Dennis Brain: A Life in Music

Acknowledgments

234 William Lynch and I (Stephen Gamble) had both been researching Dennis Brain independently for many years when we first came in contact in July 2001 because of an advertisement I had placed in The Horn Magazine offering some of my collection of Brain recordings for sale. We first discussed co-authoring a biography in November of the same year and started work the following year, shortly before the Royal Academy of Music in London celebrated the eightieth year since Brain’s birth with a performance on November 15, 2002 (more than a year after the actual anniversary). This was also the first occasion at which his B-flat Alexander was to be played in public since August 31, 1957. When we began our collaboration, it soon became apparent what a wealth of new material was available, untapped and waiting to be gathered. At the end of this project, much material about Brain’s career still waits to be explored. We do not know the full extent to which private enthusiasts recorded his performances off-the-air from broadcasts. We have not been able to search many music archives around the world, in part due to limited accessibility , and in part due to lack of institutional funding to catalog archive inventories. We hope that subsequent editions of this book will add to the list of known recordings. ◆ ◆ ◆ The authors agreed at the outset that this book had to be as accurate and thorough as possible. We have been driven by enthusiasm for faithfully documenting Brain’s life and career. Although both authors have published articles on aspects of Brain’s career, we have not previously produced a book. Many minds and hands have been involved and, wherever possible, we have sought the personal accounts of colleagues, family members, institutions , archives, and others fortunate enough to have known Brain or heard him perform. Most people approached responded enthusiastically and with generosity. Acknowledgments Acknowledgments 235 Special thanks to the following contributors who have given so generously of their time and resources, which greatly facilitated the writing of this book: above all, to Mrs. Yvonne Brain for answering many questions about her husband ’s life and career and for her generosity in permitting the publication of his letters and other documents. We are especially grateful to Stephen Pettitt, whose comprehensive research and documentation on Brain in the earlier years served as a constant inspiration to us, and for his permission to quote results of his research from his excellent books, Dennis Brain: A Biography (Hale, 1989) and Philharmonia—Complete Discography (Hunt, 1987). We also thank Stephen Pettitt for providing the photographs, and for generously allowing access to his private archives. Special appreciation also to Mrs. Audrey Brain, for her hospitality and donations of family photographs and other invaluable documents. And thanks to the following: Gareth Morris, for spending a long day and subsequent telephone calls and correspondence, talking enthusiastically about his friendship and work with Brain and for lending photographs for illustrations. Mrs. Patricia Morris for giving her time to look up Quintet engagements in her husband’s diaries and for providing concert programs and newspaper cuttings. The authors thank Dr. Edwin Glick for writing the Foreword, promoting the project, contributing his reminiscences, reading the manuscript near its completion, and proofreading the edited chapters. His helpful suggestions, together with those of all involved with the editorial process, have significantly enhanced the format and accuracy of the book. James Diack, for writing the Preface, for his contribution to Chapter 9, and the account he gave of his lessons in Chapter 7. Farquharson Cousins for his permission to quote at length from On Playing the Horn in Chapter 11. Composer Ernest Tomlinson for contributing a wealth of detail about the origins and performance of his Rhapsody and Rondo for horn and orchestra and providing a copy of the score, bound with a postcard from Brain. Tony Catterick, Historian of the British Horn Society, for his wholehearted support and contribution of a number of key documents, including a copy of Norman Del Mar’s BBC tribute to Brain, which Del Mar had given to him. Wing Commander Gilbert A. Singleton, who brought his unique Royal Air Force scrapbook of the United States tour to York in August 2006. Photographs from this scrapbook are reproduced in Chapter 2. Erin O’Neill, Archives Researcher at BBC Written Archives, Caversham, who greatly assisted our research by verifying numerous entries in the “program as broadcast” files and making each research...