From the earliest age Jack wished to be a music teacher. He had a passion for opera, chamber music and the avantgarde, but also the entrepreneurial spirit required to make things happen. His left of centre politics and the interest in spiritual growth and religion supported this calling. By 1954, at the age of sixteen, Jack had already formed a committee with a view to drawing together as many young musical talents in the area as possible to put on chamber music concerts in still-to-be explored venues. This led to the formation of the Accrington and District Young People’s Music Society, which was Jack’s legacy to his town. They performed in various church halls in the district. He contacted the music critic of the Accrington Observer to cover these concerts and achieve publicity. The calling to work creatively with youth was already evident.
Following his A Levels, Jack was admitted to the Northern School of Music in Manchester where he studied for one year before moving to Trinity College in London in 1958. His first position after leaving Trinity was as music master at a school in Rugeley, Staffs. He stayed there two years before moving to Wennington School in Wetherby, Yorkshire, a privately run Quaker school, where he stayed until his move to Rome, in 1967. It was in Wennington School that he met Jane and Gareth both of whom are here with us today. He would remain in Rome until 2018 or approximately 50 years.
Travel
One of the few members of the extended family he was close to, his aunt Anne Hindle, shared his entrepreneurial spirit. She was the first person to recruit secretarial assistants for Members of Parliament. On the strength of these contacts she opened what went on to become a highly successful travel company, Fairways and Swinford, specialising in Hellenic cruises and tours. It was Anne who paid for his needsthroughout his time at Trinity College. Jack benefited from her generosity all his life gaining a detailed knowledge of the Mediterranean cultures during his many free cruises.
Opera and the Avantgarde
As a teacher, Jack never tired of treating his friends and his pupils to accounts of his meetings with the famous.
One year, while in Bayreuth at the annual Wagner festival, he was honoured to meet Winifred Wagner, the daughter-in-law of the composer. She had married Siegfried, one of the composer’s sons. Although not a party member, she was a fervent admirer of Hitler. She regaled Jack with stories of how Onkel Hitler, as he was known, moved in and out of the family home.
Later, and by now in Italy, he had the pleasure of interviewing both Maria Callas and Montserrat Caballe whose sense of humour he enjoyed.
Fired by his interest in avantgarde music, a largely left wing concern in 60’s and 70’s Italy, he collaborated with Sylvano Bussotti, Luigi Nono and Luciano Berio and ran workshops with some of its principal exponents, while the friendship with the British composer Peter Maxwell-Davies endured until his death from leukaemia.
Career
While in Rome he taught music and English at St George’s English School putting on a number of memorable productions which he co-wrote and co-produced with the school pupils and which broadened their understanding of theatre and music in a manner well beyond the expectations of the rather conservative curriculum. Again, youth and creativity to the fore.
He finally gave up teaching to take up the post of Arts Officer at the British Council. It was here that his entrepreneurial spirit and imagination found their fullest expression. He argued that the Council should not concern itself with promoting the work of established UK artists or organisations nor with the careers of up-in-comingperformers. Rather, he would focus on promoting the work of established artists as yet relatively unknown in Italy. Amongst these were Sir William Walton (a resident ofIschia) and Lindsay Kemp. Sir William’s opera The Bear was performed at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples, in 1983. Jack himself would perform another of Sir William’s works, the witty Facade, in a number of European cities often together with Cathy Berberian and with Jan Lathan-Koenig conducting. Sir William was immensely grateful to Jack for this late revival of interest in his work. Jack would play a similar role in bringing the stagecraft of Lindsey Kemp to the attention of Italian theatre promoters. Lindsay enjoyed immense success in Italy and then Spain before eventually retiring in Italy. Jack was a close friend of both.
In the 80’s, alongside his work at the Council, Jack helped Lionel and Joy Bryer, manage the European Community Youth Orchestra which they founded.
He would remain at the Council until the early 90’s when the Thatcherite economies resulted in his post being cut. From now on he would hold only part-time jobs. Amongst these was the post of English Language lecturer in the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Rome. Prof. Hilary Gatti, whose teaching Jack supported, was of the opinion that Jack’s wit and impressive cultural knowledge, which went well beyond the field of literature, were in excess of the rather modest position he occupied in the university hierarchy. He had a wide knowledge of contemporary authors, many of whom he had met personally. In the new millennium, he was invited by the then Dean of the Philosophy Faculty, Professor Marta Fattori, to stay on with them, which he did until he finally made his decision to retire and return to the UK in 2017.
By then he was also a regular contributor Seen and Heard International, the‘live review’ section of MusicWeb International, from both Italy and England.
Food
Throughout his life Jack’s friends would enjoy his legendary hospitality. An accomplished cook, he would source the right wines for each course and finish with typically British puddings little known to his foreign friends, all of these prepared in a kitchen of barely 8 square metres. Guests were forbidden from entering the kitchen as he entertained them with his usual brilliant conversation while preparing the offer. But he could also be your simple companion – that is, someone he broke his bread with. On such occasions he demonstrated that rare skill of making the guest feel the centre of attention.
Amongst the many legendary food stories we will mention two. John Cage was in Rome for a concert series. Jack lured him to lunch with the promise of a selection of Italy’s little known bitter greens. It was Cage, however, who stole the show by arriving with a basketful of still lesser known herbs and leaves foraged, unlikely though it may seem, while finding his way to Jack’s apartment. On another occasion at the Hilton in Rome Jack, who had reserved the best table for himself and his guests, Theo and Emma, came in for unexpectedly detailed and obsessive attention including complementary drinks. Jack was amused to be addressed as Mr. Blair throughout the evening. It was only later that they noticed Tony and Cherie sitting quietly in the corner (with security, of course) perhaps grateful for a relatively anonymous evening. The staff error may have been comic but it was also down to Jack’s presence or charisma. Not everyone could have or would have wanted to carry it off.
Spiritual Life
After Wennington, Jack retained a deep respect for Quaker practice. But he had an energetic and restless intellect. During the 70’s and 80’s he turned to Buddhism partly on account of a meeting with HH The Dalai Lama in ‘73 and perhaps as a reaction toChristianity’s demand that its moral codes be followed unquestioningly by all. Morality, for Jack, was contingent, the distinction between Good and Evil not as simple as the monotheistic religions would have us believe. Rather, he aligned himself with what Buddhism and Tao teach, and what George Harrison famously sang: ‘And to see you’re really only very small and life flows on within you and without you’. Birth is random. Life on earth is brief. Live it to the full without regrets.
Jack’s childhood friend, Leslie Walsh, reflects that Jack had his ups and downs but that he circumnavigated these by creating and living in his own world. If this reflected the reality of a situation, then fine, but if not, trouble brewed. He and Leslie used to talk about politics after his move to Croydon, but Leslie regarded politics as one of the areas where Jack’s world collided with reality. This did not prevent him becoming active in Labour Party with Rowenna Davis commenting Jack was a leading light for the local Labour Party.
***
A final reflection. When in the company of Jack at his most unfailingly polite you knew he had little interest in the person; when in the company of Jack the raconteur you knew he had found a listener and Jack enjoyed lapping up the attention; but it was only when someone was subjected to what we might call a Jack Attack that you understood this was a close friend. As he was careful to explain, if you challengesomeone you don’t know, you risk losing them. You can only afford to be short with friends because you know they will remain so.
So there you have him. A working class Lancastrian who had the privilege most of his adult life of living in the Doria palace, Rome, whose private gallery hangs works by Velasquez, Rembrandt and Caravaggio and whose Baroque staircase was adjudged by Anthony Blunt no less to be the most beautiful of its kind in Rome; a man with deeply Christian roots but with no need for a creator God; someone rich in spirit but with no belief in the soul or the afterlife, no belief in heaven or hell; one whose politics was well left of centre and who demonstrated this through his generosity and his consideration of others’ needs including the spiritual; a convivial but also intensely private person; one whose poetics enabled him to transcend all these distinctions and weave these into the rich tapestry of a fully lived life. He died intestate and penniless but not friendless and was immensely grateful to all those who supported him in his latter years. And he was immensely grateful to the staff at Whitgift for their support and care, their generosity and their willingness to meet his needs until the end.
https://seenandheard-international.com/2014/07/the-power-of-alexander-ullmans-pianism/
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perivale/https://seenandheard-international.com/2021/03/the-wit-and-wisdom-of-hao-zi-yohs-pianism-for-music-at-st-marys-
perivale/https://seenandheard-international.com/2021/04/mozart-the-thick-and-thin-of-it/
https://seenandheard-international.com/2020/07/it-aint-a-gonna-rain-no-mo-more-music-hall-memories/
Celebrating
THE LIFE OF
Jack Buckley
15.03.38 – 26.09.22
Tuesday February 28th 2023 09:45
Croydon Crematorium East Chapel
Mitcham Rd (A236), London CR03AA
Thornton Rd (A23) London CR7 6BB
UK
Order of Service
Procession………………..……… .Conchita Supervia
Introduction and Welcome……………Bishop Peter Price
Poem……….……….………….……………..William Blake
Eulogy 1…………………………………Stefano Pascalino
Poems…………………………………………Jack Buckley
Eulogy 2……………………………..Antony Warde-Jones
Revelation 21.1-5a…………………….Bishop Peter Price
Obituary ………………………………..Bishop Peter Price
Committal…………………………………..Verdi:Trovatore“D’amor sull’ali rosee” Monserrat Caballe
Departure
Eternity
He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy
He who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity’s sun rise.
William Blake 1757-1827
Life follows death
Life follows death and back again,
A hundred or so times a day.
Eat, drink, live, die, cry, love, hope, pray.
Sometimes a child shows us the way.
Life follows death and back again.
No fears please, least, not for today.
Happy Christmas is what we say.
Life follows death and back again.
Eat, drink, live, die, cry, love, hope, pray.
With live for the day your refrain,
Life follows death and back again,
A hundred or so times a day.
A close friend died and left some pain.
Eat, drink, live, die, cry, love, hope, pray.
Most things absent often remain.
I try to live life without gain:
Its own reward. Say that again.
Eat, drink, live, die cry, love, hope, pray:
A checklist for your mainstay.
A thousand or so times a day.
Jack Buckley
Grace
When it comes to grace
Eternity’s your space.
Only feel it.
Don’t need it.
Bigger than you.
The joy you never knew.
A smile on your face
when it comes to grace,
when grace should find you,
it’s courtesy to remind you
that grace found you,
but ne’er on a working day:
Breath deeply. Breath calmly.
Then! Then! Quietly pray.
Should you need help
remember yourself.
But quietly: no haste.
‘t is wondrous space
-that gifts us grace.
JB 08/11/2019
Yet
When I was dying,
Thought I was ready,
Yet,
Something was missing.
Don’t know what it was
Yet
It felt so familiar
Yet
So far away and
Still no conditioner,
No asphyxiating indicator.
No liberating force
Yet
You couldn’t help thinking
How kindly is death.
Still,
Death won’t keep quiet,
Quite yet.
31/10/2019 JB
The link for the funeral of Jack Buckley to be held on
Tuesday Feb 28th 2023 at 09:45
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