John Stewart Beckett (5 February 1927 – 5 February 2007) was an Irish musician, composer and conductor; cousin of the famous writer and playwright Samuel Beckett.
Youth and education
John and his twin sister Ann were born in Sandymount, Dublin to Gerald and Peggy Beckett. Gerald, brother of Bill Beckett (Samuel Beckett's father), studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin and became County Medical Officer for Wicklow.Irish Times Obituary by Michael Dervan, Early music pioneer who created shockwaves, 17 February 2007, p. 14; James Knowlson: Damned to Fame — The Life of Samuel Beckett, p. 7; 532 Superintendent Registrar's District Dublin, Registrar's District No 4, Births, Nos. 391 and 392 (General Register Office, Dublin).
Gerald Beckett played rugby for Ireland, and captained a golf club. A quiet man with wide interests, he was quite irreligious, with a dry sense of humour, describing life as "a disease of matter". He was very musical and enjoyed playing piano duets with a friend, David Owen Williams, who later became a director in the Guinness Brewery, and his son, John, and his nephew, Samuel Beckett.James Knowlson: Damned to Fame, p. 7 - 8; Charles Gannon: Cathal Gannon — The Life and Times of a Dublin Craftsman, p. 254. John's twin Ann later pioneered the profession of occupational therapy in Ireland becoming the country's first professionally qualified practitioner.Patterson, M. (1992) 'Ann Beckett Interview', Irish Journal of Occupational Therapy, 22(1), pp. 31-33. and his older brother Peter became the first Professor of Psychiatry in Trinity College Dublin and later the Dean of Medicine at Trinity.Webb, M. (2012) 'Trinity's Psychiatrists: From Serenity of the Soul to Neuroscience', Ir J Psych Med, 29(2), pp. 136.
John Beckett attended St. Columba's College, Dublin,The Columban, December issue, 1940. where he was taught music by Joe Groocock, whom he admired little short of idolatry, and who furthered his lifelong devotion to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. (John shared the same initials, J. S. B., with the famous composer.) John wrote his first fugue at around the age of fourteen in the Groocock family home while visiting one weekend.Andrew Robinson (Recumbentman) on h2g2
John Beckett's father's friend, David Owen Williams, who had served in Germany during World War II, brought home a complete set of vocal scores of Bach's Cantatas, which made a huge impression on John.
In 1933 the family moved to the Burnaby Estate, Greystones, County Wicklow. Gerald Beckett worked in Rathdrum, also in County Wicklow.John Beckett, interviewed by Charles Gannon on 31 July 1998
Musical career John received scholarships to study at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music in London. John went to London in 1945 and studied composition for three years — one of his teachers was Edmund Rubbra. He won a travelling scholarship and went to Paris in 1949,Records of the Royal College of Music, London where he studied composition with Nadia Boulanger.Conversation with David Lee, 3 August 2007 He returned to Dublin in 1950 and his father died in September of that year.C. Gannon: Cathal Gannon, p. 203.
Between 1950 and 1953, he befriended the pianist, organist and harpsichordist John O'Sullivan, the painter and musician Michael Morrow, the singer Werner Schürmann and the harpsichord maker Cathal Gannon ().Conversations with Venetia O'Sullivan (wife of John O'Sullivan, Brigid Ferguson (sister of Michael Morrow) and letters from Werner Schürmann. In 1950, the Music Association of Ireland organised a bicentenary celebration of Bach's music, wherein John played the harpsichord continuo part in a performance, at the Dublin Metropolitan Hall of the Mass in B minor, sung by the Culwick Choral Society and the Radio Éireann Choir and conducted by Otto Matzerath (:de:Otto Matzerath). The historic Weber harpsichord from the National Museum was used for the occasion.Richard Pine: Music and Broadcasting in Ireland, p. 133; The Irish Times, 30 September 1950, p. 9.
John returned to London in 1953, but was back in Dublin again by 1958, when the first complete performance of Bach's St Matthew Passion took place with Victor Leeson conducting the St. James' Gate Musical Society. As it was believed that a harpsichord was not available, John played on a piano that had drawing pins attached to the hammers in order to give it a harpsichord-like sound.The Irish Times, 24 March 1958, p. 5. When the work was performed again the following year, using the same forces, Cathal Gannon's first harpsichord was used. The continuo part was played by John on the harpsichord and by Betty Sullivan on the cello – a collaboration that would last for many years.C. Gannon: Cathal Gannon, p. 232 - 5; The Irish Times, 16 March 1959, p. 7; promotional leaflet for concert on 15 March 1959.
In 1960, Musica Reservata, a group specialising in Renaissance music was founded in London by Michael Morrow, its director, and Beckett, who later conducted it. ().Passionate sound of early music (Michael Morrow obituary) by Desmond MacNamara and Tom Sutcliffe, The Guardian, 28 April 1994. The group performed in England during the sixties and seventies and made many recordings, which are still available.Programme notes for Musica Reservata's first Queen Elizabeth Hall concert, 2 July 1967 (King's College London). In addition to being a keyboard player, John Beckett played the recorder and viol.The Recorder Magazine, Vol. 27, 2007, pp. 124 - 5. He also composed much avant-garde music for the experimental dramas aired by the BBC's Third Programme.The Times and Radio Times, 5 February 1958 (The Ballad of the Northern Wastes, by Wolfgang Weyrauch), etc, until July 1968. For his cousin, Samuel Beckett, he composed music for two of his works, his mime Act Without Words and his radio play Words and Music.Knowlson: Damned to Fame, pp. 418 - 9, 433, 496 - 7.
By 1961, John Beckett was involved in a serious car accident in Ireland, in which he broke his two arms, a hip and an ankle. While recovering in hospital, he practised his music on a clavichord made by his friend, Cathal Gannon.Knowlson: Damned to Fame, p. 483; C. Gannon: Cathal Gannon, p. 377. He returned to England, where he taught the recorder and had a viol consort class at the Chiswick Polytechnic,John Beckett obituary by Clifford Bartlett, Early Music Review, 118, April 2007, p. 44. and in 1967 he acquired a Gannon harpsichord.C. Gannon: Cathal Gannon, pp. 295 - 6, 379.
Marriage and return to Dublin In 1961 John had married Vera Slocombe, the former wife of cinematographer Douglas Slocombe,The Irish Times, 31 October 1961, p. 7 but the marriage broke up in 1969. In March 1970 he returned to Dublin, now with his partner, viola player Ruth David. They lived together in a very basic cottage at the foot of Djouce Mountain in County Wicklow.Michael Dervan: obituary, The Irish Times, 17 February 2007, p. 14.
From there he drove to the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Westland Row, where he taught the harpsichord and viol and directed a chamber music class. John's harpsichord students included Malcolm Proud and Emer Buckley . Other students who partook in the chamber music sessions, normally held in the Dagg Hall, included David Milne, John Milne, Clive Shannon, Patricia Quinn, Michael Dervan (later music critic of The Irish Times), Siobhán Yeats and even Liam Óg Ó Floinn, who played the uilleann pipes. The traditional fiddler, Nollaig Casey, also attended and Beckett always persuaded her to play an unaccompanied slow air at the class concerts. Sometimes a traditional flute player performed at the concerts, though he did not attend the class.Michael Dervan: obituary, The Irish Times, 17 February 2007 p. 14.; Celebrating John Beckett, 1927 - 2007, programme for concert given on 24 November 2007 in St Ann's Church, Dawson St, Dublin, p. 16; John Beckett website.
He composed a fine score for "Inis Fail" (Isle of Destiny), the first RTÉ/BBC co-production, an aerial journey around Ireland written and narrated by his friend James Plunkett, author of "Strumpet City". The songs were sung by Frank Patterson, Beckett himself conducted the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra, and the film was shown on St. Patrick's Day, 1971.
The Bach Cantatas The famous series of Bach cantatas, performed during February in St Ann's Church, Dawson Street, Dublin, under Beckett's direction, began in 1973 and lasted for ten years.Michael Dervan: obituary, The Irish Times, 17 February 2007, p. 14.; The Irish Times, 31 January 1973, p. 12. The singers Frank Patterson, Bernadette Greevy, Irene Sandford and William Young were regular soloists. Nicholas Anderson of the BBC took a great interest in these Sunday afternoon concerts and several times recorded those cantatas that the BBC had not yet recorded for its complete series.Celebrating John Beckett, p. 14 - 15.
Because of this connection, the New Irish Chamber Orchestra and The Cantata Singers, conducted by John Beckett, were invited to perform an all-Bach concert at one of the Henry Wood Proms at the Royal Albert Hall on 22 July 1979. This was the first time an orchestra and choir from the Republic of Ireland performed in one of these Proms.The Irish Times, 25 July 1979, p. 8; Lindsay Armstrong: A Tribute to John Beckett.
The Cantata series was revived several years after John left Ireland, with the Orchestra of Saint Cecilia (essentially the same personnel as the New Irish Chamber Orchestra), under the direction of Lindsay Armstrong ().The Irish Times, 4 February 1995, p. 27, 6 March 1997, p, 12.
Haydn, Purcell and the New Irish Chamber Orchestra
John Beckett regularly performed music by Haydn, notably his piano trios and songs, which were sung by Frank Patterson and which were recorded by RTÉ radio.RTÉ Guide, 9 February 1973, p. 5, 18 May 1973, p. 13; The Irish Times, 10 February 1973, p. 16, 19 May 1973, p. 14. John founded the Henry Purcell Consort in 1975 and played a great deal of Henry Purcell's music to Dublin audiences.The Irish Times, 27 April 1974, p. 12, 8 June 1974, p. 14. He also recorded an LP of Purcell songs with Frank,Charles Acton: Strange reluctance, The Irish Times, 8 October 1969, p. 12. Henry Purcell: Songs, Philips SAL 3717, ALP 2728 (1969). and recorded some for a BBC radio programme.Radio Times, see 15 February 1968, Radio 4. He also played with the Dublin Consort of Viols (an offshoot of the Consort of Saint Sepulchre), which specialised in the performance of works by Purcell, Byrd, Lawes, Jenkins (whose music John adored) and other composers of that genre.The Irish Times, 26 June 1982, pp. 15, 16.
He worked regularly with the New Irish Chamber Orchestra and went with them to Italy in 1975, where he was unexpectedly presented with a papal medal from Pope Paul VI after an impromptu performance with Our Lady's Choral Society in St. Peter's Square.The Irish Times, 19 May 1975, p. 9; Michael Dervan: obituary, The Irish Times, 17 February 2007.
John Beckett went with NICO to China in 1980, a trip that he greatly enjoyed.Sunday Independent ('Off to China'), 20 July 1980. He performed on a Kirckmann harpsichord of 1772The Irish Times, 2 May 1963, p. 7. and an early nineteenth-century Broadwood grand piano, both owned by Trinity College Dublin,The Irish Times, 24 April 1972, p. 12. and conducted the RTÉ Symphony Orchestra in works by Mahler,The Irish Times, 30 March 1981, p. 10. ElgarThe Irish Times, 16 May 1978, p. 8. and Sibelius.The Irish Times, 11 September 1980, p. 10. By this time, he and Ruth had moved to Bray, County Wicklow.C. Gannon: Cathal Gannon, unabridged version in National Library of Ireland, p. 341; John Beckett website.
Likes and dislikes