MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2022 - MUSIC WEEK - DAY 1

 MONDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2022 - MUSIC WEEK - DAY 1

Growing up in the 1950s, media was limited.  We had three (later four) television stations; and while there were many radio stations my family generally listened to one - WMT in Cedar Rapids.  There were also three radio stations that were kind of the local stations - WMT - a very traditional station tied with WMT television station (CBS affiliate), KCRG (ABC affiliate - the CRG was for Cedar Rapids, Gazette - the local newspaper), and KWWL -out of Waterloo Iowa.

WMT had a stable of longtime news people.  They had a live noon program with Dean Lamphere, that was in the Paramount Theater and my mother would let me go and listen to the show as it aired.  I won some steak knives once - I have no idea where they are now!!  

WMT had farm reports, and might be called “talk radio”, but didn’t have call-in programs.  You turned to WMT radio or TV for the best weather reports.  If they had music (and they didn’t have much), it was more easy-listening - like Frank Sinatra and Big Band music and kind of popular music for the 40 and above crowd.  They also (in my opinion) had the best sports and broadcast the Iowa basketball games (and my neighbor and I listened to all the Hawkeye games).  Cedar Rapids was about 30 miles from Iowa City - home to the University of Iowa.  And, WMT stood for Waterloo Morning Telegraph - the Waterloo newspaper (but I think it must have split off before my time).

KCRG was country music.  I’m not a big country fan - and it probably goes back to those childhood days.  My parents didn’t listen to KCRG - and my father would sometimes pan country songs - “My baby left and took my pickup truck”.  They were the ABC television affiliate.

I really don’t remember KWWL’s music mix until the late 1950s and early 1960s when they became the local rock and roll station.  Their television station was the NBC affiliate for the area.

I think public television came to the television scene after the big three of CBS, NBC, and ABC (I remember them in that order - CBS was channel 2; NBC was channel 7 and ABC was channel 9).  Of course, we didn’t have a remote control (or, maybe rather, “I” was the remote control!!!  As the youngest in the family, I was to get up and change channels.  

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My music was largely hymns!!  In our church (with my family in the third (or fourth) pew on the left and my grandparents in the row behind us), we sang hymns.  Both my parents had good voices and I can still sing four verses of many hymns - and sometimes even sing the bass part!.

My parents paid for my sister and me to have piano lessons.  We took them from our neighbor across the street and we had a cheap, mostly out-of-tune, piano in our dining room that we were to practice on.  I can still pick out a melody on the piano but not quickly and anything outside of the key of “C” can be difficult (the key of C has no sharps or flats!!!).

I also sang with the “Carol Choir” - the kid's choir at our church.  Rhetha Wawamuth was our director and we sang three or four times a year.  

So, my early music was somewhat limited.

In fifth grade, we could pick a musical instrument for the band.  I didn’t have much idea but thought that the trumpet would be a good choice.I can still remember that R. Cedric Anderson led our fifth and sixth-grade band and was outwardly smiling but inwardly groaning.  Beginning band students aren’t very good and later Mr. Anderson was our high school band director - where intonation and correctness were important!!

The fifth and sixth-grade bands were mostly unison playing - and limited instruments.  There were flutes, clarinets, and tenor saxes for the woodwinds, trumpets, and trombones for brass, plus percussion.  (Having been to grade school band concerts of my own children, I remember all the clarinet squeaks and bad notes).

But, as we transitioned to seventh grade, the new band director (Lyman Colton) had the job of getting more instrumentation.  In the brass section, he needed french horns, baritones, and tubas; in the woodwinds, he needed more sax parts - and then there was the competition to get to be the first chair.  Yes, I was the first chair tuba player!!!  We also had first, second and third parts for flutes, clarinets, saxes, trumpets, and trombones.  Tubas generally only have one part.

Mr. Colton (who died last year at age 100) told me I’d be the “foundation” of the band.  That is still true.  In four-part music (like hymns), generally, the bass line is the root of the choir.  If you are playing a piece in B-flat major, generally our last note would be a b-flat the root (or foundation) of the chord.  

Somehow my sister got to bypass the band (she also got to bypass the German class and the theater class).  

So my music tastes now were hymns and band music.  And, some band music was transcriptions of orchestra music from great composers.  

I “graduated” from the children’s library to the adult library, and explored the adult library’s record section.  Not knowing much, I picked a record by Tschaikowsky - the fifth symphony took it home and played it on our record player.  I would have to adjust the record player from playing 45s (that my sister was getting into) into 33 speed for the longer playing symphony players.  

Every week I got new classical records.  Sometimes I kind of knew the music and sometimes it was totally new to me.  

I found (I’m not sure I knew it then) what might be called “romantic” classical pieces - mainly because they had tuba parts.  Mozart, Hayden, and others were just not as appealing to me.  I loved Tschaikowsky and listened to most of his records from the library.  

So, here I am at age 75 still loving romantic classical music.  

This week, I’m going to be writing more from a personal perspective on my musical likes (and maybe some dislikes!!).

LOVE WINS (and, music can be part of love!!!)

Karen White, October 3, 2022, ©