Postscript 1: The Caldecott Hymn and the Caldecott Carol
Music at Meeting had four phases (I hope I have not forgotten any). We marched in to Sousa’s “Washington Post” March, after which there was a “till ready” voluntary that could be anything, provided it was slow and decorous, like the music before church service. The third, effectively the last, was Parry’s “Jerusalem”, in spite of the alarums and excursions described above. Finally, Miss Leila called out “Dismiss” and we filed out, again to Sousa’s “Washington Post” March. I have left the second until last. This was the “Caldecott Hymn”. Some people on this site have already mentioned that it was “Non Nobis Domine”. In my later years at Caldecott, it was so and I believe it remained so thereafter. This hymn uses a poem by Rudyard Kipling and the music was written by Roger Quilter in 1934 for the Pageant of Parliament. As patriotic songs go it is distinctly good. Perhaps my Caldecott upbringing has embedded it in me, but it seems to me equal to most of the things trotted out year after year at the Last Night of the Proms. The words are easily found on Internet and anyone wishing to be reminded of the tune will find a few versions on YouTube.
“Non Nobis Domine” had not always been the “Caldecott Hymn”. The 1935 copy of the Caldecott Chronicle, available on the Association site, shows that it was once “Glad hearts Adventuring”. This, with words by M. A. MacDonald and music by Martin Shaw, was once a standard boarding school hymn, but has entirely disappeared. It was in the Caldecott Hymn Book, but we never sang it. Still before my days, the Caldecott Hymn had been “England”, by Parry. This is a setting of John of Gaunt’s speech from Shakespeare’s “King Richard II”, with the words topped and tailed to make regular verses for singing. Betty told me Miss Elizabeth had protested vigorously against the bowdlerization of Shakespeare’s words, so it was dropped. Miss Elizabeth had a point, but a setting of the original Shakespearian text would have been too complicated for a hymn, so Parry and his collaborator, a certain Sir Esme Howard, had a point too. My objection would have been a musical one. “England” and “Jerusalem” would have meant two pieces by Parry and, while he wrote an inspired tune for “Jerusalem”, that for “England” is just a reasonably good one.
The next choice was “Song for a Festival” by Sir George Dyson. I did not know the title or composer then. I remembered singing a song with words beginning “Brave isle of meadow, cliff and cloud” and a tune that meandered up and down rather vaguely. Miss Leila seems to have liked tunes that did that – she thought they sounded profound. Many years later, in 1991, I was rummaging in a second hand music shop and realized I was looking at the old Caldecott Hymn. It was written for the Festival of Britain in 1951 and the words are by Cecil Day Lewis. Meandering or not, I found the melody was exactly as I remembered it. I rather like it, but I think “Non Nobis Domine” was more suitable for a school song.
There was also something that Miss Leila called “The Caldecott Carol”. This was done every Christmas and Miss Leila was very proud of the fact that it did not seem to be sung anywhere else. Here I have to rely only on memory. The words were (at least approximately):
Shine, star, on land and sea,
Tell thy sweet story;
How Thy Lord lighted thee
Out of His glory.
So, when His children roam,
Thy light doth lead them home.
Children and shepherds,
Gladly from far and wide,
Follow the Eastern star,
Chosen to be their guide.
If there was a second verse, I have forgotten it, but I think this was all. You can find practically anything on Internet today. A search for these words draws a complete blank so, if it is a published poem, it is a very rare one.
The music was in manuscript – not Betty’s but something that looked as if it had been around much longer. I think it claimed to be a Flemish folksong, but it sounded too sophisticated for that. I seem to remember the tune, but the phrases as I remember them cause the music to modulate to improbably distant keys, so my memory cannot be exact. I asked Betty about it many years later. She confirmed that the carol was in manuscript but did not remember the composer. She had not kept a copy and she added that she did it Christmas after Christmas because Miss Leila wanted it, but never particularly liked it herself. I imagine she quietly dropped it after Miss Leila died. I wonder if the manuscript still exists?
Another manuscript song we sang, this time in the Junior School, began “The chestnut is a candlestick”. There is no mystery about the words, which are by the Irish poet Katharine Tynan and can be found on Internet. My recollection was that the composer named on the manuscript was Desirée Martin, a prominent teacher of eurhythmics who visited Caldecott regularly to hold classes. I think she still occasionally came in my first years there. Betty, however, was sure that Desirée Martin was not the composer of this song, though she could not remember who was. A setting of Tynan’s poem by Frances Ivy Klein for two-part female choir and piano was published in 1958. I have not seen this. If Desirée Martin was not the composer, then I am sure that there was at least one manuscript song by her in the white cupboard in the Music Room. “The chestnut is a candlestick” had a pretty tune, but I can remember only the beginning.