This story takes place at the Women’s YWCA in Minneapolis in 1965 at 8:00pm. The senior class of MacPhail College of Music were having their Cap and Gown ceremony there. There were musical performances from some of the MacPhail students and I was there as a sophomore performing my Rhapsody.
So much took place before that actual night. I will do my best to bring it all into view. I started working on my rhapsody in the beginning of that year. During the day when I wasn’t in class, I’d go into a practice room at MacPhail and work on my composition. I would write down my ideas as they came up. After a few weeks I was able to sketch out a first score of the rhapsody. As the school year went on, I made changes as needed as my ideas began to take shape. After a few weeks I had the actual piano score sketched out. The orchestra score had about twenty- two staves. Now there are too ways to place each instrument on the score. If the score is in C all the instruments are written out from the piano, no transpositions necessary. Now is a good time to explain the orchestral score. That score is usually transposed, meaning all the instrument parts, are written down in their actual keys. Etc and etc. I had absolutely no prior knowledge about any of this, until the piano score was complete, and it was time to orchestrate the rhapsody.
My piano teacher at that time, Gary Sipes, was also my composition teacher, so he taught me how to orchestrate. Now, a student in composition, would probably have an entire year of orchestration, but I was a Music Education student with a minor in trumpet. I just happen to like piano so much because I could improvise on the instrument to get ideas for compositions. So Gary Sipes was instrumental in giving me a crash course in both composition and orchestration. He was also so invaluable in my learning how to play the piano. When I was accepted as a student at MacPhail I had never played the piano before. I was an accordion player, with one year of trumpet lessons. MacPhail had no accordion teacher when I became a freshman, so trumpet became my major instrument. So I started my freshman year with a Major in Music Education with a Minor in Trumpet. I loved studying music.
It became almost my only interest, well, that is until a young girl came to MacPhail during my sophomore year. Her name was Bev. I became infatuated with her. We became close friends. Bev was a freshman studying voice. I became involved with her by accident. My piano teacher was also teaching percussion for freshman students. Bev was having trouble with playing and reading drum music, so Gary asked me to help her and that’s how it started with Bev and I. As I began orchestrating the Rhapsody, I liked going into the MacPhail Library where the lighting was very bright and the quietness was ideal for concentrating. I chose to orchestrate the rhapsody in the piano’s key of C. So I did not have to worry about transposing the instrument parts yet. Once I had the orchestral parts complete on the entire score the next big job would get underway. Bev would help with the orchestration between her classes, of course that would give us time to be together as well. Sometimes we’d go to lunch together and talk about music, or our classes we liked or hated. There were times we would just go for walks and hold hands. It was so nice to have a girl friend to share things with. Well, back to the music. Gary Sipes and I performed the rhapsody on two pianos at recital class. Students and teachers ‘were present, we got a standing ovation, which was wonderful, after all our hard work.Well finely it was time to write out all separate parts, for all instruments. Tedious work for weeks. The orchestra for the night of the rhapsody’s performance was small, maybe forty players in all. As a 19 year old naïve student who had never played or seen an orchestra perform, I was at a disadvantage. So I was awkward in front of the players and Mr MacPhail the conductor. Gary Sipes my piano teacher was going to perform the piece. So Mr MacPhail finely starts conducting my composition and stops after twenty measures or so. What the hell is a 7/8 measure, and how do I conduct it? He finely said I can’t conduct this piece. Well, Sipes steps in and said I’ll conduct. That meant I had to play the piano part of the rhapsody which was not at all easy to play. I did not have the necessary technical skill or endurance for a very difficult piece of music. I had been playing piano for two years and I just didn’t have the skill to play the piece well. Nevertheless, if the piece was to be performed I and Gary Sipes would have to do it. I think we had two rehearsals, the first one was a complete disaster. I think we barely got through the piece once. The orchestra players were pissed because the parts were in pencil. I didn’t blame them. Some of the parts were not as legible as they should have been. There was only one double bass player and two cellos and the rest were violins and violas. So the orchestra was top heavy and had little support from the bottom parts of the composition. I was lucky to have a few students from MacPhail to play with the orchestra.
Some of my friends told me the double bass players music fell on the floor, he stepped on it and said I hate modern music. So all and all, two rehearsals, one a total dud and the other less than adequate. A pianist with two years of playing under his belt, a makeshift orchestra with players who didn’t really have time to get the piece under their belt. The night of the performance I was back stage, when Gary and I were to go on stage. I was white as a sheep, terrified to go on. Gary pushed me out in front of eight hundred or more people and somehow I perform my rhapsody, Well I got through the composition and the audience clapped, but I don’t really remember hearing them. I was so unhappy with my performance, and totally shocked about how my nerves had got the best of me. I never played the piece again nor did I write out in manuscript form, any of my five symphonies or concerto’s. A story for another time.