Musical Autobiography

Which is somewhat mistitled because it implies an autobiography of all musical experiences instead of those NOT related to standard Western classical music. So - I'm going to title this

Jane's Non-standard-Western-classical Music Autobiography

(Try saying that 3 times fast!)

I started out as a child living in my parent's household where my mother liked big band music and my father liked classical. During the day, the radio was tuned to popular music or the record player played Billy Vaughan or Percy Faith. When my father walked in the door at night, the music became a bit more serious and even included quite a bit of organ music which I would contend qualifies as non-standard-Western-classical music because some of it is really out there! My own tastes (at the time) ranged from Wagner and Rachmaninoff to Harper's Bizarre and the Tijuana Brass. I did see TJB in concert once at the Ohio State Fair. Totally cool. And I snarfed up a CD I found of Herb Alpert's Greatest Hits. Wonder when they'll do Harper's Bizarre's Greatest Hits?

I don't remember what my earliest experiences with world music were, although I've pretty much enjoyed just about everything I've seen and heard. I lived for a while outside Philadelphia which was a fantastic opportunity for experiencing new things. I remember taking my son to a Vietnamese Water Puppet show. The water puppets were developed so that they could be manipulated underwater to hide the puppeteers from the audience. In Vietnam, the shows would be presented in the rice paddies so that the grown rice would act as a curtain behind which the puppeteers would work the puppets. The puppets acted out many traditional Vietnamese stories and the best thing was when the dragons rose up out of the water spouting fireworks. This was all done to music and singing.

My interest in handbells has lead to a number of other interesting opportunities. The "English" handbell was developed in England to save wear and tear on tower bell ringers and the neighbors of the towers. The uniquely English tradition of Change Ringing comes from the tower bells. The bell towers of churches in England usually hold several bells with the largest towers holding as many as 12 bells. That's not quite enough bells to play melodies on, but enough to play in different patterns. The ringers decided to experiment with different patterns of ringing the bells and Change Ringing was born. Practicing the changes would require quite a bit of time pulling on the bell ropes in cold towers and driving the neighbors nuts when mistakes were made necessitating starting the change over again (and some change patterns were hours long) so handbells were developed so the ringers could practice in a nice warm place, such as the village pub.

Different from tower bells and change ringing are carillons where the bells are static and one player can play many bells, up to 40 or so, from a central console. Tower bells are mostly found in England and carillons are found throughout the rest of Europe with some of the best carilloniers coming from Belgium. Both types of bells are found in the United States.

Bells are not limited to Europe with different types of bells being found in many different cultures throughout the world. About the same time that the Chinese terracotta warriors were found on the Chinese mainland, the discovery of some ancient bells was also made. These bells differed from the many different traditional types of bells that had previously been found in China. They were bronze and they were suspended from a rack and struck with a mallet, but they were diatonic which had not been seen in any instruments of that age before. A duplicate set was made and toured the United States and I was fortunate enough to hear part of a concert performed on this duplicate set.

My experiences with bells has also led to an opportunity to play in a gamelan band. A bell director who had been studying gamelan had purchased a number of different instruments and brought them to a conference I was attending and invited us to come and play the instruments. Somewhere, I still have the music we played (good luck finding it!).

I love experimenting with different sounds which has led me away from the traditional oboe and flute and sent me wandering around different instruments. I have a tin whistle which I've learned to play and I would LOVE to attend Celtic Week at the Swannanoa Gathering and learn how to play Irish flute. I have an 1800's vintage wooden flute which is the German version of the Irish flute. I congratulate myself on finding a fingering chart for it! I love hammered dulcimer and have wanted one but have finally had to admit that I don't have the time to learn to play it! I did get a new toy this past summer of a bowed psaltery which I have learned to play, although I still need the strips that tell me where all of the notes are. I've even written and performed a piece for handbells and used the bowed psaltery for the solo instrument part.

In general, I guess I'd have to say that I'm having fun. Music is great and learning more about it is great, too.