2 posts tagged “music”
I was saddened to see the news this week of the passing of Roberta Brown. Ms. Brown, a resident of our community since 1956, was the music teacher at Starkey Elementary School when I was a student there.
While the world of elementary education has changed significantly since those days, the idea that young students should be exposed to music, art, and physical education has remained constant. Ms. Brown was our guide to music, and she was a good guide.
I didn’t realize until reading her obituary Thursday that she was a fellow Longhorn with a degree in harp. Harp: I never would have imagined it. I suppose we waves of schoolchildren were her primary instrument all of those years – we were a slightly off-tuned harp.
Here are some of the things I remember from Ms. Brown’s classes:
I remember her wheeling in a phonograph on a cart and playing different types of music for us. No one liked the opera she played for us, but we did enjoy the narrated “Peter and the Wolf” each year. She also brought recordings of music from around the world.
She was also responsible, in those Norman Rockwell days, for producing school pageants. I have very distinct memories of two of those performances.
In one we sang several selections in Japanese. Well, it was a version of Japanese tinged with both a Texas drawl and a complete incomprehension of Japanese. We practiced for months, making these odd sounds, warbling in a tongue no one could understand. It only occurs to me now that Ms. Brown probably didn’t understand Japanese, either.
On the big night we sang our little Japanese hearts out, and our parents applauded in English. I’m guessing the point of the exercise was to focus on the sounds we were making instead of the words we were saying. Regardless, it’s a lesson I still remember some forty years later.
The other memory is more personal: In class one day she asked who among us students could play the piano. I raised my hand, though in truth I had only just started lessons. I could play the piano about as well as I could play the bassoon.
I found myself assigned a piece to play for the Starkey Christmas Pageant, “Silent Night.”
I looked at the music she handed me. It was like nothing I’d ever played before: it required both hands. At the same time. And each hand was expected to play several notes. At the same time. But even worse, each hand was to play something different from the other hand. Again, at the same time. It was like trying to tie two different knots separately with each hand.
I was terrified. My teacher, too, was not pleased. But Ms. Brown, like another Ms. Brown, was unsinkable. She insisted that I play that piece in that night in front of a huge crowd. “Of course you can play it,” she told me.
And so my piano teacher began some intense training.
Leonard Bernstein once quipped that to accomplish the impossible all that is required is a plan and not enough time to accomplish the plan. Somehow, by the night of the musical, I could play “Silent Night.” I’m sure I stuttered along on the old upright piano, but I did make it through the piece while the audience sang along in the in the school cafeteria.
And yes, Gentle Reader, I can play “Silent Night” to this day. The lesson burned into my head those weeks is still there, the notes are still upon the tips of my fingers, ready to march out, in sequence, upon command.
Roberta Brown was a good teacher, and she gave life to a difficult subject. Music is, after all, a fleeting art. It lives on the edge of a knife, as the sound we hear passes quickly into memory. It is art in a series of moments. Ms. Brown helped us explore those moments and in doing so taught lessons that do not fade.
Until next week, all the best.
Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native and a Starkey Scorpion.
Who knew that milk jugs, capped and half-filled with water, could be a musical instruments?
Thursday evening at the Cailloux Theater the Symphony of the Hills once again made the unexpected happen. The symphony, under the able leadership of Dr. Jay Dunnahoo, is itself something quite unexpected.
I remember several years ago being interviewed by an reporter from the Wall Street Journal. During the interview, I mentioned that the Symphony of the Hills had a performance the following evening, and I invited him to attend with me.
There was some silence on the line, not unlike those recent television ads about dropped cell phone calls. When the reporter finally spoke, he asked “There’s a symphony in Kerrville, Texas?”
Yes, I told him. We not only have a symphony, we have a good symphony right here in Kerrville, Texas.
Last night’s program was a little different from previous performances – not all of the music was familiar. We were treated with music many of us had never heard before. It was like going to the grocery store and getting to pick a treat – on the condition you picked something you’d never tried before. Ms. Carolyn and I occasionally do this at H-E-B, a game which has led to some very tasty discoveries. That’s how I felt about last night’s performance – new musical discoveries.
I was also pleased to see what an impressive managing board the symphony has put together. I served on the symphony’s board until recently, so I feel I have a unique interest in who works on its board. We all want organizations with which we’ve worked to succeed, and the newcomers on the board are quite impressive. I think the symphony board, under the able leadership of Joseph Benham and H. D. Maxwell, is in quite good hands!
Now, about those milk jugs: One of the pieces performed last night was Robert W. Smith’s “The Great Steamboat Race.” Just before it began, members of Tivy High School’s chorale paraded into the auditorium carrying these half-filled plastic containers. The formed a semi-circle around the audience, standing in the aisles.
The piece is about an actual steamboat race between the Natchez and the Robert E. Lee which occurred in 1870. The two paddle-wheelers faced off because the Natchez had just completed a record-breaking run from New Orleans to St. Louis in an amazing three days, 21 hours and 58 minutes. Not to be outdone, the captain of the Robert E. Lee challenged the Natchez for a race along the same course. It’s a dramatic piece about a true story.
I remember as a child traveling with my family through the southern states and taking a ride on a steamboat, the Delta Queen. I stood in the bow of the boat watching those giant blades slapping the Mississippi, watching the water tumble from the blades as they left the river. It was quite impressive.
Last night in the Cailloux theater I remembered that ride vividly. On cue the members of the Tivy Choir began to shake those milk jugs in unison. The sound was very much like the paddles on the steam boat. And, because they were around us in a semi-circle, the sound surrounded us, just like it did on the steamboat that long ago summer.
Likewise, during the Grand Canyon Suite, during the familiar passage called “On the Trail” which mimics a mule ride down into the depths of the canyon, I remembered my own ride down the trail years ago when our children were small. That ride was seven hours of pure terror for me; my mule had a death wish, and he wanted to take me with him.
We’re lucky, you know. Our little town, despite its size, and its location at the edge of the Sonoran Desert, has many blessings – and one of them is the Symphony of the Hills. Next season the Symphony is doubling the number of performances so more people can attend; since their performances always sell out this will allow many who cannot attend an opportunity to be a part of the audience.
Until next week, all the best.
Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who considered shooting a mule named Rufus after his adventure at the Grand Canyon.
