Tommy Reilly

Speaker 40:00

Hello, I'm Kirstie Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive. For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music. The programme was originally broadcast in nineteen sixty one.

Speaker 10:23

Desert Island Discs

Speaker 10:33

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?

Speaker 10:42

As usual, the castaway is introduced by Roy Plumley.

Presenter0:45

How do you do, ladies and gentlemen?

Presenter0:47

Our castaway this week is a virtuoso of an unusual instrument unusual at any rate in the concert hall. It's the harmonica or mouth organ, and here is Tommy Riley.

Presenter0:57

Tommy, do you think you're temperamentally suited for a desert island existence?

Tommy Reilly1:02

Yes, I think so. You do? Yes, I think so. I don't think I'd like it very much, but uh

Tommy Reilly1:07

I've always been a bit of a lone wolf, you know. I think I'd get on all right.

Presenter1:12

You'll play the gramophone a lot at home.

Tommy Reilly1:14

Not a lot. I like to play the gramophone when I can sit down and listen to it.

Presenter1:18

And you don't have time for that.

Tommy Reilly1:20

Uh No, thank goodness.

Presenter1:22

Did you find it a difficult job choosing your eight records for your exile?

Tommy Reilly1:25

Well, for being a castaway online, yes, because I thought I've got to live with these eight records, so it really was not a very easy job. How did you set about it?

Tommy Reilly1:36

Well, I picked the records that uh reminded me of good things in my life. I didn't want to pick the ones that reminded me of not such good things.

Presenter1:44

So you're going to look back to the past. What's the first one you've done?

Tommy Reilly1:48

Well, the first one is the first movement of the Mendelssohn Italian Symphony. Mm-hmm. Why?

Tommy Reilly1:54

Well then

Tommy Reilly1:55

It's been a favourite of mine for quite some time. It's also a family favourite at home. We play it because it cheers us all up.

Presenter3:01

The opening of Mendelssohn's Italian symphony, Guido Cantelli conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra. What's your second choice, Tommy?

Tommy Reilly3:09

Well, I thought I would like to have something which uh reminded me of France, Paris in particular. So I've uh chosen a little accordion number which seems to me very typical of Paris.

Speaker 43:35

But I'm not a child.

Speaker 44:06

Yeah.

Speaker 44:09

Uh

Presenter4:21

Maurice Lacange and his accordion

Presenter4:24

A French words soi romantique.

Tommy Reilly4:27

Tommy

Presenter4:27

You're a Canadian, aren't you?

Tommy Reilly4:28

Yeah.

Presenter4:28

Uh

Tommy Reilly4:28

Yes, I was born in Canada, in Ontario. Do you come from a musical family?

Tommy Reilly4:33

Yes, on my father's side, my father was a graduate of Kneller Hall. Was he? Yes, very fine musician.

Presenter4:38

So your musical training came pretty early.

Tommy Reilly4:41

Yes, I began uh on the violin first when I was very young and then I took up the harmonica and I learned it so quickly I just couldn't be bothered slogging away at the violin.

Tommy Reilly4:52

And when did you give your first professional performance? Not until I came to England. You see, my father had a big harmonica band in Canada. And in the beginning, I couldn't play the harmonica, so I thought I'd learn so I could join the band, which I did. Well, you see, he came to England because he was offered the musical director of the harmonica movement in England before the war, so I came with him. And then I.

Presenter5:01

Uh

Speaker 15:06

Well

Speaker 15:13

Uh

Tommy Reilly5:15

Termed professional in 1936. I didn't do very much with it.

Tommy Reilly5:20

And in 1937 I had an offer to go to the continent. I went there and I lived there for two years playing in, oh, I think five or six different countries in and out.

Presenter5:29

And then

Tommy Reilly5:30

In variety and and nightclubs? Yes, variety, nightclubs, cabarets, concerts, everything. And what was the next step?

Tommy Reilly5:37

The next step wasn't such a good step because I was playing in uh Leipzig and uh just before the war broke out I was arrested by the Gestapo there.

Tommy Reilly5:47

and uh put in a Gestapo prison for a while.

Tommy Reilly5:50

That wasn't very nice. However, I uh was taken from there to uh a prison camp and I was in five different camps during the war for

Tommy Reilly5:59

Five years, eight months. A long spell. Was it was it very bad, Tommy?

Tommy Reilly6:03

conditions weren't good at all. We only had one meal a day and sort of ate mental loaf of bread. It wasn't too good. But I must say that uh when people people do say that's five years out of your life, I don't look on it as that. I think it's five years part of my life. I learnt an awful lot there about people. I learnt an awful lot about myself. And of course

Tommy Reilly6:22

As far as my playing goes, it was a boon in some ways. You were able to play the harmonica? Well, yes, I managed to do a little business with a German welfare officer and he got me harmonicas from the German harmonica factory. I was very lucky. You gave concerts? I gave concerts and uh if they didn't have an instrument in the orchestra, like an oboe clarinet, I used to play the part on my harmonica, which was a a very big help to me later on.

Presenter6:27

Uh

Presenter6:34

Yeah.

Tommy Reilly6:47

Good for your sight reading. Oh, excellent. Absolutely good. And after the war?

Presenter6:49

I've got

Tommy Reilly6:51

Well, I came home. I didn't do very well when I first came back to England. And uh then I got an engagement with uh a summer show which is quite famous in England called Twinkle.

Presenter7:02

Oh, clarks and roses twinkle yet.

Tommy Reilly7:03

Cocks and roses twinkle in there.

Presenter7:03

Caught.

Tommy Reilly7:05

Uh the greatest thing happened to me, I met my wife and we were married.

Tommy Reilly7:09

And that was the turning point.

Presenter7:10

Uh

Tommy Reilly7:11

Well, i it was the turning point as far as my life went, I suppose, but uh things didn't go as far as business went so good after that. But uh fortunately for me my wife was working steadily and uh

Tommy Reilly7:23

And I don't mind telling you that she kept me for the next three years.

Presenter7:27

Good for her. Until things began to settle down and Uh You reach where you reached now.

Tommy Reilly7:32

No.

Presenter7:33

Well, let's break off here, Tommy, and have rank on number three.

Tommy Reilly7:37

This takes us in a way back to Canada. Fritz Chrysler playing the Sharon Rosemarine. Why I say that is because when I was playing violin, I entered for a music festival, you see, and in this particular piece of music, as you'll hear, there's a lot of bouncing bow. And I was never any good at this, but when I went on the stage, I was so terribly nervous that I did the most beautiful bouncing bow you've ever heard. I couldn't keep it still.

Presenter8:51

Fritz Chrysler and his bouncing beau Shawn Rosemary.

Presenter8:55

Tommy, as well as the light music for which the harmonica is best known, you also play serious works which have been specially written for the instrument.

Tommy Reilly9:02

Yes, I play a lot of serious music on the harmonica. As a matter of fact, the first harmonica concerto that was uh written and performed in Europe was written for me

Tommy Reilly9:10

by Michael Spivakovsky. It was commissioned by the BBC for the Festival of Britain.

Presenter9:16

Who would

Tommy Reilly9:24

and several uh continental composers. But the best harmonica music in the world, strangely enough, has been written uh by English composers.

Presenter9:34

Mm-hmm. You compose yourself, don't you?

Tommy Reilly9:36

Yes, I write mainly background music, you know, for television, films, radio.

Presenter9:41

Yeah.

Tommy Reilly9:41

Yeah.

Presenter9:41

Well the solar harmonica makes a very useful background. It's also a very economical one, isn't it?

Tommy Reilly9:45

Yes, I suppose it is. Uh harmonica can sound like a whole orchestra at times.

Presenter9:51

Which background jobs are you you happiest about?

Tommy Reilly9:54

Well, the most interesting to me was last year when Dmitri Tyomkin heard some of my recordings at a friend's house in California, and he came especially to England to record the soundtrack to the Warner Brother Pictures, the Sundowners.

Presenter10:11

And of course we hear you every week on the Navy, Locke.

Tommy Reilly10:13

Yes. I suppose the best known one of all though is the music I play for Dixon of Dot Green.

Presenter10:20

Yeah. Well, one way or another we hear a great deal more of you than we realize,'cause we never bother to at least people don't bother to look at the credits and see who's doing what all the time.

Tommy Reilly10:25

But never be able to

Tommy Reilly10:29

Well, there's one job I did. I don't think I got a credit for it, but I think I can honestly say I'm the only harmonica player who ever played was Yeali. Really? Yes. I had a telephone call from the manager of the London Symphony Orchestra asking if I would come and do a session at Kingsway Hall. Well, I arrived there about a quarter of an hour before the session. He gave me a piece of music. It was an Italian folk waltz.

Tommy Reilly10:54

And it was terribly difficult, you see, and I had to learn it in about ten minutes.

Tommy Reilly10:58

Anyway, uh I was told that Gili was making records and I was going to play on the record. Anyway, I learnt this piece of music and uh he finished his first piece and I went in to meet him. I was introduced to him and he said uh where is your harmonica? So I showed him my harmonica and he said no I don't mean that he said I mean accordion you see.

Tommy Reilly11:18

So the manager nearly fainted because obviously he'd made a mistake in the booking through the Italian word for harmonica and accordion. Anyway, Gili said, well, we'll hear it on your harmonica. So I played it and he looked at his Italian conductor and he said, all right, he said, we'll use your harmonica. So I'm on his record. Splendid.

Speaker 111:26

Anyway

Presenter11:38

Well, let's have record number four of your choice now. What is it?

Tommy Reilly11:41

Well, it's Dorothy Squire singing Tree in the Meadow. Why'd you choose this? Well, I choose this purely from

Tommy Reilly11:48

sentimental reasons, I suppose. It's the tune that was very popular when I met my wife. Means quite a lot to me.

Speaker 411:55

There's a tree in the meadow.

Speaker 412:02

With a stream drifting by

Speaker 412:09

Carved upon that tree I see I love you till I die

Speaker 412:20

I shall always remember.

Speaker 412:27

The love in your eyes

Speaker 412:33

The day you come upon that tree, I love you till I die.

Presenter12:45

DOROTHY SQUARS SINGING A TREE IN THE MEADAW

Presenter12:48

Now, Tommy, we were talking about the harmonica. About the instrument itself, how old an instrument is it?

Tommy Reilly12:53

Well, it goes back, I think it was invented about 1830 by a toy maker in Germany in the Black Forest. He used to in the winter make toys and harmonicas. In the summer he would travel from one village to the next selling them. Well, he sold so many harmonicas that he gave up making toys and made only harmonicas.

Presenter13:11

Made

Tommy Reilly13:13

And now of course there's an enormous factory there that turn out I suppose about twenty million a year.

Presenter13:18

There are many different sizes. You can you can have one more or less any length you like.

Tommy Reilly13:23

Well yes, there's dozens of different kinds of harmonicas, but the uh the big ones you see are usually only used in bands or groups. You see, shortly after the harmonica was invented, only the nobility of the land and the rich people could afford them because

Presenter13:31

Yes.

Tommy Reilly13:38

They were made sometimes of solid gold and silver and hand carved ivory.

Presenter13:43

Yes. Do you use specially made ones?

Tommy Reilly13:46

No, I wish there was a specially made one. There aren't any. The ones I use are the same as you can buy in the shop. There aren't any better.

Presenter13:53

What range does it have?

Tommy Reilly13:54

Three octaves, twelve holes.

Tommy Reilly13:56

However,

Presenter13:56

How long does an instrument last you?

Tommy Reilly13:58

Normally about a week, but uh if you're playing uh a concerto you can count on it being finished by the time you've finished it. Yeah, so th then what happens? The reeds go. Did you watch it? The reeds go and they it loses its resonance. Mm-hmm.

Presenter14:09

The rain's got

Tommy Reilly14:12

So you have to travel a a big supply of instruments. I take quite a few with me.

Presenter14:16

Yeah.

Speaker 414:16

Yeah.

Tommy Reilly14:17

What do you

Presenter14:17

Plans at the moment? Well, what are you going to do next?

Tommy Reilly14:20

Well, I'm uh going to the continent shortly to play a new concerto written by a German composer in Hanover and uh the Romanian fantasy by Francis Chagrin.

Presenter14:32

Well let's stop here and have record number five. What next Tommy?

Tommy Reilly14:35

I've chosen a Jewish wedding dance. Hm. Why have you chosen that? Well, I'm very fond of folk music. I like it very much because it's so very descriptive. It tells a story probably better than any other music I know.

Presenter15:51

Mickey Katz and his orchestra playing a Jewish wedding dance.

Presenter15:54

Which brings us to number six.

Tommy Reilly15:57

Well, I've chosen Shirley Barcy singing.

Tommy Reilly16:01

You'll never know.

Tommy Reilly16:02

Once again, why?

Tommy Reilly16:04

Well, because Shirley Basie to me is uh

Tommy Reilly16:08

Such a vibrant character in the entertainment world. She's got the magic of the business and I don't know. Her voice just does something to me.

Speaker 416:20

Never know just how much

Speaker 416:26

I miss you.

Speaker 416:33

You never know just how much I care.

Presenter16:46

Shirley Bass is singing You Will Never Know.

Presenter16:49

Now, Tommy, you said that temperamentally you think you'd be able to cope with being a castaway.

Presenter16:55

How good would you be practically looking after yourself?

Tommy Reilly16:57

Well, I don't suppose I'm much of a handyman, but uh I think with the uh years I spent in a prison camp in Germany would stand me in good stead on an island. I'm sure they would.

Presenter17:07

Yeah.

Tommy Reilly17:07

Any Hobbies that might

Presenter17:08

Uh

Tommy Reilly17:08

Yeah.

Presenter17:08

useful little fish or anything like that.

Tommy Reilly17:10

I used to fish as a boy in Canada, so I dare say I might catch one or two.

Tommy Reilly17:15

Yeah.

Presenter17:15

Uh

Tommy Reilly17:15

Would you build a boat or a raft? I wouldn't even try. I'd be terrified to take it out to sea. I think you're right. Let's get back to music. What's number seven?

Tommy Reilly17:24

Uh Yosha Heifert's playing Benjo and Fiddle.

Tommy Reilly17:29

Because uh when I played violin as a boy in Canada, he was always my idol. I still think even today he's the greatest violinist in the world.

Presenter18:37

Yasha Heifitz playing banjo and fiddle.

Presenter18:40

And now we come to your last one.

Tommy Reilly18:41

As my last record, I'd like to hear from Der Rosencavalier the closing duet sung by Elizabeth Schumann and Maria Olszewska.

Tommy Reilly18:53

Yeah.

Tommy Reilly18:55

Well, I'm very, very fond of this part of the opera.

Tommy Reilly18:59

Because uh

Tommy Reilly19:00

One of the fellows in the prison camp had a gramophone and he had this particular record. And I don't know, it's got a soothing quality about it. You sort of feel well.

Tommy Reilly19:11

Let the rest of the world go by. It's a lovely thing.

Presenter20:13

Elizabeth Schumann and Maria Olszzewska singing the closing duet from Richard Strauss's Derosen Cavalier.

Presenter20:20

You haven't chosen any of your own records, Tommy.

Tommy Reilly20:23

No, I did that on purpose because you said I could have a luxury. Yes. And naturally for me my luxury is going to be my harmonica.

Presenter20:32

You better have a crate of harmonicas, as you say they don't last very long.

Tommy Reilly20:33

This is

Presenter20:35

Out of these records you've chosen, if you could only have one, which would it be?

Tommy Reilly20:39

Well

Tommy Reilly20:41

I really think I'd choose a tree in the meadow.

Tommy Reilly20:44

And you're allowed one book apart from the book. Bible and Shakespeare. Well, for me that's quite easily. Um I'd like a big picture book of the nice parts of England because I'm very pro-English and very pro-England.

Tommy Reilly21:00

Funny thing when I was a boy

Tommy Reilly21:02

I can't explain it. I don't know why, but I just knew that I wanted to live in England.

Presenter21:07

Yes, and when you got here it was up your expectations.

Tommy Reilly21:10

The countryside is still up to my expectations. I must tell you though that uh shortly after I arrived here and termed professional, my first date was at uh

Tommy Reilly21:21

The Queen's Theatre in Poplar. Down in the East End. Down the East End. And I got on a bus somewhere in London, I can't remember where now. And uh I said to the conductor, Does the does this bus go to Poplar? Well, where I come from in southern Ontario, you can cut the accent with a knife. I've lost a lot of it now. And anyway, he couldn't understand what I was talking about, so he said, Spell it, so I spelled it for him. He said, Yes, son, he said, Go upstairs.

Tommy Reilly21:46

He came upstairs to collect my fare.

Tommy Reilly21:48

And he tapped me on the shoulder and said, Sonny, he said, you've been going to the pictures too much.

Presenter21:55

Well with that I've no doubt you felt that you've been accepted as part of the London scene. I think so. And thank you Tommy Riley for letting us hear your choice of desert island discs.

Tommy Reilly22:03

Type it.

Presenter22:04

Goodbye, everyone.

Speaker 422:13

You've been listening to a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive. For more podcasts please visit bbc.co dot uk slash radio four.