[BITList] Fwd: Midnight Cowboy

[John Feltham]

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Reilly,  Thomas Rundle  [Tommy]  (1919-2000), harmonica player, was born in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, on 21 August 1919, the son of Captain James Reilly, a military bandmaster. His father was a versatile musician who not only conducted symphony orchestras but was also the founder of one of Canada's first jazz bands. Himself a keen harmonica player, Captain Reilly also founded and led the Elmdale Harmonica Band, which won many prizes throughout Canada. His son Tommy participated in this band, although, according to one account, he was sacked for refusing to practise. Reilly also learned several other instruments, including the violin, which he began to study at the age of eight. When the family moved to England in 1935, Tommy was already a virtuoso performer on the harmonica, and toured variety theatres in Britain and Europe. He played in cabaret as a juggler and a tightrope-walker. In 1939 he entered the Leipzig conservatory as a violinist, but in September, as soon as war broke out, he was arrested by the Gestapo and interned. He spent the whole of the war in prison camps in Germany, Poland, and France. Fortunately, however, he was able to keep up his harmonica playing, improving his technique, although he was obliged to surrender his Red Cross parcels in order to bribe the guards so that he could receive the harmonicas sent to him by the famous harmonica manufacturer Ernst Hohner. In his attempt to achieve a smooth legato style of playing, he was much influenced by violinists such as Jascha Heifetz. He ended his days as a prisoner of war at Luneburg Heath. It is ironic that although he had managed to retain his violin in the prison camps, it was stolen on his return trip to Britain in 1945.

The war over, Reilly embarked on an exciting career as a broadcaster and, subsequently, a film star and television personality, which was to continue for more than fifty years. On 20 October 1946 he married the variety artiste Ena Nabb (b. 1928/9), with whom he had one son. In 1951 Michael Spivakovsky wrote a harmonica concerto for him as part of the Festival of Britain celebrations, a year before Vaughan Williams wrote his Romance for Harmonica. Reilly was also the performer of many works written especially for him, including Five Pieces for harmonica and piano by Gordon Jacob, a Concertino by Vilem Tausky, and concertos by Karl-Heinz Koper and Milton Barnes. Pop works and jazz-based works were written for him by composers such as George Martin and Bob Farnon, while the many film composers writing for him included John Barry, Elmer Bernstein, Bob Farnon, Jerry Goldsmith, Bernard Herrmann, Maurice Jarre, and Dmitry Tiomkin. Reilly was himself also a composer, his notable compositions including the music for the very successful comedy film The Navy Lark of 1959. Among his great successes as a performer for television were the theme tunes to Dixon of Dock Green, The Last of the Summer Wine, and The Singing Detective. In the world of film, he achieved great success in 1965 as the performer in Ron Goodwin's music for Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, and, in 1969, of the theme tune in John Barry's Midnight Cowboy.

Reilly made numerous recordings of many kinds of music, including folk-song arrangements, light music, popular classics, film music, and works by classical composers such as Malcolm Arnold, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and Vaughan Williams. He made several recordings with the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields under Sir Neville Marriner, who said of him: 'He achieves remarkable virtuosity with a minimum of fuss. Musically he exploits his instrument with refinement and bravura, and ultimately it does not seem to matter what he plays, but how he plays it'  (The Independent). Reilly also came into contact with Stravinsky. On one occasion, when Stravinsky's publishers tried to prevent Reilly from playing one of the composer's works, Stravinsky interceded on his behalf, stating: 'After hearing your interpretation of my Chanson Russe, I would be happy to let you play anything of mine'  (The Guardian). He also worked with many leading stars of the day, including Bing Crosby and Marlene Dietrich. In 1967 he commissioned a specially constructed concert harmonica made of silver, which became his trademark. Tommy Reilly did much to prove that the harmonica was a viable concert instrument. The recipient of many awards and prizes, he was a world authority on his instrument, writing a number of manuals and studies, and was an excellent and much sought-after teacher. Perhaps the greatest tribute to his standing as a performer of world significance was made by Larry Adler: 'He was unique, in a class by himself'  (ibid.). Reilly died at his home, Hammonds Wood, Frensham, Surrey, on 25 September 2000, at eighty-one years of age; his wife, Ena, survived him.

G. R. Seaman 

Sources  The Guardian (28 Sept 2000) + Daily Telegraph (29 Sept 2000) + The Independent (16 Oct 2000) + The Times (5 Oct 2000) + The Scotsman (23 Oct 2000) + m. cert. + d. cert. + New Grove
Likenesses  photograph, News International Syndication, London [see illus.] · photograph, repro. in The Independent · photograph, repro. in The Guardian · photograph, repro. in Daily Telegraph




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