Joan Trimble may only be remembered as one half of the superb piano duo with
her sister, Valerie who died in 1980. It is often forgotten that Valerie
was a fine cellist.
Joan was born on 18th June 1915 in Orchard Terrace, Enniskillen in Northern
Ireland. her father,William Egbert, was a journalist and her mother, Marie
(nee Dowse) was a musician being aprofessional violinist. Joan's paternal
grandfather was the historian and poet William CopelandTrimble and a cousin
of Joan's grandmother was the Irish composer William Vincent Wallace (1812
-1865) who lived a very exciting life and
composed a highly successful opera Maritana.
There was always music at home. Joan learned the violin and played Bach's
famous Double Violin Concerto with her mother. It was her Mother who
taught her to play both the violin and the piano.
Joan's awakening to music came in the 1920s when she heard the superlative
Piano Concerto no. 2 by Bartok and, like her friend, Humphrey Searle
was bowled over on hearing the first broadcast of Berg's Wozzeck.
She also gave an early performance of the Piano Sonata no.2 by Paul
Hindemith to the Gonsiderable interest of Sir Hugh Allen who was director
of the Royal College of Music at the time.
Joan was educated at the Enniskillen Royal School for girls between 1920
and 1932 and won a scholarship to Trinity College, Dublin, graduating with
a BA in music in 1936. During 1931 to 1936 she also studied at the Royal
Academy of Music in Dublin and was given the opportunity to go on tour with
Count John McCormack playing piano solos. In Dublin she heard Heifetz, Kriesler,
Paderewski, Tetrazzini and Tauber She also saw Beecham conduct but,
understandably, preferred Mengelberg. She also received her LRAM in piano
playing in 1935.
In 1936 she went up to the Royal College of Music in London where she stayed
until 1940. She received her BMus in 1937. Some of her fellow and later students
were Neville Mariner, Anthony Hopkins, Alan Loveday, Julian Bream, Colin
Davis and Norman Del Mar as well as the composers Bernard Stevens and Adrian
Cruft. The student she most liked was Humphrey Searle. He was, without doubt,
the cleverest student of them all and we used to go to him to solve our musical
problems. We could never catch him out," Joan wrote.
On 27 June 1942 Joan married a GP, Dr John Greenwood Gant at St Columba's
Church of Scotland in London. They had three children, Nicholas, born 1944,
Joanne, born 1948, who is a BMus, and Conslie , born 1950 who is an oil
executive.
Although British, Joan had strong links with Ireland. She remembers an Irish
singer at RIAM singing an arrangement of Una Bhan which moved her
deeply. So much of her music is Irish. My Grief on the Sea of 1937
is a translation from the Irish by Douglas Hyde; The Humoum of Carrick
(1938) and The Bard of Lisgoole (1938)., both for two pianos,
were given at a recital the Royal Dublin Society in November 1938. Other
early works include Erin Go Bragh (1943) for brass band and The
County Mayo for baritone and two pianos of 1940 which was commissioned
by the BBC. That year also saw the completion of the Phantasy Trio which
won the Cobbett prize.
In 1953 she composed her Suite for Strings and in 1967 in response
to a commission from the BBC to write the opera Blind Rafferty to
a libretto by Cedric Cliffe after Donn Byrne. It is in two acts and lasts
about an hour. It was the year that both her parents died. Her father on
February 10th aged 84 years and her mother in July aged 80 years.
The outbreak of the Second World War and the death of her sister made an
great impression on Joan and she rediscovered the poetry of Rupert Brooke.
In May 1983 she received an honorary MA from Queens in Belfast and an Honorary
FRIAM from Dublin in November 1985.
Joan would say, "as a composer one has to be true to oneself. ..one cannot
get rid of one's background and upbringing. But in some cases it seriously
hindered some composers who could only write music in that style that is
merely a reflection of their environment and of their class."
She hated the class distinction divide.
She was concerned that she was sometimes called a miniaturist and labelled
as a "folk musician". She once told me, "People who say this know little
of folk music and much less, analytically of my music. What may come out
of it is sub-conscious as regards any Irish elements. The French influence
is there as well. I can be on the same wavelengths as Bartok or Janacek."
She would say that composition is hard work both physically and mentally
and that women composers often bear the burden of elderly relatives to care
for her husband began a long and progressive illness in 1974..
She was on the staff at RCM from 1959 to 1977 and, from 1960, director, later
managing director, of Impartial Reporter in Enniskillen becoming Chairman
of the Board in 1992. She has been on the Board of Ulster Television and
the Arts Council of Northern Ireland during the 1980s.
All her music is traditional, tonal but very attractive. It may be a little
unfair to select specific items but her song Green Rain is a gem and
her Sonatina for two pianos should be taken up. Some of her music
is now available on MP 8.225059.
She was a fascinating person who, like my friend Gerard Victory could talk
intelligently and in depth on a whole range of subjects. We had a long
conversation at one time about Carolan, I recall.
She was a modest lady and when I asked her about Irish music she replied,
"It is time that Charles Villiers Stanford was recognised."
Joan died on 6th August 2000. Her total output of music is probably less
than three hours in duration. Her claim to fame must be the many broadcasts
and concerts-she gave with her sister ; and those of us who heard them and
have archive recordings of their playing and also knew and loved these two
lovely ladies are not going to forget them.
© David C.F.Wright August 2000
This article must not be copied in part or the whole, neither stored
in any system or used in any circumstances without the prior written permission
of the author.
Obituary
Irish Times
JOAN TRIMBLE: Two Pianos - Songs and
chamber Music
Various
Artists
Marco Polo Irish Composer Series. 8.225059
.
Enniskillen-born Joan Trimble (1915-) studied at the Royal Irish Academy
and, later , at the RCM and is best remembered for her two-piano partnership
with her sister Valerie - a famed duo which remained in being over 30 years.
Joan, however, has always had a talent for composition and it is good to
have this well recorded CD which gives a fair sample of her work (which also
includes an opera for TV and a fairly recent Wind Quintet). Naturally enough,
music for two pianos, skilfully played here by Una Hunt and Roy Holmes, looms
large in the CD.
We begin with three Irish folksongs in arrangements whose exuberance recalls
Percy Grainger; many of the other two-piano pieces have an Irish flavour,
too, even if they are not folk arrangements as such: Buttermilk Point,
a reel, The Bard of Lisgoole and the "hop-jig" The Humours of
Carrick, all among the earliest pieces written for the Trimble duo (for
which Arthur Benjamin composed Jamaican Rumba); and even the delicious
short tone poems Puck Fair and The Green Bough. Less Irish,
yet still attractive, are the mildly astringent Sonatina and
Pastorale-Hommage à F. Poulenc, inspired maybe by the
Frenchman’s Movements Perpetuels. The Phantasy Trio performed
by the Dublin Piano Trio, is rhapsodic and rich in harmony, very much in
the English (or should that be British?) pastoral tradition, still strong
in 1940. The song cycle The County Mayo was written for that fine
Irish baritone Robert Irwin, whom I remember with pleasure; Joe Corbett does
well in it here. It is unusual in having a two piano accompaniment and it
is a measure of the composer’s skill that mostly it sounds rich rather
than merely thick. Three other songs are pleasantly sung by mezzo Patricia
Bardon. The well-produced booklet prints the words of all seven songs and
all in all this is a disc well-worth exploring. Trimble is to a considerable
degree a "light music" composer, but is none the worse for that.
Reviewer
Phil Scowcroft
