An interview with our programme notes writer, Duncan Eves

Our second bass Duncan Eves has been a member of the choir for some 32 years, joining us (along with his wife Geraldine, S1) after moving to the Winchester area in 1991. A retired music teacher with an extraordinary level of musical knowledge, he is the Wayns’ regular programme notes writer.  He often treats us to a mid-rehearsal talk about the music we’re performing and has even composed for us. 

We asked him to tell us about his full and fascinating life in music, both past and present…

So, where did it all begin? What musical studies led you to your career as music teacher?

I studied piano and viola at the Royal Academy of Music in the early 1970s. For a year I had the same piano teacher as David Owen Norris and I shared aural training lessons with someone called Simon Rattle - there are some friendships that one regrets not keeping up!

Among my teachers at the RAM were John Gardner (our S1 Claire Gardner’s father-in-law) and Eric Fenby. Eric took me for keyboard harmony lessons and was just amazing - but also demanding and slightly fearsome. His stories about Delius and his work with him were the stuff of legend.

Have you always lived and worked in Winchester?

No-I was Head of Music at a comprehensive school in Swindon for ten years. I sang in choral societies in and around Swindon during that time and I also conducted choral groups in the area.

In 1991 I became Director of Music at The Westgate School in Winchester where I taught until retiring in 2011 after 36 years in the classroom.

 What did you most enjoy about teaching music?

One of the great things about teaching a class of 30 teenagers was taking on board their likes and dislikes as well as trying to broaden their musical outlook. It’s a two-way process and I learnt so much from them that I would probably never have otherwise.

I can still picture the stroppy, moody girl over 40 years ago who lent me her copy of Meatloaf’s  ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ and said “You might like this Mr Eves. Some proper music.” And she was right!

 Who is your favourite composer, and is this because of their life story or their music? Or are the two inextricably linked?

I fell for Elgar’s music in 1972 big-time and have never stopped loving it. The story of the self-made composer from rural England always seemed somehow more relatable than any distant composer from Venice, Hamburg or Leipzig, but it was the music and the orchestration that really drew me in.

But I also have a passion for all 20th century English music: Vaughan Williams, Walton, Bax (why does no-one play his symphonies?), Britten, Tippett, Holst, Bridge, Ireland, Howells, Finzi, Gurney…

 Which one piece of music would be your desert island disc?

I would take Elgar’s Second Symphony to a desert island in a heartbeat, but I might not take a recording, just the full score, so that I would always have my own ideal performance.

And any genre of music which you dislike?!

Not too keen on Rap music though I have a sneaky admiration for Stormzy. Get me on Pink Floyd though and I won’t stop…some fabulous chord sequences and structures there to talk about. And I could give you an in-depth theory as to why Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’ is one of the most perfect pop songs ever.

How would you describe the role of a programme note writer?

I see my job as being not just one of informing people of facts, but also providing some way of drawing people in and hopefully creating some enthusiasm for wanting to hear the music. It’s always fun when there is a ‘back story’ or some interesting snippets which I think the choir might not know, or some amusing anecdote to tell. When people say to me that they enjoyed reading the notes then I know it was a job well done.

Which of our concerts have you most enjoyed writing programme notes for?

It’s really hard to pick out any one programme - I enjoy them all. Composers are often temperamental personalities and so it’s not too hard to find stories that illustrate this: Elgar writing a gargling duet for him and his wife on the manuscript score at the high point of ‘Gerontius’; Schumann letting his wife go off in the middle of the night to rescue their children from the Dresden uprising while he stayed behind to compose a piece to celebrate the uprising; Thomas Weelkes, whose behaviour towards the clergy at Chichester was interesting to say the least!

You once composed a piece of music especially for the Waynflete Singers- can you tell us about it?

When it was proposed to have a 50th anniversary concert in 2020 it was felt that some type of fanfare would be appropriate to open the concert. The opening work was Parry’s ‘I was Glad’ which has its own fanfare-type opening so there was no fanfare we could find that would fit with that. After some discussion I offered to write something.

The concert did not take place in 2020 because of the pandemic, and Covid restrictions forced its cancellation for the second time in the summer of 2021. The Wayns finally re-assembled for the autumn term in 2021 and the concert was held that October. The Fanfare then became not just a preparation for the Parry, but a kind of announcement that we were all back in business again!

The piece was based upon a musical cipher of the word ‘Waynflete’ and hinted at the opening of the Parry as well.

The brass and percussion of the English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) were perfectly happy to play a piece by an unknown and un-tested composer and they seemed to enjoy it. To have a piece played by them, even if it was very short, was just amazing. I was on a ‘high’ for days!

Apart from singing/writing for the Wayns, how else does music currently feature in your life?

I play in a baroque trio with Geraldine and a couple from Salisbury with whom we were at teacher-training college back in the mid-1970s. Geraldine plays baroque flute (very different from the modern flute) and I play spinet (we don’t have a harpsichord). Our friends play baroque violin and cello. We play trio sonatas and occasionally can be found entertaining the visitors at Stourhead and Dyrham Park.

I belong to the Elgar Society, the Finzi Society and the Ivor Gurney Society, and I’m a trustee for the Hampshire Foundation for Young Musicians, which provides grants to youngsters.

I also write notes for the Sacconi String Quartet Festival and have just done some for the Tillett Trust.

Our family life is also full of music: my elder daughter is in charge of chamber music at Sevenoaks School.

Duncan playing spinet with his baroque trio, with Geraldine on baroque flute

Do you have any hobbies or pursuits that aren’t music related?!

Grandchildren - are they a hobby or a pursuit? - I have five and they wear me out but I love them dearly.

I’m keen on family history, I read a lot, I like walking and I like the garden but I’m not really a gardener. Quite nuts about hi-fi and recording technologies. I think I would have enjoyed being a sound engineer at Abbey Road or working with the legendary Decca engineers of the 1960s and 70s.

Is there a musical experience of any kind that’s on your “bucket list”?

Part of me would like to go to the Bayreuth Festival, but I’m not sure that the hard wooden seats would appeal nowadays. Never been to Leipzig, so that would be one for the wish-list. I’d love to conduct Elgar 2 - just to see if I could actually do it- and to own a grand piano, but we don’t have room for one and the neighbours would probably kill me.

Finally, do you feel that your in-depth knowledge of a piece of music or its composer affects the way you sing when rehearsing/ performing with the Wayns?

Not really, but I do have a sort of analytical, musically enquiring mind and so I tend to notice things such as influences, unusual chord sequences, orchestral details. Just occasionally it distracts me from singing, but don’t tell Andy…