Postscript 4: Miss Leila and Music
It has been suggested that Miss Leila had no real appreciation of music. I questioned Betty about this and she answered cautiously. Miss Leila, she said, was willing to encourage anything that would bring out the inherent gifts of a child. In this light, she made sure that music was always available. Her own ideas on it were nevertheless odd. Apart from the presence of unusable hymns in the hymn book, her choice of tunes, when more than one was available, suggests that she equated gloominess with profundity. It was a bone of contention with me that we sang “Once to every man and nation” to “Ton-y-Botel” whereas at the Grammar School we sang the same words to the majestic tune “Hyfrydol”. Betty would not be drawn on this, simply saying that “this is the tune Miss Leila likes”. Miss Leila also had a curious predilection for Benjamin Britten. The early, pre-Betty, performance of “The Little Sweep” is one thing, since this is music written for children. The “War Requiem” is another. Miss Leila had movements of this played from gramophone records in lieu of a Chapel talk several times, and Betty told me much later that, for a certain period, she would test her collaborators’ patience by having sections played in Staff Meeting, before the real business got under way. I can only suppose that her admiration arose from the context. The “War Requiem” was written for the dedication of the new Coventry Cathedral, built to replace the building destroyed in the war. The idea of a big new piece written for a new cathedral, with combined vocal soloists from Russia, England and Germany, evidently inspired her so much that she was deaf to what it sounded like. There are some – not me – who maintain that this is one of the masterpieces of British music, but even they would surely not think it suitable for children, or for adults who need to be convinced that classical music has something to offer them. Music in a mildly modern idiom did not otherwise appeal to Miss Leila. A concert offered by a string quartet of Ashford musicians led by Bernard Knight offered, as a brief sampler of 20th century music, a piece by Hindemith. “It sounds like the noises some of our Senior Study children make”, said Miss Leila at the end. The musicians smiled politely. Miss Dave could also be remarkably uninformed. Once, after I had had a slamming bad temper, I was called into the Directorial Presence. “Did Beethoven get into tempers?” asked Miss Dave. It was obvious from her tone that she expected the answer to be “No, never”. Miss Leila at least knew that one. “He was like a bear with a sore head when the wind blew the wrong way, poor man”, she said.