Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn

Presenter0:00

This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:08

There's a family tradition for martial music, isn't there?

Presenter0:11

Yeah.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn0:11

Yes.

Presenter0:13

Uh

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn0:13

I am the third generation of my family.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn0:16

to follow the profession of military music,

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My father was the director of music.

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of the Royal Horse Guards the Blues.

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and before that he was the bandmaster of the second battalion

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The King's Royal Rifle Corps.

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I was born in India.

Presenter0:33

Yes.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn0:33

And

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn0:34

It might be said that I was born within the sound of my father's band broom.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn0:39

Uh because

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn0:42

My mother was a very good musician. She was a very good pianist, organist and harpist.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn0:47

And there never seemed to be any doubt that I

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn0:50

should become a musician.

Presenter0:52

Yeah.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn0:52

Yeah.

Presenter0:53

Who took to it? I mean it wasn't a question of being put to it. You were told to put it in the top of it. No, it it just happened.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn0:55

Moan out

Presenter0:58

And your former musical education was at the Royal Academy of Music. Before that you'd been to Germany.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn1:03

Yes, I studied at the Conservatorium de Musique in Cologne.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn1:07

and at the age of sixteen I went to the Royal Academy of Music.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn1:11

And when you left the academy?

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn1:14

I left the Academy uh to become

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn1:18

One of the members, one of the original members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. This in the days of Dr. Adrian, well later Sir Adrian.

Presenter1:26

Yes. And when did you move over to military music?

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn1:30

It happened during the promenade season in 1931.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn1:36

My predecessor.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn1:39

Wahoo.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn1:40

was better known be when he went into the Royal Air Force as a Wing Commander R. P. O'Donnell, was at Portsmouth. And as he left the Portsmouth Division of the Royal Marines to go to the Royal Air Force, there was a vacancy.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn1:54

And uh I

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn1:56

along with about uh a hundred or so others.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn2:00

Applied.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn2:01

And after an audition

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn2:04

I received a letter from the Admiralty informing me that I had been appointed

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn2:10

the Director of Music of the Portsmouth Division Royal Marine.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn2:14

Now I had to obtain the approval of not only Sir Henry Wood, but of the BBC to take up this appointment.

Presenter2:24

If it was withheld,

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn2:25

Yeah.

Presenter2:25

No, it wasn't.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn2:27

Yeah.

Presenter2:27

Good. How many Royal Marines bands are there?

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn2:29

Uh

Presenter2:30

Uh

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn2:30

Well, during my service

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn2:32

And this includes the wall.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn2:35

Yeah.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn2:36

Up to twenty three bands, and well over a thousand musicians.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn2:41

That's a lot of money.

Presenter2:41

Yeah.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn2:42

That's a lot. And each band, of course, had its separate identity.

Presenter2:46

Yes.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn2:47

The Portsmouth division is the

Presenter2:49

Royal Yacht Band.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn2:50

It is the the headquarters band of uh the Royal Means Barracks, the Royal Means Group at Portsmouth, called a group nowadays, um and it provides and has the tradition and the privilege and distinction of providing the band that performs

Presenter3:06

forms in the Royal Yard.

Presenter3:07

In 1953, I think it was, you were made Principal Director of Music for the Royal Marines. That meant you were in charge of the whole twenty-three bands, the training, the turnout, the whole thing.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn3:18

Yes. I became the principal director of music at the Royal Marine School of Music, which uh is at Deal in Kent.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn3:27

It is r there that the musicians, instrumentalists, bandmasters are trained for service in the Royal Marines and with the Royal Navy.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn3:38

It is a a very complex educational system insofar as it covers courses from young entries at the age of fifteen. They all have to play two and even three instruments.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn3:55

Um

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn3:57

promotion courses when these young members return from their bands.

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To the headquarters.

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and right up to commissioned rank, directors of music, and of course examinations are taking place all the time.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn4:12

Let's have record number four.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn4:15

This is

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn4:17

The regimental slow march of the Royal Marines, the Preo-Brajenski March.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn4:23

It is of Russian origin and comes through

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Old Man Batten's family to the Royal Marines. It's a very fine, sedate and powerful tune and

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn4:36

I have chosen it again because of the historical associations and the countless times that I have heard it, even marched to it.

Presenter4:44

You've accompanied several royal tours overseas, haven't you?

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn4:46

Two, yes. The first in nineteen forty-seven in HMS Vanguard to accompany King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn4:55

the Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, as they then were, to South Africa.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn5:01

And later.

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Queen Elizabeth.

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the second and his Royal Highness the Prince Philip,

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in The Gothic on the tour of the British Commonwealth.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn5:12

Yeah.

Presenter5:12

But Sand has a great recording tradition. Many of your discs have been on this programme in the past, particularly that thrilling ceremony of sunset.

Presenter5:22

That is part of beating the retreat, isn't it?

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn5:24

Yes, it is the climax to the ceremony of beating retreat. When you say the ceremony of sunset.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn5:31

It is the term usually given to it when performing in naval establishments.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn5:38

When on the Horse Guards Parade, we call it beating retreat. But one of the most marvelous moments that I can recall.

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It was after leaving South Africa in 1947, about the year

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Beginning of May.

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The ship was turned, and a wonderfully calm sea

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and we beat retreat on the quarter deck.

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Exactly as this marvellous flaming orb

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sank over the horizon. It's often said, you know, that this tune, Sunset,

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Makes strong men weep. I don't know whether that's true.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn6:16

You have a golden disk.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn6:18

Yes, that means what, a million radio?

Presenter6:21

Really?

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn6:23

This was presented to me.

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and it was in recognition of twenty eight years.

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recording in which uh I was told that over a million copies of the

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn6:35

Royal Marines band Records had been sold.

Presenter6:38

Yeah.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn6:38

Well, now you've retired, Sir Vivian, and you're busier than ever.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn6:43

I find the word retirement something of a myth.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn6:46

I'm glad it is so, because I'm not one of those individuals who could ever sit still and do nothing.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn6:52

I I am fortunate enough to be invited to conduct

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all over the place. I um we go to the United States of America every year where I conduct at American universities and following this lovely invitation that I had in nineteen sixty eight to conduct

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn7:10

The four United States Service Bands in Washington, DC

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn7:15

I always pay an annual visit. This year I conducted the US Navy band and the US Marine Corps band in Washington. But quite apart from that, I live primarily in the symphonic world today.

Presenter7:28

Mhm. And you're still doing a great deal of composing and arranging.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Vivian Dunn7:32

Yes, this goes on all the time.