I must declare a personal
interest here. When I went to Manchester
in 1965 to study music on the joint
course (Manchester University and the
Royal Manchester College of Music as
it then was), I had a room in Woolton
Hall, Fallowfield. My principal practical
study was the organ and across the road
stood the Parish church of Holy Innocents,
Fallowfield. With the recklessness (and
cheek) of youth I knocked at the Rectory
door and asked the then vicar Tom Kennaugh
if I might do my practice on the church
organ. He agreed if I in turn would
assist the Director of Music at the
Church, a man called Douglas Steele,
by playing occasionally for services
on Sunday, and taking weekly choir practice.
I was also paid the princely salary
of £2 per week. I met Douglas and sat
in on some services while he showed
me the musical and liturgical ropes
before taking up the post and dating
the vicar’s daughter who remains a very
close friend to this day. Douglas actually
wanted to retire completely from playing
and so it was only a matter of time
before I took over completely, but he
happily played for me during University
vacations, our roles therefore reversed.
Douglas was an eccentric bachelor, with
a history of mental breakdowns but he
possessed an impish sense of humour
and was hugely gifted as a teacher and
musician, a fine organist - in particular
as an exceptionally talented improviser
- in short a thoroughly likeable man
from whom I learned a great deal. Before
the war he studied conducting in Salzburg
under Bruno Walter and Nicolai Malko,
followed by a considerable period as
Beecham’s secretary, librarian and general
factotum. His post-war career was in
teaching, at Chetham’s School and (when
I knew him) at Stockport Grammar School,
for whose pupils Autumn Sequence
(CD2) was composed. This pair of discs
has been compiled as a worthy tribute,
some of its performers being pupils
or friends. John Turner’s note conveys
the warmth and affection with which
he was held in Manchester and its surrounding
areas from Carlisle to Stockport, and
belatedly I wish to add my penny’s worth
for I lost touch when I moved abroad
and then stayed down south. From listening
to this disc I regret that I did.
His music is highly
enjoyable, steeped in the English tradition,
usually in miniature pastoral format,
filled with charm, wistful tunes, clever
settings, never over-sentimental and
occasionally (especially his organ music
and playing) full of grandeur. The first
disc also includes a suite of four movements
for recorder and piano each of which
is contributed by four composers who
either knew him as a friend, colleague
or pupil. The second CD is devoted to
his Autumn Sequence, an inventive
composition written for his Stockport
school choir. How they must have enjoyed
singing it, and one can only wish and
hope that other schools will take it
up. The instrumentation is based around
the piano but also includes colourful
sounds from handbells to organ. The
Three Mariners, with the recorder
expertly played by John Turner, is the
catchy scherzo of the work but what
follows is pure Gershwin in The Cock-Fight,
so enjoyable indeed that both were given
an immediate re-hearing by this reviewer.
Apparently Douglas would improvise between
the movements, which I can well imagine
would have caused unbridled chaos and
mirth; these CDs will become an eloquent
memory of the man and his music. All
the performers sound as if they are
having fun and enjoying themselves,
which Douglas, in his ever so modest
way, would have loved. The last chord,
sung beautifully by the children’s choir,
is ‘FAREWELL’ - farewell indeed Douglas,
there are many of us with the fondest
recollections of you.
Christopher Fifield
Carlisle Cathedral Youth Choir/David Gibbs
