A Nice Little Orchestra

 Here is something a little different.  This week's photograph – and there is only one picture, so no supporting material – is not part of a current series.  And although the characters in this story were definitely based in St Albans' East End, the location of the image is almost certainly in an older part of the city.

I definitely know who two of the people shown above are, for they were my mother and my father, and that, to my knowledge no other person was known to me as being any of my parents' friends or acquaintances. However, what ties all of these people together is their competence and love of music.

This photograph turned up in my parents' collection – the typical shoebox.  So let's begin with what I did know: both of my parents were competent violinists.  But I never heard either of them play! Nor did they ever talk about that part of their lives.  Yet there was always in our family home a violin in its case permanently hidden within the bottom of dad's wardrobe – and I therefore assume it belonged to him.

So, if it is true they both played a violin before their marriage, how do I know that to be true.  Well, surely the photograph proves it, does it not?  My mother is seated in the front row, wearing a blue patterned long dress.  My father, wearing a grey suit, is standing behind the conductor's stand.  Although smaller in stature than his wife, he definitely looks taller in this image, because he standing on the lower step leading up to the french doors.

Both had experience with other instruments; father was known to have played a ukulele while mother played piano and was a well-trained contralto, participating in an award-winning choir from the 1920s through to the 1970s.

These two violinists which my parents never took the  opportunity to demonstrate their musical experience with their violins, at least not to their sons; which raises the inevitable question: who owned the violin in the wardrobe?  And what happened to the other one?

Well, in honour to both of them I eventually asked an experienced violin repairer to restring and make repairs to the instrument.  And I made it available to the Hertfordshire Schools Instrument Loan service to enable a learning child unable to acquire their own instrument and enjoy the experience of learning and playing.  Let's hope that a succession of children or students are still able to do so.

Finally, we return to the house showing in the photograph.  Inevitably it was the home of a member of this little orchestra of the 1930s – possibly it was the photographer cum conductor.  Almost certainly located in a large home close to the centre of the city where many of the streets are comprised of Victorian homes and mansions.

One of them was home to a small orchestra in the 1930s, and it would be great to know more about it.  Finally, it is difficult to imagine this photograph was just another picture.  Surely there were, and maybe still are, other copies in other personal collections.

There we are; you have just read part of a personal story of a couple whose parents both settled in St Albans East End, loved music and also managed to encourage their own children to love music – somehow!