May Sabeston Walker

May Sabeston Walker was born around 1910, probably in Kent, England. Blind from birth, she spent part of her childhood in Thornton Heath and attended the Royal Normal College for the Blind, later known as the Royal National College for the Blind, from about 1921 to 1928. Her exceptional musical talent soon became apparent.
Walker subsequently continued her musical education in London and eventually studied at the Royal Academy of Music. She specialised particularly in singing, studying with Astra Desmond and Evelyn Langston, while Benjamin Dale was among her composition teachers. Even before becoming a regular student of the Academy, she appears to have taken examinations there, and in 1929 she received a high mark in harmony.
Walker proved to be an outstanding student. During her years at the Royal Academy of Music she received numerous awards, including the Dove Prize for the most distinguished student in 1935, the Isabel Jay Gold Medal, the Rutson Memorial Prize and the Anne E. Lloyd Exhibition for singing, as well as the Cuthbert Nunn Prize and a Josephine Troup Scholarship for composition. Contemporary reports show that she received the latter after submitting a group of compositions including a violin sonata, a song for soprano with orchestral accompaniment and a set of piano variations. These variations were subsequently performed at the Royal Academy of Music by the pianist Patrick Smerdon-Pigott. Walker regularly appeared both as a singer and as a composer in the Academy's Fortnightly and Students' Chamber Concerts until her graduation in 1936.

Her professional career had already begun before she completed her studies. In July 1935 she appeared as a soprano in a BBC broadcast accompanied by the pianist Harry Isaacs. Contemporary descriptions praised her light lyric soprano voice and the purity of her tone, and she was particularly associated with the interpretation of Bach and Mozart. In 1936 she gave a recital of her own compositions at the Grotrian Hall in London, which according to a contemporary newspaper report was received with a tremendous ovation. On 15 July 1936 she made her operatic debut at the Scala Theatre in London as Bertha in Sir Alexander Mackenzie's opera The Cricket on the Hearth.
At the same time Walker was increasingly active as a composer. By 1934 contemporary reports already described her as the composer of a large number of songs, a violin sonata and several piano works. Her Violin Sonata in F-sharp minor was later broadcast by the BBC, her String Quartet was performed by professional musicians, and her Variations on a Folk-Song from Normandy were played in concert. At least one work for soprano and orchestra is also documented among the compositions she submitted for the Josephine Troup Composition Scholarship, although this work has not yet been identified. Because she was blind, Walker composed first in Braille music notation and then dictated the finished work to a sighted copyist, who transferred it into conventional staff notation.
By the mid-1930s Walker was already represented by the renowned concert agency Ibbs & Tillett, whose clients also included internationally famous musicians such as Fritz Kreisler and Sergei Rachmaninov. On 15 July 1936 she made her stage debut at the Scala Theatre in London in a production of Sir Alexander Mackenzie's opera The Cricket on the Hearth. She continued to appear in concerts and radio broadcasts during the following years, including BBC programmes transmitted internationally.
After her London years Walker moved to Chelmsford, apparently in 1939, where she lived with or near her brother J. Edgar Walker. She soon became an established figure in local musical life. In January 1940 she appeared as soprano in a recital at King Edward VI School in Chelmsford which included songs by Essex composers Martin Shaw, Armstrong Gibbs and Walker herself. She also continued to appear regularly in BBC broadcasts; in 1939, for example, she took part in the BBC programme In Town To-night, accompanied to the studio by her guide dog Wendy. Walker later established herself as a singing teacher and maintained a private teaching studio in Chelmsford. In 1941 she was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM) in recognition of her services to music.
Her presence in musical life gradually diminished, but evidence of her musical activities can still be found into the 1950s and 1960s.
The date and place of May Sabeston Walker's death have not yet been established.

May Sabeston Walker was also a composer and mainly active during her student years. Some of her songs were published by Augener in the early 1930s. The two songs "Everybody sang" and "Peace" received a remarkable review in the Monthly Musical Record in May 1936:

„The free lyricism of these soprano songs makes them akin in spirit to many of Roger Quilter's settings. Technically, however, they are more improvisatory, and evince a love for pure vocal sound divorced from words. This instinct for colour overlaps into the piano parts, which are highly decorative.“

From her documents I compiled a work list:

1) songs for voice and piano:

Landscape (on words by David Morton)
Goldenhair (on words by James Joyce)
The Eyes (on words by Ezra Pound)
The Story Teller (on words by Mark van Doren)
Everyone sang (on words by Siegfried Sassoon)
Peace (on words by Sara Teasdale)
Slumber Song (on words by Siegfried Sassoon)
Weathers (on words by Thomas Hardy)
Innesfree (on words by W.B. Yeats)
Not that April has begun (on words by Edward Davison)
The Bridge (on words by John Gawsworth)
Lullaby (on words by Sturge Moore)
A Wish (on words by W. Henley)
The Moon of Roses (on words by W. Henley)
Forester's song (on words by A. E. Coppard)
Three country songs (on words by Alex Carlisle)

Chamber music (unknown text author)

The Two Watchers (on words by Thomas Moult)

Into the Wood (on words by David Morton)

2) vocal music:
 

Trio for female voices with harp „Kingcups“
Lalulaby, for chorus
He came all so still, chorus
No more than a manger, chorus

3) chamber music:
 

Violin sonata in F sharp minor
String quartet
Variations on a Normandy Folk-song, for piano
Caprice for piano
Prelude for piano

May Sabeston Walker Archive

In my possession is a large archive of documents from the estate of May Sabeston Walker. That includes the original certificates for her prizes at the Royal Academy of Music, programs of many of her concerts from the 1930s, letters of reference from the heads of her later schools and the handwritten manuscripts of here "Three country songs".

Here are some deatils about the documents in the archive:

• handwritten manuscripts of the songs:
• Cluck Cluck, for voice and piano (complete)
• Gee-up! Whoa! for voice and piano (complete)
• I did not know, for voice and piano (complete)
• [untitled song for voice and piano, beginning with: The ox and the ass together said] (complete)
• [untitled song for voice and piano, incomplete (beginning missing), words include: "and then he stretched out in the sun"]
• original certificate of the Rutson Memorial Prize for singing, awarded to May Sabeston Walker on 20.11.1934
• original certificate of the Josephine Troup Scholarship for composition, awarded to May Sabeston Walker on 24.09.1934, signed by Stanley Marchant and John Blackwood McEwen
• original certificate of the Anne E. Lloyd Exhibition for singing, awarded to May Sabeston Walker on 07.07.1933, signed by John Blackwood McEwen
• certificate with High Commendation from the London Musical Competition Festival awarded to May Sabeston Walker and Myers Foggin in March 1932
• two certificates of merit from the Royal College of the Blind, one for pianoforte playing, dating from July 1924 and July 1925
• pass certificate with honourable mention for pianoforte of the Associated Board of The Royal Academy of Music and The Royal College of Music for May Sabeston Walker, dated 1926
• harmony examination of the Royal Academy of Music from 1929, passed by May Sabeston Walker with 82 points out of 100.
• three contracts of the publishing house Augener for the compositions "Everyone sang", "Peace" and "The Two Watchers" together with two letters by the publisher (dating from 1935)
• a typewritten text titled "Note Island", 9 pages in total. The text is a fantasy text for children and deals with Bella, a young mother, who comes to Note Island and learns everything about music.
• handwritten letter by Hazel Whomes, dating 18.02.1935
• snippet from a handwritten letter by Thomas Moult to May Sabeston Walker
• several programs of concerts and recitals including May Sabeston Walker as a singer and/or composer
• offical presentation booklet for May Sabeston Walker from the artists agency Ibbs & Tillett
• a large collection of newspaper clippings with reviews of concerts or publications by May Sabeston Walker
• typewritten CV from around 1950 with additional letters of reference from the heads of Maldon Girls' Secondary School, Chelmsford High School and Chorleywood College
• the offical Prize Lists of the Royal Academy of Music from 1929, 1930, 1931, 1933, 1934 and 1936

Two of the four complete songs were published by Augener in 1949 under the title "Three country songs". This published set includes the songs 1. "Old Neddy", 2. "Cluck! Cluck!" and 3. "Nightingale in the darkness" on words by Alex Carlisle. Comparing the text "Old Neddy" was previously titled "Gee-up! Whoa!".

The two other songs seem to be unpublished.