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Objects in Rutherford's Life

Onward Christian Soldiers old music shee

Music

Ernest Rutherford was not very fond of music, unlike May, who played the piano. He admitted that he himself was not a music connoisseur and preferred lively tunes, such as marches, to sophisticated pieces.

However, he enjoyed listening to May play the piano and it was not uncommon for him to start singing; and especially canticles.

Yet he was not religious at all, even though he had been brought up in the Christian religion of his parents and had married in church (at May's request).

But the most embarrassing thing was not that he uttered words he did not believe in: much worse was the fact that he sang appallingly out of tune. But no one ever dared to point it out to him.

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It must be said that  when he began to sing these religious songs, it was often to express his joy, in the face of an impressive discovery by one of his collaborators or because he had just heard an anecdote that amused him.

His favorite hymn was "Onward Soldiers of Christ".

There is no recording of Rutherford's interpretation (which is probably better).

I invite you to hear a choral version, more respectful of the score, but which still gives a good idea of the martial rhythm of this tune.

And to conclude, we must especially remember the first word of this text: onward! 

"Going forward!" was the leitmotif of the whole existence of Ernest Rutherford. Against all odds, in happiness or hardship: onward!

      Alongside this song, mentioned by several sources, another hymn seems to have been a favourite of Rutherford's. However, he did not sing it to express his joy, but rather to accompany his experimental disappointments. That said, this information should be taken with a pinch of salt, as I have only found it in one book; but I found it amusing enough to mention here.

     The hymn in question is ‘Fight the Good Fight’ and the source that mentions it is Man of Power, The Life Story of Baron Rutherford of Nelson, by Ivor B. N. Evans, published in 1939. 

     It reads as follows:

    “ When things were going right and new discoveries were coming out at the rate of about one a week, his footsteps as he strode along the corridors would be accompanied by a whistled tune recognizable as an attempt at ‘ Onward, Christian soldiers.’ When things were not going quite so well, the well-known thump of the professor’s feet was no less energetic, but the tune then would be ‘ Fight the Good Fight.’” (page 122)

However, even without being a music lover, Ernest participated in a musical event. It took place on the afternoon of November 28, 1909 in New Islington, a suburb of Manchester.

Since obtaining his Nobel Prize the previous year, Rutherford had achieved an undeniable notoriety; and there were more and more invitations to speak to the public. That Sunday, he was given another opportunity to discuss the atomic theory he had already presented in June in London and in August in Winnipeg.

As a prelude to his intervention and after he had finished it, the audience gathered in New Islington Hall could hear Madame Jean Sadler-Fogg. This singer with the tessitura of soprano offered to the public some arias by Schubert and Mendelssohn. She was accompanied on the piano by her husband, Charles Fogg, organist of the famous Manchester Hallé Orchestra and also a composer. Some passages from his works as well as pieces by Joseph Haydn were then interpreted with the assistance of the string quartet of Madame Edith Robinson.

According to Rutherford biographer Arthur Stewart Eve , one of the arias sung by Mrs. Sadler Fogg was "Who is Sylvia?" by Schubert and Mrs. Robinson and her acolytes performed, among others, the string quartet in G major by Haydn.

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