Dr Roger Bullivant MBE
Musical Director Doncaster Choral Society 1986 - 2003

A Tribute

A collection of thoughts and memories in appreciation of a true musician

A Special Quality

As one of the longest serving members of Doncaster Choral Society, a period of forty years, I have enjoyed the varied conductorship of three very special musicians.
Eric Curtis, in charge in the early years, after the war and Robert Lawrence, who reinvigorated the choir from 1971 until 1986 when Roger Bullivant took over. Roger brought a special quality and high standard of musicianship to the Society. The sheer range of the repertoire over the last seventeen years is breathtaking and the experience gained by members invaluable.
Thank you, Roger, for your expertise and instruction, which has enhanced the life and history of the Doncaster Choral  Society.

Jean Nevett

A True Musician

Those of us who have been members of Doncaster Choral Society for a number of years owe a great debt to Dr Roger Bullivant.   Under his guidance we developed from an ordinary provincial choral society into a very good choir.
I first came across Roger in the early 70s when I attended a performance of Benjamin Britten’s St Nicolas, conducted by him.   I thought it was marvellous and promptly went and bought a recording.   It was a great pleasure many years later to take part in a memorable performance of the same work under his baton in Doncaster, just one of a number of excellent performances conducted by Roger in which I have taken part.   Others that spring to mind are Dyson’s Canterbury Pilgrims, the world premiere of James Walker’s Night Songs (commissioned for the Society’s centenary season in 1989) and Bach’s St Matthew Passion.   For the last of these, Roger conducted the two choirs and two orchestras, played harpsichord in the first orchestra and conducted flawlessly throughout despite suffering a severe migraine.

We are also fortunate that, because of Roger’s reputation and contacts, we are able to attract high-class musicians to perform with us – Simon Lindley, the Sheffield Bach Players, a large number of soloists who wanted to have the experience of singing for a well-known and much respected musician.   Simon Lindley also invited members of Doncaster Choral Society to sing with his choir:  I shall never forget a most moving performance of The Dream of Gerontius on a Good Friday in Leeds Parish Church

In my Registrar’s Report of 2001, I wrote these words, which I think bear repetition: -
“We owe a great debt to our Musical Director, Dr Roger Bullivant, who still contrives to coax professional performances out of us.   As someone said to me the other day, “He treats us like musicians.”
Have you noticed the obvious respect that these musicians show our conductor?   These musicians respect true musicianship.”

Roger is a true musician – and as a consequence, did not always understand the problems we mere singers sometimes have.  Over the years, however, a little of his musicianship undoubtedly rubbed off on many of us, for which we are forever grateful.    

 Elizabeth Burroughs

My Memories of Roger

Roger introduced me to the Bach Passions, which I never really knew before singing them with the Choral Society.

They were very difficult but very rewarding. They are so evocative of all sorts of feelings and emotions and I find I now have to listen to the St Matthew Passion every Easter when it comes on the radio, and it always makes me think of Doncaster Choral Society with Roger  conducting.

I also remember being in awe of  the wonderful harpsichord playing from Roger during our concerts. It was a sheer pleasure to sing in a piece like Messiah and, during the solos, to be able to watch and listen to the Sheffield Bach Players and Roger on the harpsichord with such inventive skills.

 

Roger Bullivant
 

Reaching

Out to a

Glorious legacy of

Exciting music

Robustly produced

Bachean influences

Understood by many

Listened to with emerging

Loyalty, into a new era

Intact the welded whole

Vaulting new heights

Attaining fresh horizons

Never more ambitious

Thankfully we salute you.

        Jean Nevett

King of Choral Music

When I came to live and work in Sheffield in 1974 as a young man, I wanted to develop my interest in choral music and its performance. I soon learnt that Sheffield had its own “King of Choral Music”, Roger Bullivant, a name uttered with a sense of awe and reverence. It was explained to me that he was an inspirational conductor, at his best in performance, an authoritative scholar on Baroque music and an expert realizer of the continuo (unlike most of us, he reads it from the bass line and figures without any props!).

Consequently, during the late 1970’s and early 1980’s I would regularly attend concerts of the Sheffield Bach Society to observe the great man in action. His knowledge of the score and details impressed me as did his ability to indicate entries and leads and maintain a clear beat at the same time. I noticed the infinite variety of his continuo realizations, often while conducting at the same time. When in 1983, I put on a performance of Bach’s St John Passion, at King Edward VII School, I asked Roger to play the harpsichord continuo. We recorded the performance and I still have it – as perfect a demonstration of the art of continuo playing as you could ever encounter.

Roger, of course, does not confine his attentions to Baroque music; he has performed a wide variety of music (including jazz) with knowledge, skill and that special musical insight gifted to only a few. Last year this society put on a performance of Stainer’s Crucifixion. Roger’s approach was quite different from that of most conductors, yet his interpretation worked beautifully.

I don’t know whether aspiring young musicians nowadays come to learn from and observe their elders in performance, but if they do and learn only a half of what I learnt from Roger, they will be very fortunate indeed.
 Alan Eost.

Message to Roger Bullivant from Chris Born (Bass)

I have been singing in choirs under your baton for quite some time now. Before you joined us at Doncaster Choral Society in 1987, I had been singing also for two or three years in the South Yorkshire Concert Choir, which you conducted. So if my dates are correct, I have to thank you for 19 or so years of clear musical direction and inspiring leadership. Thank you for sharing your expertise with us. We have so many good concerts to remember.
Isn’t music wonderful?p>
With best wishes

Dear Roger

We have to thank you for many memorable performances.
I particularly remember Dyson’s Canterbury Pilgrims and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Solomon and Bach’s St Matthew Passion  and Mass in b minor were great occasions. Brahms' Requiem and Schubert’s Mass in E flat were rewarding, and every Messiah was something special.

You always seemed to me to be willing to tackle modern works, as well as your favourite scores such as Elijah. Duruflé and Jongen were very pleasant  surprises. Britten’s St Nicolas was wonderful.

There were occasions when I wasn’t sure we would be ready for a performance on the allotted day but after a while I realised you could always produce a worthwhile outcome. On numerous occasions, under your direction, we had a life enhancing experience. I admired the way you never panicked and could take us up to the final rehearsal with still a few ‘niggles’, but the performance was fine.

During rehearsals of a challenging score my mantra was “It’ll be all right on the right” – and it always was!

With sincere good wishes and gratitude.

Dorothy and Roly Colcutt

Dear Roger

Thank you for leading the Choral Society so well, and for letting us benefit from your superb musical knowledge and skills as a Conductor. I personally enjoyed singing under you and greatly admired your performance at the harpsichord and piano, in both secular and non-secular music. An incorrect note in rehearsal never escaped your very keen ear.

I wish you a very speedy return to good health and perhaps a return to conduct us on a future occasion.

With thanks
Bernard Gilbert

I conduct the Choral Society …. and I play jazz

In 1973 I was a student at Bretton Hall College and was the proud owner of a Triumph Herald. Almost my first trip in it was to a performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Sheffield Cathedral. The Evangelist was sung by a well-known tenor – Gerald English - and I was looking forward to hearing not only those wonderful chorales but the sound of the harpsichord – undoubtedly the musical passion of my life at that time.

The soloists walked on to respectful applause and, following them from the shadows of the transept, a tall, thin, severe-looking man who placed two batons on the harpsichord and then sat down to play and direct what proved to be a thrilling performance. It was of course Dr Roger Bullivant.

Years later he told me that he always had two batons in case one of them broke.
“Has one ever broken?” I asked. “No” he replied.
I noticed that he wore two watches!

At that memorable performance I never dreamed that one day I would sing solo in that same work, and that he would conduct, or indeed that I would conduct concerts in which he would play, and that in whatever roles we interacted, musically it would be so wonderful. But so it has been, and over the years I have seen many facets of Roger Bullivant.

The one I appreciate most, I think, is the fact that he is ‘no respecter of persons’; that is to say, when he is directing everyone is treated as a professional musician. This was impressed upon me particularly when he came to rehearse my school choir. They had been invited to sing as the Ripieno Choir in the St Matthew Passion here in Doncaster and in Sheffield. He sat at the piano putting them through their paces as I watched on nervously. Suddenly I heard him say, “Don’t be put off by the French 6th in that bar. It’s the only one in Bach.”
Thirty or so 12 to 15 year olds looked at him bemusedly, but to him they were just musicians being recommended to ignore the French 6th!

I recall a Messiah performance, here in Doncaster. I was singing the bass solo and the soprano was a young and slightly apprehensive singer on her first visit. After rehearsing the ‘Rejoice’ aria, she whispered to me:
“Do you think he’ll be willing to take it a bit slower?”
“No,” I said, “just sing it as he wants it – it sounds wonderful – and you’ll be back again next year!” So she did, and she was!
I’ve often thought that were Pavarotti himself to come, he would be required to sing it at the Bullivant tempo – an excellent tempo indeed.

Many people might find it difficult to envisage another facet of Roger Bullivant – the harmony expert - teaching chorale settings to 6th formers at Balby Carr School, or even more incongruously, sitting down to a fine school dinner surrounded by a couple of hundred young pupils variously with rings in their noses or studs in their ears and talking loudly about EastEnders or the Spice Girls. The problem with the former scenario was that if one went to fetch a pencil or get a book, one missed the exercise since I am sure Roger holds the world record for harmonising a chorale in four parts in the style of Bach. The problem in the latter scenario was that he likes a leisurely meal, whereas in school, we tend to wolf it down and get back to the classroom!

Another memorable occasion  was when the BBC invited some of our young musicians to compose a modern hymn tune to be premiered on BBC Songs of Praise – Children in Need edition.  Faynola Ward was the successful composer who then had to sit down to harmonise and orchestrate her melody. Roger was in school that day and I asked him if he would go over to the young girl at the computer and help her to harmonise her tune.
“I don’t know anything about computers,” he protested quickly.
“Don’t worry,” I said brightly, “she’ll work the computer if you sort out the harmony.”
And so it was. Later I overheard Faynola (who was not altogether ‘genned up’ on the cultural life of Doncaster) ask,
“So what do you do Dr Bullivant?”
“Well, I conduct the Choral Society……..and I play Jazz”

But for me, one of the most enjoyable experiences I have shared with Roger, apart from tea and sandwiches at the Danum  or Moat House (after Choral Society committee meetings), is to sing Messiah under his direction and listen with wonder at his fantastic continuo playing on the harpsichord. Almost always, during performances of this work, I have been mesmerised by his sheer invention as he improvises in the Baroque manner. More than once I have suddenly realised that I was to sing next, but found myself facing the harpsichord with my score open some five or six numbers back. Behold I tell you a mystery – probably the greatest continuo player in England about to accompany and direct me in ‘The trumpet shall sound’! And then to sit back while he pulls the ‘Amen’ Chorus up into 8 beats per bar for its magnificent climax!
These are experiences I shall never forget.

Thank you, Roger.
       Carey Williams

Dear Roger

Thank you so much for the musical guidance you have given us, and me in particular, over the past 17 years. I feel privileged to have worked with you over that period.

I feel Doncaster Choral Society has benefited enormously under your leadership.

On a personal note Christa and I enjoyed escorting you, especially when you lodged at the Moat House and we entertained you or vice-versa to wine and cheese.
Very best wishes
 Tim Greenacre

Koelsch, hollaendisch und komplizierte Texte, die mit J.S. Bach zu tun hatten sind bleibende Erinnerrungen sowie die musikalische Erziehung, die ich erfahren durte.

Alle guten Wuensche


          Christa Greenacre

A Privilege

I’m pleased to be able to tell you, Roger, how much I
appreciate your work with Doncaster Choral Society.
It was always a privilege both to rehearse and perform
under your outstanding direction.
When I retired in 1996 I was able to join DCS and
experience again the enjoyment that comes from good
choral singing; this remains the most satisfying of my
many retirement activities, and is largely due to your
inspiration.
I’m sorry that you had to retire from conducting us, but
realize that circumstances were making it impossible for
you to continue. Please accept my good wishes and
thanks for giving me the opportunity to sing with you
and DCS.
Brian Robson

Dear Roger

I should like to express my appreciation of your association while conductor of Doncaster Choral Society. I know I personally benefited greatly and I’m sure the choir as a whole improved enormously.
Your Messiah is now the ‘definitive’ for me as is also your interpretation of the St Matthew and St John Passions, particularly the chorales. Thinking of your B Minor, on most occasions the emotion was built up to such an extent through the “Lie still” chorus that I found it difficult to sing the final, beautiful chorale. Thank you for your sensitivity.
However, if I am to select one outstanding occasion it must be the performance of Dyson’s Canterbury Pilgrims. I feel it is my kind of music and fits the words so perfectly. How well I remember seeing you literally dancing when conducting the overture and how inspirationally you brought the whole thing together. It is now my very favourite work.
Thank you sincerely for sharing your exceptional musicianship with us.
          Bill Moore

Dear Roger

I have had the privilege of singing with you for about 25 years and what a rewarding and enriching experience it has been.
It was a tremendous compliment to us when you expressed an interest in becoming our musical director and no one was more delighted than I when you got the job. Since then you have worked wonders with the choir to bring us to becoming a choir of some eminence, attracting fine musicians such as Simon Lindley to work with us. We have put on some excellent concerts, particular highlights for me being Canterbury Pilgrims, closely followed by Britten’s St Nicolas and Mendelssohn’s Elijah, not forgetting your interpretation of Messiah, which is very special. We shall be forever grateful to you for that.
When the social life of the Society was more active I always appreciated the fact that you came over from Sheffield and supported everything and you seemed to enjoy it. We had some fun.
One of your endearing qualities is to accept people for themselves and not for how clever or intellectual they are; hence you befriended me!  Similarly, you are no musical snob, appreciating wide-ranging music that is good of its kind regardless of its acceptance by musicologists and you have always been receptive to new music.
You have enriched the lives of many people in Doncaster and beyond. Throughout the years apart from your musical skills as a conductor, we have all been treated to your superb harpsichord continuo playing, always original. It has been a delight.
Thank you for the difference you have made to my life.

Margaret Hunt

Roger…….
The one word says it all.

Those of us privileged to work with RFTB over many years find it easy to write with warmth on one of the most popular of performing musicians. Academic life and distinguished learning have never led him up the steps to an eyrie atop the ivory tower: quite the reverse, in fact. His music-making has remained on terra firma with the rest of us and the contribution he has made to the life of the region is formidable and inestimable.
Of course, informed scholarship (very informed!) has invariably underpinned his interpretations which have been characterised by their fluency – even their speed(s) – as much as by his unerring ability to see both ‘the big picture’ and the small print. Enterprise has been as much to the fore as endeavour, for his great love of Baroque music is matched by an almost missionary zeal for the unfamiliar.
There have been many highlights for this particular contributor in and around Doncaster – not least two Requiems in one evening, Fauré and Duruflé, preceded by a seventy minute perambulation around the rooftops of Doncaster’s department stores in an attempt to park a car. A recent carol concert was a revelation – beautifully blended singing, much of it unaccompanied, and a truly quality programme: no playing to the gallery, but the warmth of the audience’s reception left one in no doubt as to the consummate success of an enterprise that promised nearly as much on paper as was delivered in the event.
The alchemy of Roger with choristers is difficult to define – admiration and affection are there for certain, both gentleman and scholar. On being first told of his work as Doncaster’s conductor and I think invited to play for a rehearsal for which no regular accompanist could be available – I remember he said, “it’s for Doncaster and District Choral Society – don’t forget the ‘and District’ and, by the way, we rehearse in the College for the Deaf.” Both remarks have remained in the memory. As for the glance from the eyes – inscrutable, firm and confidently expectant of a response!
In Leeds, we have long been hugely fortunate to have so many of our Bach and Handel presentations underpinned by that most stalwart and imaginative of continuo players, for Roger is a prince of harpsichordists. Always in the background, yet not beyond stepping on the throttle a bit when the upcoming terrain looks a bit on the rough side.
Though not littered with markings, the tricky moments in some of his scores are often designated with railway signalling instructions….
Simon Lindley

Recollections…..

Our acquaintance with Roger dates back many years to the early days of our late son-in-law John Storey’s involvement with the Danensian choir and later his own choir Cantus Vocum. On many occasions Roger provided the harpsichord continuo, and several times we provided transport in our estate car for his precious instrument to various venues back to Sheffield. Sometimes when John was taking a solo part in an oratorio Roger performed his famous double act of conducting while playing continuo. We were to witness this amazing tour de force many more times and always admired his virtuosity. We are eternally grateful to Roger for his contribution to Susan’s musical education which has made music and singing an essential enjoyment for her ever since.
Margaret joined Doncaster Choral Society before Roger became conductor and choirmaster. There was no mistaking the improvement in standard of the choir’s performance following his arrival. This opinion is based on the views of a chorister, Margaret, and a member of the audience, Hugh. The Choral Society got a great bargain by appointing Roger. Not only did they get a first class musical director but they also obtained a highly professional harpsichord continuo when needed, a fluent, witty writer of programme notes and someone who could obtain the services of the Sheffield Bach Players.

         Margaret and Hugh Smyllie

Roger – the party animal

Roger will always be ‘Dr Bullivant’ to me (although students sometimes called him Bully or Roger) because when I first met him I was still at school. Our music teacher John Storey was more adventurous than most in the way of repertoire for a school choir and we sang Carissimi’s Jepthe, Schutz Christmas Oratorio, Bach Cantatas and Handel’s Messiah, all necessitating virtuoso harpsichord continuo, some played by Roger. He would arrive from Sheffield in a black cab with his harpsichord, giving rise to speculation about possible fabulous personal wealth (a taxi all the way from Sheffield – ‘Wow’!!). His performances were spellbinding: his command of the harpsichord absolute – big hands raking over the little keys. As a schoolgirl I was fascinated by him and his immense musicianship and style. He always looked and sounded extremely serious – until he didn’t. Out of the blue would come some dry sotto voce crack or, on the keyboard, a florid extempore so wild, and executed with such a discreet twinkle in the eye, that it had to be joke.
He was greatly loved and admired at my school and we always felt honoured that he would take the trouble to perform with us. We were always given the message that we had to be professional and the fact that Dr Bullivant was the continuo greatly contributed to that.
Later I went to Sheffield University and became one of Dr Bullivant’s students myself. In three years I never heard a nasty word said about him. Students up to no good or, just plain idle can be quite catty about their tutors but never about Roger. He was a ‘ must have’ for any student party worth going to. This was a revelation to me after knowing him at school – the man was a party animal. Roger’s forte was wicked cabarets, with or without assistance, of old standards prominently featuring ‘A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square’ and such like. Despite the affection between Roger and his students, he was a not a push over. The first time I experienced him rehearsing an orchestra I was shocked. He was quite kindly disposed with choirs but gave instrumentalists a hard time. The university chorus was a bit of a shower and always very short of tenors ands by the day of the performance I would be in deep gloom but suddenly, out of nowhere, Roger would conjure about twenty tenors of excellent quality and experience and all would be a delight.
Roger was keen on the ‘authenticity’ of musical performance although I was never entirely clear as to what aspect of the performance he referred. A story is told about his taking the Mickey out of pretentious concertgoers by commenting, loud enough to be heard, about Mapletub’s Crumhorn Concerto and gleefully watching them make a note of this fictional work.
I always associated Dr Bullivant with Baroque music – after all, he wrote a book about it which remains the seminal work on the subject to this day. Also he directed the Sheffield Bach Choir and was acclaimed for his virtuosity on the harpsichord as a continuo artist. Imagine my surprise when, one day, he declared ‘ of course everyone assumes that the Baroque is my favourite but actually I prefer Mendelssohn’.
Many years later I became aware that Dr Bullivant’s support of Doncaster schools’ music was not a one off and that he had long been active in music education outside Sheffield University where he was Reader in Music.
I consider him to be in the great British tradition of musicians who were top of their particular field yet worked diligently, and often unobtrusively, to bring music within reach of everyone.
 Mrs Susan Storey
                                                An ex-music student and Margaret and Hugh’s daughter

 

Grateful for the opportunity…

I first saw Roger Bullivant when he played the organ in a King Edward VII School concert. It was then a grammar school. I was a pupil at another grammar school and there was a lot of rivalry about the standard of the school orchestras. Roger was already a legend, but he seemed rather aloof and distant from the perspective of a shy teenager in the audience.
A few years later I was in the last year at music college and Roger asked me to play in the Sheffield Bach Players, just for one concert, in fact for one work – he needed a third oboe for Bach’s Sleepers Wake. I can’t remember how he knew my playing or me but I am always grateful for the opportunity. It led to my becoming a regular member of the Sheffield Bach Players, which continues to this day.
As a result I have played in hundreds of Roger’s concerts, most often in Sheffield Cathedral, but I well remember a number of concerts in cold, small village churches in South Yorkshire and three concerts in Bochum. He expects and respects professionalism, and is always thoroughly professional himself and his concerts are always exciting.
Particular memories are the ‘fastest Messiah in the North’ (this was never proved but he must have been in the running), a lovely performance of a rarity, Dyson’s Canterbury Pilgrims, in Doncaster, and the surprise of him making speeches in German during the visit to Bochum.
              Paul Scott
 

A different choral path…..

When the Society appointed Dr Roger Bullivant as Musical Director, I knew we were embarking on a different choral path.
Almost immediately rehearsals began, we started to grow in our musicianship. Roger’s immaculately prepared rehearsals ensured that we were fully conversant with the melody, text and rhythmic content of each work. Roger is thorough and exact, no semi-quaver is left wanting.
Not one to stay within the confines of ‘popular’ repertoire, Roger took us on an ever-expanding voyage of discovery through several centuries of choral composition.
Personal highlights were a number of Requiems, Duruflé, Fauré and Mozart in particular; Canterbury Pilgrims, always Messiah, a staggering performance of St Matthew Passion and, of course, Elijah. Through these works and under Roger’s expert direction, I learned more musical history and orchestration than ever before.
I once turned pages for Roger and became mesmerised at his playing entirely from figured bass – I had to count the bars to know when to turn, as nothing else in the music was identifiable!
It has been a great privilege to work with Roger over seventeen years. I have gained so much, and he has gained my respect and admiration.
Thank you.
       Sue Dumican

Speed all right?

Having studied at Trinity College of Music in London as an organist, singer and conductor and begun my teaching career in Maidenhead I eventually moved to Birkdale School in Sheffield in 1986.
In Sheffield an offer of help singing for Alan Eost at King Edward VII School resulted in me being asked to sing tenor solos for the Oratorio Chorus. This ultimately led to Roger inviting me to sing for the Bach Society. I was generally booked for outside visits and occasional solos in Cathedral concerts, but it was the beginning of an association with Roger (and the Bach Society), which I have always valued.
Rather oddly, this link became stronger after I left Sheffield for a new job in Harrogate in 1991. In 1992 I was asked to become guest conductor to Roger at the Bach Society. I was to take some 10 rehearsals throughout the season and conduct one concert. The concert I was to conduct was the St John Passion. A year or two later I was invited to sing at a Good Friday service, where a slightly abridged St John Passion was to be performed. I was delighted to sing the Evangelist part, as well as the first aria, something I still remember and treasure to this day.
The 1992 performance was the first time I had conducted the work (I had played harpsichord in it previously) and was very aware that it was performed every three years and the choir had a Bullivant version, which they were primed and ready to go with. Roger was, as usual, at the harpsichord, and such is the strength of sound from his machine that he could have directed the performance while playing. But no! Roger had attended all my choir rehearsals and taken notes on the changes I wanted in order to de-Bullivantise the concert. I deferred to him on a few matters but at the performance itself Roger did not dominate nor direct but played his usual exemplary interpretation. The St John is now a favourite work of mine and one which cannot fail to move if performed well.
Further opportunities have occurred for me to sing for Roger and to be guest conductor both with the Sheffield Bach Society and Doncaster Choral Society. In return, and for the sheer pleasure it was to have Roger playing at concerts for me, whenever I could I would ask him to play continuo at Wetherby, in Harrogate for another St John Passion, and with the St Oswald Singers in Sowerby, including a memorial performance of the Mass in b minor in a packed Ripon Cathedral which must rank as one of the best performances I have heard. He would stay in a hotel often for a couple of nights, ensure the harpsichord was brought and tuned and would be happy taking next to no fee, such was his love of music making.
I was always intrigued at the new music Roger was willing to perform
often on few rehearsals. The Christopher Steele Symphony Sacrea, Elis Pekhonen Russian Requiem both of which I have subsequently conducted as a result of being introduced to them by Roger, and while not new I remember being asked to sing in a Stravinsky cantata which included a 13 minute tenor solo. I was, it must be said, a little concerned at this as it was a new departure for me, but the rehearsal went straight through, Roger’s only comment being ‘that was a C natural in bar 371’.
From my earliest days with some excellent teachers in London I have learnt as much by observation as instruction. In one sense I consider that Roger has been a more recent mentor, or example for me to observe and I owe him much for the opportunities he has given me to perform and to continue to develop. One sure indicator of the value Roger places on you is whether or not you are asked back again. I am glad to say that over the last fifteen years I have enjoyed many concerts with Roger at the helm, in deputising for him and with him as a continuo player for me. Perhaps one of the most flattering compliments he has given me is at the end of a performance to say that it was much the way he would have done it.
In his last season with the Bach Society he asked me to sing. I was a little unsure of singing the tenor solos in Elijah, but having gone through being offered the St Matthew Evangelist and refusing, but suggesting the alto or the bass, I was given the bass solos. This was his penultimate concert. Not willing to miss out on his final performance I sang in the choir for Elijah just for the fun of it.
A couple of years later we were to perform one last time the St John Passion as a memorial concert to Eileen Denman which Roger had been invited back to conduct. I sang the arias this time, including the very high and long da capo ‘Behold him!’ While I agreed to do it for Roger, Eileen and the Bach Choir I just hoped my light baritone would cope with the tessitura of these arias. I learnt from the Evangelist, Robert Johnston that he had given up singing the arias for this very reason. The first ‘Ah my soul’ is probably Roger’s favourite Bach aria. I had sung this before, was very comfortable with it and Roger was pleased. He clearly knew how demanding the second aria is to sing and, fortunately in rehearsal all went well and I was delighted. Roger, as so often in these circumstances, had a little aside to me. With a glint in his eye he looked over and asked ‘Speed alright?’ ‘Yes’ I replied. ‘Good, we’ll do it a little slower tonight!
I have been greatly privileged to know and work with Roger. He is the best continuo player I have ever heard and he has been a great source of encouragement and interest in my career. For these experiences I am eternally grateful.
        John Dunford

Dr Roger Bullivant MBE
Musical Director Doncaster Choral Society 1986 - 2003

A Tribute