At a recent family gathering a relative turned up with a photo I hadn't seen before. It was my husband's grandmother, Mary Leed.
Mary Leed, 1922
Mary is wearing a graduation gown and hat and holding a rolled-up certificate. The photo prompted me to search on Trove and I found a relevant article. It informs me that Mary was awarded the Diploma of Associate (A.L.C.M.) for Singing.
Mary Leed, The Argus 18 June 1922
ALCM means Associate London College of Music and Mary was entitled to put those initials after her name (ie Mary I Leed ALCM). It meant that she had studied singing for many years, moving through each of the eight grades and then the Diploma which is equivalent to a second-year university degree. She was, indeed, a very fine singer and entertained at concerts in northern Victoria.
The LCM exams started in London 1887 and were very popular in Australia. Students studied musical performance and theory and examinations were held twice a year.
Advertisement for London College of Music, The Advocate 26 May 1921
Mary grew up on a farm in Central Molga near Pyramid Hill, went to school locally and then attended Methodist Ladies College in Melbourne for a year. She married a local farmer, Ralph Alford, in September 1922 - the year the graduation photo was taken.
A generation later Mary's daughter, Shirley Alford, was awarded a Licentiate of the London College of Music, an LLCM, for piano. That award is equivalent to a final-year university module. She taught piano for many years and played the organ at church. She also supported local Eisteddfod sompetitions.
Shirley Alford, LLCM c1947
The London School of Music is still very active and is now incorporated into the University of West London.
My mother-in-law, Shirley Alford, grew up in the small farming community of Mologa in Victoria and, like many of her generation, learned to play piano. Nearly 90 years later she is still playing piano and organ in church. For many years Shirley taught piano to students in Kerang, in her home and at the local Convent school, and has taken a keen interest in the local eisteddfod.
Shirley Alford
In the late 1930s, when she was a teenager, Shirley started work at Mitiamo, a bigger town nearby. She used to ride her bike there each Monday morning and home again on Friday evening. Sometimes she would ride home mid-week as well if her parents needed her to help milk the dairy cows- by hand in those days. She boarded with the Methodist minister and his wife at Mitiamo and taught at the Mitiamo school each afternoon (they were called 'sewing mistress' in those days but taught much more than sewing). For two hours each morning she practiced piano in the home of Annie and Roy Phelan who owned a general store in Mitiamo. She sat for the Associate London College of Music piano examination (scales and pieces) in Bendigo and passed. Diplomas are offered at four levels: Diploma of the London College of Music (DipLCM), Associate of the London College of Music (ALCM), Licentiate of the London College of Music (LLCM) and Fellowship of the London College of Music (FLCM). These qualifications permit the holder to append the qualification's letters after their name. So Shirley had an ALCM after her name. When she was 17, in 1942, she did the Licentiate exam so she was entitled to use the letters LLCM.
By that time Shirley was teaching full time at Mitiamo school. She was there five years altogether and then taught at several other schools in northern Victoria (Kotta and Woorinen North).
In 1948 she married and had to leave teaching because that was the rule then. And who did she marry? All the time she was practicing on Mrs Phelan's piano there was a photo of their son, Neil, in a frame on the piano. He was serving in the Air Force. Shirley says she was very taken by his wavy hair! So when Neil went home after the war they must have become better acquainted:)
This post is in response to Sepia Saturday's theme photo in which there are several barristers wearing their robes. I selected a photo of Shirley wearing her LLCM robe and I suggest you see what others have chosen to blog about.
Musical performance is the Sepia Saturday theme this week - pianos in particular. Well, even though pianos and music have been a feature of our family's life in the past, I don't have any photos to prove it.
It seemed that almost every home had a piano or an organ and piano lessons went hand-in-hand with that. My mother, Mavis, played organ in church as does my mother-in-law, Shirley. Shirley also taught piano for many years. And their mothers were pianists and organists as well. My grandparents, Pop and Gran Smith, had a pianola that we kids found very entertaining - I wonder where it is now?
Our three children played musical instruments right through school and beyond, in various bands and concert bands. Here they are in about 1984 in our garden - Kerrie has my acoustic guitar (that she couldn't play) and Gemma and Glenn are providing the percussion.
Gemma and Glenn had a few years of piano lessons, and I found one scratchy scanned photo of Glenn actually sitting at the piano, but they went on to other instruments once they joined the school band. Kerrie played flute, Gemma the oboe and Glenn the trombone.
Gemma studied music performance as a subject at school as well as doing the usual music exams. In her final year at school we went on a family camping holiday to Broken Hill in outback New South Wales. Gemma practiced every day, because her final exam was looming, and it is an abiding memory for me. The sound of the oboe in the dry Australian desert was awe-inspiring and very moving. Here she is playing under the Red Gums beside Menindee Lake.
Kerrie playing the cymbals in a school band performance at Barwon Park, Winchelsea.
Gemma conducting the school band in her final year.
Glenn playing the trombone (at home)
Glenn now lives in Switzerland and plays euphonium in a community band that performs at end-of-winter street festivals in villages around Zurich. There are several YouTube videos of their street performances but I think you might enjoy this video of a different type of performance by his band. [Note: I don't think this plug-in will work with Chrome on Android. This link might work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q65hmhV28Xk&feature=youtube_gdata_player ]
In our home we have a piano that is rarely opened now because I don't/can't play any more, but our grandchildren like to bash the notes when they visit. Here's Craig encouraging teddy to play.
