Music in the Stewartry

I am neither a professionally trained musician, nor a scholar of music, and I have no reason to believe that music in the Stewartry is significantly different from music in any other part of rural Scotland, so why am I giving this talk? I have been an amateur musician for over 71 years and have come to realise how many changes there have been in music-making in the Stewartry in my lifetime, and how relatively few people are left who share my memories of musical experiences in the 1940s 50s and 60s. My talk this evening will be largely an account of events I and my sister participated in or attended, supplemented by archives kept by our mother. It is not a thorough academic study of all possible sources, but I hope it will be a useful record of what I and my family have experienced here over a period of 90 years.

I feel privileged to come from a musical background. My mother, was a teacher (Twynholm, Whinnieliggate and Kirkcudbright Academy) an award winning pianist, singer, and an early broadcaster on radio 2DB in the 1920s in Aberdeen. She was also a church organist for 56 years, and her efforts to practice her organ voluntaries, play the piano and cello and to train church choirs and others were strong influences on my sister and on me from our earliest memories. There have been many talented musicians on my mother's side of the family. Her father and grandfather both played the clarinet and the flute, among other instruments, and various aunts, uncles, and cousins were also able amateur musicians.

My great grandfather's band in Fraserburgh. He is pictured in the centre (front). My grandfather is behind the bass drum on the right.

My father had no aptitude for music, and little interest in it. Like my mother however, he had been strongly influenced by the church. He attended the Congregational church in Eyemouth, the congregation of which consisted almost entirely of fishermen and their families. I enjoyed going to Eyemouth church, purely to listen to the fishermen's enthusiastic singing of "Pull for the Shore Sailor", or "Will your Anchor hold in the Storm of life". My mother disapproved heartily of many of the hymns sung at Eyemouth, and had a particular distaste for Sankey's hymns which were very popular there. My father's and my mother's tastes were very different. When we lived in Edinburgh for a few years in the mid 1940s, my mother had a season ticket for the SNO concerts in the Usher Hall, and my father went off on his own to hear such celebrities as Winifred Attwell performing on her honky tonk piano in the Empire Theatre. 1 In the early 1950s, we had a visit to our then home, Strathdee in Kirkcudbright, from a James Robertson of the USA who turned out to be a cousin of my father (my father and I both were given the middle name of Robertson). On his arrival, he was obviously surprised to see my mother's Bechstein grand piano, and she was even more surprised, when, with her permission, he played it like a maestro. It turned out that he was indeed a maestro, the conductor of the Witchita Symphony orchestra in Missouri, and was on his way to be a guest conductor at a concert in Paris. He had stopped over in London for a few days to have lunch with his friend and fellow-student at the Julliard, Sir Isaac Stern, and had decided to come to Scotland to look up his long-lost relatives. He provided us with a wealth of staggering information about his father, my great uncle, and about a dozen of our previously unknown professional musician relatives in the USA. My father's prestige soared on the domestic front, and my sister and I gained a new and broader understanding of the possible origins of our inclinations towards music.

One of my great uncle's many bands in the USA. He, Robert Ritchie Robertson is standing to the left of the man with the straw hat

Early Influences

My birthplace was at St Mary's Isle, only a few hundred yards from where I now live. The earliest sounds I probably heard, apart from my mother's singing and playing, were the sounds of birdsong, and waves crashing on the sea shore. The old Pye radio on which my parents heard war being declared, was also an important source of carefully selected entertainment, ranging from country d a n c e m u s i c t o s y m p h o n y orchestras.

2 Music lessons

I was taught piano and tin whistle by my mother at an early age, but despite making good progress, I never took to the piano. At the age of 7 or 8, I started violin lessons, taught by Mr Priestley (Union Street and later in High Street). For a scrawny youth who was useless at all sporting activities, and especially football, carrying a violin case along some of Kirkcudbright's streets was not a happy experience. I later changed teachers, and went to Kathleen Walker, who was a leading teacher in Dumfries at the time. This involved travelling on my own by train to Dumfries after school, getting a high tea in Oughton's restaurant (where a string quartet played regularly) and returning by train to Kirkcudbright after my lesson, with my homework still to do! Music then was a fairly lonely activity for me, shared only with my family, requiring a lot of effort and not providing a great deal of reward. I then knew only a few other children who played instruments, and most were older than I was.

Traditional musicians, tinkers, tramps, and gypsies

Traditional musicians did of course exist, but there was neither a venue nor any events that they regularly attended, so there was little or no opportunity to meet them, hear them, or play with them. We lived for some years above the Commercial Bank, on the busiest corner in Kirkcudbright, and I soon became aware of a number of beggars, tinkers, gypsies and tramps who set up their pitches right outside our front door. They included one rag man, who advertised his presence by expertly playing a trumpet attached to the top of an accordion (his left hand played the base part on the accordion and his right hand played the melody on the trumpet). There was also a foul-mouthed and disreputable character who had all his possessions (including his fiddle case) strapped to a bicycle, so heavily laden that he had to push it rather than ride it. None of them stayed for long, as it was the police practice to lift them and transport them to the border with Ayrshire, just beyond Carsphairn, where they became the problem of a different police force. In my teenage years, I remember meeting in a lay-by near Creetown, a uniformed Customs Officer with motor bike and sidecar, with whom I enjoyed a very long conversation. He was based in Stranraer, and clearly did not have a lot to do. He had used the spare time to further his interest in folk music, story telling, and local legends, and had an encyclopaedic knowledge of a mass of tunes, tales and local characters. Sadly, I never knew his name, and never met him again. His knowledge was probably lost with him, but he had expanded my horizons.

Municipal Bands

Like most Scots, my emotions are readily stirred by the sound of the bagpipes, particularly when played t o g e t h e r w i t h t h e d r u m s o f Kirkcudbright Pipe Band, while marching through the older parts of the town. The sounds echoing from the walls of the buildings of the town are inspiring and haunting, and reminiscent of both heroic and tragic incidents in our history. It is a particular achievement of the band to have survived and flourished since 1926, and to have continued to win prizes and attract young and enthusiastic players to preserve their traditions and to grace so many local events. Few other forms of music making locally attract so many youngsters who are prepared to subject themselves to the hard work and strict discipline that is such an important component in successful piping and drumming. 3 Kirkcudbright Burgh's brass or silver band, formed largely from ex servicemen in1919, is long gone and all-but forgotten, although its instruments were passed to Kirkcudbright Academy and were played on a few occasions by the short-lived school band.

Brass and Silver bands have always been popular, particularly amongst the so-called 'working classes', and were often funded and organised by mining communities and other large scale industries. Band members were sometimes looked down on by those whose interests lay in music that they deemed to be more sophisticated, but the reality is that musicians in such bands often reached near virtuoso status, playing with degrees of musicianship and technical mastery that were often the envy of many orchestral players.

The players in Creetown Band, founded in 1881, were largely recruited from people who worked in the granite industry. The band has not only survived the demise of quarrying, but also seems to have reached new musical heights. Some of their soloists are excellent and it astonishes me that a place as small as Creetown can sustain such a good band. If you are not familiar with them, look them up on youtube - I think you will be impressed. You might even be tempted to join them, or motivated to reform the Kirkcudbright Burgh Band.

4 Lady Ann Murray, the wife of the laird, Alexander Murray formed her own band in Gatehouse of Fleet in 1816. It was a silver band of 22 players, which frequently performed on the lawns at Cally House, and went on to play at a great variety of local events until Alexander Murray's death in 1845. Donaldson's Drum and Fife band was formed in the 1830s but ceased to exist when Donaldson lost his livelihood after the cotton mill burned down in 1845. The Gatehouse flute band was formed in the 1860s, and the the "Whistle Raw" band (Birtwhistle Row) consisting of 24 tin whistlers and a drummer, was formed in the late 1860s. Gatehouse Brass band was formed in 1869 and had 14 members. It survived until 1889.

The wonderfully named "I'll mak siccar band" was founded in Gatehouse of Fleet in autumn 1945, and was still active in the late 1950s. When James Ramage Kirkpatrick died he left money in his will to set up a trust fund to start a town brass band which was to be called the I'll Mak Siccar Band. The name is said to be in memory of one of his ancestors, Roger de Kirkpatrick. He was with Robert the Bruce when Bruce killed the Red Comyn, a rival for the Scottish throne, in Greyfriars Church, Dumfries on 10th February 1306.

Bruce was unsure that the Red Comyn was dead and de Kirkpatrick stabbed him again to make sure (I'll mak siccar). Among members in 1946 were: Gavin Gilmour, Jimmy Gilmour, and Hamish Holmes. Duncan Stenhouse, one of my classmates at Kirkcudbright Academy played the trombone with them in around 1956. After the band's demise at an unknown d a t e , J i m m y G i l m o u r a n d probably some other members transferred their skills and loyalties to the Creetown Band. Jimmy was a fine cornet player, and a particularly gifted whistler!

Between 1800 and 2019, there were at least 11 bands in the Stewartry, but several in Dalbeattie and Castle Douglas have long since given their final concerts. Dalbeattie and Castle Douglas both sported fine band stands in which they presumably played.

Kirkcudbright Academy

The Academy was the only senior secondary school in the area in my childhood, and it also had its own primary department. In my early school years, Art and Music were generally referred to as drawin' and singin' and were not generally regarded as either important or useful. Sport took precedence over almost everything, and having a glittering array of silverware in the headmaster's office seemed to eclipse most other aims and aspirations. There were several outstandingly good teachers of music, but they seemed to be thwarted by the curriculum, the available funds, and their relative lack of status. Memorable teachers included one who instructed the boys in his class to sit at the back reading comics, while he taught the girls to sing 'Nymphs and shepherds come away'. Another, who was a brilliant pianist was unfortunately rarely sober enough to stand up, let alone play. He did however impress his pupils. He never taught music in the conventional sense, but would instead glare at his pupils, then slur the words 'Shall I play you my Liszt ?" Even when drunk, his wizardry at the keyboard, combined with the volume at which he played, inspired considerable respect.

5 Despite all adversity, in 1948, the Academy staged a wonderful production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado, which was remembered with great fondness for many years afterwards. Charles K Setz was the music teacher behind it all, and he was ably assisted by people such as the artist Cecile Walton and fellow teachers Mr Pirie, Mrs Cuthbertson, Mr Lawson and Mr McNaught. Surviving photographs of the production provide an insight to its quality.

Memories of the Mikado were rekindled when the Academy staged several more light operas in the 1970s, with great success.

The school did have (for a brief period in my schooldays) its own orchestra, but it lacked both the quality of players and the necessary range of instruments to be successful, and was therefore only a very poor relation of the bigger and better organised Stewartry Young People's Orchestra.

Girls choirs were popular, and some achieved much praise. Boys choirs were scarcer, but I do remember singing in a choir recruited from the whole County that performed in a concert in Castle Douglas, broadcast by the BBC. William McKie and I were the only two I remember from Kirkcudbright, and we sang 'A rosebud by my early walk'.

Candlemas Ball

Many Kirkcudbright people remember with great affection, the Candlemas Ball, still held annually in the Cochran Hall of Kirkcudbright Academy. The senior ball took place to live music provided every year by the late Bert Rae and his band, a popular local dance band that was largely accordion based. The junior ball was held earlier in the same evening, and music for it came from a small local string orchestra, playing the same programme of traditional music every year, always beginning with the non-traditional, but stirring march, Colonel Bogey. Among the regular players were Mrs Stewart, piano, Mrs Collin, 'cello, Mrs Oppenheimer violin, Miss Nettie Houston violin, John Trainer violin, John Graham violin, Watson McKinnel, violin, and Miss Irene Tait, violin. Alice Moore and I also played the violin with them while pupils, and a male youth was occasionally conscripted to play the bass drum. He was sometimes a sports champion, in accordance with the school's strange belief that great physical strength was all that was necessary to play the bass drum! Playing with this rustic group was one of my early experiences of ensemble playing, and I loved it. All the players lived and worked in Kirkcudbright, except for John Trainer who had a shop in Gatehouse.

6 Choirs and Choral Groups

In the days before television dominated peoples' leisure time, singing in choirs was a popular pastime, particularly for ladies in villages such as Borgue, Twynholm, Ringford, Townhead, and many more. Some of these choirs were part of the WRI organisation, but others were simply village choirs. Those that could attract a competent conductor and accompanist could reach a very high standard, and they competed regularly and keenly at music festivals in Dumfries and Newton Stewart. Borgue choir is pictured on the left.

Each church also had its own choir, and great efforts were gone to by ministers and organists to train their choirs to be competent and impressive leaders of the singing of hymns and psalms, as well as performers of anthems. I well remember the dread with which I would hear the Rev. R.R.Y. Minto in St Mary's Church announce that 'The choir will now sing an anthem'. As a very reluctant early teenage attender of the church, I found most of the anthems excruciating, and chose to focus all my attention on choir member Miss Dixon's hat, which usually featured an exotic dead bird of some kind. Despite my cynicism, I now recognise the tremendous musical value of the communal singing of hymns, led by a good choir.

It would be difficult to sit through church services every single Sunday and not pick up some sense of what harmony and the singing of parts was all about. Sadly, much of that experience is no longer available to, or popular with, most people.

A choral society was formed in Kirkcudbright and its first concert took place in 1863. A choral union was proposed in 1880, and in 1888 A Kirkcudbright musical association met for its first practice in the Mackenzie hall, under the baton of Frederick Coles, father of the composer Cecil Coles. By 1928, the organisation had become a choral and orchestral society, with a chorus and band of 70 players. Concerts at this time also featured performances by the Kirkcudbright String Players, conducted by Lewis Pope.

In 1955, Kenneth Greenway, a very young and extremely talented music teacher at Kirkcudbright Academy, became conductor of the choral society. He set a new course, by organising a week of performances of the Gilbert and Sullivan Opera 'Iolanthe'. This was a huge step for the society, whose excellent singers were completely unused to dressing-up and acting. Some took to it, and some did not, but all tried to please their enthusiastic conductor. Finding singers who could fill the often demanding roles was not a problem, but finding slim and presentable young people who looked the parts of heroes and heroines was a bit tricky. 7 The opening performance was stunning, and the appearance on the specially extended and reinforced stage of the legendary chorus, unfairly dubbed as the 'forty fat fairies', raised the roof. Political correctness had not yet been invented. A programme of light operas was sustained for the next twenty years, complete with a locally recruited full orchestra of strings, woodwind, brass and percussion. I played the clarinet for 14 of these productions.

Today, some people scoff at the work of Gilbert and Sullivan, but most musicians greatly admire Sullivan's composition and orchestration for the opportunity it gave for every singer, every instrument and every section of the orchestra, to have moments of glory.

Kenneth Greenway, when last heard of, was organist at Shrewsbury Cathedral, having retired from teaching. Among his talented successors at Kirkcudbright were John Walker, Stewart Anderson and Robin McLeish.

Kirkcudbright Male Voice Choir at an unidentified event in about the 1930s

Castle Douglas Music Society also produced a series of light operas, all supported by local orchestras, in the 1960s with considerable success. I played the clarinet in the orchestras for several of these. 8 Artists

Some of Kirkcudbright's well known artists were also musicians, and others were helpers and supporters at musical events. E A Hornel was a member of the Choral Society and his friend, Philip E Halstead who was a Glasgow based concert pianist was a frequent guest at Broughton House. Tim Jeffs, his family and some artist friends played in a recorder group with music teacher Mr Pope. W Miles Johston, his wife Dorothy Nesbitt, and Lena Alexander all did make-up work for the casts of the various operas staged in the town. Jack Hastings did perhaps some of his best artwork in the design of stage sets for a host of different productions. E A Taylor was a frequent member of the concert parties that travelled round the various village halls, bringing entertainment to isolated small communities. He specialised in dramatic recitations. Cecile Walton was also greatly involved in drama, Nettie Houston was an able violinist, and Mrs Oppenheimer was an excellent player of the violin, viola and the 'cello.

The Stewartry Young Peoples Orchestra

Founded in Venezuela in 1975 - Sistema brought about a state funded classical music education programme - Music for Social Change - which has had world wide publicity - Sistema Scotland (Stirling) opened in 1978, and continues to do great work in what was formerly a particularly bleak and socially deprived council estate.

You may be surprised to learn that a remarkably similar project was commenced in Kirkcudbrightshire in as early as 1951 by the County Music Organiser, Mr. Frederick Ladds, with the full support of the Director of Education John Laird and his deputy, Donald Baillie. Inspired by the success of a recorder group he had heard in one of the county's primary schools, Mr Ladds founded the Stewartry Young People's Orchestra. It was initially recruited from young people who had already received private tuition, and was supplemented by local adults who were able to help boost numbers and confidence.

The County Council then began to purchase second hand instruments, offering, for example £2-15 for a violin, complete with case, and bow. Instrumental teachers were recruited, and lessons were offered to any school child for a greatly subsidised 1/3 an hour! Any child who wanted to play an instrument, or who could be persuaded, was offered a choice of instrument, and double basses, violins, violas and 'cellos, brass and woodwind instruments were all made available.

9 Children from many different backgrounds were given a unique opportunity to try something which had never before been available to them without considerable expense. The orchestra grew and developed surprisingly rapidly, and gave its first concert in 1952.

Within a remarkably short time it had grown into a symphony orchestra, rehearsing and performing regularly in various locations throughout the county, to make it easier for its members and their families to attend. Standards rose very quickly, and in 1955 Mr Ladds took the astonishing decision to enter the orchestra in the open Symphony Orchestra class of the Welsh Eisteddfod in Aberdare. The entire orchestra and its adult helpers travelled to Aberdare in two coaches, and its members were accommodated in school halls in Aberdare. A huge surprise came when the orchestra triumphed over the municipal orchestra of a large english city, to win first prize! Being in this orchestra was one of the most formative experiences of my youthful life.

Playing in such an orchestra requires hard work, skill, the ability to listen, being supportive and tolerant of others, and above all, following rigidly the instructions and leadership of the conductor. The reward is the inspirational thrill of sitting in the midst of, and contributing to the glorious sounds that the symphony orchestra can uniquely generate.

I quickly became seduced by the sounds made by the woodwind section of the orchestra, and switched my allegiance from the violin to the clarinet. Those who played in that orchestra will never forget the experience, and 68 years later, some of us are still playing together regularly.

Among the many adults who coached and reinforced the orchestra were Chris and Lillian Faithful, Colin McNulty, Walter Rae, James Millar, Lawson Henderson, Anthony Wolffe, Margaret Collin, Jean Slaven, Mr Bett, Brian Fawcett, Mrs Long, and Mr Rainbird. 146 children were receiving instrumental tuition in 1958.

Many members of the orchestra attended annual summer orchestral schools at Broomlee, West Linton which were organised jointly by Ayr, Kirkcudbright and Wigtown County Councils. A week or two of intensive tuition and practice was followed by a concert on the last night, often broadcast by the BBC. Tuition was excellent and playing standards were very high.

A Stewartry Children's Music Festival took place in the Cochran Hall in 1953, at which orchestras from Glasgow schools, Lancashire and the Stewartry performed. Nearly 150 young orchestral players delivered an ambitious programme of fanfares, overtures, concerti and symphonies.

Charles Fox, succeeded Mr Ladds as county music organiser, and was a useful player of the bassoon. Sadly his post no longer even exists. Mr Ladds's pioneering work is all but forgotten and the instruments purchased by the County Council under his careful guidance were recently disposed of by auction in a very poor and neglected condition. Urgent action is needed to reverse the decline in availability of instrumental tuition for every schoolchild. Please contact your councillors, and demand action!

Chamber music

There were spin-offs from the orchestra in the form of a variety of ad hoc trios, duets, quartets and quintets that enabled budding young players to join older musicians and play in the relaxed atmosphere of their homes as well as in concerts - I recall playing Mozart divertimenti for bassoon and two clarinets, with Brian Fawcett and Angela Ladds. Brian Fawcett was an explorer who wrote a classic account of his search expedition in the Amazon forests (Exploration Fawcett) for his missing explorer father and brother who were never found. Angela Ladds was the daughter of Frederick Ladds, and went on to be a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

10 Rise of popular music in 1950s and 1960s

I remember vividly the excitement that was shared by almost all teenagers in the 1950s, by the rise to fame of people like Tommy Steele, Guy Mitchell, Bill Haley and the Comets, Lonnie Donegan and Chris Barber. Old valve radio sets (including my parents' walnut veneered Pye) were coaxed into receiving Radio Luxemburg, and hearts throbbed to the sounds of Buddy Holly and the Crickets. Willie Law and his father who were cycle agents, based in premises in the courtyard behind the Commercial Hotel, expanded their business to include the town's first record shop. Initially, only spotty youths with little money congregated there, but with the introduction of LPs and EPs, a wider customer base was slowly built. My parents' old wind-up gramophone was replaced by a new Deccalion, and higher quality sound reproduction thrilled us all.

Music was suddenly a popular activity among young people, and the ability to play an instrument carried a new-found status. My prowess on the ukulele, the banjo and the clarinet soon found me places in a skiffle group and a jazz band, both organised by Jim Kentley of Castle Douglas. (Jim was in my class at school and was a beneficiary of Mr Ladds's subsidised tuition in the double bass.) Talent shows, or 'Go as you Please' concerts were popular entertainments at that time. Jim entered both our skiffle group and our jazz band for a concert in Castle Douglas Town Hall, at which we won first prize for the skiffle group and second prize for the jazz band.

The skiffle group had tough competition from the Kilquanity school band and from an entertaining band from Castle Douglas called Threave Comets.

The sudden popularity of the guitar and other plucked instruments in the 1950s was not without precedent. Mandolins were very popular in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and were heard in all kinds of unexpected places. Ukulele-banjos were very popular in the 1920s and 30s. Now of course portable recorded music has sadly supplanted live music, although the humble ukulele has made a surprising return to be being fashionable and popular, after having been almost extinct for over 50 years.

11 Visiting performers

Kirkcudbright's former status as the County town of Kirkcudbrightshire meant that its population had a high proportion of reasonably well-to-do people, such as, lawyers, doctors, engineers, architects, dentists, and teachers, as well as its famous colony of artists. Art and Music contributed to all kinds of activities in the town, and contrary to what might have been expected, enjoyed widespread participation and support from the town's shopkeepers and tradespeople. Saturdays, which are now quiet because everyone has gone to Dumfries or further afield to do their weekly shopping, used to be busy days, when all the farmers and farm workers came in from the surrounding rural areas and villages, both to shop and to relax.

Music was an important factor in providing entertainment, accompaniment to dancing and an aid to relaxation. For example, Lady Anne Murray's band from Gatehouse played on the quarterdeck of the Paddle Steamer Countess of Galloway in 1845. Herr Ludvig's band played in the town hall 1880. Mr Adams's celebrated quadrille band from Glasgow performed here in 1884, and the Kirkcudbright Glee party entertained the population in 1888. I remember Irish showbands such as 'Stan Lynn and his broadcasting band from Belfast' playing for the regular dances in the town hall in the 1950s. Go-as-you-please concerts were also held frequently, at which local entertainers such as the Green brothers played their harmonicas. Songs such as 'Bonnie Gallowa' were over performed by local tenors of varied quality, and recitations of couthy poetry such as 'Noo Bairnies coddle doon' were popular. Occasionally, groups and rising stars who had achieved success in the hit parade, such as Charles McDevitt and Nancy Whisky, or Johnny Duncan and the Blue Grass boys performed in the town hall to great acclaim and excitement.

A local jazz band organised by Phil Biggar of Dalbeattie (who was perhaps the world's loudest trumpeter) played occasionally. It was called The Top Floor Stompers, perhaps in homage to The Clyde Valley Stompers. Jim Kentley and I played with them once at a dance in Lockerbie and were lucky to escape unscathed when fighting broke out among a party of visiting miners, who began to systematically destroy each other and the hall's furniture and to throw the broken pieces and each other through the windows. The organisers memorably advised the band players "Don't stop playing or they'll start on you" The saints came marching in to the sound of breaking glass for a long long time!

The Scottish National Orchestra played for Elgar's Dream of Gerontius in the Cochran Hall in 1957, accompanying the combined choral societies of Kirkcudbright, Castle Douglas, Dalbeattie and Dumfries. There cannot have been much room for an audience! I was privileged to attend the orchestra's rehearsal in the Cochran Hall during school hours which was for me an unforgettable experience. I also recollect the SNO as it then was called giving a concert in Castle Douglas, the programme including Dvorak's New World Symphony.

Audience Club

An audience club was formed in Kirkcudbright in the 1950s, which with substantial subsidies from the Arts Council was able to bring musicians of the highest calibre to perform in the town. Players included Gervase de Peyer, the principal clarinettist with the London Symphony Orchestra, Archie Camden, the principal bassoonist with the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra, Evelyn Rothwell, better known as Lady Barbirolli, oboist with both the SNO and the LSO, Vera Kantrovitch, violinist and Cecil Aronowitz, viola player. Many of these musicians were accommodated in the homes of committee members, which gave a unique opportunity for them and their families to get to know some very interesting people. I remember several of them practicing at Strathdee, around my mother's piano. Audiences for their concerts however were embarrassingly tiny. When the curtains opened in St Cuthbert's church hall and Archie Camden saw that there were only ten or twelve people present, he laughed, invited everyone to come on to the stage with their chairs and close the curtains behind them to create a more intimate atmosphere. He then announced that the planned programme would be abandoned and replaced with something more informal. 12 Among other things, he demonstrated how long he could play the bassoon for, without taking a breath!

P e r h a p s t h e m o s t memorable of these wonderful concerts took place on 16th March 1957 when Denis Brain, Jean Pougnet and Wilfred Parry played in St Mary's Church Hall. Denis Brain was only 3 6 , y e t w a s g e n e r a l l y recognised as one of the greatest virtuoso players of the french horn. Jean Pougnet gave a violin recital in the Wigmore Hall when he was only 16, then went on to be leader of the BBC Salon Orchestra and the London Philarmonic.

Wilfred Parry, a celebrated accompanist was a teacher at the Royal Academy of Music. Denis Brain was a charismatic and entertaining character, known on occasions to have a hot car magazine on his music stand, instead of the score for the concerto he would be playing.

Tragically, he died when he crashed his own hot car that summer after performing at the Edinburgh Festival at the peak of his career. I met him after his concert here, when Moya McMurray and I were introduced to him as local musicians.

Moya, from Gatehouse, was then a beginner at the french horn. As soon as Denis Brain heard this he beamed, thrust his horn forward to Moya and said come on - let's hear you play! Wind players just do not normally do that sort of thing. Hygiene and concern for the safety of their precious instruments tend to preclude it, but Denis Brain was unique!

Unusual entertainments took place occasionally in the town and I remember the Rev. R.R.Y. Minto's church intimations once including a plug for Pepito Sarazino and his troupe of Spanish Dancers who were due to perform in the town.

13 Present Day Music

Despite the many changes in the demography and social life of this area, there is some cause for hope where the furtherance of live music is concerned. Thanks to the efforts of Geoff Keating and his successor, Solway Sinfonia is a welcome replacement for the late lamented Dumfries Municipal Orchestra, and the "gentle jazz" he also promotes demonstrates that classically trained musicians are far from being elitist or exclusive. Gatehouse Musical Society and the Catstrand bring excellent concerts to Gatehouse and New Galloway. Kirkcudbright's annual Jazz Festival continues to bring fine performers to supplement local bands, and the Stewartry Wind Band flourishes. Kirkcudbright Academy now has its own traditional music group, who perform annually with the excellent young musicians of the Plockton School of Traditional music in the Cochran Hall, and a new youth orchestra has been recently established in Dumfries which is already performing to a very high standard. Kirkcudbright Rotary Club has instigated competitions for young local musicians at the academy, and a particularly talented jazz trio has emerged from that school. A well-attended fiddle and accordion club meets regularly in Castle Douglas. Folk festivals flourish in Moniaive and in Newton Stewart. Mrs Picken has had well-deserved recognition for the great work she has done with the local farmers' choir whose appearances on youtube have been impressive and entertaining. Inspired perhaps by Gareth Malone's television programmes, new choirs are springing up all the time. Local groups, The Razorbills and Cafe Largo work hard to produce unique sounds, the Razorbills composing most of their own repertoire, and Cafe Largo attempting to recreate the sounds and style of exotic past eras. A small string group of six musicians called Music 4U is organised in Kirkcudbright by former Academy music teacher Mary Mann, and performs occasionally by invitation at weddings and other events in the area. Kirkcudbright Summer Festivities committee has brought many fine bands and performers to Kirkcudbright over the years.Traditional musicians from Breton and the band of the Welsh Guards stand out in my memory. Talent from Dumfries and Galloway has not been ignored, and the Annan Town Band has been extremely impressive in recent performances.

Local entrepreneur Ronald Kirkland has brought a few fine popular concerts to the town, and St Cuthbert's Church, the Cochran Hall, Broughton House and the new Galleries all now provide excellent venues for a variety of musical events. Live music occurs at several places in the area, including the Masonic Arms in both Kirkcudbright and Gatehouse, the Garret in Kirkcudbright, Catstrand in New Galloway and Borgue Hotel, all of which have traditional music open sessions on a regular basis at which visitors, players, singers and non-participants are equally welcome.

The variety and richness of the musical experiences I had in my formative years in Kirkcudbright have made me an enthusiast for many different instruments and styles of playing. I have enjoyed playing in groups as diverse as ukulele bands on remote Pacific Islands, Irish ceilidh bands, jazz bands, Canada's oldest marching band, the current Gallovidians and their 1960s predecessors, string quartets, wind ensembles, amateur symphony orchestras and semi-professional orchestras accompanying stage productions. The playing of music with other people is for me one of the greatest and most satisfying of activities and I wish everyone could have the same opportunities that were available to me.

If you have ever played an instrument, think about resuming. If your violin, viola or 'cello is lying in the attic in need of refurbishment and repair, Ruth Caldwell in St Cuthbert Street is an able and well-qualified luthier. If you have always wanted to play but have never done anything about it, have a look at youtube, where excellent free tuition is readily available.

Playing an instrument gives you something to do every day, takes your mind off all other worries, and can help you to make new friends. It's never too late - I took up playing the 'cello when I was 75. I still would like to learn to play the bassoon, bass clarinet, or perhaps the trombone……but time is running short so I might now just take the optimistic route and cut straight to the harp!!

Text Copyright David R. Collin 5th January 2020 (with thanks to Felicity Gelder for some additional photographs to those in my own collection) 14 15