In memoriam: Francis Baines

Musical Times, Summer 1999

An exemplary demonstration of the virtues of eccentricity, the life of doublebassist Francis Baines encompassed performing with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Walter and Furtwangler, and with Britten and the Amadeus Quartet in Schubert's 'Trout' Quintet. Yet of his chosen instrument, he is reported to have said that he was grateful for having learnt it, for, by so doing, `you could always keep the wolf from the door, and you don't have to practise the thing.'

In real life he was a virtuoso who, after war service and his time with LPO (and a year spent living in self-imposed isolation on a Thames houseboat), became principal bassist with the Boyd Neel Orchestra, and subsequently with its reincarnation, the Philomusica. He was also a composer of concertos and symphonies (for trumpet and violin), a collector of early instruments, an early early-music performer with the Jaye Consort of Viols, a teacher who coached the Oxford University Music Club, and in later years of retirement with his wife June in Ireland, an exponent of self-sufficiency, growing all his own vegetables. Though an indifferent pianist, Baines was a capable performer on the French bagpipes, pipe and tabor, shawm and hurdy-gurdy.

Francis Athelstone Baines: born Oxford, 11 April 1917; died Ballydehob, Co. Cork, 4 April 1999.