Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction by Peter Dickinson
- Part I Reports from Paris, 1929–34
- Part II Letters to Nadia Boulanger, 1929–74
- Part III Selections from Berkeley's Later Writings and Talks, 1943–82
- Part IV Interviews with Berkeley, 1973–8
- 1 With Peter Dickinson, 1973
- 2 With C. B. Cox, Alan Young and Michael Schmidt, 1974
- 3 With Peter Dickinson, 1978
- 4 With Michael Oliver, 1978
- Part V Extracts from Berkeley's Diaries, 1966–82
- Part VI Interviews with Performers, Composers, Family and Friends, 1990–91
- Part VII Memorial Address by Sir John Manduell
- Catalogue of Works
- Bibliography
- Index of Works by Berkeley
- General Index
1 - With Peter Dickinson, 1973
from Part IV - Interviews with Berkeley, 1973–8
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction by Peter Dickinson
- Part I Reports from Paris, 1929–34
- Part II Letters to Nadia Boulanger, 1929–74
- Part III Selections from Berkeley's Later Writings and Talks, 1943–82
- Part IV Interviews with Berkeley, 1973–8
- 1 With Peter Dickinson, 1973
- 2 With C. B. Cox, Alan Young and Michael Schmidt, 1974
- 3 With Peter Dickinson, 1978
- 4 With Michael Oliver, 1978
- Part V Extracts from Berkeley's Diaries, 1966–82
- Part VI Interviews with Performers, Composers, Family and Friends, 1990–91
- Part VII Memorial Address by Sir John Manduell
- Catalogue of Works
- Bibliography
- Index of Works by Berkeley
- General Index
Summary
8 February 1973, 8 Warwick Avenue, London W2
Most of this interview was broadcast on BBC Radio Ʒ on 10 July 1973 to introduce a Seventieth Birthday Concert from the Cheltenham Festival; some of it appears in Twenty British Composers: the Feeney Trust Commissions (J. & W. Chester, 1975). This is a fuller version of our discussion.
pd What were your earliest musical impressions as a child?
lb Well, it's rather a curious story. My father was passionately fond of music and had been invalided out of the Navy before I was born. He hadn't been able to learn music as a boy, or hear very much, so he acquired a pianola with all kinds of rolls of classical music – Beethoven Sonatas and arrangements of concertos – which I heard at a very early age on this machine. That was my introduction to music.
pd Were you a chorister, or anything like that?
lb I sang in the choir at school, but I was never a chorister.
pd What about your own playing? When did you start learning the piano?
lb I started improvising, like a lot of musical children, picking things up by ear and learning to play off my own bat. Then from the age of about eight, I suppose, I was given piano lessons and went on with them throughout my schooldays.
pd Did you practise willingly?
lb Yes, fairly willingly because I was keen to be able to play. But I was slow to learn sight-reading until the moment came when I realised that I couldn't get any further unless I could read.
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- Lennox Berkeley and FriendsWritings, Letters and Interviews, pp. 154 - 162Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2012