NZOrgan Special topics ~ Dudley savage

Born in 1920, Dudley caught the "organ bug" early, from his mother, who was organist of their local church and gave him his first lessons. He was in demand as a deputy at several churches before his feet could reach the pedals. Tuition at Truro cathedral and his practice of attending every recital he could helped to develop the polished musicianship that became his hall-mark.

When he was sixteen, Dudley won the solo organ award at the Cornwall County Music Festival. (Some years earlier, Kathleen Ferrier had taken her first steps to fame at similar Lancashire Festivals.) Dudley's success added to an already growing reputation: someone mentioned him to Harold Ramsay, Musical Director of a chain of cinemas, who was visiting Penzance in connection with a theatre opening. An audition led to Dudley's appointment as one of the youngest cinema organists in the country.

After that and apart from the war years in the army (he reached the rank of captain) , he was seldom far from an organ console: usually it was that of the Royal - later the ABC - in Plymouth where he was hugely popular. His radio programme As Prescribed reached a much wider audience. Each week, for a quarter of a century, he introduced and played on the ABC's Compton organ a selection of requests sent in by listeners, mainly for patients in hospital. This went out on the BBC's West of England Medium Wave (AM) transmitters, which were intended to cover only the South Western parts of the country. When conditions were favourable, prgrammes could be heard much further afield - albeit often through "atmospherics" - and requests arrived from listeners in Northern France, the North of England and from places in between.

One reason for the programme's popularity was Dudley's warm, reassuring voice and the character behind that voice.
Friendly, charming, kindly, unassuming and - especially - modest are words that recur in his obituaries. Fellow oganists pay tribute to his skill as an arranger for the instrument. In his later years, he was a popular figure at organ concerts (he never used the word "recital", which he saw as rather forbidding). His work was recognised by the award of the MBE

His last days were cheered by the finding of a new home, in London, for the threatened ABC Compton and by the issue of a double CD of tracks he had made over the years. Dudley's very dearly loved-wife, Doreen, died in 2003 - their diamond wedding had been celebrated three years earler.

The double CD "Perfect Partners" contains 50 tracks, many recorded from As Prescribed programnmes by the BBC. Inevitably, time has taken its toll of some, but overall it is a splendid evocation of the theatre organ as older cinema-goers and radio-listeners will remember it. It is enhanced by inclusion of some of Dudley's introductions in that warm, well-loved voice that won as many listeners as did the music.

(David Bridgeman-Sutton)

Details from www.tamarorganclub.org
Photo: thanks to Will Light www.perfectpartners.me.uk