Kenneth J. Alford - Royal Military School of Music

Royal Military School of Music

Ricketts two-year course at Kneller Hall began in the summer of 1904. Studies at KH were rigorous: the first year consisted of a firm grounding in harmony, counterpoint, instrumentation, aural training, composition and arranging, carried out by a graduated senior student. Along with these studies, Student Bandmasters were required to learn the basics and pass playing tests on the five woodwind and five brass instruments normally found in the military band. Moreover, there were various band practices, public summer concerts, plus strict military discipline. The teachers in year two were highly qualified professors in each field, often from the Royal College of Music, or working professionals. This year culminated by sitting competitions in arranging, composition (concert band and brass band), conducting, and church service (conducting and composing organ preludes and psalms). All graduate Student Bandmasters then waited for their “tips” –- their appointments as Warrant Officer Class 1 Bandmasters to one of the line bands. Normally, those who placed highest in the examinations were the first to be appointed, but if there was a top line band which would lose its present bandmaster in several months' time or even a year, then the Director of Music might hold back the graduate whom he felt should have that band. Ricketts excelled at Kneller Hall, but strangely enough he did not win the March Competition, though it was rumoured that the student who did win (W.V. Richards) did so with another march composed by Ricketts. That march was titled Namur, the name of a battle honour of the Royal Irish Regiment (surely no coincidence), and was published by Richards in 1908 under his own name. Namur bears all of the Alford hallmarks. Graduating in 1906, so highly was he regarded that Ricketts stayed on at Kneller Hall as chapel organist and assistant to the Director of Music, Lieutenant (later Lieut. Colonel) Arthur Stretton, for two years. Though the post of School Bandmaster was not initiated until 1949, Ricketts may well have acted in a similar capacity during those two years. In 1929 Kneller Hall introduced an advanced certificate for already qualified bandmasters (though they had to sit another stringent set of exams to obtain it), but it was retroactively awarded to those who were deemed to have previously demonstrated achievement of the higher standard, or had been commissioned prior to 1929. Ricketts was one of those to receive the award, allowing him to use the letters "psm" (pass, school of music) after his name as a military qualification. (It was widely felt among British Bandmasters that the psm exam was also a screen by which those who did not fit the mold for becoming commissioned Directors of Music could be discretely failed on a subject, making them ineligible.) It should be noted that Ricketts younger brother, Randolph, attended the one-year pupil’s course at Kneller Hall, for advanced training on his instrument, and entered the Student Bandmaster course in 1900. He graduated in 1913 and became bandmaster of the 2nd Battalion, Essex Regiment, where he served until 1925. In 1926, he moved to the Band of the Royal Signal Corps, remaining with this group until his retirement in 1938. He composed marches and other band music under the pen name Leo R. Stanley.