by Philip Gammage (1947-54)
Philip Gammage (1947-54) writes:
“Does anyone know what happened to the COHS Double bass?
I played it (on loan from school) until 1954, when I left school. It was a plain ‘German style” four string bass, with sloping shoulders and a flat back…no provenance inside. It had been played before me by Harris (who went to Queen’s to read classics, I believe).
It had a hard life, since I used to take it around on the back platform of the Oxford buses (the only place where it would fit) between about 1950 and 1954. It lived by the stage in the main hall and someone stood on it and cracked the back and ribs badly, so we took it to the Schools Woodwork Centre in St Ebbes and took its back off, laminated it and glued and screwed the back on again. We extracted about 2lb of used toffee papers from it, plus a couple of very old cigarette cards and it sounded much clearer after its ‘operation’.
We used to rehearse in an orchestra that met in the old 14th century library in St Mary’s Church in the High Street, but I cannot recall who was in charge of that orchestra. I do recall playing the bass most mornings in Assembly and also playing in school concerts and in two productions of Gilbert and Sullivan. I especially recall what a grand judge John Gaskin made in ‘Trial by Jury’.
Eric (Willy) Carter was usually our pianist; and he seemed to know almost all 700 hymns in ‘Songs of Praise’. I recall both Mr Davies and Mr Freeborn as excellent music teachers. We learnt several songs, relatively ‘avant garde’, by Benjamin Britten, who I think knew Mr Davies personally.
Though I was a very mediocre bass player, I was lent to various college productions including one recorded by the BBC in 1973 in Exeter College Hall.
It would be nice to think the old Double bass was still appreciated somewhere.