Margery Moore is the professional name of Lilian Margery Moore (born 17 March 1907) [1] a British musician - composer, pianist, pedagogue - who flourished in London in the 1930s and 1940s. The majority of her works were published by the London firm of Novello, with some published by other London firms: Boosey and Hawkes, Curwen, and Stainer and Bell.
Margery Moore was born in the UK town of Birkenhead, the daughter of Thomas Moore (b. c. 1868), originally of Shenley in Hertfordshire, a 'railway employee', and his wife Catherine (b. c. 1877) originally of Beverley, East Yorkshire. By 1911 the family were living in Plymouth at 6 Green Bank Avenue. [2]
In Plymouth Margery took piano lessons from a Miss F. Faull, under whose aegis in January 1918 she took to the platform in a concert in Devonport, Plymouth to raise funds for the Red Cross. One reviewer described her as "a clever young pianist". [3]
In 1924 she passed the Royal Academy of Music licentiate examination (LRAM) in piano performance. [4] Five years later on 14 September 1929 she was awarded Durham University's Mus. Bac. degree as an external (corresponding) student. Her examination 'exercise' was a string quartet in D-minor. The university records show that by this date she had moved from Devon to Toynbee Hall, 28 Commercial Street, London. [1]
In 1935-36 Margery Moore was recorded as a member of the Union of Music Graduates, [5] [6] which aimed to oppose the granting of spurious music degrees. [7]
At some point before 1939 and until at least 1960 Margery Moore lived at 34 Claremont Square, Islington. [8] [9] At first she lived there with her parents - Thomas aged 68 and Catherine aged 67 - and Roland DeRougemont, then a member of the Auxiliary Fire Service aged 27 and whom she married in 1940. [10] (Roland remarried in 1953 to Valerie Rampton. [11] ) By 1960 Margery was the sole occupant of the house in Claremont Square. [8]
In 1936 Margery Moore published a series of four polemical essays in The Musical Times on the subject of piano teaching under the general title Some Problems of the Young Piano Teacher: 1. Children; [12] 2. Adult Beginners; [13] 3. Parents; [14] 4. The Teacher. [15]
From October to December 1936 a short series of advertisements appeared in The Musical Times in which Margery Moore offered her services as an editor for amateur composers at the cost of 1s per manuscript. [16]
In July 1938 Margery Moore published another article in The Musical Times concerning piano pedagogy entitled Concerning the Piano Class. [17]
In 1939, already a lecturer with the London County Council, [9] working at Toynbee Hall, and also on the staff of the East Sheen County School for Girls, [18] she found time to teach piano to a teenage German émigré called Helmut Kallmann (1922–2012), prior to his emigration to Canada (1940) where he became a pioneering music historian. [19]
In September 1944 she was appointed to teach a musical appreciation class at the Technical Institute, Richmond, Surrey. [18] The same month she also took up a post with the Workers Educational Association, Guildford branch, to teach music appreciation on Wednesday evenings. [20]
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