During the spring of 1903, Drysdale moved to Lasswade near Edinburgh where for the first time in his life he undertook the responsibility of running his own household. His home ‘Christina Bank’ was rented from the Kirk Session of the local parish o f Cockpen for £31. 2s. 6d. per annum, a substantial sum considering the normal rental for houses in the area was between £4 to £14! — ‘Christina Bank’ was, however, in the upmarket area of Broomieknowe. When not working away from home, Drysdale spent much of his time composing although he did set aside some time to attend local events. On one occasion, he was an adjudicator at a “contest of gramophone records”2 in the local public hall. The commercial gramophone had been in existence for more than a decade by this time, but may still have been a novelty in the country parishes. What form such a contest took is unknown, although Drysdale notes that the job was rather arduous as the party was large.
In May o f 1904, Drysdale had written to James Lauder, Manager and Secretary of the Glasgow Athenaeum inquiring about the post o f Composition and Theory master,3 subjects previously taught by the Principal, Dr. Edward E. Harper and others.4 In this initial letter he sets out his qualifications for the post including mention of: prizes won at the Royal Academy of Music; a generic list of his works; venues where his compositions had been performed and his experience in conducting, staging opera, chorus drilling, choir training and teaching.5 However, the most enlightening (albeit only to be expected) information provided gives insight into Drysdale’s reasons for applying for the post. He states:
I have the national music o f Scotland thoroughly at heart, and while catholic in my tastes, I am in keen sympathy with the progress o f musical culture in Scotland. I am also alive to the possibilities o f this post and the opportunities it might afford me for fostering true talent and asserting and developing the national spirit o f music.6
1 Valuation Roll: County o f Mid-Lothian, Parish o f Cockpen (Lasswade District), 1903-1904. p. 249, no. 1041 [House: ‘Christina Bank’, Broomieknowe]. This extract provides valuations for a variety of domestic and commercial property in the district. Of the 50 properties listed, ‘Christina Bank’ attracted the fourth highest rental.
2 Learmont Drysdale to Janey Drysdale, [1908], CblO-x. 16/30 3 Learmont Drysdale to James Lauder, 3 May 1904, Cbl0-y.4
4 Glasgow Athenaeum School o f Music: Calendar 1903-1904 (Glasgow: C.L. Wright, 1903) 114 5 Learmont Drysdale to James Lauder, 3 May 1904, CblO-y.4
Drysdale obtained testimonials from several well-known figures with whom he had been associated during his years in London. These included Frederick Corder, Wilhelm Kuhe, and Sir August Manns who described him as “prominently gifted and thoroughly well educated”.7 Henry Wood’s testimonial is particularly glowing, stating:
I am delighted to hear o f your application for the Athenaeum post and I feel they should have appointed you straight away. It is useless my making any remarks [concerning your] fitness or musical attainment for such a position, for all musical England knows your worth and your unbounded abilities, so I can only wish you all possible success.8
These views provide evidence today o f the high regard in which Drysdale was held during his life.
On 24 May 1904, the Athenaeum School o f Music Committee appointed Drysdale as Professor o f Harmony, Counterpoint, and the Rudiments o f Music,9 and it was not long before he was attempting to influence the institution’s working practices even though he had not officially taken up his post. When the Music Section o f the Board o f Studies met on 13 June, they spent much o f their meeting discussing a letter from Drysdale concerning regulations surrounding the compulsory Rudiments o f Music examinations. The system in place did not allow candidates who failed the Rudiments paper to enter for the practical examination. Drysdale suggested that it would be fairer if the ‘pass’ mark for this paper was reduced to 50%. Students failing to reach this figure would be allowed to enter the practical examination, but the marks they received in the latter section would be reduced by the number they were short in the Rudiments paper. The committee unanimously approved this proposal and recommended it to the governing body o f the institution for adoption, but when put before the Executive Council, it was rejected and instead Harry A.L. Seligmann ARAM made the following resolution:
In view o f the importance o f this matter, it is inexpedient to make any alterations on the present system until it has been very fully considered and the present being a small meeting the arrangements now in force should be continued for another year.10
It is surprising that the committee who examined Drysdale’s suggestion initially was unanimous in its decision, as to this day, rudiments play an important role in the education o f well-rounded musicians — possibly it wished to present an approachable
7 August Manns to Learmont Drysdale 27 April 1904, Farmer 310/13 8 Henry J. Wood to Learmont Drysdale, 3 May 1904, Farmer 308/8
9 “The Glasgow Athenaeum (Incorporated): Board o f Studies Minute Book”, 24 May 1904, H l/2/1, Strathclyde University Archives, Glasgow
and flexible attitude to their new member o f staff. Furthermore, this incident reinforces the view that Drysdale lacked awareness o f the importance o f the ‘nuts and bolts’ o f music; to him, a pupil should not be denied progression as a performer because he lacked theoretical knowledge. It was the same argument to which he had so strongly objected when Mackenzie advised him many years before (cf. 42—43).
Drysdale took up his post at the Athenaeum in the autumn o f 190411 being contracted to teach classes in the following subjects, at levels varying from preliminary to diploma: harmony; counterpoint, canon and fugue; analysis and composition; orchestration; rudiments o f music and sight-singing.12 The position included work in the evenings and at weekends, which presumably reflects the varied backgrounds and academic levels of the students who attended (i.e. daytime classes such as harmony and composition for those who studied full-time and out-of-working hours classes such as rudiments and
• 13
sight-singing for those who were otherwise employed during the day). It was an arduous task, particularly for a man not immediately recognized for his academic prowess.
It is difficult to assess the effectiveness o f Drysdale’s teaching as only the results of the First and Second Grade Harmony classes were published. In these groups, five pass certificates were awarded and one student received both an honours certificate and a bronze medal. These results are comparable with both his predecessors’ and his successor George Stewart, BMus.14
At the annual meeting o f the School o f Music staff in April 1905, Drysdale was one of eight candidates proposed for election to the three staff places on the institution’s Executive Council. He presumably realised that a position on this governing body would allow him direct influence in the passing o f regulations and in the formulation o f new developments and, thus, the best way o f achieving such changes as those he had advanced in the previous year. Drysdale was unsuccessful in the election, 15 however, not
11 Glasgow Athenaeum School o f Music: 57th Annual Report o f the Governors fo r the Year Ending 31/8/1904 (Glasgow: C.L. Wright, 1904) 10
12 Glasgow Athenaeum School o f Music: Prospectus, 1904-1905 (Glasgow: np, 1904) 8 13 Ibid., 18, 28
14 Ibid., 57; 1905-1906, 57
15 “The Glasgow Athenaeum (Incorporated): Board o f Studies Minute Book”, 7 April 1905, H l/2/1, Strathclyde University Archives, Glasgow
everyone concerned with the future of music in Scotland agreed with this decision. John Runciman, the hard-hitting music critic of the Saturday Review and a good friend of Drysdale’s at this time, believed that Scottish music education was severely hampered both by inappropriate management and teaching practices, and suggested that:
Some good might come o f the Glasgow Athenaeum School of Music if it were left under the care o f Mr Learmount [sic] Drysdale unhampered by outsiders who know nothing about music and are unsympathetic where music is concerned. ... Those who become teachers can ... instead of the eternal round o f counterpoint and fugue devote some of their lessons to awakening the true spirit o f music in their pupils. This, and the Athenaeum School under the control o f a musician — not a counterpoint-monger — and the Reid Chair [Music Department, University of Edinburgh. The position was held by the German music scholar and author Frederick Niecks from 1891 to 1914] occupied by a musician — not an antiquary — may result in Scotland some day becoming musical.16
However, considering that Drysdale and a number of his acquaintances assisted Runciman in the preparation of this article, one of a series which judged the current state
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o f music in Scotland, it is not surprising that it should proclaim his cause.
Soon after his failure to secure a place on the Athenaeum’s Executive Council, Drysdale wrote to Edward Elgar, then professor of music at Birmingham University, inquiring about the availability of teaching posts there. The Birmingham chair had been endowed expressly for Elgar just four months previously by the businessman Richard Peyton18 and as Elgar explains in his reply:
The establishment o f a teaching staff in connection with the University is not contemplated and developments must o f necessity be slow. I will keep your letter from [s/c] me in case anything should happen. I know o f you and have gained much pleasure from performances o f your compositions at Crystal Palace.19
The status o f being a colleague of Elgar as well as the possibility of reducing his workload leaving him more time to concentrate on composition would have been important reasons for Drysdale seeking such a position. However, even before Elgar
16 John F. Runciman “Music in Scotland: III — Education” Saturday Review o f Politics, Literature,
Science and Arts 1 July 1905, 13-14. Some years previously during a discussion with the musicologist J.
Cuthbert Hadden, Drysdale had ridiculed Runciman’s view that Handel was a ‘great composer’. Drysdale noted that Runciman, usually a champion of the aesthetic in music, and an opponent of the scholarly and pedantic, had on this occasion, exposed his true beliefs. In reply, Drysdale pronounced that Handel was the “very embodiment o f the colourless, being almost entirely devoid of dramatic idea, aesthetic aim, or romantic feeling.” See Learmont Drysdale to J. Cuthbert Hadden [draft], nd, Farmer 310/5.
17 The Saturday Review “Music in Scotland” series consists of: “I — The Scottish Orchestra”, 3 June 1905; “II — The Concert Trade”, 17 June 1905; “III — Education”, 1 July 1905.
18 Percy Scholes The Mirror o f Music 1844-1944... 2, 678. Granville Bantock took over this post in January 1909.
replied to this approach, Drysdale had resigned from his post at the Glasgow Athenaeum20 stating that he wished to devote his time to composition. Nevertheless, it is also likely that both the particularly demanding duties and his failure to secure a place on the institution’s governing body were involved in this decision to quit the only professional position that he was ever to hold.
During his tenure at the Athenaeum, Drysdale had become a member o f the Glasgow Society o f Musicians (GSM), a lively club catering for the city’s musical fraternity. The GSM was established in 1884 and many notable figures such as Alexander C. Mackenzie, Hans Richter, Sir Arthur Sullivan and Joseph Joachim were associated with it whilst its local membership included Glasgow’s most prominent musicians.21 Although the GSM held many official dinners, concerts and lectures, its main function was as a meeting place for local musicians and it provided an excellent venue for new arrivals in the city to establish contact with the wider musical community. It was to this society that Drysdale brought John Runciman when the latter was preparing his series of articles for the Saturday Review12 — it was the only place in the city where a truly representative selection o f the musical fraternity could be found. The management, realising that the society could not survive on the membership o f professional musicians alone, allowed non-musicians to join as Associates, thus providing a truly diverse clientele.23 Drysdale was elected a member on 25 October 1904,24 but failed to pay his subscription until 15 February o f the following year having been prompted by a letter from the Secretary which informed him that he would be denied further entry to club until his debt was settled.25 It was a time o f great change for the Society for they were planning removal to their first permanent home and to finance the project, instituted a debenture scheme whereby members and associates could contribute to costs. Drysdale applied to buy two o f these debentures at a cost o f £5, but although the Society pursued
20 “The Glasgow Athenaeum (Incorporated): Board o f Studies Minute Book”, 23 May 1905, Hl/2/1, Strathclyde University Archives, Glasgow
21 [E. J. V. Brown] The Glasgow Society o f Musicians (Glasgow: Published privately, 1944) 2, 20-38. The GSM survived until the 1980s.
22 John F. Runciman to Learmont Drysdale, 31 May 1905, CblO-x.17/221
23 [E. J. V. Brown] The Glasgow Society o f Musicians (Glasgow: Published privately, 1944) 16-17 24 Hugh Stirling (Secretary of the GSM) to Learmont Drysdale, 25 October 1904, “GSM Letter Book: 27 May 1902-10 November 1905”, Glasgow Room, ML, Glasgow, p. 232. This deposit was donated in March 1994 by the Scottish music enthusiast Alastair Chisholm following his discovery of the remnants o f the GSM’s archives in a local second-hand bookseller ‘Voltaire and Rousseau’. The shop’s owners had acquired sundry records and parts o f the GSM library when the society disbanded in the late 1980s. 2 5____________________________________________________ , 3 February 1905, p. 265. The annual subscription was 21s., with initial entry money being levied of 10s. 6d.
payment for some months, he seems to have reneged on the arrangement, as the accounts show no record o f the transaction.26 In debt to the Society for most o f his membership, Drysdale was threatened with legal proceedings for non-payment o f subscriptions in April 1908 and although this action was not pursued, he was expelled from the GSM in the following year.
Drysdale had not completely neglected composition during his employment at the Glasgow Athenaeum. In 1904, at the request o f [Sir] Henry Wood, Drysdale wrote an orchestral work Border Romance}* Wood conducted the work’s premiere at a Promenade Concert in the Queen’s Hall in October 1904 and it received a second performance in Glasgow by the Scottish Orchestra under Sir Frederick Cowen in December o f the following year. Drysdale completed the choral ballad Tamlane, begun in 1901, during 1905 and in November o f that year, it received its first performance given by the Clydebank and District Choral Society at Clydebank Burgh Hall.29 It is probable that Drysdale became acquainted with the Clydebank Union’s conductor William J. Clapperton through the GSM and, thus, used this connection to solicit a performance for this relatively large-scale and expensive to produce work.30 The vocal/piano score o f Tamlane was published and the work received several more performances over the next few years including one as late as 1948 given with piano and string quartet accompaniment by the choir o f New Kilpatrick Parish Church, Bearsden.31
Whilst still working in Glasgow, Drysdale became friendly with Graham Price, Professor o f Elocution at the Athenaeum and the subject’s Authorised Teacher at the
2 6 ____________________________________________________ , 24 April 1905, Page 309; 8 June 1905, p. 345. These premises, at 73 Berkeley Street, were still owned by the society at their dissolution in the
1980s.
2 7 ____________________________________________________ , 29 April 1908, “GSM Letter Book: 11 November 1905 - 2 March 1909”, p. 399; 20 April 1909, “GSM Letter Book: 13 March 1909 - 17 February 1914”, p. 17
28 Henry Wood to Learmont Drysdale, 5 June 1904, CblO-x.17/373
29 “Tamlane: Successful Performance by Clydebank Choral Union” Clydebank and Renfrew Press 1 December 1905, 2g
30 Clapperton was president o f the GSM in 1903-1904. See [E. J. V. Brown] The Glasgow Society o f
Musicians ... 23.
31 Programme: “Tamlane” performed by New Kilpatrick Parish Church Choir, Glasgow, 27 February 1948 in Henry Farmer comp. “Cuttings on Music in Scotland”, Farmer 219, p. 100
University o f Glasgow.32 In 1905, Price organised a production o f Euripides’ Hippolytus using the new English translation by Gilbert Murray, professor of Greek at Glasgow and Oxford Universities. As the institution’s Professor o f Composition, Drysdale would have been the natural person to choose when Price was looking for music for his project. The programme acknowledges the assistance o f several prominent individuals and groups, although it does not describe the manner o f their help. Francis Newbery, Principal o f the Glasgow School o f Art, is most likely to have organised preparation of the scenery whilst the appearance o f the GSM suggests they helped in recruiting the sizeable orchestra which was directed by Edward Joachim, a member o f their
'X'X
committee. The work received its premiere at the Athenaeum Hall on 30 November 1905 and ran for a further three performances with the music being well received as evidenced by the following critic’s remarks:
The music was felt to be in dramatic harmony with its subject — a fact which points to Mr. Drysdale’s high achievement, for it is no slight feat on the part o f the composer to have so sympathetically illustrated some o f the more important moments in so beautiful and sublime a drama.34
Drysdale was to have his less successful ventures during this otherwise productive period. In August 1904 the American actress and dramatist Grace Hawthorne, acting on advice from Alexander C. Mackenzie, commissioned Drysdale to write an overture and incidental music for a five-act historical play William Wallace which she was dramatising from Jane Porter’s romantic novel The Scottish Chiefs (1810).35 It was to be a large-scale venture with arrangements being made for a lengthy run in Glasgow with subsequent visits to Edinburgh and other principal Scottish towns. Unfortunately, a misunderstanding had led to arrangements for the music being overlooked and Drysdale was informed that his contribution would have to be completed within two months when he must be prepared to rehearse the orchestra and conduct in person at the opening performance. He accepted the commission on the basis of receiving 1 lA percent of the
32Programme: “Euripides’ Hippolytus”, Glasgow, Athenaeum Hall, 30 November and 1 -2,4 December 1905, Cbl0-y.2/5b
33 Post Office Directory o f Glasgow 1905-1906 (Glasgow: Aird and Coghill, 1905) 392. Joachim taught