No . 134 The Trusty Servant
Vox Senum
A Young Person ’ s Guide to the Orchestra
Sam Gordon Clark CBE ( G 57-61 ) writes :
Dear Editor - having got around to reading the May TS rather late , I note that you expressed interest in OW music-making . I wondered whether the following might amuse / interest you ?
I arrived in Phil ’ s in Common Time 1957 as a reasonably competent 13-year old pianist . I was told that I could , if I wished , take up an orchestral instrument , so I said ‘ yes please ’ and was told ( no choice ) that I would learn the viola ( much needed in Orchestra ). Being unquestioningly obedient , I took up the viola , but didn ’ t get on too well , and soon decided that I would rather play the oboe , an instrument I loved , even at that age . I was allowed to drop the viola , and so started on the oboe . After a while , I was told that my lips were the wrong shape for the oboe , and that I would do better playing the French horn . Since there wasn ’ t much I could do about my lips , I thought I ’ d better drop the oboe with regret , and take up the horn . I got on quite well , but as I was by then getting into jazz , I thought that if my lips were right for the horn , there was no reason why they shouldn ’ t be right for the trumpet . So I dropped the horn and took up the trumpet . Not much later , I left the school , having forgotten almost everything I knew about the piano , and having attained no real competence in the viola , the oboe , the horn nor the trumpet ! My parents didn ’ t think this reflected very well on Win Coll ’ s music staff .
BUT - thanks to the wonderful Julian Smith , I sang as a treble in his Chantry Choir , and graduated to Chapel Choir as a bass , securing a couple of roles in the Masque in my last Cloister Time . Had it not been for Julian , my musical talent , such as it was , might have been still born . As it was , I later auditioned successfully for The Bach Choir under David Willcocks , and sang with them for 40 years , ending as chairman from 2007- 2013 . I also chaired the Early Opera Company from 2003 to 2007 , and served on the Governing Body of the Royal Academy of Music ( of which I was appointed a Hon Fellow in 1991 ) from 1980 to 1999 . I attribute any success that I can claim in the world of music down to the encouragement I received at the hands of Julian .
Cookite Ceramicists
John Mallet ( C , 44-48 ) writes of a recent academic paper :
JVG Mallet and Elisa P Sani ( Eds ), Maiolica in Italy and beyond , Papers of a Symposium held at Oxford in celebration of Timothy Wilson ’ s Catalogue of Maiolica in the Ashmolean Museum .
Like myself , Professor Timothy Wilson was in Cook ’ s ( 63-67 ). The book of papers was in effect also a Festschrift celebrating Tim ’ s retirement after long service in the Ashmolean , and each of us editors was among the contributors . The book contains a bibliography of Prof Wilson ’ s important contributions to art history , mainly to the history of Italian maiolica [ tin-glazed pottery , Ed ]. It is a curious fact that there has been a long line of Cookite experts in the subject of ceramics , starting with Sir Leigh Ashton ( C , 11-16 ) ( a Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum ), William Wilberforce Winkworth ( C , 52-56 ), Anthony du Boulay ( C , 43-46 ) ( obituary in TS 133 ), JVG Mallet ( C , 44-48 ) ( a former Keeper of the Ceramics Department at the V & A ), Michael Archer ( C , 50-55 ) ( also served in the V & A Ceramics Department ) and Prof Timothy Wilson . This chain of ceramic specialists has no perceptible cause and must be pure accident : no housemaster of Cook ’ s has been particularly interested in the subject .
For John ’ s recently published book of poems , see OW News .
Julian Smith ,
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