As my first piano teacher, you were hired by the local school district a few months before America landed a man on the moon to teach elementary music and direct the Sr High Band. One afternoon a week after school, you’d come to my house to teach me piano in the parlor; sitting down together in front of our Cunningham upright; an intimidating parlor veteran of countless concertos that had clearly seen its best days before the turn of the previous century. You showed me middle C, taught me the difference between sharps and flats, and nearly broke my 5-yr old spirit with Mr. Sousa’s famous march called “The Stars and Stripes Forever”. You explained that a whole rest hung below the staff line, because it was held longer than its cousin, the half rest, that lived on top of the line. Meanwhile, during the school days, you would hand out, rhythm sticks, bells, triangles, and other chaotic noisemakers to teach our class about time signatures, dynamics, and musical self-expression. You built a musical foundation in me one melody at a time; and even cast me in a Christmas show to sing “Up on the Housetop” and then later to pull a plum out of a Christmas pie; and say, . . . “What a Good Boy Am I”. But alas, my family moved out of your school district soon after, and our weekly meetings in the parlor were done forever it seemed. Future music educators would follow. Their names included Raibourn, Bell, Dunn, Rauch, Crumrine, Del Negro, Simmers, and Voois. They would continue my piano training and introduce me to new things like the ukulele, the violin, the English Boys Choir tradition, barbershop music, and even Southern Gospel. I’d go on and teach myself to play the harmonica, the mandolin, the proboscophone (nose flute), and yes, even the two-toned cuckoo. I would sing in a boy’s choirs, chamber singers, concert choirs, madrigals, barbershop singers, gospel quartets, and play in orchestras, praise bands, folk groups, and even a short-lived pep band. I’d tour FL and the deep South, Canada, and VA; while realizing that every new musical experience was only a success because it was crafted on the solid foundation you took the time and care to create when it counted. Future educators would often note that, “Someone had started me off right in music.” Meanwhile, decades had passed and so did many a generation of new students you taught. Music class was slowly squeezed to the background of most school curricula; but your enthusiasm, however, never wavered despite the cane that became your nearly constant walking companion and the relentless barrage of Septembers that brought another relentless gaggle of f the musically unrefined and fairly to mostly unbehaved. Four decades after our weekly parlor meetings ended, we moved back to your district and my own son would take his turn in your class. I was afraid he might break your musical spirit like Sousa had nearly broken mine, but he didn’t. You taught him the same joy and appreciation of music that you taught me and quickly made it clear to him that making “arm farts” in class was not an appropriate form of musical expression. You were there the first time he awkwardly lifted the baritone to his lips (an instrument he continues to master today); and you saw enough musical promise in him to cast him as Tom (the piper’s son) in the 4th grade play/musical. The result of your guidance and tutelage in that regard was captured on video and is posted to this day in the video section of my Facebook page. Therefore, as you begin the final day of the 44th year of your teaching career at Fairfield Elementary School and prepare to retire, we reflect on the impact you have had on our family and no doubt countless thousands of others families too. We hope that, even in retirement, you’ll find a way to continue influence lives through music while doing those things “you’ve always wanted to do, but never had the time”. Though you never took on another private piano student 44 years, I dedicate this day, your last, to you Peter Riley. Enjoy the retirement you so fittingly deserve. Thank you!
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 12:42:04 +0000
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