Hilda Tablet
Encyclopedia
Dame Hilda Tablet is a fictitious "twelve-tone
composer
ess" created by Henry Reed in a series of radio comedy plays for the British Broadcasting Corporation's Third Programme
. Dame Hilda is the inventor of musique concrète
renforcée (literally, "reinforced concrete music"), and the composer of the all-female opera
Emily Butter set in a department store
.
She first appeared in the play A Very Great Man Indeed where the central character and narrator is the scholar, Herbert Reeve, played by Hugh Burden
. Reeve plans to write a biography
of the novel
ist Richard Shewin, and interviews various friends and relatives of the deceased author.
Reed became intrigued by the character of Dame Hilda and subsequently wrote a sequel The Private Life of Hilda Tablet in which Reeve is bullied into undertaking the biography in "not more than twelve volumes" of Dame Hilda. Five further episodes followed. Hilda Tablet was played by Mary O'Farrell.
The principal models for Dame Hilda were Dame Ethel Smyth
(from whom Hilda took her lesbianism and rural heartiness together with the endlessness of her proposed memoirs), and Elisabeth Lutyens
, with whom Reed was acquainted, from whom Hilda took her interest in the macabre and obsession with architecture.
And included (among others): Denis Quilley
, Leonard Sachs
, Michael Flanders
, Norman Shelley
and Rose Hill
.
Hilda's music, and the pop-songs of Owen Shewin, were created for the series by Donald Swann
.
All seven plays were produced by Douglas Cleverdon
.
Twelve-tone technique
Twelve-tone technique is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
ess" created by Henry Reed in a series of radio comedy plays for the British Broadcasting Corporation's Third Programme
BBC Third Programme
The BBC Third Programme was a national radio network broadcast by the BBC. The network first went on air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces in Britain, playing a crucial role in disseminating the arts...
. Dame Hilda is the inventor of musique concrète
Musique concrète
Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...
renforcée (literally, "reinforced concrete music"), and the composer of the all-female opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
Emily Butter set in a department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
.
She first appeared in the play A Very Great Man Indeed where the central character and narrator is the scholar, Herbert Reeve, played by Hugh Burden
Hugh Burden
Hugh Burden was an English actor and playwright.He was the son of a colonial official and was educated at Beaumont College and trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and RADA...
. Reeve plans to write a biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
of the novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
ist Richard Shewin, and interviews various friends and relatives of the deceased author.
Reed became intrigued by the character of Dame Hilda and subsequently wrote a sequel The Private Life of Hilda Tablet in which Reeve is bullied into undertaking the biography in "not more than twelve volumes" of Dame Hilda. Five further episodes followed. Hilda Tablet was played by Mary O'Farrell.
The principal models for Dame Hilda were Dame Ethel Smyth
Ethel Smyth
Dame Ethel Mary Smyth, DBE was an English composer and a leader of the women's suffrage movement.- Early career :...
(from whom Hilda took her lesbianism and rural heartiness together with the endlessness of her proposed memoirs), and Elisabeth Lutyens
Elisabeth Lutyens
Elisabeth Lutyens, CBE was a significant English composer.- Early life and education :She was one of the five children of architect Sir Edwin Lutyens and his wife Emily, who was profoundly involved in the Theosophical Movement...
, with whom Reed was acquainted, from whom Hilda took her interest in the macabre and obsession with architecture.
The plays
- A Very Great Man Indeed (7 September 1953)
- The Private Life of Hilda Tablet (24 May 1954)
- Emily Butter (14 November 1954)
- A Hedge, Backwards (29 February 1956)
- The Primal Scene, As It Were (11 March 1958)
- Not a Drum Was Heard (6 May 1959)
- Musique Discrète (27 October 1959)
Cast
- Hugh BurdenHugh BurdenHugh Burden was an English actor and playwright.He was the son of a colonial official and was educated at Beaumont College and trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and RADA...
as Herbert Reeve - Mary O' Farrell as Hilda Tablet
- Marjorie WestburyMarjorie WestburyMarjorie Westbury was an English radio actress and singer. Her career lasted over fifty years.Born in Oldbury, Worcestershire, she studied Voice at the Royal College of Music in London between 1927 and 1930. During the 1930s she made many radio broadcasts as a soprano from the BBC studios at...
as Elsa Strauss - Carleton HobbsCarleton HobbsCarleton Percy Hobbs was an English actor with many film, radio and television appearances. He portrayed Sherlock Holmes in 80 radio adaptations between 1952 and 1969, and also starred in the radio adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour.Hobbs was born in Farnborough, Hampshire, into a...
as Stephen Shewin - Deryck GuylerDeryck GuylerDeryck Guyler was an English actor, best known for his portrayal of officious, short-tempered middle-aged men in sitcoms such as Please Sir! and Sykes.-Early life:...
as General Gland
And included (among others): Denis Quilley
Denis Quilley
Denis Clifford Quilley OBE was an English theatre, television and film actor who was long associated with the Royal National Theatre....
, Leonard Sachs
Leonard Sachs
Leonard Sachs was a British actor.-Early life and career:Sachs was born in South Africa in the town of Roodepoort, Transvaal...
, Michael Flanders
Michael Flanders
Michael Henry Flanders OBE, was an English actor, broadcaster, and writer and performer of comic songs. He is best known to the general public for his partnership with Donald Swann performing as the duo Flanders and Swann....
, Norman Shelley
Norman Shelley
Norman Shelley was an English actor, best known for his work in radio, in particular for the BBC's Children's Hour. He also had a recurring role as Colonel Danby in the long-running radio soap opera The Archers....
and Rose Hill
Rose Hill (actress)
Rose Lilian Hill was an English actress best known for her role as Madame Fanny La Fan in the British television series Allo 'Allo!. She was a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company....
.
Hilda's music, and the pop-songs of Owen Shewin, were created for the series by Donald Swann
Donald Swann
Donald Ibrahím Swann was a British composer, musician and entertainer. He is best known to the general public for his partnership of writing and performing comic songs with Michael Flanders .-Life:...
.
All seven plays were produced by Douglas Cleverdon
Douglas Cleverdon
Douglas James Cleverdon was an English bookseller and radio producer, in both fields associated with numerous leading cultural figures in the United Kingdom.-Early life:...
.
Books
Hilda Tablet and Others, BBC Books, London, 1971 (Contains the scripts of A Very Great Man Indeed; The Private Life Of Hilda Tablet; A Hedge Backwards; The Primal Scene As It Were...)Quotes
- "By all means throw your voice at the note, but whatever you do, for God's sake miss it!" - Hilda to a singer of one of her compositions.
External links
- Details of the plays
- http://www.webrarian.co.uk/reed/opinions.htmlAn interview with Dame Hilda published in The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
on August 15, 1960.]