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August 01, 2005
Generational looping
BP's maternal grandfather was the orchestra conductor in the big Chicago vaudeville house (sorry, I don't remember the name) prior to the stock market crash. Afterwards, during the Depression, he farmed a hard-scrabble place in the Ozarks. But in addition to being a conductor, he was also a composer. When BP's mother died, among her papers was a march that Grandfather had composed.
So BP shared it with a friend who conducts his own swing band, a friend who's also the conductor of the Smyrna Citizens Band, a community band in Chenango County, NY, that was organized over 150 years ago. The Citizens Band, whose members are professional and amateur musicians, performs on the balcony of the Smyrna library on summer Monday evenings. And Red Raville, their conductor, liked Frank Cummins' march, "Overland," and performed it a couple of times in the summer of 2002, and it has been in their repertoire since. Red called today to say that this evening they'll be performing it again, so we'll be going to hear the performance of the music of BP's grandfather, whom BP never knew—except through family lore and now, through this music.
Posted by senioritis at August 1, 2005 06:20 PM