<<  -- 2 --  Jennifer Paull    THE BELL TOLLS TOO SOON FOR DEREK

As a composer, he wrote several pieces for the oboe family, which I am delighted to publish. As an instigator, he set about commissioning works for the bass oboe and oboe d'amore from others, which again, I was happy to bring to life as part of my mission for the oboe family of instruments.

Derek was not a man for the 'new-fangled' ways. Computers and faxes were from another unfriendly planet. Contacting him was always a problem as he was often on tour. Pressing the magic fax button was for him, far more alarming than the intricacies of the concert, pedal harp. So a walk to the post office queue it was, which I admit is something about which I have a similar allergy.

I knew he was in the States, and so my last letter telling him about the publication of his 'Masterwork' as he called it, is lying unopened on his desk. He missed the news by a matter of days. In fact, when he read the proofs, he told Jim Gardner, the Liverpool-born, New Zealand composer who had copied his piece so wonderfully, 'I can die happily now'. What a tragic letter that is to re-read just three months later.

To illustrate his wicked sense of humour, Derek deliberately gave me 1921 as his date of birth, as I include composers' dates and biographies in my publications. Stefanie, his widow, told me that he was always doing that; he even did so in Who's Who. It made him laugh to scatter misinformation about his age. He was born in 1935!

The list of his achievements is so long, the internet is full of details of his creative, beacon lights and lasers' beams. On a personal note, I want to add just how much I appreciate his loyalty, kindness and the years of encouragement for my uphill task in promoting the rare oboes, all of which Derek owned and performed. In fact, he must have been one of the only people on the planet to have and use them all! He even flew to the US to join me in a concert with my ensemble, The Amoris Consort, leaving his Chieftains' persona behind him on one tarmac (in China), and becoming the bass oboist upon another (in Chicago). He used to do the same thing in the Ulster Orchestra as he skipped between the chairs of oboe and harp.

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