Kay Adele Mowry McSpadden
Kaye Adele Mowry McSpadden, aged 43, bassoonist with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra since 1965, passed away in Little Rock on January 24, 1984. Mrs. McSpadden was a native of Chicago and a 1962 graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. She was principal bassoonist with the Arkansas Opera Theater. The Symphony gave a memorial concert for her on April 20th, and further memorials may be made to the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. Mrs. McSpadden was a member of IDRS for a number of years.
Lyndesay G. Langwill
It is sad to report to the members of the IDRS of the passing of one of our distinguished honorary members, Lyndesay G. Langwill, OBE, MA FTCL, at the Fairmile Nursing Home, Edinburgh, Scotland, on September 1, 1983, at 86 years of age.
Concerning his long and illustrious career, Mr. Graham Melville-Jones of the British Broadcasting Corporation wrote in the London Times on September 8th, 1983:
In addition to his long career continuing the family chartered accountancy firm in Edinburgh and his international work for animal protection, Lyndesay Graham Langwill will be remembered with gratitude and affection by the world's bassoonists as well as many music scholars.
A life-long interest in the bassoon led him to write the standard history of the instrument, The Bassoon and Contra- bassoon, published in 1964, articles on the bassoon and related instruments for Grove's Dictionary of Music and the Hinrichsen Music Year Books. Of even greater significance was the remarkable achievement in his compilation and private publishing of his Index of Wind Instrument Makers. The first edition appeared in 1960 and was continually updated to the sixth edition in 1980, becoming universally recognized as the authoritative reference work and already known to scholars and librarians simply as "Langwill".
This monumental work stemmed from true amateur scholarship founded upon typewritten lists circulated among his friends, nearly all of whom were, like himself, founder members of The Galpin Society. He was honorary treasurer of this international society for many years. Last year, he entrusted the future of his Index to Mr. William Waterhouse.
Lyndesay Langwill played the contra-bassoon in the Reid Orchestra of Edinburgh University under Sir Donald Tovey and Sydney Newman. He had the distinction of playing in that city's St. Andrew Amateur Orchestra for an unbroken 70 years (starting first on the cello at 16). His home was a point of pilgrimage for the world's bassoonists in Edinburgh for the International Festival since its first years.
Besides his musical contributions another unidentified correspondent wrote to the Times on Sept. 5th of his activities as:
... Secretary and Treasurer of the Scottish Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals from 1924 to 1968, during which time the Society weathered the depression, the Second World War and the subsequent upheaval and developments.
Throughout this period of change, under his leadership, the Society continued to fulfil its objects and went from strength to strength, and its directors were guided and helped by Langwill whose patience, understanding and kindness towards his fellow beings, as well as to animals, endeared him to many people.
He was a man of parts, being secretary and treasurer of the Central Council of Societies in Scotland for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and a founder member and a President of Honour of the World Federation for the Protection of Animals (now the World Society), in the affairs of which he took a very active part.
He was also involved in other educational and charitable work and was very well known for his interest in music. Not content with being a skilled performer upon the cello, he was an authority and a performer upon the bassoon and contra-bassoon, which led him to the authorship of a number of publications including books and articles on wind instruments.
Following his retirement, Langwill remained in Edinburgh and continued to give guidance and advice to the Society and served on its Board of Directors. He was appointed OBE in 1969.
In his obituary of September 2, 1983, the Edinburgh Scotsman pointed out even more aspects of Langwill's distinguished life and career:
Born at Portobello, Edinburgh, Mr. Langwill was educated at the Royal High School and at Edinburgh University. He served in the Edinburgh OTC and in the First World War was an officer in the Fife and Forfar Yeomanry and The Black Watch.
Resuming apprenticeship in his father's firm he qualified as an accountant in 1921 and three years later was appointed secretary and treasurer to the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, succeeding at the time to the clerkship of several educational trusts and associations, among them Esdaile School governors, the Craigcrook Trust, the Edinburgh Borderers' Association and the Edinburgh Association for the Provision of Halls of Residence for Women Students.
In 1939 he became secretary of the Scottish Community Drama Association.
He was elected a Fellow of Trinity College of Music, London, in 1951, for his services to scholarship. He contributed many articles on musico -historical subjects to The Scotsman and other publications.
The IDRS joins the world of musical scholarship in mourning the passing of one of our most celebrated members. Mr. William Waterhouse has promised to do a more extensive article on Mr. Langwill in the near future. We will eagerly await its publication.
Eugene Showalter
Eugene Showalter died in Little
Rock, Arkansas in July. He was 65 and apparently died of a heart
attack. He was a founding member of the Arkansas Symphony and
he was its principal oboist for a number of years. He had been
a member of the Robert Shaw Chorale and the Bach Society of Greater
Little Rock. He had also played with the St. Louis Sinfonietta,
the Oklahoma City Symphony, the New Orleans Philharmonic, and
the National Symphony of Washington, D.C. He was a graduate of
the Eastman School of Music. He was also an employee of the nuclear
medicine departments of the Veterans Administration Hospital and
the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.