| Administrative History | Mr. Cheyne was a former Aberdeen University student. These are recollections whilst doing the Honours music course there. This was in the years 1954-57. |
| Description | This tape contains some recollections of my time at Aberdeen University whilst doing the Honours music course there. This was in the years 1954-57.
Transcription of Tape:
If I begin by saying something about the course itself. It was a four year Honours MA course. It was a small class. We got to know each other very well and stuck together through the four years of the course. The course itself was relatively practical I feel now, much less theoretical than other similar courses I've heard about subsequently. We studied things like counterpoint, strict counterpoint, free counterpoint, harmony, history of music, composition, as well, of course, as practical work, score reading, transposition, playing instruments and so on. In the last part of the course we had to do some kind of thesis or major assessment. For that some people, I believe, did performance. I know that I did composition and in that I was joined by various other members of the class. I recall composing a piece for choir and string orchestra, this was a setting of parts of Genesis and a poem by D H Lawrence.
As far as the staff are concerned I have vivid recollections at least of some of them. The head of department at that time was a somewhat remote and seldom seen figure called Willan Swainson who lived in a glass box we all thought and didn't really deal with the ordinary student. It was rumoured that he had private pupils and that that really was the limit of his work but I have no doubt he was responsible for the general administration of the course. We met him later because he conducted the University Symphony Orchestra I think it was called, and Recital Choir.
The person of whom I have the most vivid memories is Reginald Barrett-Ayres, who was, I think, Senior Lecturer in the years I'm talking about and later I think became Reader in Music in the University. He was a very colourful figure. He was an excellent jazz pianist and his improvisation was really quite impressive. At that stage in his life he lived a fairly bohemian existence but he was very approachable and very friendly towards us all. He took a great interest in the annual student charity week, or rag week show, which ran for one week in His Majesty's Theatre, had a lot to do with the direction of the shows, composition of the music and so on and it was through him that I became involved in student shows and wrote a lot of the music for one of them and conducted it. That was a show called Here's to Tomorrow of which some of my still surviving colleagues might have memories.
I also remember Reginald Barrett-Ayres, because of Iona. He was at that time in charge of the music at the Abbey and involved some of his students, he certainly involved me in that work and I recall spending a summer at the Abbey playing for all the services and running the little weekly concerts that were a feature of life in the Iona community at that time, during the summers at any rate.
Then one has recollections of a Miss Clark who I remember tried to teach me singing and some piano. She ran lunchtime record discussions for the students which I think were voluntary efforts. Then there was a member of staff who is still around obviously, in fact he's playing in a recital in Carnoustie within the next week or two, a gentleman called Raymond Dodd, cellist and composer. And then there were a couple of chaps, Phil Lord and somebody called Doe but I can't remember his first name [Paul]. Lord was an extremely impressive pianist I remember.
As far as students at that time is concerned, my class had in it these characters, Eric Gross who's parents I think and other relatives perished in the holocaust but he was himself Jewish and at this time was in fact the lead pianist at the Beach Ballroom. In fact he fitted in doing his Honours music degree round being a professional pianist. Through Eric Gross I became involved in the Beach Ballroom dance band and in playing at things like playing in hotels for weddings and so on. He I think ended up in Australia running a radio station. Then my good friend Eric Reid, who later worked in the institution where I am now a staff member, that is Northern College, Aberdeen and Dundee. Eric Reid was interested in composition, for example some of his hymn tunes can be found in the Revised Church Hymnary. He died tragically at an early age as did another member of the class, George Parkinson who went on after doing this course to become a minister of the Church of Scotland and after that a teacher for a while. There was also a chap called Charlie Edwards and a girl Moira Fethney .
I would like to say a bit about music making at that time. Student Singers was the name of a choir and it played quite a big part in my own life. It sang things like spiritual Scots songs, madrigals and so on and I vividly recall concerts in Edinburgh and Glasgow at which we appeared in our red velvet togas. These were garments that many students wore at that time - I believe they have subsequently gone out of favour.
Then there was the Recital Choir and Orchestra. The Orchestra rehearsed on Sunday afternoons and I played in that, the choir, I think, met in an evening during the week. Both of these were augmented by citizens of the town and would be an example of collaboration between town and gown. I remember performances of Stravinsky's Symphony of psalms, a Bruckner work, the Vaughan Williams Sea symphony, Bach's B Minor Mass, Bach's St Matthew Passion, This is the record of John and Faurés Requiem.
Then, I don't know how this arose, but there seemed to be a connection, for some of us at any rate, with Haddo House, a large mansion out in the country which belonged to the Gordon family, I think it's now with the National Trust. The lady of the house was one June Gordon, a very enthusiastic and accomplished amateur conductor and some of us students were invited out from time to time to take part in her performances. These were ad hoc arrangements when the Haddo House Choir was joined by an orchestra made up of all sorts of people including students from the university, but including also very famous players that June Gordon knew. I remember seeing people like Leon Goossens who seemed to be willing for whatever reason to come all the way to Aberdeen simply to play the oboe part in whatever work was being performed. I remember a performance of Elgar's Dream of Gerontius. Sometimes these performances were followed by lavish, quite spectacular dinners and dances in the house.
I have recollections, of course, of various places associated with the course. My work seemed to be divided between Marischal College, which even at that time and I think it's now more so, was a rather dingy place but some of the music classes, especially I think in the later years took place in Marischal then other aspects seemed to be taught in King's College. Then, of course, one remembers, as I suppose must all students at that time, a famous café in Old Aberdeen called 'Jacks' which I think is now gone and Jack himself died a few years ago. It was the famous Jack that would sell us cigarettes one at a time and it was in his café that people of my vintage will remember seeing the famous Professor Mackinnon philosophising with his various acolytes in his famously eccentric manner. There's the library of course and I recall the librarian, famous archaeologist and historian, Douglas Simpson who had the eccentric habit of going around shouting at us all to be quiet but who had never any hesitation about making a great deal of noise himself. Then also associated or nearby was St Machar's Cathedral and for music students there was some interest in going to hear the choral work under a fine organist David Murray and his assistant Jimmy Reid who had been my teacher of music at Aberdeen Academy. Then there was the University Chapel situated in King's College where my wife and I were married. And finally the Mitchell Hall which is part of Marischal College which housed, and I wonder if it still does, a quite impressive and large electronic organ which I learned to play to a small extent.
So these are my recollections of the Aberdeen University Music Department between the years 1953 to 1957.
End of recollections.
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