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Where are they now?
Trevor Ford RMBX2497
I joined the Royal Marines Band Service in January 1948 at the
age of 16 and arrived at the Royal Naval School of Music together with three
other lads. We entered the dining room in the boys wing during the mid-day meal
and were greeted with a tremendous roar from 200 young throats. Within a few
days our numbers had swelled to about 20 youngsters and we became the 105 squad.
Although it is now 55 years since those days I remember everything very clearly
especially the sense of comradeship and good humour.
After all these years I am still in contact with David Clements and Terry Freestone
and many others from the same era. Our Section Leader was Michael (Taff) Evans,
a very kindly and intelligent lad, with whom I struck up a close friendship
which we have maintained ever since. Michael was unfortunate enough to be struck
down with polio as a young man and has spent the last 45 years in a wheel chair
but whenever we meet it only takes a moment or two before we re-establish that
special contact we had all those years ago in Burford. Those boyhood friendships
run deep and I have always considered myself lucky to still have so many good
friends from those days.
I had played the piano since the age of 5 and violin since the age of 12 but
to my surprise I was assigned the unusual combination of oboe and piano, I remember
that 'Duggie' Drake shared the same fate. This only gave me about 18 months
to learn to play the oboe and I must admit that I never really did achieve the
hoped-for standard in so short a time. Our instructor was Cpl Hoskins, himself
an excellent player, but he was not really capable of imparting his know-how
to us boys and we were often left to teach ourselves. I met another good friend,
Dave Walton, in that oboe class and he and I have also always maintained contact
since those days. Our piano teacher was one of the first civilian professors
to be employed by the school.
His name was Alan Bixter and he was a former pupil of the great German pianist
Wilhelm Backhaus. He was a very inspiring and engaging teacher and we all admired
him tremendously.
In spite of my incomplete development as an oboist and probably on the strength
of my ability as a pianist, I was rated Musician on my 18th birthday. I was
actually the penultimate Bandboy to be rated Musician at Burford - the last
one being Derek Archer whose birthday was a week later than mine.
My first commission was to 3rd Commando Brigade RM Band and we spent two years
in Malaya, part of the time living in tents. The situation did not inspire great
advances in music and I particularly remember one six month period when there
were no oboe reeds available, which reduced my already inadequate ability as
an oboist even further. However it was an exciting experience for a young man
and the comradeship helped greatly through difficult times. After two years
in Malaya the Brigade moved to Malta, which seemed to us almost like paradise
compared to our previous experiences and we spent much of the final 6 months
of our tour of duty swimming in the Mediterranean. Among the members of that
band were David Clements, (from the 105 squad), Ron Hemsall and Bill Hamley.
I am still in regular contact with all three and the two latter served also
in my next band, which was C in C Portsmouth in the old Victory Barracks. There
were so many Wardrooms for which the C in C's Band had to provide music that
Ron, Bill and I formed a trio of violin, cello and piano to serve most of the
smaller establishments. Years later I realised the value that this work had
for me in sight reading, improvising and identifying the essentials in a score.
The experience has stood me in good stead ever since.
In 1954 I was promoted to Corporal and returned to the RMSM in Deal where I
joined the Staff Band. I had been lucky enough to get an excellent Selmer cor
anglais from the instrument store and here at last I found the instrument which
suited me best. Wagner, Tchaikowsky, Berlioz and many other composers have written
wonderful parts for the cor anglais and I greatly enjoyed playing these and
the work of a variety of other composers as well. The instrument seemed best
suited to my temperament and physique and I never grew tired of playing it.
I particularly remember playing the cor anglais solo for a performance of The
Swan of Tuonela by Sibelius at one of the winter orchestral concerts, when the
instrument almost seemed to play itself and everything felt quite effortless
and natural. I became so attached to my cor anglais that I managed to persuade
the instrument store to let me keep it for my next commission from 1957-58,
which was to HMS Newcastle in the Far East. Once again I found myself together
with Ron Hemsall, who was now Band Sergeant. We flew out to Singapore, a journey
that took two days in a propeller driven aircraft with an overnight stay in
Calcutta. Quite a difference from the 6 weeks on board a troop-ship for the
same journey in 1950.
As many can confirm, living on the crowded mess-deck of a warship in tropical
waters can be rather a trial. However, once again the good comradeship and humour
made life more tolerable and in addition we visited many quite exotic places.
I must also mention our Bandmaster Les Jordan and Sergeant Ron Hempsall. I have
never forgotten their leadership, which made it a real pleasure to serve under
such gentlemen, whose first thought was always for their band.
For 18 months we travelled to countries such as Burma, Korea, Japan, the Philippines,
Vietnam and also took part in the 'Freedom of Malaya' parade in Kuala Lumpur.
We also spent some time ashore in Hong Kong. The Newcastle was an old ship and
due for 'retirement' after this last commission. The journey home was quite
an experience. From Singapore we sailed via Japan to Pearl Harbour in Honolulu
and onward to Vancouver and Victoria on the Canadian west coast. Here we took
part in the centenary of British Columbia as part of a fleet review attended
by Princess Margaret. We travelled on to San Francisco where we stayed for four
days before proceeding through the Panama Canal to Kingston in Jamaica and finally
from there to Portsmouth and home.
Having arrived back once again at RMSM I considered my future. I had now been
a Corporal for over five years and had begun to be passed over with regard to
promotion to Sergeant in spite of qualifying for that rank with distinction.
As a form of protest I applied to be included in the 1959 Bandmaster's Class.
There seemed to be no apparent reason why a Corporal should not also be able
to take part. To my surprise I was immediately promoted to Sergeant and included
in that BMs class. I spent a most happy and inspiring year with 8 other sergeants,
two Indonesians and an Australian BM under the guidance of Michael Hurd. It
was his last BMs class and he was a most interesting and amusing teacher.
The exams were successfully passed and in 1960 I was again at sea, this time
as the Band Sergeant of the Home Fleet Band. At the end of 1960 I was promoted
to Bandmaster and took over that Band less than two years after applying to
take the BMs class as a Corporal.
It was a very happy time for me as the band was very good musically and always
very loyal to me personally. Part of our duties took us to Scandinavia and it
was there that I met my wife to be - Berit.
After our marriage we travelled to Norway two or three times a year for holidays
and I gradually got to know about the band movement in Norway. I had spent the
last three years of my service either teaching in the boys wing or being administratively
responsible for the concert programme. While teaching in the boys wing, I had
several promising youngsters with surnames such as Starr, Brownrigg, Gooderham
and Ware. Many years later Lt Col John Ware, as PDM, invited me to conduct several
of my pieces at a concert with the Staff Band in Deal. A great experience for
me and a very nice gesture from an officer who was surely my most promising
pupil!
In 1964 I could see Band Service restructuring on the horizon and realised it
would also entail a reduction of opportunities. The thought of having to start
life afresh at the age of 40 made me decide to leave the Service early. I was
still only 32 and I saw opportunities in Norway that helped me to make up my
mind.
In 1964 I bought myself out and immediately emmigrated to Norway.
The band movement in Norway is quite unique. At the most the band federation
had 2,400 member bands divided into about 1500 school bands and the rest community
or youth bands.
For a land with a population of only 4 million this is a world record. The amateur
and school bands are all private organisations run entirely by the members themselves
with some support from local authorities This creates a constant need for funding
and the various ways in which bands solve this problem would provide enough
material for a very interesting book.
Another unique feature of the Norwegian band scene is that personnel in the
professional military bands are all commissioned officers. The Norwegians quite
rightly regard the professional musician as being on the same level as a doctor,
dentist or padre and accordingly, (after a few months in the rank of Sergeant)
they begin life as a 2nd Lieutenant and in the course of time proceed automatically
to Captain. Directors of Music are Majors and the PDM a Lt Col. When I first
began to work here it seemed very strange to see a Captain sitting in the band
playing third clarinet, for example, but this system attracts really excellent
musicians and the standard of these bands is extremely high.
All the amateur and school bands are organised into The Norwegian Band Federation,
(Norges Musikkorps Forbund) and it was as a travelling instructor for this organisation
that I began a new life. The federation was responsible for activities such
as contesting, festivals, summer music schools and some limited local courses
in music. Norway is divided into about 30 counties and the instructors concentrate
on one county at a time. In the space of two or three years I had travelled
the whole country and had became very familiar with the bands and how the whole
system worked. Whilst very interesting work I realised that it made no real
difference to the standard of the bands and what was needed was an organised
and structured education plan for conductors, instrumentalists and teachers.
I spent some years evolving and introducing such a plan, which in the end was
adopted by the Norwegian Band Federation and used over the whole country. At
the same time we began building up a network of local teachers and instructors
to implement the plan in the various areas. The entire system was also adopted
by the Nordic Music Union, which comprises Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland
and Finland.
In 1975 I started the Norwegian National Youth Band. The immediate purpose of
this was to take part in an international contest in USA to mark the bicentenary
of that country in the following year, but in the long run it was more important
to be able to show that wind music can be a cultural activity on the same level
as a symphony orchestra, (the low status of bands when compared to symphony
orchestras is a problem we are all familiar with).
To conduct the band I chose the Director of Music from one of the Norwegian
army bands, Captain Christer Johannesen, (today Lt Col Johannesen PDM for all
Norwegian Service bands). Christer is a brilliant conductor and he shaped the
band into a wonderful musical group, which won the contest in USA and in the
course of time made a great difference to the status of bands here in Norway.
We worked together on the band for 13 years, auditioning and changing the players
every two years. They made several tours abroad and many recordings.
Today many of the players in the professional symphony orchestras and Service
bands in Norway are ex national youth band musicians and many of them also conduct
bands.
I was by this time Head of Music for the Federation and attended most of the
international conferences as Norway's representative. I became very interested
in international co-operation, recognising the benefits that this could give
the Norwegian band movement in the long run.
One such conference, organised by the College Band Directors National Association
of USA was held in Manchester at the RNCM in 1981 and it resulted in the formation
of a new organisation called WASBE, (World Association of Symphonic Bands and
Ensembles). I had the honour of being chosen as the first President of WASBE
and therefore the first WASBE conference was held in Norway in 1983. Since then
WASBE has held conferences every two years all over the world and is today the
biggest and most advanced organisation for wind music in the world.
Fotune favoured me in many ways. In 1972 I submitted a composition in an international
contest and won second prize. This led to many publishing opportunities. One
of my overtures was in the process of being published by an obscure American
publisher who was suddenly bought up by the mighty Belwin-Mills concern, which
meant that I ended up being published by one of the world's largest publishers.
On another occasion I was guest conductor at the International Music Camp in
USA together with Henk van Lijnschooten the former Captain-Director of the Royal
Netherlands Marine Band. I had already met Henk when, with the Home Fleet Band,
we had visited his band in Rotterdam during a morning rehearsal. He was good
enough to recommend a piece I had with me, (Four Contrasts for Wind), to his
publisher Molenaar and I thus became published by the biggest publisher of band
music in Europe and have since had many other pieces published by the same firm.
My experience as an adjudicator began with the first national contest in Norway,
which occurred in 1966. My fellow adjudicator was Harry Mortimer and it was
an unforgettable experience and also the beginning of a friendship, which lasted
until Harry's death over 20 years later. I found the experience of adjudicating
extremely interesting but it took many contests before I had developed a technique,
which I felt could best do justice to the performing bands.
Since then I have judged contests all over the world including the national
contests in Luxembourg, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Slovenia
and of course Norway.
I have also had the privilege of adjudicating the European Brass Band Championships
twice in the Royal Albert Hall and countless other contests in Scandinavia.
I still find it a great thrill to be involved in this fascinating type of event
and whatever criticisms may be made against contesting there can be no doubt
that it does improve and develop the standards of performance. One has only
to listen to the better British brass bands to realise this.
Another friendship with a legend of the band world was started in 1976 when
Christer Johannesen and I visited Frederick Fennell during his time as Head
of Music at Miami University. We followed him around for three weeks listening
and learning. His account of the development of the legendary Eastman Wind Ensemble
was extremely interesting as was his later accounts of the Japanese Kosei Wind
Orchestra.
The 1980s were an increasingly busy time for me. I wrote several books on various
subjects of music theory. They are all published in Norwegian although one of
them, entitled 'Tuning and Intonation', was also translated into German and
Dutch and sub-published in those countries. Together with two other colleagues
I also started the Norwegian Conductors Society, which later also included adjudicators.
All of these activities were very interesting and at times quite exciting but
I began to find life a little too stressful and the thought of early retirement
became more and more attractive.
After twenty-five years as Head of Music for the band federation I was able
to retire at the age of 58.
By this time I had quite a lot of music published by seven different publishers
in five different countries. I had learnt a great deal about publishing and
was keen to try my hand at it.
Thus Fortissimo Forlag (publishing) was born in 1988. The first
year I lost money - the second year I broke even and seriously thought about
giving up but decided to have one more try. I had seen that most publishers
were beginning to produce demo-cassettes to help promote their music and having
allied myself with a local town band of very good quality I did the same and
sent out three thousand cassettes to bands throughout Scandinavia. The result
was fantastic and I made a very healthy profit and never looked back after that.
Throughout the next seven years the firm grew every year and it was a very exciting
and interesting period. However it began to be too much for one person. I had
to work late hours and weekends to keep my head above water and as I approached
the age of 70 I saw that either I would have to employ a number of staff or
sell the business and really retire. I chose the latter course and have since
lived the life of a pensioner although I still write a bit and take part in
WASBE and IMMS (International Military Music Society) activities. I also still
play the piano, mostly accompanying a friend who is an excellent violinist.
We have great fun together and play for local clubs, in church halls for pensioners
and to anyone who will listen. We have even made a couple of CDs and that certainly
is motivating, (I have not practised for many years as much as I do now).
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Trevor Ford after his investiture in
2002
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My life has always been full of surprises but the
biggest surprise of all occurred in November 2002 when, to my utter
amazement, I received a Norwegian knighthood and an audience with
HM King Harald V. Once again I seem to have been very lucky as I
am sure there are lots of others who deserve it more than I.
It would be impossible to write about my life without
mentioning my family. My wife Berit and I will celebrate our 42nd
wedding anniversary this year and we have one daughter, (whose husband
is a musician), and two lovely grandchildren; a girl and a boy.
They live just a few minutes away and it is my greatest joy to have
my family around me daily. They are, and have always been, a tremendous
support to me and the good luck, which I have had in so many ways,
fades into the shadows compared with the great fortune I have in
my family.
When I look back on my time in the RMB, the times of discomfort
and the disappointments are long forgotten but the experiences and
the warm comradeship will never be forgotten. I must also truthfully
say that the music education I received, and the varied experiences
in music, which I went through, gave me a background, which has
stood me in good stead through the remainder of my life.
I am delighted for the opportunity to write this article in the
Blue Band. I have received and read every single number of the Blue
Band since the first issue in 1949 at Burford.
May I close by sending warmest greetings to any old friends who
may read this account.
Sincere good wishes,
Trevor Ford
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