This article is about the classical harmonica player. For the Scottish singer/songwriter go to Tommy Reilly (Scottish musician)
Tommy Reilly
(August 21 1919 - September 25 2000) was a Canadian classical harmonica player.
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Early life
Born in
Guelph,
Ontario, he studied violin at eight and began playing harmonica at aged eleven as a member of his father's band. In 1935 the family moved to
London. At the outbreak of the
Second World War he was a student at the
Leipzig Conservatory. Reilly was arrested and interned for the duration of the war in
prisoner of war camps. However it was there that he developed his virtuosity on the harmonica, basing his ideas of phrasing and interpretation on the playing of
Jascha Heifetz.
Returning to London in 1945, Reilly began championing the cause of the harmonica as a serious solo concert instrument. He began parallel careers as a concert soloist and recitalist, a popular
BBC radio and TV performer, and a studio musician-composer. He performed with most of the major European orchestras and toured Europe several times with the
Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields.
Later career
Over 30 concert works have been composed for Reilly, including
Michael Spivakovsky's Harmonica Concerto of 1951 (considered the first important full-scale concerto for harmonica), and fellow Canadian
Robert Farnon's
Prelude and Dance for Harmonica and Orchestra
. Other pieces were composed for him by Reilly's accompanist
James Moody,
Matyas Seiber (
Old Scottish Air for Harmonica, Strings and Harp
), Gordon Jacob (Five Pieces for Harmonica and Strings), Fried Walter (Ballade and Tarantella for Harmonica and Orchestra), Karl Heinz-Köper (Concerto for Harmonica and Orchestra), Graham Whettam (Fantasy for Harmonica and Orchestra),Vilem Tausky (Concertino for Harmonica and Orchestra), Francis Ward (Kaleidoscope for Harmonica and Orchestra), Willem Strietman ("O bonne douce France" for Harmonica and Orchestra), Max Saunders (Sonatina for Harmonica and Piano), Sir George Martin (Three American Sketches for Harmonica and Strings, and Adagietto for Harmonica and Strings), Alan Langford (Concertante for Harmonica and Strings), Paul Patterson (Propositions for Harmonica and Strings). Reilly himself transcribed works by
Bach,
Chopin and
Mozart amongst others, for the harmonica. Reilly worked with many composers to get more original music written for the instrument, and his recordings also include original harmonica works by
Ralph Vaughan Williams,
Malcolm Arnold,
Arthur Benjamin, and
Villa-Lobos.
His first recording, for
Parlophone, was produced by Sir
George Martin in 1951. He also performed music for the soundtracks of many US and European films and for several US TV series. Among the composers who wrote film scores for Reilly were
Bernard Herrmann,
Elmer Bernstein and
Dimitri Tiomkin.
In 1992 he received an MBE ("Member of the Order of the British Empire") from Queen Elizabeth for his services to music.
Reilly developed and invented much of the playing technique which is common today. He wrote a handbook
Play like the Stars
, about playing classical style on the chromatic harmonica.
In 1967 Reilly initiated the development of the first
Hohner silver harmonica, which became the de-facto standard concert instrument for many years and which Hohner has made with few adjustments ever since.
He died aged 81 in
Frensham,
Surrey.
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