Sarnia Collegiate Institute and Technical School - Collegiate Yearbook (Sarnia, Ontario Canada)

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THE COLLEGIATE 97 THE DEAF COMPOSER ECALL for a moment the great musical composer. Haydn. lYhen Haydn was dying in Yienna, in ISOQ, the French were bom- barding the town. Haydn's servants were terrified, but he took it all very calmly. He asked to be lifted from his bed to the piano' and when he was seated, he played his own Austrian Hymn three times over, while 'the guns were pounding outside. Now at that very moment, there was another composer in Vienna, crouching in a cellar, with cotton-wool stutfed in his ears. This composer was Beethoven. His hearing was beginning to go and he was afraid that the sound of the explosives would still further endanger it. Think of a musician being deaf! You might as well think of a painter being blind! Yet Beethoven, in some respects the greatest composer that ever lived, be- came almost totally deaf. The inliiction embittered all his later years, and turned an originally lovable man into a kind of surly bear. Beethoven, like Handel, did not marry. He would throw the soup in his housekeeper's eyes when it did not please him, and stamp and rage and howl over the most trivial annoyances. Let us be charitable to him when we- read these things. But Beethoven with his deafness, had a very hard life. Born in I77O, at Bonn, a pretty little university town on the Rhine, where they have pre- served his birthplace just as it was, he had to work his way up in a home directed by a father who was a habitual drunkard. The father, who was musical had heard something about the triumphs of the Mozart children in Vienna, Paris and London, and he thought he would make some money out of his own Ludwig. So he set him to work at the piano, and visitors would often see the child late at night shedding tears over the keytboard. XYhen he was about seventeen he went to Vienna, where, it is said Mozart gave him some lessons in composition, A few years later he went again to Yi- enna to study, and made his home in that city the rest of his life. lVhen Mozart tirst heard him play he exclaimed: Pay attention to this youngster, for he will yet make a noise in the world. XYel know how true that prophecy was. Beethoven's works for the Piano, particularly his Sonatas. are the grandest things of their kind ever written. Take away Beethoven's nine symphonies-the immortal nine, as they are sometimes called-and we would take away the very backbone of music. He did not write very much for the voice, for he was essentia.lly an instrumenta'l composer. but he left one beautiful song, Adelaide, and one great opera, Fedelio. He passed away in March, 1837, at the age of 57, and Vienna never before saw such a funeral as his, the crowds being so immense that the soldiers had to be called out to clear a passage lfor the magnificent procession. NNY: Marion Schell: Hey, Bet, what is a military objective? Bet Buchanan: lValk by the boys on that corner and you'll hnd out. Xflfrlsils l-'le had just stolen a hurried kiss. M. L. XVadham frather disgustedlyl: Don't you know any better than that? Dean Hawley: Sure, but they take more time.

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96 THE COLLEGIIATE mortal hymn XYhile shepherds watched their Hocks by night . He liived in an age when it was not considered disgraceful to drink, and he was a drunkard. Frances .lan Crosby, a very noble woman, lost her sight as a baby and never regained it. She received her education at a school for the blind, and devoted her life to malaing others good and happy. She wrote Over three thousand hymns. of which one, Safe in the arms of Jesus' is sung everywhere. To ,Phillips l-Brooks, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Massa- chusetts, the world owes a favorite Christmas hymn: O Little Town of llethlehemf' Bishop Brooks was a celebrated preacher and an independent thinker. lle died in Boston in 1893. Yery few men receive such affection- ate tributes as are paid to Henry Frances Lyte. an English clergyman who has laid in his tomb at Nice since 1847. Among the hymns that Lyte wrote was Abide with me. lle wrote it on the nlight that he preached his last sermon, thinking not of that one night's repose, but of his eternal rest. Now we sing it at the close of evening service in churches all over the world. Over a period of hundreds of years, the works of these composers have accumulated and been compiled to form our present day hymn books. How few of us realize the number of people who contributed to them. Surely they have played a large part in the growth of the Church through the centuries. 1 Q2 lex Q ,ti 1 ' .... - SCHOOL BAND Top Row tleft to rightl-J. Cramrford, D. Eyre M. 'Wilson, K. Sutton, XV. Marshall, Doug. Shanks, G. Gander, R. Dailey, I. lViclner, F. Dagg. Middle ROW tleft to rightl-Mr. Brush tConductOrl, B. Van Alstyne, D. Park, A. Milner. D. Lewis, R. Allen, R. Geere, A. Mustard, Don Shanks. Bottom Row lleft to riehtl-G. Barnes. S. Shanks, H. Hellfwell, B. Barry, T. Kenny, R. Treitz, L. Dennis.

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98 THE COLLEGIATE THE FGRGODTTIEN MAN HN MUSEC N THESE Clays when there are so many soloists on the radio, in concerts, and in motion pictures, most of us are so carried away by the ability of the individual artist. that we fail to notil:e the beautiful background being played by the orchestra. To the average listener this is the case, for after all, our whole attention is being appealed for by the soloist, vt bile the orchestra sits in the background and is there for the sole purpose of supporting the performer. However, this background is carefully prepared so that it will give the soloist the most support possible without detracting the listener from the rendition of he solo. Nl'ho then, is responsible for this accompaniment? It seems that many people are unaware of the number of men who spend years of work and study in developing an ability in this profession. These men are known as arrangers or orchestrators. They take the bare melody of a tune andi create from it the beautiful score which you hear. Only a person with an extensive knowledge of music and an abundance of originality can make a success of arranging. lt is especially difficult to get started in this line of work, because of the scarcity of good teachers and texts. First, one must acquire a thorough knowledge of harmony and coun- terpoint and familiarize himself with the instruments for which he is going to write. .Xfter he is enlightened upon these fundamentals, the aspiring or- chestrator puts himself to work, gaining experience by the trial and error method. .-Xt lirst he may have to follow examples of other men's work and, if he is fortunate, the student might be able to have his attempts criticized by someone who is already adept at this work. Even with this help, the man who wishes to be successful in this profession must keep working at it until he attains accuracy, originality, and speed. The arranger is constantly confronted with new problems. One phase of arranging is the work done in preparing background or mood music for moving pictures. I have often remarked how perfectly the music fits into the scenes of the picture, how there is just the right type of music in the right place. ln order to reach this state of perfection, the arranger has -the film shown to him. He notes the exact times at which important, events 'take place, the emotions displayed in them, and their duration. Then he is given .1 minimum of time in which to complete a suitable score, and must meet this deadline so that the picture can be shown at a planned premiere. However, this is not the best-known job of the orchestrator. His biggest job is in writing arrangements for conductors and soloists. In this work he tries to satisfy his clients and yet write the type of music which he himself enjoys most. Often arrangers become so tired of trying to satisfy the tastes of or- chestra leaders and soloists, that they organize their own orchestras so that they can have their own style of nicusie played in the way which they desire. The arranger always remains in the background. His work is not done on a brightly-lighted concert stage or in a gaily-decorated ballroom. He re- ceives few compliments from the listeners, and usually his name is not even known to them. So, the next time you are impressed by the music of a good musical organization or soloist, remember that the arranger contributes to this success, without making an appearance in the performance. -Bill XVilkinson, IZB. Really, said Maxine Palmer to a fresh fellow, You take your arm from around my waist or keep it still-l'm no ukulele.