| Memories of Robert Ferry and Derak Jarrett |
|
The appearance of two names in particular in the obituary notices of this year's OS Record have encouraged me to write some remembrances. Even if this is consigned to a remote archive, I feel I owe it to them - and myself. Mr Ferry was my piano teacher. But it was during a voluntary lecture on Baroque music that he sowed the seed that even from such stony ground flourished a life-long love of music. I also still appreciate his directorship of the annual Oratorios in Sherborne Abbey which he conducted with such flair. He, Mr Worrall the Abbey organist, soloists such as Sir Peter Pears, the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra and the girls and boys schools - well, we made quite a noise. I can still see Mr Worrall hauling himself up the spiral staircase to the console of the Great Exhibition organ with its creaking stops and pedals. His swollen and mottled, stubby fingers, of a shape that perhaps graced the hands of Old Bach, produced miracles of music on an instrument only he could manage. Mr Jarrett, newly down from university, also creaked through the door of his classroom with leg callipers, stick and intense dedication. Together with such personalities as Canon Wallace ("Take fifty reds!" - when even three already earned a housemaster's beating!), A B Gourley (with melodramatic canings which involved a hilarious classroom length to execute), Mr Thomas (not a note in sight, but with twirling monocle and trim moustache, he weaved vistas), Mr Andrews in his laboratory (who taught us the meaning of that valuable word 'catalyst' as well as the chemistry of humility), Mr Jarrett taught us above all to think for ourselves. Copy in his classes? Never! Pens were grounded. He urged us - listen, absorb, think, assess and remember. Anthony Clough (d 1950 - 1955) |
Search Site
