A former pupil writes:
LLYWELA HARRIS was organist and choir mistress at a school that dominated girls’ music in the latter part of the 20th century. Every so often, someone comes across your path who has a profound and deep influence on you, and your life is never the same again. For hundreds of girls and young women at the School of St Mary and St Anne, Abbots Bromley, Llywela Harris was that person. Inspiring, commanding, conscientious to a fault, she demanded the very best from every girl.
Born on 11 April 1931 in Lampeter, she was the second daughter of the Revd William Henry Harris, the Precentor of St Davids Cathedral. She described herself as a “cradle Christian”, with a faith caught from her parents, which never wavered. Her testimony was: “I believe. And one day I shall hear music far above anything we have ever heard on earth.”
Music in worship, the teaching, singing, and enjoyment of it for every girl at the school, musically talented or not, to the highest standard possible — and her standards were high — became her life’s work. A pupil at the school herself, she taught there for more than 40 years, instilling in as many girls as she could the ability to use their voices to the glory of God. To be in her senior choir was to taste heaven, musically speaking.
The disciplines taught, the knowledge of liturgy absorbed, the breadth of music learnt, the collegiate experience — all have stayed with those who sang under her baton — although she never actually used one. Many girls went on to pursue a life in the musical profession.
Although she would have dismissed the compliment, Llywela was the living embodiment of the school motto: “That our daughters may be as the polished corners of the temple” (Psalm 144).
It was not simply those in her choir whom Llywela instructed and nurtured. Every Saturday morning, the whole school gathered to rehearse the plainsong psalms and hymns for the coming week’s daily assemblies, evensongs, compline, and Sunday service. There was instant silence as she swept into the hall: everyone rose to their feet and replied to her greeting. A collect was said, and the rehearsal began. Always immaculately dressed, she was not very tall — many girls towered over her — but she was in charge.
Today, Llywela would undoubtedly have been a cathedral organist and choir mistress. How delighted she was when girl cathedral choristers began to emerge.
She was also an exacting, excellent organ teacher. One pupil became an ARCO while at the school and another, when playing a piece to her new organ tutor at university, received the comment: “Thank God! Someone who has been taught how to pedal properly.”
After retiring from the school in 1990, Llywela became Warden of the Royal School of Church Music, then at Addington Palace, Croydon, for four years. On returning to her home in St Davids, she presided over the city’s cultural and social life for 25 years, organising the annual cathedral music festival.
She was a prolific correspondent, in the traditional way — letters and cards — with hundreds of old girls and staff from the school over many decades. She loved past pupils to visit, giving them tea and insisting that they sign her Visitors’ book.
Llywela Harris died on 13 May, aged 94.
