I have been asked by Ron Parker (Son of Major Maurice Parker RRoC) if I knew of anything or even the location of the Cello that was used in the shows in the Sham Shui Po POW Camp. Maurice Parker was often in the plays/concerts and when he was not on stage would be handling the music for the shows. I personally do not know anything about the Cello but thought that maybe some of you guys would know of the history of this item.
Cellos
I hadn't heard of this before. The only mention I've found is in Solomon Bard's obituary:
A member of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps, Bard spent three years as a prisoner of war in the Sham Shui Po internment camp. He made the best of it, organising three "Bard Concerts" for the inmates - and the Japanese officers - with other POWs, who played anything they could get their hands on: guitars, clarinets and makeshift "cellos" fashioned from oil cans.
Oil drum cello | Dr Solomon Bard talks at City Hall, etc in 2009
It is fortunate that RASHK talk 'Solomon Bard Remembers' at City Hall High Block was actually one recorded and available (link). [*]
Apart from the fireside talk of the Jewish Historical Society (Mar. 2009, link), Dr Solomon Bard had also talked in the Reading Club of HKUL in April same year,
about his book :
Light and Shade: Sketches from an Uncommon Life
eVideo's like these are alas no longer accessible on the website from few months ago.
As on the Web, we notice that those talks which also posted on youtube are viewable (covering a decade or so).
The Bard concerts in Mar. 1944 was narrated within Dr Daniel Biederman's PhD thesis The Last Renaissance Man, and in an orchestral performance context.
The movement VI (POW Years) depicts the oil drum cello (reconstructed for use) and the concerts (link). [^]
His archaeological work in Man Kwok Tsui is in movement VIII. Dr Solomon was interned in the same room as Dr Alberto M. Rodrigues, in the Shamshuipo camp.
The complete PhD thesis is available online.
p.s.
hi David, do you recall one book talk you acted as moderator in HKUL Oct. 2015 ?
The venue is the old floor layout within the Special Collections Dept. ;
the one on your right same row looks like Mr P. Sidorko, the then university librarian;
the book is on ephemera; viewable from youtube while it lasts.
* there may be 66 more gems under that RASHK collection, the earliest one from 2002
^ no details about the early Sept. 1943 concerts in the HK POW Camp found yet