11:11am Thursday 9th September 2010
RE-DISCOVERING the hand written copy of his father’s Symphony in E flat (Opus 11) in 2008, Stephen Osmond wondered if there was any way in which it could be performed.
His daughter Jane once wrote to Jimmy Savile when he was hosting Jim’ll Fix It, but to no avail, and Stephen was well aware of the prohibitive costs involved in transcription and orchestral fees.
But then Stephen hit upon an idea. As an old boy of Salisbury Cathedral School, he was visiting Salisbury in 2009 for a reunion.
Stephen wrote to David Halls, the director of music at Salisbury Cathedral, to ask if he would be interested in looking at the symphony, written between 1927 and 1928 and dedicated to none less than the great English conductor, Sir Adrian Boult.
For Stephen’s father had strong links with both the cathedral and the Salisbury area.
His father was Cuthbert Osmond, who, on his 14th birthday, became articled to Walter Alcock, MVO, Salisbury Cathedral’s organist, before becoming assistant organist until 1927.
This would be unheard of now, but this was 1918, and the young organist was already playing the organ at his parish church in Alderbury at the tender age of eight.
Sadly, Stephen never knew his father as he was only nine months old when he died.
He is buried in Alderbury churchyard, next to his parents (Walter and Maud and brother Arthur), as the family lived at Alderbury Hill House.
“Re-discovering the rough score prompted me to delve into my father’s musical career and attempt to confirm and or clarify the stories I had been told about him all those years ago,” he said.
Stephen was in possession of the hand written draft conductor’s score for the symphony, which he had stored away, and to his delight discovered that his brother Neville possessed the hand written copy of the instrumental parts.
“This spurred both of us into action and when Neville catalogued all Cuthbert’s remaining music in our possession, I approached the musical director of my church, Warwick Cole, to seek his considered opinion of the symphony,” he added.
The result of this meeting and of the meeting with David Halls last year, is that the symphony is going to be performed, with Warwick Cole transcribing the score and David Halls conducting the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra.
“It will be great to perform the work under the shadow of the church where Cuthbert Osmond’s genius was discovered,” said David Halls.
“The symphony is Elgarian in style and it was quite something to have completed a symphony at the age of 24. It will be so interesting to bring this piece off the page,” he added.
The rehearsal and performance will take place on a date in October and will be a private performance for family and friends, but will be recorded.
“But,” added David, “you never know what the future holds,” not discounting the possibility of a future public performance.
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