David Willcocks - part one

David Willcocks interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 11th and 15th December 2008

0:09:07 Born in Newquay, Cornwall, in 1919; two older brothers still living in Cambridge; of grandparents, knew only my maternal grandmother, widow of a country rector; father was a bank manager; came from a farming family in Wadebridge, Cornwall; father sang in the local church choir but otherwise neither parent was musical; mother educated us herself when we were young so I did not go to school until I was eight; both brothers got scholarships as a result of her teaching

7:33:21 Had an old piano in the house; when I was six after church on Sunday I would try to play the hymns I had heard; startled the piano tuner by identifying notes by their sound; alerted my mother to my perfect pitch and encouraged her to let me have piano lessons; taught by a lady in Newquay; a little later took up the cello; mother heard Sir Walford Davis talking about the need for choirboys on the radio and wrote to him; interviewed me at the BBC and as a result said he would contact Ernest Bullock at Westminster Abbey and suggest he audition me; at eight I went to see him and auditioned well enough for him to suggest I come to join the choir the next year; Sir Walford had suggested that I learnt a stringed instrument as well at the piano; my mother managed to arrange cello lessons; I started at Westminster Abbey in June 1929; very homesick to start with but thoroughly enjoyed the daily music rehearsals; we never got any training as such but just sang; there was a double choir so one either sang the morning or afternoon service; very unusual now where some cathedrals just have evensong; the audience was often very small but we were made to feel part of a long tradition; we also had normal schooling; the best of the singers from the two choirs were picked to sing on Friday and Sunday at the more important services; I remember particularly the service on Armistice day when we sang by the grave of the unknown warrior in the nave

21:03:22 Remembered teachers; reported to the Headmaster for smoking; aged twelve reported again and sent to see the Dean who let me off; can't imagine how awful it would have been for my parents if I had been sent home; at that period I was fond of games though there were few places where we could play; cricket game in an alley beside the abbey that resulted in my falling through a glass roof, trying to retrieve the ball; when I went to Clifton, apart from the usual games, specialized in cross-country running; when I was twelve my voice changed and instead of singing I was taught to play the organ by Ernest Bullock; during that year he taught me a lot of Bach; it was decided that I should try for Clifton as it was only one of two school, Rugby being the other, that offered a music scholarship; went for my audition in 1933 and met the Director of Music, Douglas Fox; he had been predicted to be a very successful musician but had lost his right arm in 1917; Sir Hugh Allen, Director of the Royal College of Music, experimented with playing the organ with his left hand only and encouraged Fox to do the same; he became very accomplished as a one armed organist; he offered me the organ scholarship; Brian Pippard was a friend at Clifton who described an incident when Fox exhibited his occasional temper; otherwise he was a modest and kind man, and a very good teacher; at sixteen I took my ARCO; Ivor Keys was taking his at the same time; I got through and took my FRCO the following year; he prepared me for the next test which was getting into university; I was destined for King's for various reasons; Douglas Fox knew people there and admired the organ at King's; Boris Ord, the organist, had been at Clifton himself; I took the general school exams at sixteen and eighteen

41:02:14 At Clifton I joined the Scouts; the Scoutmaster, Hardcastle, took us camping in Clifton Gorge and in the Mendips; I much enjoy walking still; on my own religious belief, I was confirmed but had no strong belief; I felt that my job with church music was to make it as good as I could so that it would help true believers to reach God; I don't believe in a creator God or that I am being judged by God; I believe in good people; I came to King's for an interview in 1938 and I was certainly the only FRCO being interviewed at that time; I had spent a gap year at St Nicholas College, which is part of the Royal School of Church Music, at Chislehurst, Kent; the object of the school was to prepare people to take the role of organist

48:00:21 Boris Ord interviewed me; Douglas Guest was the organ scholar who was with me when I played for Ord; he was surprised when I said that I would perform from memory without the music; Ord got me to improvise and read a score; I found these easy as I had done them in the FRCO exam; Ord said I would also have to be able to train the choir if he was ill; I had never heard such a beautiful choir in my life; I was given ten minutes to rehearse them; I tried to involve the choir in suggesting improvements, and although they sounded just the same, Ord commented favourably on my involving them; I was given the organ scholarship, to start in October 1939; of choirs, I would rate King's the best of its kind - a choir of boys and men, which I prefer; we didn't realize there would be a war; at first after war started it was quiet until the retreat from Dunkirk; I joined up in May 1940 and was sent to various coastal regions on beach duty to strengthen our defences against invasion

Second Part

0:09:07 In the year before going to Cambridge, went to the Royal College of Music twice a week to see Malcolm Sargent and Constant Lambert conducting orchestral rehearsals; I had counterpoint lessons from R.O. Morris and piano lessons from Frank Merrick who was related to one of the staff at Clifton; also went to many concerts on the suggestion of Boris Ord; came to Cambridge in October; interviewed by the music faculty and was sent to see Dr Middleton, the organist at Trinity College; he said that having got FRCO I had already done all that was necessary for Part I music so should take it in December; as a result it was agreed that I should do Part II the following May; I was supposed to be learning composition from Hubert Middleton but learnt little from him; taught myself what little history there was; passed Part II so had got my B.Mus. after two terms; Provost Shepherd said that he thought no one had done such a thing before; Owen Chadwick might have done so if he had not switched to Divinity; Provost Shepherd told me the statutes of the University meant I had to do nine terms before getting my degree; as I was leaving for war service he suggested that King's would allow me to complete the nine terms there after the war; if I was killed he promised I would be awarded a B.Mus. posthumously; in October 1945 I went to see Shepherd and arranged to complete the necessary years, doing a bit of modern history and economics

9:27:07 From May 1940 until June 1944 was in England working at coastal defence; underwent training in Scotland for an invasion of the Azores which was subsequently cancelled; John Denison, my Brigade Major, was a horn player, and later a good friend; he was later in charge of British Council and then Arts Council music; we came down to Southampton which confirmed the rumours that we were going to Normandy; we sailed after D Day so the beaches were clear; slept in woods under shell fire; in July we had to attack Caen which was pivotal; we (Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry) managed to capture five German tanks; sent to capture 'Hill 112' and had 300 casualties out of 700 men; I was in charge of communicating the locations of all our troops to the commanding officer; we managed to hold out until we were relieved; our next engagement was at Arnhem; at Christmas the Americans attacked in the Ardennes and we were sent down to back them up, though never required to do so; in April went into Germany and attempted to get to Berlin before the Russians; meeting with Russians on the Elbe

29:54:15 Did a concert when we first got in to Germany; at the Second Army thanksgiving service in Celle I was asked to play the organ; although Germany is famous for musicians, we had been taught that all Germans were our enemies until the war ended; had no one to talk to about music, and by the end only about a third of the Regiment were genuine Cornishmen; I did not get as far as Berlin; I indicated to King's that I would be back soon after the war with Germany was over; it never occurred to me that I would have to go out to Japan; my second brother had been a prisoner of the Japanese since 1942 since the fall of Hong Kong; I never had to go to Japan as the dropping of atomic bombs ended it; arrived back in Cambridge in November 1945; I was surprised to see that Cambridge had not changed at all; Boris Ord came back at the same time and we began to share choir practices again; however, I had been rather frightened of him when I first came and now I felt we were colleagues; Harold Darke had been left in charge of the choir and continued until after Christmas; I played for the Advent Carol service that year and Boris Ord did the Christmas service with Darke conducting; the Christmas broadcast on BBC had been kept up right through the War; ever since 1928 it has been broadcast live; the Chapel windows had been removed during the War and taken to the Welsh mountains and were brought back in the Spring of 1946; John Saltmarsh had been in charge; I got engaged in 1947 and my wife went on one of John Saltmarsh's tours of the Chapel; he knew everything about it; found playing for the Advent service was as though nothing had happened, and even the choir was in reasonable shape; Boris then started recruiting choral scholars again and two years later the choir was back to its previous high standard; Herbert Howells, the composer, was in the Advent Carol audience; I remembered him from when I had been a chorister at Westminster; later, he was on my staff at the Royal College of Music; Ernest Bullock was also there, and both congratulated me

41:36:13 Had to do the two year's to get my degree; went with Peter Godfrey for history supervisions with Jack Plumb; told to write an essay on Cecil Rhodes and found we had both used the same source ' 'The Children's Encyclopaedia'; I did not go to any lectures but just read; in July 1947 the College gave me a Fellowship for four years to do research; I wrote to Watkins Shaw who was working on the organist, John Blow, and offered to help him as a researcher; he wrote back positively, but the next morning I was offered the post of organist at Salisbury Cathedral; Sir Walter Alcock, then eighty-five, the finest organist in England, was retiring; I went down to Salisbury and met the Bishop of Sherborne who offered me the post; I was shown the organ and the Cathedral Close and the organist's house; told them I was to be married the following November; came back and told Boris Ord who realized what a wonderful opening it was; think that Eric Milner-White had suggested my name; he had been Dean of King's when I was first there; when I went to Salisbury I was to stay with the Bishop of Sherborne for a month; they then put me in a two-bedroom cottage until the following May, when Lady Alcock moved from the organist's house and we moved in; had three years there; during that time the conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra was Rudolph Swartz; he was asked to do some concerts at Birmingham and asked me to deputise for him; did three concerts and got very good reviews; Sir Adrian Boult, a friend, was asked to advise Worcester Cathedral on a successor for Sir Ivor Atkins; Canon Briggs asked me to consider moving to Worcester; Boult also said that the City of Birmingham Choir needed a conductor, and that the two jobs could be held together; also, with the Three Choirs Festival each year, the very best London orchestras and singers would come, and that this would be a good career move