1966-8 Post-Academy Days (2): Chaos in Church & more music

In spite of all, it wasn’t long before Harvey found ways to exercise his musicality again……

With his sister Carole, he joined the choir at Dorset Gardens Methodist Church in Brighton, and in October 1966, he witnessed an extraordinary event which left him shaken and upset.

The Annual Labour Party Conference was in full swing in Brighton, and many Party Members attended Sunday worship at the Methodist Church. After the Prime Minister Harold Wilson had tried to read from the Bible, pandemonium broke loose, and hecklers shouted from all over the building, completely ‘drowning him out’.  The Police were called in to eject the offenders, and the Revd Dr Leslie Newman continued to lead the worship calmly and serenely, as if nothing had happened.   Gladys Richardson remarked – ‘What HAVE we come to? From sleepy Bushey to THIS?’

(Image of disruption at Dorset Gardens Methodist Church)

I have often wondered if this politically-charged church experience had anything to do with Harvey’s later entry into the ordained ministry of the Methodist Church.

In addition to joining the Church Choir, Harvey quickly sought out a new violin teacher, and found a lady who lived near Preston Park, who gave us a few lessons.  We were encouraged to learn the Violin Sonata by Edward Elgar, which we thoroughly enjoyed – new to both of us.  It was wonderful to resonate with Harvey again, even though I could tell he was still very unsettled.

Also, to his surprise, Harvey became aware of the Brighton Philharmonic Society, which included a young persons’ section called ‘The Young Phil’.  This was a group of 20 & 30-year olds, who met regularly on Saturday evenings to listen to classical music recordings, and occasionally they had the opportunity to meet conductors and soloists who performed at the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra’s Concerts in The Dome, Brighton (this was where the Dorset Gardens Methodist Church gathered on Sunday evenings, too). 

The Dome, Brighton in 1966

Many years later, at the annual Brighton Festival, Harvey heard Frederick Delius’s ‘Mass of Life’ performed at the Dome by the Brighton Festival Chorus and the Brabant Symphony Orchestra – those vibrant Delius resonances reached even to me!  Here were indelible memories of Halfdan Jebe, Eric Fenby, and Nietzsche’s ‘Also sprach Zarathustra’!

I will need to reflect at much greater length about the resonances and enchantment contained within this extraordinary work, ‘A Mass of Life’. It has so much to say (and sound out) about faith and doubt in God, and matters of ‘ultimate concern’ – all of which were beginning  to reverberate in, shake and unsettle, Harvey’s body – and mine.

Earlier in this year, 1967, Harvey had asked to meet Eric Fenby at his home in Hampstead West Hill, London.  He autographed a copy of his book ‘Delius as I knew him’, with a generous personal note of affection for Harvey – I know this moved him greatly.

What power and emotion can be found within the written word!

During these days, I was beginning to be being played a bit more – on weekend visits to a friend from the Salzburg adventure, playing with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; with an old pianist friend from the Academy, now teaching in Hassocks; with a group of young people on a Methodist Continental Holiday in Kitzbuhel, Switzerland, when Harvey wrote some more music’; etc. We had travelled to and from Switzerland by air for the first time in our lives – a Dan Air flight from Gatwick to Munich. We both found the experience nerve-wracking. I wondered if the air-waves affected the tension in my strings, and I sensed that Harvey’s nerves were also taught.

Waltz – composed by Harvey in Kitzbuhel

By this time, Harvey was working at the Westminster Bank in Castle Square, Brighton, along with many other young people.  This had all come about following our return from Salzburg in August 1966 when my despairing Harvey had asked Gladys:  ‘What on earth can I do with my life?’ (or words to that effect), he asked.  Gladys immediately said, ‘Well, all three of your uncles worked in a Bank; why don’t you give that a ‘go’?’

So it was, and here it was that Harvey first met Doris Meissner from Vienna, a close friend to Angela Lawrence, another clerk at the Bank.  It was because of this chance meeting that our next greatest musical/theological adventure was able to come about, this time back in Vienna.  Next time……………