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Maurice Levy: In addition to the fact that he was at the Pittsburgh
Musical Institute and he had private lessons, and he was at the church and
at the Western Theological Seminary, uh, he was a music critic for the
Pittsburgh Gazette. Do you recall anything about that?
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Margery Anna Boyd Robertson: Well, no, because, uh, that was years before
I was born, I guess.
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Levy: Oh, I see he did that earlier, right?
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Robertson: No, no. And and, by the way, his piano teaching, his private
piano teaching after the Pittsburgh Musical Institute was formed was, of
course, at the PMI. Not out outside of the school. Well, see, he was a
private teacher before the Institute was formed.
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Levy: But did he do both, though? Did he?
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Robertson: Oh, he did the classwork.
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Levy: But he was at the PMI and he also had private students at his studio
at. Robertson: No. No. Levy: Oh he then he gave that up.
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Robertson: That's right.
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Levy: Oh I see he gave that up when the PMI.
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Robertson: When the PMI was formed, right. Now he did have piano and organ
students. But mostly he taught harmony, elementary theory, harmony,
counterpoint, composition, orchestration. History of music, teachers
training. He taught all of those classes.
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Levy: Amazing. Absolutely. Considering it's his formal training was was
difficult to pin down here. Robertson: Right. Levy: He he he was acquainted
with every element of music. Yes. This is it. In addition to that, he he
achieved an eminence in Hymnology.
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Robertson: Oh, yes. Very definitely.
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Levy: Do you recall anything of that?
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Robertson: Well, I know that he was, um, by reading. I know that he was a
music editor of the United Presbyterian Psalter Hymnals of 1912 and 23, and
I know that he wrote for the Handbook of the Presbyterian Hymnal. I think
it came out in something like 1933, but those paragraphs were not
identified. I believe they had several. Uh hymnologists contributing to
that handbook. So I don't know what my father wrote.
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Levy: But he did make he did make a significant contribution. In addition,
he wrote articles for magazines.
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Robertson: Oh, yes. He was in books and articles, uh, articles for The
Etude and, uh. The Diapason, the organist magazine.
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Levy: I remembering too that that was around for many years.
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Robertson: Oh yes, from Philadelphia.
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Levy: And and he and he he helped edit the Grove Dictionary of Music.
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Robertson: Oh yes, yes, that was long before he. I believe he was
assistant editor. Surely we can find something that will confirm this.
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Levy: Yes, it said assistant.
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Robertson: Because he was assistant with Doctor Pratt. Waldo. S Pratt of
Hartford, Connecticut. And they were very good friends. Very good friends.
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Levy: And and because of this wide dissemination of what he wrote, he was
known by, I was just looking at that thing and, uh, Donald Tovey knew who
he was. And Tovey, of course, was a very prominent, uh, uh, musical critic
and writer or writer, I guess.
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Robertson: Did you ever hear of Percy Scholes?
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Levy: Uh, no, I didn't.
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Robertson: You didn't? Well, he has written he was an author. You might
see books which he has written. Somehow I think some of his were for
children books on music for children. Now this I'm not sure about, but the
Scholes I know came to visit us, and when I was abroad, um, I was a guest
in the Scholes home for a morning visit with Mr. and Mrs. Scholes, Dr. and
Mrs. Scholes, and my cousin, with whom I was abroad, was a first cousin of
a father. The two of us took one of those trains that went up the mountain.
You lived in Montreux, Switzerland.
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Levy: Funicular.
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Robertson: You're right. One experience.
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Levy: And he and of course he wrote in some of the books he wrote, he
wrote the Organist and the Choirmaster. Well, that was when you were his
secretary, that that was 1936. Do you recall that? So you became his
secretary you said 1930. Robertson: Yes. That's right. Levy: You don't
recall that you recall anything else that he and also his book on applied
theory,
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Robertson: Theory. He was working on that at the time of his death. Yes.
Now I know that he would write the music examples on a page and then would
give me the typing that was for each page as he finished it.
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Levy: Did you do the. You did the proofreading. He did the. He proved. He
proofread. He proved everything that was Robertson: Right. Levy: You I
guess you did the preliminary work. And then he did the final.
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Robertson: Well, he did all the writing. I was simply he didn't even
dictate this material. It was all in handwriting. It was just a case of
mine.
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Levy: Did you type it? You typed it, and then he took it back. And then
he. He edited it himself.
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Robertson: And I believe that was still in in that form at the time he
died. And I think John Holland, who was one of the teachers at the
Institute who took over some of his teaching class teaching, that is. Was
working with did something with that, but it never reached publication as
far as I.
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Levy: Uh,
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Robertson: I do know that he and Doctor Earhart worked together on the
Young Students Piano Course. Now, in that instance, they worked with a Mary
McNair from England.
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Robertson: An English woman.
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Robertson: And there were the three of them.
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Levy: But was there any tie between your father and say, since, since he
was such a good friend of Doctor Earhart. Uh, the public school musical
education. Was there? No, no, the only tie was through Doctor Earhart.
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Robertson: It was a very good friendship.
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Levy: Their friendship.
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Robertson: From the time Doctor Earhart came to Pittsburgh. I don't know
whether they knew each other through letters before that time, but I do
know that from the time the Earhart's came and then eventually we both
moved to Lathrope Street. There was a row of eight houses. Earhart's were
at the bottom. We were at the top. Levy: Oh really? Robertson: Right.
Yeah.
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Levy: That was a little hill to walk there.
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Robertson: Right. Very definitely the hill.
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Levy: And he founded the National Association of Schools of Music.
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Robertson: Well, as I say, I don't know that he was a was the founder, but
I believe he was one of the men that helped to found it. Yes.
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Levy: Is that still around? Do you know? Robertson: Oh, yes it is. Levy:
Yes. I'll look that up. And president of the Music Teachers National
Association. Three years. Three times.
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Robertson: And of course, he was also very active in the American Guild of
Organists, the AGO in the local chapter. I know he was a dean. I think more
than once, but I don't know the years he was.
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Levy: He must have attended a number of the conventions for some of the
some of these organizations for sure.
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Robertson: Oh yes. I know always the MTNA, the music teachers and the
National Association of Schools of Music, uh, every Christmas time between,
uh, Christmas, every Christmas holiday time.
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Levy: That's when the teachers were free.
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Robertson: That's when the teachers were free from the various colleges.
And of course, there were a lot of colleges represented.
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Levy: Was that just college, Music Teachers, National Association, and did
that included secondary teachers?
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Robertson: Um. There were two separate organizations, and the music
teachers could be private teachers. And at the same time, they might have
been teachers in a school which was a member of the National Association of
Schools of Music, but primarily, um, the men that represented their music
departments or their own music schools were in the National Association of
Schools of Music. For instance, this Doctor Moore that I spoke of was at
the University of Michigan, Harold Butler from Syracuse University. Burnet
Tuthill was from Cincinnati College of Music, or Conservatory, Cincinnati
Conservatory of Music. And he was the secretary always of the National
Association of Schools of Music and Donald Swarthout from Kansas. These
names were just household names with us because they were in correspondence
constantly over matters concerning the Association or friends. And then, of
course, he was also active in the Hymn Society of America and.
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Levy: He was the founder and first president of the Musicians Club of
Pittsburgh.
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Robertson: Oh the Musicians Club, yes.
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Levy: What can you tell me about, uh, that's still around? Robertson: I
don't know. Levy: I haven't seen too much about it. I really I was talking
to somebody the other day who talked about it.
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Robertson: Well, of course, did you know Mr. Benswanger, William
Benswanger?
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Levy: I know who he was. And of course he he did the he did the program
notes for the Symphony, and they owned the Pittsburgh Pirates.
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Robertson: That's right.
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Levy: Right.
Robertson: Well, I believe it was his in-laws, the Dreyfuss family.
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Levy: Dreyfuss. Right, right. He married into the Dreyfuss family. And.
Was Mr. Benswanger active in the Musicians Club? Is that why you bring him
up?
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Robertson: Oh yes, I think so. And I thought maybe through that connection
you might know. More about the Musicians Club, which I don't. I just know
that they had regular meetings. I think the only time that I ever knew that
my father attended a ball game first, last and only was when the Musicians
Club went.
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Levy: Outting some kind. They went to Forbes Field. Robertson: Oh, yes.
Levy: Yes. Which he could walk to from your house?
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Robertson: Right. Yes. And. Because he was. He had no interest in sports,
but he was a man of so many interests.
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Levy: How about. Yeah. Uh, I mean, we've talked about his musical
instruments or interest, and that's what we're primarily interested in
here. But was he did you attend the theater often?
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Robertson: No, no. Oh, when we were of an age that we could be taken. Uh,
but he did in a while.
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Levy: He did. He didn't have. Oh, he he didn't. He probably didn't have
time.
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Robertson: Well, I guess not. But also, uh, movies. I'm sure he thought it
was a waste of time. I think he did in one of those letters. I could find
some reference to having taken one of the girls down to see. Picture the
concerned bird in the North Pole or the Arctic Circle or something. And he
was quite my father was quite content to be in Pittsburgh and not going
off.
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Levy: The only time he traveled was primarily professionally oriented is
that it?
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Robertson: Yes. Although before my parents were married, he'd been abroad
several times. And he was very much interested in the finest in art. And.
Then. Also, I was thinking of another organization that I'm not sure is
still existing in Pittsburgh, and that's the Agora. That had very good
lectures. It was.
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Robertson: I think a person
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Robertson: had to be really interested in listening to lectures of some
importance.
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Levy: Well, its comparable to some of the lectures we still get at the
Carnegie Institute when they bring. Robertson: Yes. Levy: They bring in
guest lectures.
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Robertson: Right. That sort of thing.
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Levy: The how about, do you recall him being involved in any chamber
music?
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Robertson: Uh, we had chamber music at home.
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Levy: You had a piano at home?
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Robertson: Oh, we had two pianos.
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Levy: Two pianos at home.
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Robertson: Mother said our living room always looked like a piano store,
because here was her big Steinway grand. It was a six foot grand. And then
we had, I think it was a paluba upright and, um, a built in window seat and
I think two other chairs. And that filled the living room. And, uh.
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Levy: So the living room was a music room.
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Robertson: The music room. And then finally, uh, we gave up the the
upright, it went over to the PMI, and then we had groups from the orchestra
would come and we'd play.
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Levy: Your father probably played with some of the piano quintets.
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Robertson: No, it was Mother.
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Levy: Oh your mother did. Your mother did.
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Robertson: Right. In fact, someone asked me recently about my father's
playing the piano, and I got to thinking. I. The only time I ever heard him
playing was when he and mother played the piano four hands. Right.
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Levy: Well, with the two pianos. Did you play? Did they play anything for
two hands?
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Robertson: I don't even remember.
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Levy: I mean, for two pianos.
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Robertson: No, I don't remember that.
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Levy: Mozart. Uh, you know, they weren't sonatas for two pianos.
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Robertson: No, it was always the same.
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Levy: Four hands, like some of the Schubert.
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Robertson: Brahms, Shubert and Schumann and Tchaikovsky. I remember those
three particularly. They played and. But it was mother who played the
Brahms sight reading. She would play the Brahms horn trio and. Levy: Oh,
really? Robertson: And the Schumann Piano Quintet. There was one thing she
kept up, even if she couldn't get the whole run or whatever. Mother was
right there all the time.
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Levy: She was able to at least keep the bass line.
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Robertson: She was an excellent sight reader.
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Levy: She must have been. All these musicians came to the home and you had
all these wonderful chamber music recitals.
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Robertson: Well, it wasn't we just get a group together. I mean, my father
would. We didn't.
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Levy: Of course. You, the girls, the daughters sat and you, you listened.
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Robertson: Well, um. Yes. We listened, of course. And we were absorbing
all this music all the time. And now one sister played cello. Studied
cello. So and I then when I was a teenager and had long since given up the
violin, my father said it would be a good idea for me to take up the viola
enough to play in the orchestra and learn the orchestra instruments. Well,
I don't think I was enthusiastic about the idea, but oh, what a what a real
investment that was because I was able then to play in the high school
orchestra, the PMI orchestra, playing quartets.
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Levy: Sure, there were a lot of violin players around. The viola players
are always at a premium.
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Robertson: Because my sister played the cello. You see, we we could form
half a quartet right there. Very amateurish, all this very amateurish. But
we were learning at least we.
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Levy: And with your mother, you could you could play trios.
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Robertson: You know we did, right?
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Levy: And did Eileen play anything?
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Robertson: She wanted to play cello, and she was about five years old. So
my father bought a viola, had a peg put in it, and that became her cello.
So she didn't keep it up. Then she tried the piano.
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Levy: Now, the, uh, the Boyd Library, which of course, is very well-known.
And over there, uh. He was still accumulating. Robertson: Oh, yes. Levy:
Well, of what? Weekly? I suppose that he constantly buying.
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Robertson: Magazines came in constantly. The stack was beyond anything I
could. I thought I could ever hope to get to the bottom of, um.
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Levy: Did you catalogue them?
Robertson: No, what he did was to read every single page. And he was a
very fast reader. He went down the center of the column and he'd read it,
and he marked he red penciled exactly what he wanted, uh, filed.
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Levy: These are dozens of periodicals.
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Robertson: Dozens, as I say. They were from America. They were from
abroad.
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Levy: Of course, he could read German. So he.
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Robertson: He was. Well, I don't believe any of the, uh, any of the
publications. Levy: Oh, he did. Robertson: That were filed, it was mostly
the English, all in English. But, um, then it was up to the secretary to
clip all of these, paste the clippings so that they could be read in, I
mean by that you couldn't pay something flat. If there was an article on
the other side. It had to be put into these scrapbooks. And the scrapbooks
were numbered, lettered and numbered. And then they were all indexed. After
a scrapbook was complete, the secretary then had to go through and make
cards for all of these. And that's how the card index was made. The card
index file. And so that was the value of his scrapbooks. That wasn't just a
case of scrapbooks alone. The fact that they were all indexed and crossed
indexed made them invaluable.
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Levy: Certainly, but otherwise it's just a pile of books. An index.
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Robertson: That's it. Exactly. And then if he had articles or lectures
that he had given, those were filed in old fashioned receipt boxes. The
kind that had a little catch on the side. You see, they could be filed
flat. And these those also were all indexed.
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Levy: Yeah. He evidently saved many things. He had the complete set of
programs from the Pittsburgh Symphony from 1896 to 1910 and other
orchestras.
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Robertson: Other orchestras. right. Oh, that's another thing. Program
notes from these other orchestras, too, that he wanted, just anything that
he he was just constantly thinking of things that would be valuable.
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Levy: The so they were the first the library itself was the from what I've
seen is it's almost indescribable. So many thousands of pieces of
literature in there, and anybody would certainly be worth their while to go
through it. Robertson: Uh uh, I just that hope that good use it'll. Levy:
I'm sure, I'm sure it's being used now, because there are a lot of people
who come up to the music room. Uh, then the idea of musicology. And what.
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Robertson: About music? Yes, he belonged to the group of musicologists who
weren't very many of them. I noticed.
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Levy: That was a fairly new idea, wasn't it?
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Robertson: Must have been. Yes.
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Levy: The idea of treating music as a as a topic to be studied rather than
just performed. Right.
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Robertson: Well, I really didn't know. I just knew that there were very
few musicologists and that he was one of them. But now you read more and
more about musicologists, or at least I seem to be more aware of it.
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Levy: The he evidently the way he went about collecting all of these
things, and his omnivorous interest in anything musical, probably made him
one of the leading musicologists, even if that title didn't exist. Is that
a is that a fair?
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Robertson: I think you're right about that.
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Levy: Because how many? How many? I don't know. I don't have the
background to to make that judgment. But I don't think that anybody in this
area had that kind of at least that [?]. Maybe I'll run across somebody who
had the kind of interest that he and he also felt the need to pass it on to
the next generation. Robertson: Generation. That's right. Levy: Because he
was if I can use the what I consider, I use the word I one of the great
compliments. He was a teacher.
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Robertson: He was he really was a born teacher. There's no getting
around.
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Levy: He loved the he loved teaching. Robertson: Yes. Levy: Liked sitting
with students or lecturing to them. Well, demonstrating on the organ or on
the or whatever.
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Robertson: No, no, he didn't do that. No, I don't know about the organ
teaching for piano teaching. Of course. I was a student of his, um, he
stood usually at the piano, and I know he stood all the time when he was
teaching theory classes. Um, he stood. Well, when the lid goes over the
piano, he stood. Levy: In that little U. Robertson: Right? Right.
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Levy: And like a like the sopranos do with the handkerchiefs.
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Robertson: That's right. He stood right there and and spoke to the classes
and he was very particular if it were 90 degrees outside and he'd been
working in the office before a class started, he might have been working in
his shirt sleeves. But a minute before that class was due on that suit
coat, he never.
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Levy: In other words, he had an image of what a teacher should look like.
Robertson: Absolutely. Levy: And he lived it? Yes. And not only did he
know, but he wanted to look like a teacher. Of course, things were a little
more formal then, but I'm sure that even when they became less formal, he
probably still stayed with them. Is that right?
00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:12.000
Robertson: That was it exactly. He had a certain standard and that was it.
It was to be maintained.
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Levy: And he was, I thought, guessing. I'm sure he had high standards,
which means he was a very firm teacher. That's right.
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Robertson: Well, yes, I think he was not unkind.
00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:35.000
Levy: No, he was firm. Robertson: Very. Levy: He you. This is the way you
do it. Robertson: Yeah. Levy: We're going to show you how. And I want you
to do it. Is that right? Robertson: That's it. Levy: That's right.
00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:47.000
Robertson: Among his other interests was stamps. And some place in that
library, you'll find that there's published, um, music and postage stamps.
00:23:47.000 --> 00:23:49.000
Levy: Oh. Did he?
00:23:49.000 --> 00:24:13.000
Robertson: Yes. You see, he saw a connection. And now I don't know where
he saw these stamps or he did have he left a small stamp collection and had
tried to interest each one of us in it. And one sister did take it up for a
while, but then she really had no interest in continuing it, so she sold
the stamps that he didn't have so we didnt have that.
00:24:13.000 --> 00:24:26.000
Levy: That indicates that whatever he was doing, music was always behind
it. Robertson: Right. Levy: If he could see it, he would. He would seize
upon it.
00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:27.000
Robertson: There were a connection. That's right.
00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:38.000
Levy: There were a connection he didn't make. He didn't do it
artificially. But if he saw it there, he he he he used it to further
music.
00:24:38.000 --> 00:24:48.000
Robertson: But you see, by the same token, when he met somebody who didn't
know a thing about music but was very much interested in stamps, he could
talk.
00:24:48.000 --> 00:24:50.000
Levy: Talk. Just talk stamps,
00:24:50.000 --> 00:25:16.000
Robertson: Stamps, that was it. It didn't have to be a mutual interest in
music. Uh, another thing. If you were transcribing night after night, you'd
be working at the dining room table after he'd been cleared, and he didn't
have a ballpoint pen or anything like that. It was always the inkwell. And
the pen. Did beautiful uh work. Manuscript work.
00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:19.000
Levy: He did good calligraphy?
00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:40.000
Robertson: Yes. Not not calligraphy. I'll show you Levy: Just penmanship.
Robertson: Right. Just penmanship. But he'd be writing all this music, and
one of us would rush up to him and we'd say, daddy, right down would go to
the pen, and we had his undivided attention. He might have been in the
middle of a major, and he could have said, well, just a minute or not, when
I'm busy. No, we had his undivided attention.
00:25:40.000 --> 00:25:51.000
Levy: He was he was a father. Which good fathers or good teachers? That's
funny. He sounds like a remarkable man.
00:25:51.000 --> 00:26:00.000
Robertson: He really was. If you were to have the four daughters sitting
here, Levy: I'm sure. Robertson: You'd just hear the same story from each
of them.
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:18.000
Levy: Well, that's that's you were very fortunate that to to have that
kind of life because he was a remarkable I don't know him and he he's been
dead 54 years now and yeah, he lives through his daughters though because
his daughters will never forget him.
00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:41.000
Robertson: Oh, mercy. None of us could. You know, my one sister has a son
named for him. Charles Boyd Tompkins and Charles teaches at Furman
University in Greenville, South Carolina, and is a concert organist.
00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:49.000
Levy: Oh, that's what you call the ultimate recommendation is that I'm
sure he feels. And he knows about his grandfather.
00:26:49.000 --> 00:26:50.000
Robertson: Yes, indeed he does.
00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:57.000
Levy: So it goes on. That's what they say about teachers. Their their
influence. You never know how far it goes.
00:26:57.000 --> 00:26:59.000
Robertson: No, you don't know.
00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:13.000
Levy: It's in the it's in the minds of the people that they taught. And
they in turn transmit something. And your father evidently was a
remarkable, as I said, a remarkable person.
00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:17.000
Robertson: Well, we are.
00:27:17.000 --> 00:27:30.000
Robertson: Our list of friends is dwindling as the years go on, but we are
still in contact with at least three people who were students of his.
Lucrecia Marracino is one. Do you know Lucretia?
00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:37.000
Levy: I'm going to I'm going to talk to her, when we turn this off and
talk about.
00:27:37.000 --> 00:28:02.000
Robertson: Um, we're in touch with two just last year. Uh, one of the
orchestra men, PMI orchestra men got in touch with me, and the two of them
came here to see me. And then we got together again, and Eileen came and we
talked over old orchestra days and people and had a lot of fun reminiscing,
so that. It's wonderful to have.
00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:06.000
Levy: Well, he made a full life for the people around him.
00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:07.000
Robertson: Yes, he did. Because he made the most of it.
00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:12.000
Levy: Because he had a full life. He didn't live as long as some people,
but he lived longer.
00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:18.000
Robertson: He did. And what he accomplished, very definitely.
00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:22.000
Levy: Well, it's been a wonderful, wonderful time with you here.
00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:24.000
Robertson: Thank you very much.
00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:25.000
Levy: And.
00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:26.000
Robertson: I certainly enjoy.
00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:39.000
Levy: It's just a so glad they were able to reconstruct, if we could, the
achievements of a man who is not forgotten. And he won't be.
00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:40.000
Robertson: We don't want him to be.
00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:41.000
Levy: He won't be.
00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:50.000
Robertson: Eileen and I tell each other. Oh, if mother were just here,
mother would know this, mother would know that person. She'd be able to
tell us.
00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:56.000
Levy: Well, I'm glad I had the opportunity to. To help you keep his memory
alive.
00:28:56.000 --> 00:28:58.000
Robertson: Thank you.
Robertson: I appreciate it very much.
00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:58.000
Levy: Thank you very much for this interview.
