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No 166 - 2003
6. Leonard & Felicity Smith
WE have heard of the recent death of Leonard Smith, following a year or two after that of his wife Felicity.
Leonard Smith first appears in the Douai lists in 1956, when he took over as violin tutor, in succession to his own teacher, John Fry, who died suddenly during the summer holiday of that year. John Fry had taught the violin at Douai for some thirty years, and was also a teacher at Trinity College of Music, London, where Leonard had been one of his star pupils. Leonard also taught at Douai Junior School, at Ditcham Park, Hants, where he took charge of the music department and soon organised a school orchestra and choir, for which he wrote and arranged music. Before coming to teach at Douai, Leonard had visted as a violinist in the orchestra which played for the annual Gilbert & Sullivan operas.
After the departure of Fr Luke Major, Leonard Smith took over the musical direction of the operettas, Fr Dunstan Cammack OSB being the producer, and Felicity the repetiteuse. He conducted Iolanthe in 1961, The Pirates of Penzance in 1962 and The Mikado in 1963. After that, operettas were discontinued as it was felt they were taking up too much time to prepare in a school which was becoming increasingly academically conscious. So the Smiths set about reviving the school choir, which had fallen into abeyance, and put on the first Carol Service for many years in 1964 . They worked hard at building up a tradition of choral singing and established the Douai Choral Society, which gave its first performance in 1968, when Haydns Creation was performed in the Abbey Church with the girls of St Josephs Convent School, Reading. Len and Felicity invited students from Trinity College to sing the solos and to form the orchestra, which later became known as the Sinfonia Duacensis.
Two choral and orchestral concerts were given in the Abbey church in the Christmas and Summer terms, at first combining the the Ditcham Choir, and from 1973 with the Maidenhead Convent (later College) Choir. The first work produced with Maidenhead was Haydns Nelson Mass. Other major works performed included Mozarts Requiem, Mendelssohns Hymn of Praise, Brittens St Nicholas, Handels Messiah, Beethovens Choral Fantasia, with Irene Kholer playing the piano part, Haydns Theresa Mass, Gounods St Cecilia Mass , Vivaldis Gloria, Brahms Song of Destiny as well as various Bach Cantatas, Mozart Masses and many shorter pieces.
In 1982 to celebrate his 25th year of teaching at Douai at the Christmas Term concert Leonard played the Bach Concerto for two violins and a Vivaldi Concerto with his former pupil and long standing friend of Douai, Douglas Weiland, Felicity being the conductor.
During their tenure at Douai School Leonard and Felicity raised the academic standard considerably, introducing O and A level classes. Leonard also composed several works for Douai, various carols as well as two Gloria settings for Christmas concerts, an English Mass setting suitable for four part choir and congregation, and a Litany, Psalm and Alleluia for the ordination of Frs Peter, Godric and Antony.
Leonard helped the monastic community at the time English was being introduced into the liturgy, taking a weekly singing practice, teaching singing technique and building up a repertoire of English music.
Among musicians whom they invited to give recitals and sing at the choral concerts are several who went on to have international careers, such as: Philip Langridge, James Judd, John Huw Davies, Barbara Boothman, Catherine Denley, Valda Aveling.
Several generations of Douai pupils owe their musical training to the Smiths. They organised at the end of each term a meeting of The Douai Society of Musicians at which those who studied instruments could perform for each other. It was not a public concert, but a private event where everyone who could play was encouraged to, in the company of sympathetic fellow players. At the end of the evening the Smiths themselves always played some items for the encouragement of their pupils.
The Smiths were familiar faces at Douai for a many years; Leonard had built his first boat there- they were keen boaters on the Thames; they kept their caravan behind the workshops, where they stayed overnight since music kept them late in the evening, and their poodles became part of the landscape. So it was rather sad that their long association with Douai came to an abrupt end at the end of 1983, when reorganisation of the department made it impossible for them to continue.
For a long time Leonard also conducted the Reading Youth Orchestra and coached the string players.
They continued their teaching at Trinity College of Music, Felicity remaining there until her death. An annual competition for violin, viola, cello or doublebass and pianoforte competition has been set up in their memory, the first of which took place during February this year.
Fr Wilfrid Sollom 1926 - 2003 - Obituary
Fr Wilfrid Sollom - Personal Tributes
The Abbey of Saints Adrian and Denis, Lamspringe, Germany by Abbot Geoffrey Scott
Spirituality in the Workplace by David Westcott
From The Douai Magazine 100 Years Ago
Douai Abbey Newsletter 19 including Community Notes
Go to index of Douai Newsletter.
Leonard & Felicity Smith in their caravan at Douai photographed in 1981
Leonard introduced his fianc, Felicity Young, also from Trinity College of Music, at Ditcham to teach piano, which she also did at Douai from 1959. They were married in 1960. Both also taught at Trinity College; Leonard, violin and conducting and Felicity, piano, history and harmony. As their work there increased they relinquished teaching at Ditcham in 1965.
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The Douai Magazine is published at Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton, Reading, Berks, RG7 5TQ. Phone: 0118 971 5300 Fax: 0118 971 5303 E-mail editor@douaiabbey.org,uk
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