family,and subsequent isolation as an orphan, seem of vitality, wit and acute observation. Its historical value to have had formative effectson his personality, revealing lies in the simultaneous, complementary perspectives pro both an 'ability to findstrength to overcome adversity' vided of musical life,literature, visual arts, food and wine, as his younger sister Janet puts it, and a determination to people, and cultural atmosphere in European and New nurture communication with friends and familydespite Zealand milieus. Figures encountered in the correspond separation. When this attitude was mixed with his gifts ence range fromPercy Grainger to WinifredWagner to as a writer in adult years, the results included a mine of Benjamin Britten, but of special interest are the insights to wonderfully interesting and expressive letters. Thomson be gained into the developing musical life of New Zealand maintained a voluminous correspondence with many in the 1960s and 70s. Thomson's urbane perceptions and people, and such exchanges were not superficial. He was a Page's opinionated views weave an engaging counterpoint man of letters of the old school. around more officialversions of the country's cultural After military servicein the Fleet Air Arm in the last history. years of World War II, Thomson took a BA in English and 76 I CANZONA 2005 I hope Wellington is not too calm after Europe.I read with greatinterest the account in Landfalland showed it to Alfred Hill who said he would like very much to meet you. I think he must sufferfrom an inferioritycomplex because he said 'I wonder why I didn'tmeet him when I was in Welling- ton ... I suppose he thought I wasn't good enough'. The bulk of this quite long letter outlines some vexing issues concerningthe AlfredHill book, about which Thom son was seeking Page's professional opinion: I findthat I can not writethe normal kind of biography because the subject's personality does not lend itself to that kind of treatment.I have triedto do a social history of mu sic, givingthe narrativesome unity by linking it to Alfred's life.This is not altogether satisfactory.The difficultyis that in this kind of work I can not be criticalof the music, nor unduly so of the man, and I find that although much of the music is enjoyable, freshand verygood of its kind, that also it is permeated at times by something which is the essence John Thomson in 1990. Photo by David Lewis of Victorian sentimentality.The lyricsfor Hinemoa are a good example... To ignorethese aspects of his music (and History at Victoria University of Wellington, and also be personality) is to throw the study out of alignmentand I gan his editorial activities. An astute judge of giftedwriting am rather puzzled as to what I should do. He is extremely fromthe very outset, one of the firstauthors he published sensitive to criticismand I feelthat working alone in this environmenthas helped to build up this attitude.I do not was Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, who remained a lifelong think he has ever received adequate criticismsince the days friend. he leftLeipzig. From the 1950s to mid 8os Thomson lived mainly in London, working as an editor of music journalsand Page replied a month later, and immediately adopted his books. He foundedthe pioneering quarterly Early Music characteristically informal tone-lively and conversation for OxfordUniversity Press, and edited Charles Rosen's al, but also direct: influentialbook TheClassical Stylefor Faber, amongst other achievements. Returningto New Zealand in 1984, he con Dear John, tinued to work on numerous projects until his death. Frederick Page was Thomson's senior by over 20 years. You must writeyour AlfredHill book as you think best. I would say go ahead and writeit, criticismand all, and if he He was born in Lyttleton in 1905, and grew up there. He collapses and dies immediately after reading it, that would took a MusB degree at Canterbury University College then be unfortunate.Douglas [Lilburn]and I went to hearhis Hinemoa,made a point of going to see him afterwards,and spent a couple of years undertaking furtherstudy in Lon he, withgreat charm, and modesty, said to us: 'Now you two don in the 1930s with figuressuch as Vaughan Williams young men, that music is not foryou'. and Gordon Jacob. In 1946, at the age of 40, he became the He should be thrilledthat a book on him is being done, firstlecturer in music at Victoria University of Wellington, (andprobably h is'thrilled)and I don't thinkyou should and professor in 1957 until his retirement in 1971. From emasculateyour 7 work. then until he died in 1983 Page continued to write, broad cast, perform,pontificate and provoke in musical matters As it would tum out, these two issues-the quietness of as a cultural agent provocateur. New Zealand afterEurope and the hypersensitivity of New The firstletter of the Thomson-Page correspondence Zealanders to criticism-recur throughout the correspond dates from 25 June 1959, when Thomson was living in Syd ence. 2 ney, working at his book on AlfredHil1 • Understandably Afterthis initial exchange in 1959, there is a gap of nine fora firstcontact, it begins rather formally: years in the correspondence as edited by Thomson. Until more detailed editorial work is done, this lacuna cannot Dear Professor Page, readily be explained. A search of the collected papers of both parties in the Turnbull Libraryeventually may turn I have been intending to writeto you forsome time and up relevant new material. when I found the enclosed picture of Percy Grainger climb ing the riggingof a sailing ship it immediately reminded me The next item in the draftcollection is a letter from of your encounter withhim. Thomson to Page dated 10 May 1968, by which time 77 I CANZONA 2005 Frederick Page Thomson was well established in London and working as a music books editor for Faber and Faber. This is a typi cally entertaining epistle, and representative of the vein of the correspondence as it was to continue. Acid comments on contemporaryfigures in composition, performance and musicology are matched by reports of the activities of expatriate New Zealanders, of whom Thomson had an extraordinarily wide circle. At this time Thomson was edit MUS!ClAN"S JO('RNAL ing As I remember, the memoirs of Arthur Bliss, working in collaboration withthe composer himself. J.M .. THOMSON & JAl':ET l'At:L From this time on, Thomson arranged fornumerous newly published books to be sent to Page, many of which Page reviewed or mentioned in his columns in the New Dust jacket of A Musician'sJoumal, featuring a painting of Frederick Page by his wife Evelyn Zealand Listener, to which he contributed forseveral years. This particular letter of Thomson's from1968, for example, Thomson had more immediate but equally strongly refersto Anton Webern:An Introduction to his works by Wal held views about the politics of the publishing world, in ter Kolneder, TheMonteverdi Companion by Denis Arnold which he had been immersed fordecades. Having created and Nigel Fortune, Russian and Slavonic Musicby Gerald the acclaimed journal Early Musicfor Oxford, in 1982 he Abraham, Stanley Sadie's book on Handel, Renaissance and writes: BaroqueMusic by Friedrich Blume, and a new edition of The biggest enemy of Early Music has been Oxford Univer George Perle's book Serial Composition and Atonality. sity Press. It seems that Page had literary aspirations beyond journalism,because a postscript to a Thomson letter from In 1982 we read of Page encouraging Thomson to apply November 1968 refersto the manuscript of a book on Percy forthe vacant editorship of the NewZealand Listener. Grainger which Page was proposing to write. Apparently In the Thomson letters there are many colourfulreports he went so faras to submit a draftchapter to Donald Mitch of concerts, incidents, personalities and feuds in London ell at Faber, but, in Thomson's words: 'Freddy's rather musical circles, including this one dated 16 December 1968: idiosyncratic style did not endear itself to Donald, so the Don't believe anything you read about the new Maxwell project languished.' The manuscript is now with the Page Davies piece on Vesalius and Stations of the Cross [Vesalii papers in the Turnbull.