Book Reviews: Improvising on a Theme

Cormac Loane was head of woodwind for Birmingham Music Service (BMS) from 1984 and deputy head of service from 2005 until his retirement in 2013, so this is an insider's story. Within, Loane is not afraid to spill the beans about how its development was sometimes hindered by the weaknesses or idiosyncrasies of individuals, as well as by administrative failings, changing ideologies with regard to music education, and inconsistent levels of both local and national government funding.

We read of music teachers employed by the service spending lunchtimes in the nearest pub before returning – late and slightly the worse for wear – for afternoon sessions in schools (a culture not peculiar to Birmingham at the time, Loane acknowledges); and of a senior staff member who never timetabled any Friday afternoon sessions for himself so that he could do his weekly supermarket shop.

But we also read of how a rigid, paternalistic system in which instrumental tuition in schools was aimed solely at producing players for the Birmingham Schools’ Symphony Orchestra – presided over by the head of the music service who was usually appointed primarily on the basis of their ability to conduct – became much more collaborative and embraced a range of instruments that reflected more accurately the diversity of the city.

We read how pupils’ own compositions became validated thanks to the vision of individual staff members and collaborations with organisations such as the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (especially in the era when Simon Rattle was its principal conductor) and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.

There are fascinating reflections on the arguments for and against one-to-one or group instrumental teaching, culminating in an account of how Birmingham was slow to adopt Wider Opportunities after the then head of service attended a demonstration concert in London and was shocked by what he heard and saw, but ended up producing exemplary results because of the thought and resources put into the BMS version of the programme.

Loane finds it difficult to put a positive spin on the detachment of the music service in recent years from local authority funding and control, and the resulting commercialisation of its public profile as a stand-alone charity. ‘It could be argued,’ he says, ‘that the most serious, fundamental, current threat to music services is the increased level of government control between musicians, teachers and local authorities that gave birth to music services in the first place.’

The book is an important record of nearly a century of music education in Birmingham, with great relevance to other settings; I found it enthralling.