By Caroline Smith
When acclaimed concert pianist Eileen Joyce set off for Europe in 1927 at the cusp of her career, she took with her a strong technical foundation received at West Australian convent schools, including the former Loreto Convent in Claremont and St Joseph’s Convent in Boulder.
The connection was sufficient that composer Percy Grainger – who had discovered Joyce the year before and encouraged her move to Europe – claimed the musical training she received at Loreto was among the best he had seen anywhere in the world.
Eileen Joyce is the topic of a forthcoming book by local musicologist Dr Victoria Rogers, together with Professor David Tunley and Universal Music Australia’s Cyrus Meher-Homji.
The book focuses not only on the life of this oft-forgotten genius, but also on the film work which saw her sidelined by the BBC in the 1930s, 40s and 50s as a ‘musical lightweight’.
At a lecture on Joyce’s career and film work at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts on 4 March, Dr Rogers explained how the pianist’s decision to perform on soundtracks affected her career for the worse, despite her recognised talent.
“It was a very unorthodox career move at the time, and there’s no doubt that it carried the risk of damaging a performer’s reputation,” Dr Rogers said.
“It’s clear to me that the films were a factor in the discrimination that Joyce suffered from at the BBC, and unfortunately led to them labelling Joyce as a musical lightweight, which I think is unfounded.
“It’s ironic that towards the end of her career, just as she was about to quit, the BBC had a change of personnel, and everything changed, but it was too late, unfortunately, for Joyce.”
Despite all odds, Joyce’s involvement with films such as The Seventh Veil, Brief Encounter and A Man of Two Worlds saw her gain new fans, adding to those who already knew her from radio recordings and performances at the yearly BBC Proms concerts.
“She already had a huge audience from her recordings but, through her films, Joyce reached millions of people throughout the world who would not otherwise be drawn to classical music,” Dr Rogers said.
All this was a far cry from the WA Goldfields where Joyce grew up, training from the age of nine at St Joseph’s Convent, followed by private lessons with music teacher Rosetta Spriggs.
Her exceptional ability was noticed by Trinity examiner Charles Schilsky, who approached the Archdiocese of Perth, requesting that she be allowed to continue her education at Loreto Convent, where she studied with Sister John More.
Upon her discovery by Grainger – who was touring Australia in 1926, and described her as ”the most transcendentally gifted young piano student I have heard in the last 25 years” – she was encouraged to move again to Europe, to train at the Leipzig Conservatorium.
“It must have been quite amazing for Joyce to move from Perth, which was quite small then, to this sophisticated centre of European culture,” Dr Rogers said.
“But the one quality she had in abundance was tenacity so, although she was very homesick, she stuck it out, and acquired an incredible technique.
“In 1930, she went to London and launched her career with a performance of Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto, and that was the beginning of a brilliant career that led to performances with all major orchestras and conductors throughout the world.”
Joyce spent the rest of her life in England, but gained recognition in Australia, too, receiving honorary doctorates from the University of WA in 1979 and the University of Melbourne in 1982 – adding to another received from the University of Cambridge in 1971.
Dr Rogers said that, along with her film work, one notable feature of Joyce’s career was her involvement in the early music revival, which saw her perform well-known pieces on early instruments such as harpsichords and clavichords.
“The harpsichord was having a renaissance at the turn of the 20th century but what hadn’t happened was it making its way to a concert platform,” she said.
“This was where Eileen stepped in big time, with the enormous profile that she had.
“I don’t think anyone has realised this but it was a stepping stone to the expansion of the early music revival which happened in the sixties.”
She later donated a clavichord built for her in 1950 to UWA where it resides in the Eileen Joyce Studio.
The book on Joyce’s life is set for release this year, in conjunction with a boxed set of her recordings, collected together for the first time. For more information, readers can contact Dr Rogers at v.rogers@ecu.edu.au.