Dartmoor

Silent evening steals across the land, There's red and amber in the western sky, So peaceful as on lofty Tor I stand, And watch the day round me slowly die.

Soon, soon dark night will settle o'er the moor, The stars alone will guide my wandering feet, But through the silent night my heart is sure, A dawn of light and freedom I will greet.

I only met Aubrey Bowman five years ago, when I joined the Workers' Music Association at its weekly meetings on Thursdays in the Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London.

He was the conductor of the choir and a music composer, a pupil of Alan Bush. He used to sit with his back to the piano and play snatches of chords with his hands groping at the keys behind him. Many of the revolutionary songs we sang were put to music by Aubrey and he also experimented with communal music compositions written and discussed by every member of the choir, as we went along shaping the tune word for word and phrase by phrase.

One such song was a medieval carol Money, Money, Where Hast Thou Be, which thus acquired a delightful tune and has become part of WMA repertoire.

Aubrey was born in 1918, son of a piano tuner, and died in December tragically after being knocked down by a car. At his funeral in East Finchley which was attended by the Clarion Singers, who came down by coach from Birmingham, the Internationale was sung with gusto by the WMA contingent.

I also learnt that Aubrey has left behind a wealth of musical compositions that need to be given a public airing. One such marvellous song was sung beautifully by soloist Maria Caravanas. The music was written by Aubrey in 1947 to this poem by William Gallagher MP.