Who is Eileen Joyce?
Have you heard of Eileen Joyce? Any bells ringing for you? I can guarantee that most Australians have never heard the name or one of this country’s most famous pianists of all times. How can her memory just have faded away? She only died in 1991 yet her passing went almost unnoticed in Australia.
Eileen Joyce was born in a tent in the mining town of Zeehan, Tasmania in 1912. Her family were poor as her father struggled to find labouring work. They moved to Western Australia when Eileen was only 2. She began piano lessons at the local convent and displayed such talent that she was later encouraged to study piano at the University of Western Australia. She was discovered by famous musician Percy Grainger and, with the financial support of her community, was sent to Europe to study further.
In 1930 she made her professional debut as a concert pianist playing with the London Symphony Orchestra and by 1931 she had given her first professional solo performance. She had a remarkable career playing all throughout Europe. During the war she played concerts at hospitals and for all those affected by the blitz in London and became well known to the English public.
She was a beautiful woman with a sense of style. She was dressed by Norman Hartnell in his lovely designer gowns. She seems to have been quite a ‘driven’ woman, working constantly, and developing her own way of doing things. She had a reputation for changing her gowns often during a concert and they were all colour coded to match the composer. She wore blue for Beethoven, green for Chopin and so on.
She became famous across the world and was invited to record for the soundtrack of “Brief Encounter” that famous war time tear jerker. By 1953 her early life was turned into a movie called “Wherever She Goes” in which she played herself. She was subsequently offered a small role in other films such “Girl in a Million.”She retired in 1960 although she sometimes appeared at charity concerts. She died in 1991 in England.
“Once you stop playing,’ she had once said, ‘you are forgotten.’ That seems to be very true. While serious musicians speak of her exceptional abilities critics of the time seem to have been more dismissive. Instead they talk of her popularity with the common man and her love of fashion as though they were things that should cause her talent to be ignored. Australia, as a comparatively young country, does not have many world famous pianists to claim. Eileen Joyce spent much of her adult life overseas but she firmly clung to her Australian roots. She donated $37000 to the University of WA to support music students as she herself had been supported. Other than the scholarship, which she herself established, there is nothing left to remember her by in Australia other than a little memorial park in Zeehan.
Why not watch Brief Encounter and listen to the Rachmaninoff theme woven throughout the film?
Perhaps listen to the recording of her playing Debussy’s famous Clair de Lune. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQfYRCsevj8)
Then tell me that you can forget her.
More information about Eileen Joyce is available here: www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/IMP0060b.htm ; http://www.naxos.com/artistinfo/bio12585.htm : http://www.binaryblue.com.au/LPA/eileenjoyce2.html
Anne Maybus is the owner of Beauty Banquet and passionate blogger at The Tall Poppy.
Australia is rich in many talented people but they are quickly forgotten under the barrage of popular culture.
She was a brilliant player, thanks for reminding us of her in your great post
Thank you for your comment. I love to listen to her playing Clair de Lune. I wonder if they will ever show the films about her again? I haven’t seen them since I was a child.
I had never heard heard her, but now I really want to see the movie “Wherever She Goes”.
I saw “Wherever She Goes” in Sydney at the old Orpheum Theatre that was just across the Harbour Bridge on the north shore. Although only eight, I remember distinctly that Eileen was sitting in the row in front of my mother and I in the theatre and we were introduced to her as she was accompanied by a friend of my mother, Suzie Perrett, who also appeared in the movie. Is a video or DVD available anywhere?
I don’t know if it is available at all. I will keep my eyes open for it and if I come across it I will post here again.
I came across this as I am in the midst of reading “Prelude” to my children. This is a children’s biography of Eileen Joyce. It was a favourite of mine as a child, and now I am enjoying it with my children. I found the book to be inspirational for me at many times growing up and hope it will be also for my children. I enjoyed reading what you wrote here and will look at her with “adult” eyes now. Thankyou.
Thank you or your comments, GIna. I must go and find the book. I am glad that you mentioned it.
There’s now a comprehensive biography of Eileen Joyce on Wikipedia. It’s being updated all the time, but it’s in pretty good shape. Lots of excellent links for further reading.
The Eileen Joyce Collection is housed in the Callaway Centre Archive at The University of Western Australia – http://www.callaway.uwa.edu.au/archive/collections/joyce
Parts of Eileen Joyce’s personal collection have been catalogued and digitised (both sound and print resources) and are available to view/listen online. For items not yet catalogued, there are Finding Aids that provide lists/groups of materials in the Archive.
To listen to Sound Recordings search the catalogue by call number – http://millennium.library.uwa.edu.au:81/search~S4/c and enter CAL0001/
This will give a list of recordings in the Eileen Joyce Collection. Click on the number after CAL0001/ for more details of the recording. Scroll to the bottom of the page to choose item to listen to.
I heard Eileen Joyce many times when I was a music student in London around 1956. A mighty player in every way, I heard her in Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Ireland, Franck and Rachmaninov and was unfailingly impressed with her total dedication to everything she played. A terrible recent biography disgusted me in every way. I sincerely hope that her recordings will be re-issued, including the unpublished material, and set the record straight, proving that she was one of the greats of her time.
I watched Brief Encounter a couple of days ago, for the umpteenth time. But for the first time I noticed the credit title given to Eileen Joyce as pianist and a long ancient bell went off in my brain.
As a child I read a wonderful book about Eileen Joyce and now would love to get my hands on it again. But I have tried Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk and it doesn’t seem to exist in this hemisphere any more, [I live in Ireland], and I cannot remember the title.
Does such a book ring any bells with the people here? If so could someone leave the title for me here. Thank you in advance.
Sophie, that book was probably “Prelude: The Early Life of Eileen Joyce” by Lady Clare Hoskyns-Abrahall. It was a best-selling 1950 biography that was translated into several languages as well as Braille. While it told the main elements of her story – up till that time – it was also ludicrously fictionalised in places. For example, it had her being born in a tent in the bush, when she was in fact born in a hospital in Zeehan. Apparently, her sole childhood companion was her pet kangaroo, but the book failed to mention that she in fact had 6 brothers and sisters. And so on. It was the basis of the 1953 film “Wherever She Goes”.
A far better book about her, in my opinion, is Richard Davis’s 2001 biography “Eileen Joyce: A Portrait” (Fremantle Arts Centre Press). It had the advantage of being written after her death, so it tells the full life story. It’s well written, full of fascinating detail – all factual – and is certainly available (I recently acquired a copy). I don’t know if it’s the same book that Lawson Cook refers to above (the one that disgusted him in every way). It certainly didn’t disgust me.
Thanks Jacko. Beat me too it.