Music and me

Recently I received an e-mail from my friend John Frank in which he detailed his experiences with music in his life.  For my children and grandchildren I wanted to explore the musical experiences in my life, which were and are an important aspect of my time here on earth.

My father liked music and so did his brothers and parents. I liked to hear my father and his brothers sing together. I can remember riding in a car and listening to the singing when I was quite young.

I do not remember the first time I sang, but when we lived in Cheyenne and I was in 4th grade, I had a part in a class play. I was the rich man who wanted to buy a pair of shoes. The teacher wanted me to say the part, but I guess I sort of sang the words, so she put them to music and I sang my part. We put on the play for the school and then went on to perform the play for the high school.  This started my entry into music.

When we moved to Denver I sang in the ward choir.

My voice was a high soprano. I sang in a choir in junior high school, but my voice was so high that I could sing the soprano part an octave above the written part.

About this time my parents bought a used piano. This is the same piano that Mary Ellen has in her home.  It is the same one that I shot a hole in with a shotgun. But that is another story for another time.

I took piano lessons with my brothers. The piano teacher was Lela Higginson.  I would baby sit her children as partial payment for my lessons.

My uncle Merrill had a Saxophone that he gave to us and I joined the junior high school band. They did not need a Saxophone in the band, so the band director Mr. Kenneth Sizer asked me to play the Clarinet.  During the summer, I took private lessons from him.  We eventually bought a metal Clarinet.

I would bring the clarinet music home with me to practice.  We did not have a music stand, so I would use the handles of the gas stove to hold up the music while I would practice in the kitchen.

I spent more time practicing the clarinet than I did practicing the piano, so the piano teacher dropped me as a student, but my brothers and I learned to play a trio on the same piano.  We played ”We Three Kings of Orient Are”.

The year that I was in ninth grade, my voice changed. I could no longer sing soprano, so I became a bass. My range was from a C above middle C to a G two octaves below middle C.

During this time we moved from Denver to Lander during the middle of the school year. I was in the high school band and the choir as well. We had a good music teacher, Caryl Alexander.  He taught band and choir as well as other classes.  I started out in the third clarinet section, but by the end on the year I was playing second clarinet.

I was very interested in performing, so I tried out to sing in the district music festival. This was held in the spring of 1949 in Thermopolis. I competed singing, "I walked today where Jesus walked".  Lucille Farthing accompanied me on the piano. Our choir and band also performed. I do not remember if our ratings were outstanding, but I do remember that I was not pleased with my vocal solo performance.  I said that I would do better the next year.

 

I decided to buy a better clarinet than the metal one that I had, so I cashed in my savings bonds and raided my savings account and bought a LeBlanc ebony clarinet for $350 from Les Parsons, who had a music store in Casper, Wyoming my junior year of high school.  I still have this one today.  I also bought a crystal mouthpiece, which unfortunately got chipped later and became unusable.  The tone achieved with this mouthpiece was superior to any of the hard rubber or plastic mouthpieces on the market.

I took vocal lessons for a short time when I lived in Lander. I continued to sing and play the clarinet during the rest of my years in high school. I sang and acted in a musical performance "Rings In The Sawdust".

 

I sang in the district chorus and played in the district band.

During my senior year I was first chair first clarinet in the band and also in the district band and in the all-state band.  I was in the district chorus as well as the all-state chorus.
I was first clarinet in a clarinet quartet from Lander and we were allowed to compete in the state music festival in Casper.

The band took first in then state competition as well as the choir. I also entered the district competition in solo voice singing "Run Mary Run". I also played a clarinet solo and was privileged to compete in the state competition.

About this time my parents bought a 45 rpm record player.  Then they also purchased a number of records.  I wanted to have my own music so the first record that I bought was the 1812 overture by Tchaikovsky.  On the reverse side was the Capriccio Italian also by Tchaikovsky.  We did not have a classical radio station so we played the records more than we listened to the radio.

The high school also had a dance band and I played the clarinet and saxophone in the dance band.  We also had another band that played German music.  The book that we played from was the “Hungry Five”.

A classmate of mine, Ruth Chapman and her brother formed a dance band.  My friend John L. Frank and Stan Brooks, who later married Ruth, were in the band.  We played music for the dances in the outlying farming communities, such as Crowheart and Pavillion and Ft. Washakie.  I played the clarinet and the saxophone and John played the trombone.

When I went to Weber College, I played in the band and sang in the men's chorus and played in the Ogden Symphony Orchestra.

When I went to Weber I took voice lessons from the choir director and sang in recitals.
I was in the men's chorus and sang in some impromptu quartettes

Weber College put on an operetta once a year.  The first year was the “Song of Norway”. I played in the pit orchestra for this production.  The next year I tried out for a singing part in the “Merry Widow”.  I played the comic lead, an old man who was a sugar daddy. That is grandpa on the left front in both photos.

 

In the spring of 1954 I tried out for the all-church orchestra, which was to play in the Salt Lake Tabernacle in June for the MIA conference.  I auditioned for Crawford Gates and was offered a place in the orchestra competing with music majors from the University of Utah and BYU.

At this time the Ogden Symphony invited Maurice Abravanell to be the guest conductor for a concert featuring Beethoven’s Eroica (3^rd) symphony.

I took my clarinet with me on my mission. I played my clarinet for Peter Osthoff and his mother and brother at Christmas time. While in Hildesheim I bought a Ukulele which I brought home with me and would play for my own entertainment. I played for enjoyment until I was transferred to Berlin where I was appointed the leader of the mission dance band. We practiced and played mostly American popular dance music. I had my parents send me my Saxophone. We went over to East Berlin and I purchased the instruments necessary to equip those who had not brought their instruments with them; Alto Sax, French Horns, another clarinet and a couple of trumpets.  I learned to play a few pieces on the trumpet.

When I was in Flensburg on my mission we interested a few young men to join some impromptu jam sessions.

In Goslar my companion Duane Bishop and I joined the community choir and rehearsed and sang with them in concert in the Kaiser Pfalz.

When I returned from my mission and attended BYU, I did not play in the orchestra or sing in the choir.  The German class formed a choir to sing in German. We practiced Handel’s Creation, but I do not remember performing. I also had a bock flute or recorder and we played quartettes.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the young lady that I had asked to marry me (Alice) could play the piano.

While in medical school I sang in a quartette with other members of my class. Two of the members sang in the Tabernacle Choir.  We sang once a year at the medical school family night.  I played my clarinet and ukulele for my own personal enjoyment.

After medical school I was busy, so I did not perform much.  We moved to Lander and one of the first purchases that I made was for a 33 1/2 rpm stereo record player and changer.  We began acquiring records and that was the main music in our lives.

We then moved to the Naval Air Station at Lemoore California.  Alice bought me a Christmas present of a baritone ukulele.  I loved to play that instrument and since we did not have a piano I played the accompaniment for the songs that we sang at family home evening.

We moved back to Lander and during the ensuing years I played clarinet duets with another man in Lander.  We bought a grand piano and we offered piano lessons to each of our children.  Alice even took piano lessons and became proficient so that she even accompanied me when I sang solos.

Each of our children was encouraged to play a musical instrument other than the piano and one played the French horn another clarinet another the saxophone another the flute another played the trumpet and two were percussionists. We even had a trombone.

We continue to acquire high Fidelity records.  We have a number of compact cassette classical music recordings and then we have a collection of CDs.

After we moved to North Salt Lake, I continued to sing in the ward choir and was privileged to sing in a community choir for the 24th of July celebration in the Tabernacle at Temple Square (2009). My voice had changed from earlier years so that I could sing tenor as well as bass.  In the last couple of years I have developed a hoarseness, which the doctor has diagnosed as an old floppy larynx.  So my singing for performance has gone by the way.  I still have my clarinet, a saxophone, the trumpet, and a trombone in addition to the recorder (bock flute) and a chromatic harmonica that I picked up in Berlin when I was on my mission.

My children gave me an iPod so that I can have music wherever I go and now I have that same music on my iPhone.

I love classical music.  I listen to it in the car where I can find two different stations that broadcast classical music.

When I was the age of most of my grandchildren I did not have as much appreciation for classical music as I do now.  I hope each one my grandchildren will develop a love and appreciation for good music.  It will enrich your life as it has mine.

Love,

Grandpa