A Christmas Letter From Vernon Barford (1876-1963) Organist  (1900-1956) All Saints Cathedral Edmonton, Alberta, Canada ©2005  Glenn F. Cartwright

One day I received a letter from a man I never met, and was destined never to meet.    But how I wish I had!

Who were we in those days?  He was a famous organist in a great cathedral 2,000 miles away. I was a young boy studying the pipe organ. Though I had never met him,  I was surprised to receive one day a letter from him.  Enclosed with his letter was a published copy of "Away in a Manger" - a Christmas carol he had composed.

His autographed gift along with his letter was enough to lift the spirits of any boy who toiled at daily organ practice. All at once it offered a glimpse of the past, a recognition of the present,  and at the same time held inspiration and hope for the future.  The letter heralded his faith in a new generation and the carol, written in a difficult-to-play six flats, presented a challenge for the future.

It served then, as it does now whenever I think about it, to buoy my spirits.  His Christmas letter then was a precious gift to me and has remained so for decades since.  I share this heretofore unknown letter with you in the hope that it will raise your spirits just as it did mine so many years ago and that it will also be Vernon Barford's little gift to you.

It began:  

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Dear Boy Glenn,

     I can't remember who it was who told me that you were rather interested in the length of time I had been Organist and Choirmaster at All Saints' Cathedral here - your aunt, I think.  Anyway, I thought you might care for a copy of this little carol and perhaps like to get a line from me.  I gave up sending Christmas cards when I was a pretty sick old man ten years ago.
     I was just going to tell you that I couldn't make out your name as I had it scribbled out on my telephone pad, but I find I can do so - good for me!
     I was a small Cathedral chorister in England at one of the big cathedrals from 1888 to '92 or '93.  I used to be sent into the big place fairly often to get the music for the daily rehearsals and frequently used to sneak into one of the two organs, turn on the water power with which it was blown, and "strum" quietly to myself.  I have often thought that the organist was quite wise to what I was doing, but he never said anything.  Later, on when I was seventeen, I got an organ scholarship at one of the Oxford colleges but I only stayed "up" for a year and came to Canada in 1895.  I was appointed organist of the pro-cathedral at Qu'Appelle.  You may be interested to know that during one period (about 1929) I had a choir of just one hundred, including forty boys.
     My bad writing is the result of a paralytic stroke which I had several years ago.
     I hope you go in for sports; I never took any care of my hands - captained both my football and cricket teams at school and rowed for my college at Oxford.  Why do I tell you this? Well, I think the fact that I played games helped persuade my choir boys that music was not a "sissy" sort of thing - it was a great many years before any of my choir men could run me down in seventy-five yards.  No, I couldn't do the hundred yards after I was about twenty-five.
     Well son, stick to your music.  Don't forget the C-flats in my carol - there are more than a dozen of them.  And don't dare to put it into G with an F-sharp, it won't sound as nice.

     Happy Christmas, son.

Vernon Barford  married Agnes Lynch and together they had four children: Marjorie (Biddy), Cuthbert Alan (Tommy), and twins Jack and Jim.  

As a musician, Vernon  Barford founded the Edmonton Amateur Operatic Society 1904 and served as conductor of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.  When Alberta became a province in 1905, he  was in charge of the inaugural ceremonial music and reprised the same role some fifty years later for Alberta's golden jubliee.  At the opening ceremonies of the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton in 1958, he conducted an RCAF Band and a chorus.

Vernon Barford, M.A., F.C.C.O., A.A.G.O.,  is well remembered in Edmonton and throughout Alberta.  The organ at
All Saints Cathedral in Edmonton where he was organist and choirmaster was named the Vernon Barford Organ 
and the Vernon Barford Junior High School in Edmonton, Alberta was named in his honour.

Vernon Barford died in Edmonton on April 22, 1963 at the age of 87.

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Notes

• I am grateful to the Vernon Barford Junior High School for providing the photograph above of Vernon Barford as a young man.

• Fort Qu'Appelle is about 30 miles east of Regina, Saskatchewan.  

• The pro-cathedral there, until 1944, was St. Peter's.

References

Barford, Vernon. (n.d.)  Personal communication.

Barford,  Patricia. (2007, April 10). Personal communication.

Provincial Archives of Alberta. Vernon Barford interview, tape 67.182; papers 67.277

George, Graham. (1961, Winter). 'Vernon Barford,' CMJ, v. 5.,

McIntosh,  R. Dale  (1955). 'Music in Alberta,' Alberta Golden Jubilee Anthology (Toronto)