John S. Beckett
Encyclopedia
John Stewart Beckett was an Irish musician, composer and conductor; cousin of the famous writer and playwright Samuel Beckett
.
, 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.
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
.
John Beckett attended St. Columba's College, Dublin
, 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
.http://www.cmc.ie/composers/composer.cfm?composerID=52 (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.
John Beckett's father's friend, David Williams, who had served in Germany during World War II, brought home a complete set of vocal scores of Bach’s Cantata
s, 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.
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, where he studied composition with Nadia Boulanger
. He returned to Dublin in 1950 and his father died in September of that year.
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
(http://homepage.eircom.net/~cathalgannon).
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.
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. 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.
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. (http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/performers/reservata.html). The group performed in England during the sixties and seventies and made many recordings, which are still available. In addition to being a keyboard player, John Beckett played the recorder and viol. He also composed much avant-garde music for the experimental dramas aired by the BBC
's Third Programme. 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.
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. He returned to England, where he taught the recorder and had a viol consort class at the Chiswick Polytechnic, and in 1967 he acquired a Gannon harpsichord.
, 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.
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 http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Proud-Malcolm.htm and Emer Buckley http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Buckley-Emer.htm. 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.
s, performed during February in St Ann's Church, Dawson Street, Dublin, under Beckett’s direction, began in 1973 and lasted for ten years. 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.
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 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 (http://www.orchestrastcecilia.ie).
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. John founded the Henry Purcell Consort in 1975 and played a great deal of Henry Purcell
’s music to Dublin audiences. He also recorded an LP of Purcell songs with Frank, and recorded some for a BBC radio programme. 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.
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.
John Beckett went with NICO to China
in 1980, a trip that he greatly enjoyed. He performed on a Kirckmann harpsichord of 1772 and an early nineteenth-century Broadwood grand piano, both owned by Trinity College Dublin, and conducted the RTÉ
Symphony Orchestra in works by Mahler, Elgar and Sibelius. By this time, he and Ruth had moved to Bray, County Wicklow.
, off the west coast of Ireland
, which was made in a currach over a rough sea during the 1940s, when the island was still inhabited. He enjoyed the experience of living and drinking with the locals in their rough cottages and listened to the traditional music and songs that they performed. He relished the earthiness of plain, simple Mediterranean ceramics and loved Byzantine icons (especially those darkened with age).
He was heavily influenced by the writings of his cousin Samuel Beckett, James Joyce
(whom Samuel had worshipped) and Kafka. He also developed a liking for the sparse, angular shapes of Chinese and Japanese calligraphy
, which was mirrored in his extraordinary handwriting. The roughness and irregularity of a Japanese tea bowl fascinated him. His two greatest treasures were a bamboo chair, purchased in China, and an old hanging wall clock that had belonged to his mother, which had been fixed for him by Cathal Gannon and about which he often spoke. He also savoured well-flavoured, peasant food and had a strong penchant for garlic which he often carried in his pocket, using the cloves to flavour his much-loved whiskey.
John venerated James Joyce
to the same extent that he worshipped Johann Sebastian Bach
and read Joyce's Ulysses regularly. He visited Joyce’s grave in Switzerland
and attended an exhibition of paintings by Paul Klee
. He traveled extensively around Germany
, visiting all the places associated with Bach.
Although John's taste in music was wide and eclectic, there were composers whose music he detested; it was well known that he hated the music of Handel
, Vivaldi and Corelli
.
in London, where he worked until he retired, for BBC Radio 3, producing and presenting various music programmes, and reporting on 'foreign' tapes.
In 1990 he was invited to conduct the inaugural concert of the Irish Baroque Orchestra at the Third Early Music Festival in Dublin, but ill health intervened. Earlier he had had a hip operation. John's partner Ruth died in 1995 and then, in December 2002, his sister Ann died as well. He lived alone but was visited regularly by his friends in London and Dublin.
John Beckett had visited Ann in Dublin on a regular basis and more frequently when she became ill; after she had died, he could not be persuaded to return to Ireland and declined to attend a reunion of the Beckett family in Dublin. He died, sitting in his chair, on the morning of his 80th birthday, 5 February 2007 and was cremated at Lewisham Crematorium 11 days later following a simple ceremony consisting of Japanese music for the shakuhachi (an end-blown flute), which he had requested to be played at his funeral.
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
.
Youth and education
John and his twin sister Ann were born in SandymountSandymount
Sandymount is a coastal seaside suburb in Dublin 4 on the Southside of Dublin in Ireland. It is in the Dublin South East Dáil constituency and the East Pembroke Ward. It was once part of Pembroke Township, which took its name from the fact that this area was part of the estate of the Earl of...
, Dublin to Gerald and Peggy Beckett. Gerald, brother of Bill Beckett (Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
’s father), studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin and became County Medical Officer for Wicklow.
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
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
.
John Beckett attended St. Columba's College, Dublin
St. Columba's College, Dublin
St Columba's College is a co-educational boarding school founded in 1843 located in Whitechurch, Dublin, Ireland. Among the founders of the college are Edwin Richard W. W. Quin, Lord Adare , the Right Hon. William Monsell , Dr...
, 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
Bạch
Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
.http://www.cmc.ie/composers/composer.cfm?composerID=52 (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.
John Beckett's father's friend, David Williams, who had served in Germany during World War II, brought home a complete set of vocal scores of Bach’s Cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
s, which made a huge impression on John.
In 1933 the family moved to the Burnaby Estate, Greystones
Greystones
Greystones is a coastal town and small seaside resort in County Wicklow, Ireland. It is located on Ireland’s east coast, south of Bray and south of Dublin , with a population in the region of 15,000....
, County Wicklow
County Wicklow
County Wicklow is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Wicklow, which derives from the Old Norse name Víkingalág or Wykynlo. Wicklow County Council is the local authority for the county...
. Gerald Beckett worked in Rathdrum
Rathdrum
Rathdrum may refer to:* Rathdrum, Idaho, United States* Rathdrum, County Wicklow, Ireland...
, also in County Wicklow.
Musical career
John received scholarships to study at the Royal Irish Academy of MusicRoyal Irish Academy of Music
The Royal Irish Academy of Music is a linked college of Dublin City University located in Dublin, Ireland.It was founded in 1848 by a group of music enthusiasts and moved to its present address in Westland Row in 1871. The following year it was granted the right to use the title "Royal"...
and the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. John went to London in 1945 and studied composition for three years - one of his teachers was Edmund Rubbra
Edmund Rubbra
Edmund Rubbra was a British composer. He composed both instrumental and vocal works for soloists, chamber groups and full choruses and orchestras. He was greatly esteemed by fellow musicians and was at the peak of his fame in the mid-20th century. The most famous of his pieces are his eleven...
. He won a travelling scholarship and went to Paris in 1949, where he studied composition with Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
. He returned to Dublin in 1950 and his father died in September of that year.
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
Cathal Gannon
Cathal Gannon , was an Irish harpsichord maker, a fortepiano restorer and an amateur horologist.-Beginnings and education:...
(http://homepage.eircom.net/~cathalgannon).
In 1950, the Music Association of Ireland
Music Association of Ireland
The Music Association of Ireland was set up in 1948 to improve the position of classical music within the cultural life of Ireland. It was instrumental in setting up the National Youth Orchestra of Ireland and played a leading role in the long-running campaign to establish Ireland's National...
organised a bicentenary celebration of Bach's music, wherein John played the harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
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
National Museum of Ireland
The National Museum of Ireland is the national museum in Ireland. It has three branches in Dublin and one in County Mayo, with a strong emphasis on Irish art, culture and natural history.-Archaeology:...
was used for the occasion.
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. When the work was performed again the following year, using the same forces, Cathal Gannon
Cathal Gannon
Cathal Gannon , was an Irish harpsichord maker, a fortepiano restorer and an amateur horologist.-Beginnings and education:...
'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.
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. (http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/performers/reservata.html). The group performed in England during the sixties and seventies and made many recordings, which are still available. In addition to being a keyboard player, John Beckett played the recorder and viol. He also composed much avant-garde music for the experimental dramas aired by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Third Programme. 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.
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
Clavichord
The clavichord is a European stringed keyboard instrument known from the late Medieval, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was widely used as a practice instrument and as an aid to composition, not being loud enough for larger performances. The clavichord produces...
made by his friend, Cathal Gannon. He returned to England, where he taught the recorder and had a viol consort class at the Chiswick Polytechnic, and in 1967 he acquired a Gannon harpsichord.
Marriage and return to Dublin
In 1961 John had married Vera Slocombe, the former wife of cinematographer Douglas SlocombeDouglas Slocombe
Douglas Slocombe OBE, BSC, A.S.C. is a British cinematographer who has enjoyed a long career in the British film industry...
, 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.
From there he drove to the Royal Irish Academy of Music
Royal Irish Academy of Music
The Royal Irish Academy of Music is a linked college of Dublin City University located in Dublin, Ireland.It was founded in 1848 by a group of music enthusiasts and moved to its present address in Westland Row in 1871. The following year it was granted the right to use the title "Royal"...
in Westland Row, where he taught the harpsichord and viol and directed a chamber music class. John’s harpsichord students included Malcolm Proud http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Proud-Malcolm.htm and Emer Buckley http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Buckley-Emer.htm. 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
Nollaig Casey
Nollaig Casey is an Irish fiddle player ,and has an international reputation as one of Ireland's finest fiddle players. By the time she was eleven years old she could play violin, piano, tin whistle and uilleann pipes. During her teenage years she learned to play in both the classical and...
, 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.
The Bach Cantatas
The famous series of Bach CantataBach cantata
Bach cantata became a term for a cantata of the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach who was a prolific writer of the genre. Although many of his works are lost, around 200 cantatas survived....
s, performed during February in St Ann's Church, Dawson Street, Dublin, under Beckett’s direction, began in 1973 and lasted for ten years. The singers Frank Patterson
Frank Patterson
Frank Patterson was an internationally renowned Irish tenor following in the tradition of singers such as Count John McCormack and Josef Locke. He was known as "Ireland's Golden Tenor".- Early life :...
, Bernadette Greevy
Bernadette Greevy
Bernadette Greevy was an Irish mezzo-soprano. She was founder and artistic director of the Anna Livia Dublin International Opera Festival. She was the first artist-in-residence at the Dublin Institute of Technology's Faculty of Applied Arts.-Biography:Bernadette Greevy was born in Clontarf, Dublin...
, Irene Sandford and William Young were regular soloists. Nicholas Anderson of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
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.
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
The Proms
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London...
at the Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
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 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 (http://www.orchestrastcecilia.ie).
Haydn, Purcell and the New Irish Chamber Orchestra
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
radio. John founded the Henry Purcell Consort in 1975 and played a great deal of Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
’s music to Dublin audiences. He also recorded an LP of Purcell songs with Frank, and recorded some for a BBC radio programme. 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.
He worked regularly with the New Irish Chamber Orchestra and went with them to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
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.
John Beckett went with NICO to China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
in 1980, a trip that he greatly enjoyed. He performed on a Kirckmann harpsichord of 1772 and an early nineteenth-century Broadwood grand piano, both owned by Trinity College Dublin, and conducted the RTÉ
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
Symphony Orchestra in works by Mahler, Elgar and Sibelius. By this time, he and Ruth had moved to Bray, County Wicklow.
Likes and dislikes
At around this time in his life, John Beckett recollected a journey to the Great Blasket IslandGreat Blasket Island
Great Blasket is the principal island of the Blaskets, County Kerry, Ireland.-Geography:The island lies approximately 2 km from the mainland at Dunmore Head, and extends 6 km to the southwest, rising to 292 metres at its highest point...
, off the west coast of Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, which was made in a currach over a rough sea during the 1940s, when the island was still inhabited. He enjoyed the experience of living and drinking with the locals in their rough cottages and listened to the traditional music and songs that they performed. He relished the earthiness of plain, simple Mediterranean ceramics and loved Byzantine icons (especially those darkened with age).
He was heavily influenced by the writings of his cousin Samuel Beckett, James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
(whom Samuel had worshipped) and Kafka. He also developed a liking for the sparse, angular shapes of Chinese and Japanese calligraphy
Calligraphy
Calligraphy is a type of visual art. It is often called the art of fancy lettering . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner"...
, which was mirrored in his extraordinary handwriting. The roughness and irregularity of a Japanese tea bowl fascinated him. His two greatest treasures were a bamboo chair, purchased in China, and an old hanging wall clock that had belonged to his mother, which had been fixed for him by Cathal Gannon and about which he often spoke. He also savoured well-flavoured, peasant food and had a strong penchant for garlic which he often carried in his pocket, using the cloves to flavour his much-loved whiskey.
John venerated James Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
to the same extent that he worshipped Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
and read Joyce's Ulysses regularly. He visited Joyce’s grave in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and attended an exhibition of paintings by Paul Klee
Paul Klee
Paul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...
. He traveled extensively around Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, visiting all the places associated with Bach.
Although John's taste in music was wide and eclectic, there were composers whose music he detested; it was well known that he hated the music of Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
, Vivaldi and Corelli
Arcangelo Corelli
Arcangelo Corelli was an Italian violinist and composer of Baroque music.-Biography:Corelli was born at Fusignano, in the current-day province of Ravenna, although at the time it was in the province of Ferrara. Little is known about his early life...
.
Move to London
In 1983 he sold his house in Bray and left Ireland, moving to GreenwichGreenwich
Greenwich is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.Greenwich is best known for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time...
in London, where he worked until he retired, for BBC Radio 3, producing and presenting various music programmes, and reporting on 'foreign' tapes.
In 1990 he was invited to conduct the inaugural concert of the Irish Baroque Orchestra at the Third Early Music Festival in Dublin, but ill health intervened. Earlier he had had a hip operation. John's partner Ruth died in 1995 and then, in December 2002, his sister Ann died as well. He lived alone but was visited regularly by his friends in London and Dublin.
John Beckett had visited Ann in Dublin on a regular basis and more frequently when she became ill; after she had died, he could not be persuaded to return to Ireland and declined to attend a reunion of the Beckett family in Dublin. He died, sitting in his chair, on the morning of his 80th birthday, 5 February 2007 and was cremated at Lewisham Crematorium 11 days later following a simple ceremony consisting of Japanese music for the shakuhachi (an end-blown flute), which he had requested to be played at his funeral.
Further reading and additional information
- Gannon, Charles: Cathal Gannon - The Life and Times of a Dublin Craftsman (Lilliput Press, 2006).http://homepage.eircom.net/~cathalgannonhttp://www.lilliputpress.ie/listbook.html?id=20824288
- Gannon, Charles: Short Biography of John Beckett, Bach Cantatas Website. http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Beckett-John.htm
- Knowlson, James: Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett (Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 1997) http://www.samuel-beckett.net/fastweb.html
- Cronin, Anthony: Samuel Beckett: The Last Modernist (HarperCollinsPublishers, 1996)
- Fitz-Simon, Christopher: Eleven Houses – A Memoir of Childhood, Penguin Ireland, 2007, p. 56.
- Dervan, Michael: Obituary, The Irish Times, February 17, 2007, p. 14. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/obituaries/2007/0217/1171575861740.html
- Calder, John: Obituary, The Guardian, March 5, 2007. http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2026465,00.html
- Jack, Adrian: Obituary, The Independent, March 12, 2007. http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2350007.ece
- Bartlett, Clifford: Obituary, Early Music Review, April 2007. http://www.kings-music.co.uk/emr.htm
- Hoppen, Professor K. T.: Letter to The Guardian, March 16, 2007. http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2035446,00.html
- Armstrong, Lindsay: A Tribute to John Beckett, February 11, 2007, St Ann's Church, Dublin. http://homepage.eircom.net/~cathalgannon/beckett2.htm
- Celebrating John Beckett, Programme notes edited by Andrew Robinson, for special concert held on November 24, 2007.
- Robinson, Andrew ('Recumbentman') on h2g2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/F103872?thread=3863051
- Thomson, Sothcott, Fallows, Page: Obituaries: Michael Morrow, 1929-94, Early Music, Vol. 22, No. 3 (August 1994).
- John Beckett website. http://homepage.eircom.net/~cathalgannon/beckett.htm
- Additional sources listed on John Beckett website. http://homepage.eircom.net/~cathalgannon/beckett4.htm
- Portrait of John Beckett by Reginald Gray (Collection St. Columba's College, Dublin, Ireland). http://www.artmajeur.com/grayportraits
- John Beckett and Michael Morrow files held at the BBC Written Archives in Reading, England. http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/written.shtml
- Michael Morrow files held at the Archives of King's College London. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/iss/archives/collect/10mo68-1.html
- Recordings featuring John Beckett at the British Library Sound Archive, St Pancras, London. http://sounds.bl.uk/
- John Beckett's musical reviews in The Bell journal (editor, Peadar O’Donnell), volumes 17 and 18 (1951 and 1952), in Trinity College Library, Dublin. http://www.tcd.ie/Library/
- Radio Times, back numbers in the British Library Newspapers Department, Colindale, London. http://www.bl.uk/reshelp/inrrooms/blnewspapers/newsrr.html
- Archives of The Times http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/archive/ and The Irish Times. http://www.irishtimes.com/archive/