Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Desert Island Discs
Presented by Roy Plomley
A musician and soldier, best known as a bandmaster and trumpeter who played at the 1937 coronation.
Eight records
I suppose a rather hackneyed record in some ways, but I love it. Having been a choir boy myself.
Air from Suite No. 3 in D majorFavourite
It's very, very pure music and reminds me of the days when I really first got the feeling of the music as an appreciative art.
Coronation Choir and Orchestra
This great coronation anthem that was started by the Nellahall trumpets on this occasion.
Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90
This was the work I conducted with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
Nimrod (from Enigma Variations)
Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Sir John Barbirolli
We play Nimrod at the Cenotaph Service.
One of my own marches. Very light-hearted, commissioned for a playout of the cinema goers after the film.
Marching with the Beatles (excerpt: Michelle)
The last record the Band of the Irish Guards made with me.
The keepsakes
The book
a big anthology of modern British poetry of this century
let's find a big anthology of modern British poetry of this century. Yes, that would suit me very well.
The luxury
I'd like to take my chess set with me, my pocket chess set. It's been all over the world with me, providing I could have some kind of compendium of games with it.
In conversation
Presenter asks
So you were pitchforked into the army at the age of fourteen. What as?
A very diminutive bandboy. A very low form of life in the army. Very low indeed. I suppose the band corporal's dog was a higher form of animal life in those days. But one mustn't dismiss it quite like this, because one is very, very regimented.
Presenter asks
Now obviously you were an ambitious man. What were your ambitions and how did you fulfil them?
I suppose at one stage I determined that I would become a bandmaster, and with that in view I studied very hard and became a student at the Royal Middle School of Music again in Nell Hall. … I was very fortunate in my probationary period it was at the time of the nineteen thirty seven coronation, and I was one of those very fortunate people that were chosen to play the trumpets, you know, the famous Nellahall trumpets, on the organ loft in Westminster Abbey on this tremendous occasion.
Presenter asks
I see you have the degree of Bachelor of Music. Did you get this at Nellerhall?
The recording
Timestamps play the recording from that turn
Speaker 3
Hello, I'm Kirsty Young, and this is a download from the Desert Island Discs archive.
Speaker 3
For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music.
Speaker 3
Full details can be found on the Castaways page on the Desert Island Disc's website.
Speaker 3
The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen sixty eight.
Speaker 3
This is a recording as it was being broadcast, rather than the studio recording, and for that reason you may hear some degradation in the sound quality.
Presenter
Each week, a well-known person is asked the question, if you were to be cast away alone on a desert island, which eight gramophone records would you choose to have with you?
Presenter
As usual, the castaway is introduced by Roy Plumley. This week, ladies and gentlemen, our castaway is a musician who's also a soldier, Lieutenant Colonel C. H. Yeager.
Presenter
To play records a lot.
Presenter
Not so much nowadays, being rather busy, and since the most of my library is a seventy-eight library.
Presenter
What do you want music to do for you on this desert island?
Presenter
Well, I suppose to be absolutely honest to remind one of one's musical career, apart from anything else. What's the first one you've chosen?
Presenter
First record I've chosen is um I suppose a rather hackneyed record in some ways, but I love it. Having been a choir boy myself, Ernest Lofton Hear My Prayer.
Lieutenant Colonel C H Jaeger
Uh
Lieutenant Colonel C H Jaeger
He told me.
Lieutenant Colonel C H Jaeger
I feel
Presenter
Press.
Presenter
What's your second choice?
Presenter
My second choice is the air from the suite in D, assuming that you would have the whole suite if you were in fact incarcerated on Desert Island. But this I think
Presenter
It's very, very pure music and reminds me of the days when I really first got.
Presenter
The feeling, the music.
Presenter
as an appreciative art.
Presenter
This is the park suite number three in yes.
Presenter
So you were pitchforked into the army at the age of fourteen. What as?
Presenter
A very diminutive bandboy. A very low form of life in the army. Very low indeed. I suppose the band corporal's dog was a higher form of animal life in those days. But one mustn't dismiss it quite like this, because one is very, very regimented.
Presenter
You have a bandmaster, very talented, whose desire it is to to train you to the utmost, tremendous musicians to help you. You have educationalists such as the Royal Army Education Corps and the Army Physical Training Corps and one thing another who um in fact organize your life in such a way that you
Presenter
You grow in mind, body, and sature. And you're told an instrument, of course. Yes. Were you allowed to choose your instrument?
Presenter
I suppose you are in a way, but in my case I joined the army playing an instrument very badly.
Presenter
What regiment were you in? The King's own Yorkshire Infantry. Mm-hmm. I suppose I was.
Presenter
Put into this regiment because my mother her maiden name was Pickering. I she was born in Pickering and I suppose my antecedent then was from Yorkshire. From Diminutive Bandboy, what's the next step?
Presenter
Well
Presenter
I suppose one has to show promise as a boy, as one probably I did. You were sent off to the Royal Military School of Music as a pupil for a year, where you were taught by wonderful civilian professors and that kind of. And then you go back to your regiment. You go back to your regiment for about four or five years. So ceremonial occasions and seaside band stands in the summer? Yes, all that kind of thing. Now obviously you were an ambitious man. What were your ambitions and how did you fulfil them? Well...
Lieutenant Colonel C H Jaeger
Bye.
Lieutenant Colonel C H Jaeger
Thank you.
Presenter
I suppose at one stage I determined that I would become a bandmaster, and with that in view I studied very hard and became a student at the Royal Middle School of Music again in Nell Hall. Was the competition still together? Yes, many a chord, and I suppose few are chosen. I was very fortunate in
Presenter
My probationary period it was at the time of the nineteen thirty seven coronation, and I was one of those very fortunate people that were chosen to play the trumpets, you know, the famous Nellahall trumpets, on the organ loft in
Presenter
Westminster Abbey on this tremendous occasion. Well, this must have been a great thrill. Well, I suppose one of the great musical highlights of one's life.
Presenter
To exemplify this, perhaps I'd like to choose a record Parry's I Was Glad, this great coronation anthem that in fact was started by the Nellahall trumpets on this occasion.
Presenter
Parrys, I was glad to remind you of your Nello Hall days, but in fact that recording we just played was made at the coronation of our present Queen.
Presenter
Um, I see you have the degree of Bachelor of Music. Did you get this at uh Nellerhall? No, I took this externally at Durham. In fact.
Presenter
Owing to the prolongation of service act in the army, when we did become qualified as bandmasters during the war, the bandmasters that were then in existence weren't allowed to retire. So one went back to one's original regiment. This happened to be in Stransall in Yorkshire. And I was there for about 20 months and I suppose for something better to do, I took up studies with Redwood Birstow, and this brought about this.
Presenter
Yes. Is the the rank of of bandmaster commissioned rank? No, it's a warrant officer class one. Curious enough in any every other army in the world, the warrant officer is an officer, but not so in the British Army. Which regiment were you appointed to? The Fourth Queen's Own Hussars, of which
Presenter
Sir Winston Churchill was in fact the colonel. Now this was during the war. Did you go overseas? Yes, I did. I went to see the regiment in Italy.
Presenter
And in Greece, and whilst we were in Greece we were caught up in that civil uprising, very unpleasant in those days. We had to hand in our instruments and draw out rifles. But the army musician is a competent soldier. Oh yes, if necessary. Well in cases like this. Although before the war we were all stretcher bearers. Yeah. I believe as a warrant officer you conducted the Vienna Symphony Officer.
Presenter
Yes, that is right. I just happened to be in Vienna and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra wished to give a concert to um
Presenter
celebrate their liberation. I was the only trained musician on the spot, so they allowed me to conduct and thereafter not only did they give me one concert but five more. Yes. Conditions must have been very primitive in in Vienna.
Presenter
Right at the end of the word.
Lieutenant Colonel C H Jaeger
I have always been
Presenter
Well let's have your next record.
Presenter
Well I think
Presenter
If I may be allowed to associate with those very wonderful concerts or they were for me.
Presenter
The third symphony by Brahms. This was the work you one of the works you with with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
Lieutenant Colonel C H Jaeger
To one, yes.
Presenter
Yep, and shall we have the piano symphony orchestra on this record? Well, that couldn't be better.
Presenter
When did you get your commission?
Presenter
I was commissioned when I went to Sandhurst, the Royal Military Academy, as director of music, since in 1948 all the corps in the Af in the Army became commissioned ranks, and Sandhurst was called the Royal Military Academy Band Corps.
Presenter
How long did you stay at Standhurst? One year. I think they soon fluffed me. I think it was because I caught so many of my quota of trout in the lake. I think they were very pleased to see the back of me.
Presenter
Where did you move on to? Well, I became the Director of Music of the Irish Guards with no qualification whatsoever for this in terms of being indigenous to that country. Yes, and this was an appointment you've held right up to the present day. Up to two months ago. Yes. And in recent years as well, you've been senior director of music to the whole Brigade of Guards. Yes, he that has been Director of Music longest in the Brigade of Guards has to take over this rather hot seat. Does this mean leaving the podium for a desk? Well, no, in fact, because one is still the director of music of the Irish Guards band, but on occasions such as Trooping the Colour, the Cenotaph Service, Festal Remembrance, or any coronations, all the work that the mass bands do will really come through the Senior Director of Music. Yes, and this post, of course, must mean a lot of travelling.
Presenter
Not more than you would travel with your own individual band. The band of the Irish Guards, I suppose, is very, very much traveled. In my twenty years we went to Canada.
Presenter
Three times. Quite recently, only three months ago we went to Canada. Then we went to uh America, we went to Honolulu and to Australia.
Presenter
We've been to South America, we've been to Italy and to Germany several times. What's your fifth record?
Presenter
My fifth record, I suppose, would be associated with those times, conducting the mass bands in Whitehall on that occasion with the Queen present. The Cenotaph Service. The Cenotaph Service. And we play Nimrod. Now, Nimrod, of course, is an excerpt from the Enigma variations, and this is variation number nine, and it was written to one of his great friends, A.J. Jaeger, no connection in family, who Jaeger, being German for hunter.
Presenter
They called the god of hunters Nimrod, and hence this little extract.
Presenter
An excerpt from The Enigma Variations, Sir John Barbie Raleigh conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra. Now, in a month or two, you make another move.
Presenter
Yes?
Presenter
I'm going to become what they call the chief instructor.
Presenter
of the br of music for the British Army, and that is the directory music at Nella Hall. Yes, where you were as a boy of fourteen, so you won't be a new boy. No, not exactly new boy, and some forty years later. Yes.
Presenter
How far back in British military history does the regimental band go? Well, the first known combinations that were used by regiments go back to 1600, when they used to have trumpets and drums on horses that took part actually in warfare as well as on ceremonial occasions. And through the centuries, in fact, to the present time, the more musical combinations were established in, I suppose, middle part of the last century when valves and things became added to
Presenter
Open tubing
Presenter
And more sophisticated instruments were available for use.
Presenter
You've composed a lot yourself? Yes, quite a lot of uh music, all rather light-hearted.
Presenter
Now you devoted your life to military band music. Have you ever felt that it was rather limited? Yes, I suppose. It's true to say that in one's army life and one's association with army music, you do not in fact come in contact with enough really good music. In order to put this right, during the war I used to run a musical appreciation class and one of the records I came across I would certainly like to take on to the desert island with me. This is the Classical Symphony by Prokofiev. It's so jolly.
Presenter
The gabot from Brokofiev's classical symphony.
Presenter
Played by the Swiss Romand Orchestra conducted by Ernest Anserme.
Presenter
Outside the barrack walls, what are your interests?
Presenter
Well, my more Philistine interest, I suppose, is fly fishing.
Presenter
More academic playing chess.
Presenter
Now, you're on this desert island. You've had, of course, ordinary military training, so you're a resourceful man, you would cope.
Presenter
Yes, I think so. You could build shelter, you could cultivate.
Presenter
Would you try to escape?
Presenter
I don't think I would, in fact. I think I'd enjoy I think I I feel that I'm fairly fit company for myself. I think I'd enjoy it, providing the weather wasn't too bad.
Presenter
The weather's not bad. Let's have record number seven. Well, the next record I'd like to choose, one of my own marches, if one may have this liberty. Very light-hearted, and it's called, in fact, Jigger's Corn. I was commissioned to write this for a playout.
Presenter
of the cinema goers.
Presenter
After the film. Yes. And corn?
Presenter
Well, they asked for some corny music.
Presenter
Jiggers, of course, is Jaeger. A corruption of Jaeger, yes. And Jiggs is your nickname. Quite so.
Lieutenant Colonel C H Jaeger
And
Presenter
Jigger's corn, here it is.
Presenter
Jigger's Korn, played of course by the Band of the Irish Guard. And what's your last record? Well I think I would like to be reminded of the last record the Band of the Irish Guards didn't make, in fact with me. It's called Marching with the Beatles.
Presenter
A man named Arthur Wilkinson, who's a very, very fine musician who died recently, decided.
Presenter
to write some of these very fine tune that the boys have written into rather classical marches in the band of the Irish Guards we've chosen to put them on the record.
Presenter
And this excerpt is called Michelle.
Presenter
The Irish Guards Marching with the Beatles, and that tune, of course, was Michelle. If you could take only one of the eight discs you've chosen, which would it be?
Presenter
Well for pure.
Presenter
Relaxing.
Presenter
Meditative music, I think, are sweet indeed, especially the air.
Presenter
By bark. Right. And one luxury to take with you.
Presenter
I'd like to take my chess set with me, my pocket chess set. It's been all over the world with me, providing I could have some kind of compendium of games with it. I think, since I always carry them about, I think I'd like to be shipwrecked with both of them. Right, that's easy enough. And one book, putting aside the Bible and Shakespeare. Yes, well, poems by Rupert Brooke and the life of Rupert Brooke or the poems of Betchman, any one of the John Betchman, any of the island modern poets, I think I'd enjoy very much indeed. Well, let's find a big anthology of modern British poetry of this century. Yes, that would suit me very well. Good.
Lieutenant Colonel C H Jaeger
Yeah.
Presenter
And thank you, Lieutenant Colonel C.H. Yeager, Jiggs Yeager, for letting us hear your desert island dissipation. Well, thank you very much. I'm looking forward very much indeed to being shipwrecked.
Presenter
Goodbye, everyone.
Speaker 2
The guest in this evening's programme, first broadcast on Monday, was Lieutenant Colonel C. H. Yeager, OBE.
Speaker 2
The interviewer was Rike Plumley and the producer Ronald Cook.
Speaker 2
Next Wednesday evening at 7 o'clock the castaway will be the comedian Sandy Powell.
No, I took this externally at Durham.
Presenter asks
When did you get your commission?
I was commissioned when I went to Sandhurst, the Royal Military Academy, as director of music, since in 1948 all the corps in the Army became commissioned ranks, and Sandhurst was called the Royal Military Academy Band Corps.
Presenter asks
How far back in British military history does the regimental band go?
Well, the first known combinations that were used by regiments go back to 1600, when they used to have trumpets and drums on horses that took part actually in warfare as well as on ceremonial occasions. And through the centuries, in fact, to the present time, the more musical combinations were established in, I suppose, middle part of the last century when valves and things became added to open tubing and more sophisticated instruments were available for use.
Presenter asks
Have you ever felt that it [military band music] was rather limited?
Yes, I suppose it's true to say that in one's army life and one's association with army music, you do not in fact come in contact with enough really good music.
“A very diminutive bandboy. A very low form of life in the army. Very low indeed. I suppose the band corporal's dog was a higher form of animal life in those days.”
“I was very fortunate in my probationary period it was at the time of the nineteen thirty seven coronation, and I was one of those very fortunate people that were chosen to play the trumpets, you know, the famous Nellahall trumpets, on the organ loft in Westminster Abbey on this tremendous occasion.”
“In my twenty years we went to Canada three times. Quite recently, only three months ago we went to Canada. Then we went to America, we went to Honolulu and to Australia. We've been to South America, we've been to Italy and to Germany several times.”
“I don't think I would [try to escape]. I think I'd enjoy it. I think I feel that I'm fairly fit company for myself. I think I'd enjoy it, providing the weather wasn't too bad.”
“I'd like to take my chess set with me, my pocket chess set. It's been all over the world with me.”