Ruby Davy

Ruby Claudia Emily Davy (1883-1949), musician, was born on 22 November 1883 at Salisbury, South Australia, only child of Louisa Jane (born Litchfield), singer and music teacher, and William Charles Davy, shoemaker and brass instrument player. Ruby was early encouraged to improvise and compose, to play the piano and to recite. Educated locally, she learned music from her mother and from Ernest Mitchell, who prepared her for the Elder Conservatorium of Music (BMus 1907, DMus 1918). She was the first Australian woman to receive a doctorate in music and to become a fellow of Trinity College of Music, London (1921); she also held a diploma in elocution from the London College of Music.

From 1909 Ruby was composing, giving recitals and participating in ensembles. In 1912, as a temporary replacement, she taught theory and counterpoint at the conservatorium. Her parents moved in 1920 to Prospect, where mother and daughter taught music. After the death of both parents in 1929 Dr Davy had a breakdown but four years later, helped by Pastor John Hewitt of the Apostolic Church, she resumed her music.

In 1934 she conducted successful performances of her song, Australia, Fair and Free, in Melbourne and Adelaide. She also began popular lecture recitals on radio and to various associations in Melbourne, where she settled in 1935. Her 'Threefold aspect of the beautiful in art' was illustrated with excerpts from the classics, musical monologues, and two of her original compositions for violin. She developed a controversial new topic: 'The evolution of chamber music with special reference to color', on which she gave three chamber music lectures in l938. She and Issy Spivakovsky, violinist and cellist, established the Davy Conservatorium of Music at her South Yarra home. Davy's teaching was unconventional: students were encouraged to compose and to break down barriers between the arts.

In 1939 she toured England, Europe and the United States. Davy gave three lecture recitals in London with the eminent violinist Albert Sammons, but the critics preferred the sonata duos to the lectures. War curtailed her plans and she returned to Melbourne and teaching. In 1941 she founded and presided over the Society of Women Musicians of Australia, which gave regular monthly musicales in Melbourne. A mastectomy in 1947 affected Davy's playing and she became depressed. She died on 12 July 1949.

A frail, eccentric woman with expressive, haunting eyes, she dressed unfashionably in long black clothes. Dr Davy is remembered as a teacher rather than a composer, although the Australian Musical News described her as a 'pianist, musical historian, elocutionist, actress, raconteur, singer, poet and enthusiast'. Relics of her career were placed in Salisbury Institute in 1936. She left 300 pounds to the Elder Conservatorium to found a commemorative prize for the composition of music.

Joyce Gibberd and Silvia O'Toole