Musical Honors by Kitty Barne

First published: 1947

Type of work: Domestic realism

Themes: The arts, family, and war

Time of work: 1945-1946

Recommended Ages: 10-13

Locale: Rural England

Principal Characters:

• Charles Redman, a musician returning home at the end of World War II, determined to go into business
• Becky Redman, his daughter, thirteen, an ardent pianist
• Jimmy Redman, his son, shy, impetuous, volatile, twelve, a capable organist
• Jinks Redman, their taciturn and unpredictable eight-year-old brother, devoted to snakes and singing
• Scrap Redman, the unruly nine-year-old sister, who tries to be a musician but is actually an imitator
• Goodie, Redman’s grandmother, a roguish belle, who advises and inspires the children

The Story

Musical Honors opens with the arrival of a letter that initiates the central conflict. Soon to return from six years as a prisoner of war, Charles Redman, a widely respected musician, writes to inform his family that he is giving up his profession to go into business and that his children are also expected to abandon ideas of musical careers.

The letter arouses fervent opposition. Jimmy Redman, as organist, and Becky Redman, as pianist, are already consumed by the devotion to music that has motivated their family for several generations. Jinks Redman is devoted to reptiles, but Jimmy and Becky know that he has an excellent singing voice. Scrap Redman is the only one who is not profoundly musical, but she thinks she is; with her acting, clowning, and manipulative abilities, she promotes herself with vigor.

The children find an eager ally in Great-grandmother Goodall. Goodie, as she is called, remembers that their father always had strong opinions that were often wrong and often changeable. She suggests that the children plan an old-fashioned Musical Honors (a musical performance) to greet their father upon his return. Jinks’s clowning and Scrap’s overacting at first elicit laughter and then embarrassment from their audience, leaving little room for music or honor, or for hope of influencing their father.

Undaunted, Goodie arranges—through an impudent trick—for the organ master to be absent from a large family wedding so that Jimmy must substitute. The ruse succeeds in impressing Charles with Jimmy’s talent and he grudgingly allows his son to apply for a music scholarship, which includes free tuition and a stipend.

The children mount their third offensive at the Hilderstroke Festival, revived by their grandfather for the first time since the war. Scrap loses the conducting competition because flamboyance cannot supplant musicianship; Becky and Jinks perform with such distinction that they are believed to be destined for musical careers. Red-man is informed that Becky will surely win scholarships and that Jinks has—without his father’s knowledge—won an expense-paid post at St. Paul’s Choir School in London. Redman is furious about the conspiracy against his resolves.

The musical life of the postwar Redmans is, ironically, saved by Charles Redman’s musicianship: He wins a generous prize for a musical composition that his children found in the attic and secretly submitted to a national competition. He can expect more successes as a composer and will also return to his prewar post as organist. His financial stresses somewhat alleviated, Redman changes his mind—as Goodie predicted he would—and enjoys the musical honors that come to the Redmans as they leave behind the damages of war and return to their family heritage.

Context

The mainstream of children’s fiction during the first half of the twentieth century is commonly described as fantasy, escapism, or adventure. During this period, adults were moving away as the central characters in children’s books, leaving the children to resolve their own conflicts. Musical Honors illustrates two aspects of Kitty Barne’s writing that run counter to these trends: The setting, characters, and action of Musical Honors are realistic; the father—admittedly flawed by stubbornness and inconsistency—is involved in the central action of the book.

Barne’s realism grew out of her own experience and knowledge. After a period of experimentation with writing drama, she turned to writing novels about the kind of energetic, determined, independent children she had known through the years. She involves her characters in an activity she can share with her readers. The insight provided by Musical Honors concerning the dilemma of the artist evolved from her own conflict between making music and writing. In Visitors from London (1940), the reader learns about the shepherd’s life; We’ll Meet in England (1942) introduces Norwegian culture; and the raising of homing pigeons is described in Three and a Pigeon (1944).

From her own experience, Barne wrote of the war. The children who wrestle with World War II in her books lack the enduring qualities of such famous evacuees as the four children in C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950), the mother in Nina Bawden’s Carrie’s War (1973), and the abused child of Michelle Magorian’s Goodnight Mr. Tom (1981). The reader of a book by Kitty Barne senses an immediate realism that contrasts with the fantasy of Lewis’ novel (written in the same period), and with the reflective quality of books about World War II written much later in the century. Her books may not be of classic stature, but they transport the reader into the presence of real and energetic children playing out their daily lives with remarkable buoyancy in the shadow of the war.