My Musical Family

Double Feature: The Artist(ic) Descendants

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:08:00 +0000

The stars aligned yesterday. Or maybe it had something to do with the increased waves of solar activity we’re experiencing. Whatever the reason, Steve and I found ourselves without children or responsibilities for several hours, and we did something we haven’t done since our pre-children life together: we attended two Oscar-nominated movies in one afternoon.

We saw The Artist and The Descendants, both of which are up for Best Picture, and both of which made me think of my great-grandparents G. Oliver and Islea Riggs, for much different reasons.

The Artist is a black and white, mostly silent movie, and it’s delightful (if you go, and you should, remember that word silent – the Lakeville 21 Theatre ticket booth had signs notifying potential viewers of this fact; I suppose people have complained after watching the first few minutes, thinking something was wrong with the sound system).

The movie takes place in Hollywood in the late 1920s and early 1930s, when talking movies began, and silent movies were abandoned (here’s a link to the New York Times review).

My great-grandmother Islea used to play the organ for silent movies at the Paramount Theatre in St. Cloud, and I thought of Islea as I watched a scene in The Artist where a live orchestra accompanies the premiere of a movie featuring George Valentin (played by the wonderfully expressive French actor Jean Dujardin) at the height of his popularity.

The Artist isn’t the first movie to chronicle this period, when many silent movie actors lost their jobs because they couldn’t make the transition to talkies – think Singing in the Rain, which The Artist evokes in some ways – but I imagine many people like Islea also were affected by this change, which eliminated the need for live musicians to accompany the movies.

The Paramount, formerly the Sherman Theatre, underwent renovations in 1930 to accommodate the new “talkies.” I don’t know when the theater showed its last silent movie, or when Islea stopped playing there. I wonder how she felt about it?

Islea Graham Riggs

I loved the costumes in The Artist, especially the hats. The cars were neat, too, and really helped drop me into that time period – which, in my great-grandparents’ case, meant St. Cloud, during the rising popularity of G. Oliver’s St. Cloud Municipal Boys’ Band.

Another part I loved about the movie was the dog, played by a Jack Russell named Uggie, who has his own IMDb page. The dog is Valentin’s faithful companion on and off-screen. And I couldn’t help but think of G. Oliver and Islea here, too, because they also were known for having faithful canine companions.

G. Oliver with dog Toby; the woman might be Islea, but it could also be G. Oliver’s sister Daisy.

The other movie we saw, The Descendants, is completely different from The Artist – it’s in color, for one thing, it’s full of colorful language (note the ‘R’ rating) and it’s set in modern-day Hawaii. But the past plays an important role in the movie, too, which makes sense given its title. The protagonist, Matt King (played by George Clooney), can trace his island roots back several generations to indigenous and missionary ancestors.

The main plot of the story involves Clooney’s character discovering, after his wife has been seriously injured in a boating accident, that she’s been cheating on him. He tries to sort this out as he, the “back-up parent,” reconnects with his two daughters (here’s a link to the New York Times review).

A subplot of The Descendants concerns a large tract of pristine land on Kauai that King and his many cousins have inherited, and a decision they need to make regarding its sale. This part of the movie made me think of the Riggs family cabin on Grace Lake, near Bemidji. It was a sanctuary for G. Oliver for decades during his career as a band director, and my dad has memories of spending time there as a boy.

The Riggs family cabin on Grace Lake, near Bemidji.

G. Oliver moved to the cabin full-time in 1944 after his forced retirement from his St. Cloud job, two years after Islea’s death. He soon came out of retirement to conduct a band at Red Lake High School (here, again, I’m reminded of The Artist, and its themes of the old being pushed out by the young, and of the possibilities of career reinvention).

When he died in January 1946, G. Oliver had been planning to sell the cabin to a neighbor who operated an adjoining resort. My grandfather Ronald and great uncle Percy (Pete) followed through with this plan.

Although it would might been nice if the property had stayed in the family – I know other families who own properties up north that have been in the family for generations – it’s also possible that it would have created family divisions, like in The Descendants – cousins arguing over its use, whether it should be sold, and if so, to whom.

A postcard from the Dean Davis resort, sent to my grandparents in 1951.

I don’t know what’s become of that property, and I’m curious to find out. Louisa is attending French camp this summer in Hackensack, and when we pick her up in mid-July, we plan to take a side trip to Bemidji and see if we can find the spot where the cabin had been located.

If nothing else, the adventure could be material for a Lawler/Riggs family home movie, which, given our cast of human and canine characters, is certain not to be silent.

A Modern Family Vaudeville Show

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:47:00 +0000

We are still basking in the glow of yesterday’s big event – an evening spent with talented friends, making music together in celebration of my two-year anniversary of blogging. Yes, My Musical Family is two years old, and what better way to acknowledge the milestone than with a recital, right in our very own living room!

G. Oliver Riggs makes his appearance, aided by his great-great grandson Elias.

The Boxrud/Bratland and Mibus families were kind enough to take me up on the invitation and participate in the event, which included solos, some group pieces, poetry recitations and a demonstration speech on how to make a clothespin catapult that flings pennies (thanks Ryan!).

Here’s a video of my introduction to the event, followed by the first performer, Elias, on piano.

This Norwegian schottische by Amy, Doug, Synneva and Halvor added some international flair to the evening:

As did the Steve and Sebastian duet, “Back in the USSR.”

When we weren’t performing or listening, we were eating – the menu included two kinds of chili (beef and vegetarian), salad with roasted pears, and soda bread. For dessert, we had ice cream sundaes and French macarons.

My friend Myrna made the macarons; she’s become quite the macaron maven over the last several months (she also plays the mandolin, which makes me think there’s a children’s book amid all the alliteration). Here’s a link to one of her recent blog posts, Macarons – A Visual Treat!. She made a special flavor just for the occasion, black licorice, which she cleverly arranged to look like music notes on a staff.

Myrna’s macarons – mmmmmmm!

We all had such a good time, I hope we can do it again soon. But not too soon – I need a little time to work up a new piece, and my courage.

Recital Preparations and Palpitations

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:16:00 +0000

Instead of blogging, I should be practicing an instrument right now, to prepare for this weekend’s My Musical Family recital.

We are having two families over on Sunday and have invited everyone – adults and kids alike – to perform a piece on an instrument, to sing a song, or to read a poem, essay or speech. I concocted the plan several months ago when I was trying to think of ways to keep Elias interested in playing the piano (his teacher no longer organizes recitals, like he did when Louisa took lessons from him).

I also was inspired by reading newspaper accounts of my great-grandfather’s experiences playing the violin at house parties at the turn of the last century, like this one that took place before my great-grandparents were married:

Miss Islea Graham gave a party and musical entertainment at the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. W.N. Graham, last evening. It was one of the finest affairs of the kind ever in the city. The musical program was of exceptional merit and was a real treat to lovers of fine music. Miss Florence B. Wright of Burlington and Prof. G. O. Riggs of Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, the eminent violinist, contributed to the enjoyment of the evening. There was a large attendance of Aledo’s most fashionable people.

Our event will be much more low-key, with an emphasis on fun and good food, and not fashion. But I have no doubt that it will be a real treat for all in attendance.

I am planning to play a piece on the piano. If I chicken out, I may instead read this poem (author not known) that was in my grandfather Ronald’s files. It must have been important to someone, because at the bottom it includes the instruction: Please keep.

(You don’t have to tell that twice to anyone in this family of pack rats).

The Young Bandman

It was a cold and dreary day,
The bandmen in the park did play
The people listened with their ears
And when ’twas done they gave three cheers.

One boy, a strong and manly youth,
His clarinet did play,
A boy who always spoke the truth
And made them clap their hands, hurray!

He stood up slim, and strait (sic) and tall,
And blew his clarinet to all,
Till people, wondering, would hear
The sounds that came with murmuring fear.

Time for a Pocket Watch Mystery

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:37:00 +0000

One of the resolutions my dad and I set for 2012 was to spend more time researching and writing about Percy Riggs, my great-uncle and the younger son of G. Oliver. I wasn’t expecting to write a blog post about Percy this soon – five days into the new year – but one of Percy’s grandchildren posed this question to my dad and me today, and it’s too good to resist sharing:

Did G. Oliver have a pocket watch, and if so, did he give it to Percy, known by his family as Pete?

Grandpa Pete’s pocket watch

My second cousin Chris, who lives in Texas, asked the question because he has a pocket watch that was given to him by his maternal grandmother. Grandma Pat Riggs (who died in 1990) used to keep the watch in a display case above her television, and she’d told Chris that it had belonged to Grandpa Pete.

A close-up view of the watch face.

The watch was manufactured in 1892 by the Elgin (Illinois) Watch Company. This was 12 years before Pete was born – so, Chris wondered, could it have originally belonged to G. Oliver? Could it have been a gift to G. Oliver the year he started his first professional job teaching at the Iowa Wesleyan Conservatory of Music?

I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch of the imagination to think that Chris is right. G. Oliver graduated from Oberlin College in December 1891, and he started his job at Iowa Wesleyan in September 1892. His parents, Jasper and Rebecca, were living in Joy, Illinois, at this time. It’s quite possible that they would have given him a such a gift. They weren’t wealthy, but an Elgin watch would have been affordable for someone who owned a hardware business, as Jasper did; the Elgin National Watch Company was known for making millions of popular, mid-grade watches – the "working man's watch."

Grandpa Pete’s watch is not engraved, and its case was made by Keystone.

Although I have not come across any written information about G. Oliver receiving a pocket watch as a gift, or about him giving a watch to Percy, it makes sense to me, especially considering that G. Oliver gave his older son, Ronald, a different family memento – the violin that had belonged to his father, Jasper.

Plus, I did find a photo of G. Oliver in which you can see that he’s wearing a pocket watch of some kind – the watch itself is not visible, but you can see the chain connected to his vest.

G. Oliver and wife Islea with children Percy, left, Rosalie and Ronald.

It would be great if the watch contained a message from Pete or G. Oliver, so we knew its full story. But even if we never determine its origins, it’s managed to do something that neither man would have anticpated – it’s forged a connection between branches of the family that have grown apart in the years since my great-uncle Pete and my grandfather Ronald died.

I have never met Chris or his siblings in person, and I had never known anything about them until I started the G. Oliver project. Now in addition to sharing great-grandparents, we share a family mystery.

Percy (Pete) with daughter Mary Jane, father G. Oliver, and daughter Islea

Reflections on Another Musical Year

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:38:00 +0000

New Year’s Eve is always a time for reflection and for making plans, so it seems appropriate to consider what I’ve accomplished with this blog in 2011, and what’s ahead for the G. Oliver Riggs project in 2012.

I don’t know what 2012 will bring, but I’m pretty sure it won’t involve me wearing a tutu.

There are different ways of measuring success; I could pull some statistics from Google to tell you what 2011 posts are among the most read (Jump: A Composer Discusses Her Craft is tops with 343 views), or how many people from South Korea have found my site (820), but the truth is, I don’t know how to make sense of all that information. What’s gratifying for me is to know that people are reading the blog and occasionally commenting on posts they have enjoyed.

It’s difficult for me to pick favorites from the past year, partly because I’ve written so many, I sometimes forget them (that’s the problem with having a 44-year-old brain). There are a few that stand out as being particularly gratifying to write, such as My Musical Manifesto, which articulated my feelings about the importance of music education in the public schools. I also am proud of ones in which I’ve used my research to connect the dots between G. Oliver and other historical figures (like Doc Putnam’s Gold Star Band).

It was fun to discover this year that G. Oliver taught music to a group of nuns in St. Cloud (Sister Act: the G. Oliver Version); I definitely plan to follow up on that story. I was pleased to finally write a couple of posts about my grandfather, Ronald (including A Young Man in the Jazz Age), and I still plan to write a few more about his career.

I loved writing the most recent blog post about my dad – goodness knows, there’s plenty more material there, like his winning a spot in the National Band in high school and being directed by Henry Fillmore – so you might read more about him in 2012.

I have not yet had the chance to address the career of G. Oliver’s other son, Percy; my dad has been uncovering more details about Percy’s career as a band director in South Dakota, and I look forward to delving into that material for some good stories.

Brothers Ronald, left, and Percy in 1957

You can also look forward to some posts about G. Oliver’s early career as a teacher at the Iowa Wesleyan Conservatory of Music in Mt. Pleasant. My dad and I have been invited to give a presentation at Iowa Wesleyan College in March as part of the Friends of the Harlan-Lincoln House’s 2012 historical lecture series.

I started this blog in January 2010 out of frustration; I had compiled mounds of research about my great-grandfather’s life and career with the hope of writing a book about him, and I thought writing a blog would help me figure out a structure for the book and give me direction for my writing. One hundred and 31 posts later (or 132, if you count this one), I am not much closer to writing a book proposal, but I have gained more from the experience than I ever expected. The blog has become an invaluable way of sharing information with family members and friends, it has helped me make connections between the past and the present, and it has taught me how important music is in my life.

I look forward to another year of exploration and discovery in 2012!

Play the Birthday Trumpet Fanfare!

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:28:00 +0000

Today is a special day; it’s the birthday of an exceptional musician, teacher and human being – my dad, William Johnson Riggs.

My dad was born in Thief River Falls, where his dad Ronald was working as a band director and teacher. The family soon moved to St. Cloud, and that’s where Dad grew up.

It’s not surprising that music has always been an important part of Dad’s life; his dad was a band director for several years before he became a college professor; his mom, Eleanor, and his paternal grandmother, Islea, both played and taught piano; and his paternal grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs, was a well known bandmaster who died when Dad was 7.

Ronald with baby William and G. Oliver

My dad was a little boy when G. Oliver gave him a cornet lesson outside the woodshed at the Riggs family cabin on Grace Lake – a moment captured in the photo at the top of this blog. Something about the instrument must have resonated with my dad because he followed in G. Oliver’s footsteps and played the cornet for several years before switching to trumpet.

Dad with his sister, Dana, and brother, Bob

Dad grew up near Barden Park, where G. Oliver’s bands played summer concerts, and where the St. Cloud Municipal Band still plays. He graduated from St. Cloud Technical High School and got a teaching degree from St. Cloud State University.

Dad's first teaching job was in Alexandria, Minn. He only planned to stay a year or two. He met my mom during his second year of teaching (which was her first year there), and the rest is history, as they say.

I love this photo of my dad, my brother Pete, and baby me, sleeping on my dad’s chest.

My dad continued to play his trumpet in a number of bands, including the Alexandria Big Band, as I was growing up. His love of performing inspired me to take up the French horn in sixth grade and continue playing through two years of college.

Dad and me playing a duet on Christmas Eve, 2008.

Dad retired from teaching high school several years ago, but he seems to keep busier than ever with his music gigs. He used to play often for weddings; now, funerals are more common. He plays regularly for church services and at nursing homes, and he plays with so many different groups I have a hard time keeping them all straight.

Dad playing a September 2011 gig with the Salty Dogs at Sixth Avenue Wine & Ale in Alex.

When he’s not performing in a concert of his own, he’s often in the audience cheering on his grandchildren. Much to his delight, the latest family members to take up the trumpet are my brother’s 11-year-old twins, Sam and Lauren.

Mom and Dad with all seven grandchildren.

Dad is the heart of the ongoing G. Oliver Riggs research project, and I’m thrilled to be his duet partner. We already have accomplished more than we’d ever expected, and I look forward to another year of adventures in 2012.

Because I can’t deliver his present over the blog, I will close with an Ole and Lena joke:

Ole bought Lena a piano for her birthday. A few weeks later, Lars inquired how she was doing with it.
“Oh,” said Ole, “I persuaded her to switch to a clarinet.”
“How come?” asked Lars.
“Well,” Ole answered, “because with a clarinet, she can’t sing.”

Happy birthday, Dad!

The 21 Days of Pre-Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 23:48:00 +0000

It’s been a wonderful, hectic, music-filled month, and it’s not over yet! Here’s a summary of the concerts and activities that have enriched our lives during the past three weeks:

• Five horns harmonizing (Dec. 8: Louisa’s French horn section played during Winter Walk)

• Two Lucias processing (Dec. 9: Louisa was a Lucia attendant at the Northfield Swedish Club’s 36th annual Lucia fest)

• Ten fingers dancing (Dec. 9: Steve, Louisa and I attended a piano recital given by Ina Selvelieva, a visiting professor of music at St. Olaf and the pianist for Little Women, the Musical)

• One hundred forty-five youth choir members rejoicing (Dec. 10: Louisa and Sebastian performed in the Northfield Youth Choirs winter concert at Carleton’s Skinner Chapel; Steve joined in on two of the large group pieces)

• Four drummers drumming (Dec. 13: Elias sang at the Greenvale Park choir and band concert, which included an enthusiastic percussion piece)

• Seven orchestras bowing (Dec. 15: Sebastian played in the middle school and high school orchestra concert)

• Twenty-eight students singing (Dec. 16: Elias performed a music program with his fifth grade class)

• And a standing ovation at the Orpheum (Dec. 16: Steve and I took our kids and his parents to see Les Miserables at the Orpheum)

Because we will be in Iowa for Christmas, spending time with Steve’s parents and his sisters and their families, we are having our own little family celebration tomorrow evening. We will continue our tradition (borrowed from my childhood) of having each person either perform a song or read a Christmas-related story or poem before we open gifts. I haven’t decided yet what I’m doing; the last-minute preparation is part of the excitement.

It’s hard to believe that 2011 is drawing to a close. I am eager to see what musical pleasures await us in 2012!

Fine Arts Programs Need Boosters, Too

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 23:26:00 +0000

I should be cutting back on activities and additional responsibilities during this busy time of year, but instead I have plunged into another commitment: last week I joined the board of the Northfield Fine Arts Booster Club.

I couldn’t really say no (although I did postpone the decision for months, due to a number of other commitments this fall) because one of the group’s projects is to collect new and used musical instruments and get them into the hands of kids who want to play. This is a cause close to my heart. If I’ve learned one thing from researching my great-grandfather’s career as a band director, it’s the importance of making instruments accessible to all, if you’re hoping to build and maintain a quality program. That’s step one, before you can begin to teach kids to play, and before they can begin experiencing all the amazing benefits of music education.

G. Oliver worked hard to procure enough instruments for his students in every town in which he directed a band; when he died in January 1946, he was in the middle of an effort to convince the school board to purchase more instruments for the band he had organized at Red Lake High School.

The Northfield Fine Arts Booster Club formed in 2010 and is just now launching the instrument donation program, “Instruments for All,” which is modeled after a similar program in Apple Valley (see this September 2010 Star Tribune article). The Northfield Area Foundation is providing a $5,000 matching grant for the program, which is great news. The big push for donations won’t begin until after the holidays, but we already are accepting instruments as well as lesson books and other supplies.

You can drop off band instruments at the Bridgewater Elementary School office, and orchestra instruments at the Northfield Middle School office. For more information, you can visit the group’s website or new Faeebook page.

If you’d like to make a financial contribution, you can mail a check to the Northfield Fine Arts Boosters, 1400 Division Street, Northfield MN 55057 (Please make checks out to “NFAB” and write “Instruments For All” in the memo line). Or, you can visit the NFAB site at GiveMN and donate online.

The Northfield Fine Arts Boosters Club isn’t just about supporting music; it aims to provide resources and promote community support for all the fine arts programs at Northfield High School, including speech, theater and visual arts. I’m thrilled to be part of an organization with such an important mission.

Sister Act: the G. Oliver version

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:56:00 +0000

Just when I think my dad and I have uncovered all the stories we’re likely to learn about my great-grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs, something unexpected bubbles to the surface. This week’s revelation: G. Oliver was the Whoopi Goldberg of St. Cloud.

OK, that’s an exaggeration, but it will make more sense if you’re familiar with the 1992 movie Sister Act, featuring Whoopi Goldberg as a woman in the witness protection program who hides in a convent and coaches the nuns in the choir (It’s also been turned into a Broadway musical; we saw the cast members perform a song from the show during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade last week).

I’m fairly certain G. Oliver was never in a witness protection program (unless that’s another surprise waiting to be unearthed). But according to Dick Egerman, whose family operated the popcorn wagon during band concerts in St. Cloud’s Barden Park, G. Oliver did provide musical assistance to a group of nuns known as the Benevolent Beethoven Benedictines.

“Apparently this group of nuns, hearing of the fame and generosity of G. Oliver, approached him explaining their dedication to teaching, preaching and prayer: they expressed a need for fun and culture. Music was the answer,” Dick revealed in an email to my dad this week. "It is reported that G. Oliver agreed to teach them the rudiments of music, provided they furnish their own instruments. The nuns from capable families got instruments, and the others got to sing in the choir.”

Dick has a credible source for this story: his mother, who played tuba in the group but left the order after a short time.

“Family lore reports Mother left for three reasons: female tuba players were not respected on the same high level as trumpets and other horn players; Mother had no rhythm; and she did not look good in black,” he wrote to my dad.

His mother married and had eight children, including Dick, who claims to have inherited his mom's lack of rhythm.

I am grateful to Dick for sharing this fun story, and I’m eager to learn more about the details of this musical collaboration between G. Oliver and the nuns. Sister Act had a sequel; you can bet that this blog post will, too.

Happy Birthday, G. Oliver!

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 23:48:00 +0000

I can’t let the day go by without acknowledging its significance. If by some miracle of science my great-grandfather were still living today, it would be his 141st birthday.

G. Oliver Riggs, born Nov. 26, 1870

The above photo was taken in Crookston; I’m not sure of the year. It seemed like a good photo for this blustery November day.

I also like this photo below. It’s blurry, but you can tell that he’s smiling, which is not a typical expression for G. Oliver in his photos. He must really have liked that car.

G. Oliver was born in 1870 near Wapello in Louisa County, Iowa. Here are some notable people who also were born on Nov. 26, according to brainyhistory.com:
• Eugene Ionesco, playwright, born 1909
• Eric Sevareid, born in 1912 in Velva N.D., newscaster, CBS Weekend News
• Charles M Schulz, born in 1922 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, cartoonist
• Robert Goulet, born in 1933 in Massachusetts, singer, actor, television, film, Tony-Award winner
• Tina Turner, born in 1938 in Brownsville, Texas, singer
• Rich Little, born in 1938 in Ottawa, Canada, impressionist/actor

Can you imagine what a birthday party it would be, to have all of them celebrating together?!

Happy 141st Birthday, G. Oliver!

Rebecca and Her Civil War Sweetheart

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 18:30:00 +0000

My daughter, Louisa, is nearly done performing in Little Women, the Musical (the last shows are tonight at 7:30 and tomorrow at 2), and her character’s part in the show has me thinking about my great-great grandmother, Rebecca Susan McManus Riggs.

Louisa, as Meg, with second cousins Piper and Kali.

Louisa plays Meg, the oldest March sister, who falls in love with a tutor named John Brooke. In the musical – which is slightly different from the book – there’s a scene where John appears wearing a Union solider uniform, announces that he has enlisted, and proposes to Meg before leaving to serve in the Civil War. It’s one of my favorite scenes in the show – Louisa and Mickey Morstad, who plays John, are so sweet together, and their song, “More Than I Am,” is lovely.

My great-great grandmother Rebecca lived a real-life variation of this scene. The daughter of Robert McManus and Louisa Todd McManus (yes, Rebecca’s mother’s name was Louisa – I didn’t learn this until after Steve and I named our daughter Louisa), Rebecca was born Feb. 21, 1846, near New Boston, Illinois. Her future husband, Jasper Riggs, grew up in nearby Joy, Illinois. I don’t know how or when they met, or when they started courting. I do know that Jasper enlisted with the 45th Illinois Infantry in 1861, near the start of the war, and fought at Fort Donelson, Shiloh and Vicksburg, among other places; and that while on leave in 1864, he returned to Illinois and married Rebecca. They were married April 25 in Aledo by a justice of the peace. He was 20 and she was 18.

Rebecca’s obituary, written in a poetic style that you just don’t see anymore, explained it this way:

“From a national standpoint, those were stormy days thru which our nation was passing from the birth to early womanhood of this girl. And when she was 17 years of age the Southern states made good their threat to secede from the Union if Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the U.S., organized the confederacy and fired upon the flag. Pres. Lincoln called for volunteers and among the young men who enlisted was a man by the name of Jasper Riggs, who united in marriage to Rebeccah Susan McManus while home on a furlough in 1864. After the wedding he went back to his regiment and fought with it until the close of the war.”

I would love to know more about what Rebecca did during the war, and how she handled the worry and uncertainty. Besides Jasper, and her brother Levi, she must have known dozens of other young men who were serving with Illinois regiments. Many did not return, including her brother-in-law George Sloan, who died of measles in 1863 in a Memphis hospital.

Jasper did return, though, and the newlyweds moved across the Mississippi River to Louisa County, Iowa, where they started a family. Daughter Loie was born in 1867, and son G. Oliver followed in 1870. Tragedy struck in 1871 when Loie died (of what cause, I have not yet determined). Another daughter, Daisy, was born in 1876 when the family lived in Nebraska. Rebecca and Jasper returned to the Joy area in 1890, where Jasper ran a hardware store. An accomplished accordionist in her younger years, Rebecca encouraged her children’s interest in music, and she supported son G. Oliver’s pursuit of a musical career.

Jasper’s health had never been great after the war (he injured his wrist at Vicksburg and was shot in the knee near Goldsboro, N.C. in 1865). He died in 1911 when the couple was living in Missouri. Rebecca returned to Joy, where she lived as a well-respected member of that small community for many more years.

Rebecca McManus Riggs, 1846-1930

Rebecca died on Feb. 20, 1930 – the day before her 84th birthday – at her home in Joy. She’s buried in the New Boston cemetery next to her daughter Loie.

When she died, the United States was in the early years of the Great Depression, and it was a time of severe worldwide economic downturn – if that sounds familiar, it’s worth considering the reflection that concludes her obituary:

“We are constantly reminded of the difficult problems our generation must solve – we somehow feel all these and more to be true. Yet we are not pessimists. But we likewise feel that only as we are able to bring over into our own age that same spirit of devotion to duty, of self-denial, loyalty to ideals even when it costs a conviction that we have specific duties to perform, and a willingness to see them thru, as was so characteristic of that generation of which the deceased was a part, will we be able to render a good account of our stewardship for the years of our active life.”

Bringing Down the (Barn)house

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 22:32:00 +0000

Before any notes were played at Monday evening’s 31st annual district band concert in Northfield, I knew I’d have to blog about the event. A concert devoted to music of the Civil War, including a song by Iowa composer and music publisher C.L. Barnhouse? An impressive 618 participating student musicians in grades 5-12, including two of my children and two nieces? A guest musicologist offering historical background and showing slides of Civil War soldiers and scenes? It was as though the band directors had tailored the concert specifically to appeal to me.

The Northfield News today posted a video of the concert, with snippets of songs from each band. I also took video at the concert and have included two video clips from the evening.

The first one is of Sebastian’s eighth grade band, directed by Ethan Freier, playing “The Great Locomotive Chase” by Robert W. Smith. At the beginning of the clip, the guest musicologist, Randall Ferguson (in the red uniform) explains the historic event upon which the song is based.

(A Northfield resident who has taught music in the Farmington schools for 36 years, Ferguson also teaches classes on ethnomusicology and the music history of the United States through the department of continuing studies in Hamline University’s graduate school. I met him when we both worked on the planning of the 2010 Vintage Band Festival.)

Seb has a trumpet solo about two minutes into the piece.

This second clip is of the high school’s concert band (comprised of sophomores, juniors and seniors) playing a Barnhouse march, “The Battle of Shiloh.” It sounds much happier that you’d expect, considering the subject. Directed by Mary Williams, the band has an awesome French horn section – six players in all, including Louisa.

The concert concluded with the combined band of 618 musicians playing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” to a standing-room-only crowd of parents, family members and band enthusiasts. It was a feat that my great-grandfather G. Oliver Riggs would have appreciated – he was known for directing large bands, especially during his years in St. Cloud.

As the son of a Civil War veteran who fought at Shiloh, G. Oliver also would have appreciated the musical selections of the evening. He had been known to include Barnhouse compositions in his own band concerts, and I’m certain the men knew each other, at least by reputation, although I haven’t done much research about their acquaintance.

Five years apart in age, Barnhouse and G. Oliver had several things in common: both played cornet, both directed town bands at age 16, both directed bands in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, both were in bands that performed at the Iowa State Fair, and both were friends of George Landers, father of the Iowa Band Law.

Charles Lloyd Barnhouse was born in 1865 in West Virginia and dropped out of school at age 14 to work as a laborer. According to the C.L. Barnhouse Company website, Barnhouse played in and directed the town band in Grafton, West Virginia, before he joined various traveling show bands, gaining experience as a cornet soloist and director. He began composing during this time, and he moved to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, where he directed a band and started his own music publishing company in 1886 with catalog No. 1, “The Battle of Shiloh” March.

In 1890, Barnhouse became director of the Burlington (Iowa) Boat Club Band, and in 1892 he settled in Oskaloosa, where he directed the Knights of Pythias Band. That same year, G. Oliver moved to Mount Pleasant to teach at the Conservatory of Music at Iowa Wesleyan University and direct the IWU Cadet Band.

C.L. Barnhouse, 1865-1929

Barnhouse directed the Oskaloosa Band (aka the Iowa Brigade Band) for many years; he died November 18, 1929, at age 64. His company, C.L. Barnhouse, is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year as one of the world’s oldest band-focused music publishing companies.

I imagine Barnhouse would be pleased to know that his first published song is still eliciting audience applause nearly 82 years after his death. I hope to find out more about him and his connections to G. Oliver when my dad and I travel to Mount Pleasant in March to give a presentation on G. Oliver at Iowa Wesleyan.

A Sneak Peek at Little Women, the Musical

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:30:00 +0000

I’m getting ready to host a cast party tonight for the opening of Little Women, the Musical, so I can’t spend much time blogging this morning. But I thought I’d at least post a video I took at last night’s dress rehearsal.

It’s such fun to see a staging of one of my favorite books from childhood, starring my daughter, Louisa, as Meg. I cried a few times during last night’s performance, and Sebastian and Elias admitted to being moved by the story as well (spoiler alert: someone dies). As a young girl who read Louisa May Alcott’s book over and over, I strongly identified with the character of Jo, the sister who has grand dreams to be a famous writer, and I found myself inspired all over again last night watching St. Olaf College student Rachel Saliares bring that character to life.

“Here I go, and there’s no turning back. My great adventure has begun. I may be small, but I’ve got giant plans to shine as brightly as the sun. I will blaze until I find my time and place. I will be fearless, surrendering modesty and grace. I will not disappear without a trace. I'll shout and start a riot, be anything but quiet. Christopher Columbus, I’ll be astonishing.”

I will surrender my Minnesota modesty now to say: the Northfield Arts Guild’s production of Little Women, directed by Mishia Edwards, is a wonderful show – go see it! It runs for three weekends, starting tonight. To buy tickets online, visit the Northfield Arts Guild website.

A Young Man in the Jazz Age

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 01:14:00 +0000

If I could drop into any point in my grandfather’s life for a short visit, I’d probably choose the 1920s. It would be like Owen Wilson’s character in Woody Allen’s latest movie, Midnight in Paris, time-traveling to 1920s Paris – but without the romance element, and substituting the East Bank campus of the University of Minnesota for the Left Bank of Paris.

My grandfather Ronald Riggs was born in 1901, during the rise of John Philip Sousa’s popularity, and he was a college student when the Great Migration and the proliferation of radios and record players helped popularize jazz throughout the country.

Ronald, on left, and friends in Minneapolis.

Ronald entered college in the fall of 1919. He spent his first two years at the University of Minnesota, followed by one year at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, and then he returned to the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus for another two years. He graduated on Dec. 18, 1924, with a bachelor of arts degree; he majored in economics and had a minor in political science.

Although he did not major in music, it was an important part of his college life. During those years, he played clarinet and saxophone in several different bands (I imagine the gigs helped him pay for school), including the Art Emard dance band, the University of Minnesota band, and Arnold Frank’s university dance band.

Ronald, second from left, as a member of Arnold Frank and His University Orchestra.

I did an online search for Arnold Frank and found two YouTube videos of songs played by Arnold Frank and his Roger’s Cafe Orchestra. The songs were recorded in Minneapolis in September 1927 by OKeh Records. I don’t think my grandfather played with Frank at this time, but if you listen to the songs, you’ll get a good sense for the type of dance music that Frank played, and of the quality of his musicians.

Here’s the Roger’s Cafe Orchestra playing “Rain.” I'm not sure who made the video or why, but it includes cool photos of Paris (sans Owen Wilson).

The song on the flip side is “Black Maria.” I guess Black Maria was slang for a police vehicle used to transport prisoners to jail. But it also was the name of a racehorse that won several major races in 1926 and 1927.

I’m not sure who made this video, either; it includes a photo of the band and photos of black Americans from the 1920s.

When my grandfather wasn’t playing in a band or studying, he was active in his college fraternity, Zeta Psi. He played on the fraternity’s basketball, baseball and bowling teams, and he served as its treasurer his senior year.

After graduation, Ronald was hired as a salesman for the Fritz-Cross Company of St. Cloud, an office supply business. This was during the time that Ronald’s dad, G. Oliver Riggs, had moved to St. Cloud from Bemidji to direct a municipal band and form a boys’ band.

Interest in school bands was growing, and in 1926, Ronald took a job as a band organizer and salesman for Frank Holton & Co. (this was the same year that G. Oliver got a job organizing school bands for C.G. Conn). In my next post, I’ll time-travel to the 1930s to explain Ronald’s experience with Holton, and his successes as a school band director.

California or Bust

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 13:32:00 +0000

It’s been a hectic month, and I have fallen behind in my plans to blog about the life of my grandfather, Ronald. I do plan to pick up where I left off, and write about his musical adventures in college and his early career as a band director, but it will have to wait for next week. Today, we are leaving for a vacation to Yosemite and San Francisco!

My grandfather loved to travel, too. Here's a great photo of him with my uncle Bob, my dad and my aunt Dana on vacation.

My grandfather Ronald, with his three children and a groovy car.

More when I return!

The Bandmaster’s Kid

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:54:00 +0000

Much of my musical family blogging and research has focused on the career of my great-grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs. This month, I’m devoting my posts to G. Oliver’s oldest child, my grandfather Ronald. Ronald Graham Riggs was a talented band director and educator who happened to be the son of an acclaimed bandmaster. He was born on Oct. 23, 1901, and he died Oct. 12, 1968.

My paternal grandfather was a BK – a bandmaster’s kid. I’m not sure that’s a real term; I may have just coined it. He died before my first birthday, so I don’t have any memories of him. But from what I have learned about him, I get the impression that his sense of identity and his career path were profoundly influenced by the fact that he was the son of an accomplished, driven, well-known bandmaster.

Ronald Graham Riggs, 1901-1968

What was it like to be a BK? I imagine it was similar in some ways to being a PK, or pastor’s kid (a term not thrown around much during my Catholic upbringing, but one I hear often now, living in a college town populated with retired pastors). It’s a generalization, but PKs are said to feel great pressure to meet the expectations of their parents and their community. Some respond to this by rebelling; others follow in their pastor parent’s footsteps and become pastors themselves.

I call this the Little Rascals photo: Ronald is on the far right; his brother Percy is third from right and sister Rosalie is on the far left. The other boys are cousins.

I have not conducted an extensive study of BKs (partly because I just made up the term), so I don’t know how it was for other BKs. But I can guess, based on a quick internet search. Did you know that John Philip Sousa had a son, John Philip Jr.? Me neither. I found a mention of his name, but nothing about his life. The same was true for the namesake son of Iowa composer and bandleader Karl King. I found a photo of an adult Karl King Jr., but no information about him.

Having a parent who’s well known in a community, no matter what the profession, can have its advantages, but also its frustrations when it comes to finding one’s own path. My grandfather had a gentler personality than his dad, he loved puns, he was active in the community, and he accomplished much during his life, even though he lived in the shadows of his dad’s success for many years.

Ronald was born in Crookston at the turn of the last century; his mom Islea and dad G. Oliver had moved there in 1898. It was a bustling railroad junction, and the musical Riggs couple became a vital part of the town’s growing arts and culture scene. John Philip Sousa’s band first performed in Crookston on March 28, 1899, as part of a national tour, and it returned on March 4, 1901, seven months before my grandfather was born. By my calculations, that means my grandfather was technically in the audience for that second Sousa concert – a cool claim to fame, although I’m not sure he ever claimed it.

Islea with baby Ronald.

My grandfather lived in Crookston for his first 9 years, and then in Grand Forks for one year, when G. Oliver took a job directing a band in that North Dakota city. Ronald and his brother Percy (born 1904) spent a lot of time helping their dad at band rehearsals, even as young boys.

My grandfather Ronald, left, with his dad and his younger brother Percy in about 1910.

In 1911, when G. Oliver went to Tacoma with plans of directing a band, and that effort fizzled, Ronald and his siblings Percy and Rosalie (born 1908) stayed with their mom and grandmother Flora Bassett Graham in Islea’s hometown of Aledo, Ill. Ronald’s mom had taught him to play the piano from an early age, and he and his siblings always performed for guests who came to the house. He so disliked the experience of those recitals, he made sure to never put his own kids through it, my dad has said.

A program from a recital of Islea’s students, held in her mother’s home. Ronald played a duet with his mom, and G. Oliver also performed.

When G. Oliver took a job in Havre, Montana, in 1911, the family moved to that northwestern town, which owed its development to James J. Hill’s railroad. According to my dad, my grandfather had fond memories of those days. Havre was a wild city in some ways, but it was a paradise for a preteen boy who loved fishing, hunting and riding horses. Ronald played clarinet by this time and he had two jobs: operator’s helper at the Havre motion picture theater, and organ pumper at the Presbyterian Church, where his mom played the organ.

Ronald (black shirt, lighter suit) and two friends in about 1912, pretending to be tough guys.

The family returned to Crookston in 1914, and that’s where Ronald attended junior and senior high school. He played in the Grand Theatre orchestra and dance band with his mom and dad, and he also played in the Crookston municipal band and the Crookston Juvenile Band, both of which were directed by G. Oliver.

Part of the Crookston Juvenile Band. Ronald is No. 26, G. Oliver is No. 28, and Percy is No. 44.

Ronald was a member of the high school orchestra:

G. Oliver, center, directed the Crookston High School orchestra in 1917-18. Ronald is two over from G. Oliver, holding a clarinet. Percy is in the front, to the right of the drum.

and the glee club (which likely had little in common with the TV show Glee).

Ronald is in the top row, second from left.

Music wasn’t his only interest, though. He played on the football and basketball teams, he was president of his class in 1916-17, he was in the junior play and he was sports editor of the school paper and the yearbook. He also held a few jobs, clerk at Ruettel’s Clothing Store and surveyor’s helper with the Polk County highway department. Ronald was a busy guy with many interests – and it’s the kind of pace he would keep up for the rest of his life.

Ronald graduated from Crookston High School in the spring of 1919, and he enrolled at the University of Minnesota the next fall. In my next post, I’ll explain his adventures in college and his early career in music.

A Big Welcome to Little G. Oliver

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 00:50:00 +0000

I have wonderful news to share! My cousin Brent Riggs and his wife Nicole are the parents of a new baby boy, Griffin Oliver Riggs. He was born this afternoon, and mom and baby appear to be doing quite well, judging from the photos Nicole posted online.

Griffin Oliver Riggs – what a sweetie!

Brent and Nicole told the extended family in August that they planned to name their son after Brent’s (and my) great-grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs. The G. in that case stood for George, but G. Oliver didn’t like the name George, so he used the initial.

It’s too soon to know what Griffin Oliver will think of his name, but there’s no doubt he will know that he’s loved. Congratulations to his parents and to big brothers Cody and Paul!

I don’t have any baby photos of my great-grandfather, G. Oliver – I wish I did. But I do have a photo of him with my grandfather, Ronald Graham Riggs, as a baby.

G. Oliver and Ronald, 1901.

My grandfather weighed 8 pounds when he was born – the same as Griffin Oliver! According to his parents’ notes, Ronald sang his first tune at about age 15 months, “Hiawatha,” and walked at 16 months. No note was made about when he played his first instrument. At some point, he chose the clarinet.

Ronald Riggs, young clarinetist

Here’s a photo I love because it represents four generations. The woman in the middle is Islea Graham Riggs, my great-grandmother and G. Oliver’s wife; she’s holding baby Ronald. The other woman is Islea’s mom, Flora Bassett Graham, and the distinguished gentleman is Flora’s father, Isaac Newton Bassett, a prominent lawyer in Aledo, Ill., who lived to be 95.

Grandmother Flora, Baby Ron, Mom Islea and Great-Grandfather Isaac Newton

Here’s another photo of young Ronald, who was born 110 years ago. I plan to write more about his musical life next month. Stay tuned!

Ronald Graham Riggs, born Oct. 23, 1901 in Crookston, Minn.

Little Women and Singing Stormtroopers

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 20:12:00 +0000

I can’t pass up the opportunity to report on two highlights of the month (so far) for members of My Musical Family.

Event No. 1: Sebastian sings with Stormtroopers.

Seb already was excited to attend Tuesday evening’s Twins game at Target Field because it combined three activities he enjoys: watching baseball, singing with a choir, and eating nachos. But when we discovered it was Star Wars night at the stadium, the excitement level skyrocketed.

Sebastian is in the back row, far left, standing next to Darth Maul.

The boys from his Northfield Youth Choirs group, the Troubadours, led the crowd in “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” during the seventh inning stretch. They were joined by some characters from a galaxy far, far away (including Karen Madsen, who – when she’s not portraying a Jedi or teaching a Northfield community ed class on lightsaber dueling – operates String Solutions, the place where we bought Seb’s viola).

“This is best game I’ve ever attended,” Seb said to me toward the end of the game.

Too bad the Twins couldn’t say the same; they ended up losing 4-5 to the Mariners. I think their midi-chlorian levels were off that night. But the choir members had more than enough enthusiasm to share. You can see and hear the choir toward the end of this video: MinnPost - 'Star Wars Night' at Target Field by Twinsblog

Event No. 2: Louisa is offered a part in Little Women the Musical.

Louisa decided not to audition for the high school’s fall musical, West Side Story, because she really hoped she’d be cast in the Northfield Arts Guild’s fall production of Little Women the Musical. The gamble paid off; she found out yesterday that she will play the part of Meg, the oldest of the March sisters.

We’ve been listening to the 2005 Broadway cast recording of the show for months now, but I already was familiar with the story because Louisa May Alcott was my favorite author when I was a kid. I read and reread Little Women, and the rest of Alcott’s books, many times. She was the inspiration for naming our daughter Louisa; it was only later that we discovered there was a Louisa in my family tree (my great-grandfather G. Oliver’s maternal grandmother was named Louisa).

My favorite of the March sisters was always Jo, the writer. Go figure.

The show will run the first three weekends in November. You can find ticket information here.

Jump! A Composer Discusses Her Craft

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:35:00 +0000

Minnesota Public Radio aired a wonderful interview yesterday with Twin Cities composer Elizabeth Alexander. It’s worth a listen, and not just because the broadcast includes a performance of a song called “Jump!” that’s sung by my daughter’s choir and features my husband as narrator (although that alone is reason enough, for me).

Composer Elizabeth Alexander (photo by Ann Marsden)

Alexander recently received a McKnight Foundation Composition Fellowship Grant. Her name and face might be familiar to anyone who attended the Northfield Arts Guild’s 50th anniversary Beaux Arts Ball in December 2009, because Louisa’s Northfield Youth Choirs group gave the premier performance of “Jump!” at the ball (held at Carleton College’s Great Hall). The choir also performed it later that spring.

Classical MPR host Steve Staruch conducted the interview (click here for the link) with Alexander, who talks in the first two minutes about how she began composing as a girl because it helped her make sense of the world. She then discusses a piece she wrote for viola and piano called “Impermanent Things,” which plays at 3 1/2 minutes into the interview. Ten and a half minutes into the interview, she discusses writing “Jump!” for the Northfield Youth Choirs group to sing at the NAG’s anniversary event.

Her mission was to create a work about renewing and remembering, so she came up with the idea of writing about taking a risk, of doing what had before seemed unthinkable. As she explains, she used a quote attributed to author Ray Bradbury: “Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down.” This is the quote that you’ll hear Steve narrate in the piece, which begins at about 13 minutes into the interview.

Steve and me at the ball before the choir performance.

I’ve heard the piece performed live a few times, and it was inspiring to hear Alexander explain the process behind its creation. Taking risks is important for growth, whether you’re a composer, a performer, a writer, or an artist of another type. It’s nice to be reminded that those creative leaps of faith can be well worth the risk.

Pinch-Hitting for G. Oliver

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 23:43:00 +0000

I’ve been on a blogging sabbatical for the past week and a half while recovering from outpatient surgery. I suppose I should have arranged for some guest bloggers to fill in for me, following the example of my great-grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs, when he became ill in late 1936. Of course, G. Oliver did not enlist guest bloggers to substitute for him – veteran band members and prominent band directors took up the baton and directed the St. Cloud Municipal Boys’ Band in his absence.

G. Oliver was hospitalized after Christmas 1936 with heart problems. Instead of canceling the first week of post-holiday rehearsals, my grandfather, Ronald Riggs, and assistant band director Earl Bohm stepped in to coordinate practices for the three band groups: the beginners, the junior band, and the concert band. My grandfather was directing the high school band in Thief River Falls, Minn., at the time, and Bohm was a boys’ band alumnus and a student at St. Cloud State University.

(A side note: Bohm later became a music teacher in the St. Louis Park school district, and both he and my grandfather were inducted into the Minnesota Music Educators Hall of Fame.)

It was a busy schedule to juggle, and it’s not hard to see why the 66-year-old bandmaster might have worn himself out. The band rehearsed on Tuesday evenings, the concert band rehearsed on Wednesday evenings, the beginners on cup mouth piece instruments and drums rehearsed on Saturday mornings, and the beginners on reed instruments rehearsed on Saturday afternoons.

When it became clear that G. Oliver would remain in the hospital for several weeks, a plan was devised to bring in weekly guest conductors to direct the concert band. Bohm continued to rehearse the younger groups, with help from boys’ band veterans Bill Goblish, Tommy Pederson and Leonard Jung.

Gerald Prescott, director of University of Minnesota Bands, in about 1938.

The first guest conductor was Phil Thielman, one of the first boys to play with G. Oliver when he organized the St. Cloud Boys’ Band in 1923. Thielman played piccolo, flute and clarinet, he had studied with symphony artists in Minneapolis, and he had several years of experience directing school bands, according to a Jan. 4, 1937 article in the St. Cloud Daily Times.

Thielman was followed by Francis Gonnella, director of the well-regarded band at the St. Cloud reformatory (a topic which deserves a blog entry of its own sometime). I couldn’t find a photo of Gonnella online, but the Minnesota Historical Society has three photos of the band in its collection, including this one from about 1920.

A longtime acquaintance of G. Oliver’s, Minnesota Bandmasters Association President William Allen Abbott, made a trip from Minneapolis to direct the band in mid-January. Abbott, a St. Cloud Daily Times article noted, “is the conductor of three outstanding bands in the Twin Cities: the Minneapolis Working Boys Band, organized 33 years ago under Professor Heinzman; the Minneapolis South high school band, which twice has won the national school band contest; and the Gopher American Legion band.” Abbott also directed the University of Minnesota band from 1931-32.

The final guest conductor was Gerald R. Prescott, who was director of bands at the University of Minnesota from 1932-1943, 1946-1950, and 1951-1960, and who was the first full-time director of the university’s marching band.

A St. Cloud Daily Times article about Prescott from Jan. 25, 1937.

Before taking the university job, Prescott was director of the high school band in Mason City, Iowa, which advanced to the national high school band contest in 1931. G. Oliver knew of Prescott and admired his work, which is why he and his St. Cloud boys’ band stopped in Mason City on the way back from a convention in Des Moines that same year to serenade Prescott and his band (I mentioned this in an April 2010 blog post, Save the Northfield Depot!).

A few fun facts about Prescott: he became a good friend of my grandfather’s; he was elected as a member of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association in 1936, the year before he filled in for G. Oliver; and he was a friend of Iowa composer and band director (and ABA member) Karl King, who wrote the college march “Mighty Minnesota” in 1939 and dedicated it to Prescott.

As a way of thanking his substitutes, G. Oliver organized a St. Cloud Municipal Band concert in April 1937 spring at the Paramount Theatre and dedicated the first song, Henry Fillmore’s “Gifted Leadership,” to Abbott, Gonnella, Prescott, Riggs (Ronald) and Thielman.

The concert also featured a trio for cornets, Walter M. Smith's “Bolero,” played by Howard Pramann, William Goblish and Robert Kollman; the overture “Mignon” from the Opera Comique Mignon by Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas; and it concluded with John Philip Sousa’s march, “Semper Fidelis,” featuring the St. Cloud Cathedral Girls Drum Corps.

A program from the April 11, 1937 concert at the Paramount Theatre.

The band played two concerts that day, at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. G. Oliver was back!

And so am I.

Forty Years – An Inspiring Milestone

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:36:00 +0000

The extended Riggs clan gathered on Sunday for a joyous occasion – a surprise party celebrating the 40th wedding anniversary of my aunt Dana and uncle Bill.

Dana is my dad’s sister. I was 3 1/2 years old when she got married, and I don’t remember much about her wedding, except that one of the bridesmaids was particularly kind to me, and she wore a groovy dress.

Welcome to 1971! It’s probably the last time I wore a skirt that short.

I hadn’t realized until Sunday, when I asked my dad some questions about the wedding, that he had walked down the aisle with Dana. Their father, Ronald, had died three years earlier, before I was old enough to really know him. My grandmother Eleanor was there, though, looking happy in her pale pink dress (the skirt of which, I might add, was longer than mine, but still above the knee).

She and my grandfather were married for 30 years. They got married at the Little Brown Church in the Vale in Nashua, Iowa on Dec. 11, 1937. I don’t have any pictures of that event, so I can’t report on the wedding couture of the day. But I do have this photo of them from several years later, with my dad and his brother, before Dana made her appearance:

My grandparents with sons Robert, left, and William. Dana wasn’t born yet.

My great-grandparents on the Riggs side, G. Oliver and Islea, did reach the 40-year milestone in their marriage. They would have celebrated it in December of 1938, five days before my dad was born. I don’t know if people made a big deal about anniversaries back then, and I have found no indication that G. Oliver and Islea had any kind of celebration. I’m pretty sure they didn’t have a surprise party on a golf course, like Bill and Dana did – it was winter, after all, and their older son and his wife were expecting a baby any day.

Bill and Dana with their anniversary cake.

Dana and Bill’s older daughter, Jessica, spoke at the anniversary party about how well her parents complement each other – Dana, the interior designer, and Bill, the engineer. It’s interesting to think about how this might have applied to my great-grandparents, who were both musicians, but played different roles in the community. A successful marriage surely involves compromise, teamwork, a willingness to forgive, and an enthusiasm for supporting your partner’s passions and interests. If G. Oliver and Islea continued to enjoy each other’s company as much as my aunt and uncle do after 40 years of marriage, they were lucky indeed.

We are blessed to have Dana and Bill in our family, and I wish them many, many more happy years of marriage. Cheers!

Highlights of an Evening in Barden Park

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 22:57:00 +0000

St. Cloud’s Barden Park hosted its last municipal band concert of the summer last night. I wish I could have attended. A jazz combo of high school and college students, directed by John Herdan, was scheduled to play at 6:30 p.m., followed by the St. Cloud Municipal Band.

Neighborhood resident and Barden Park Committee Chair Juliana Elchert said in an email promoting the event that the park’s flowers are lovely right now – plus, it was her birthday (Happy belated birthday, Juliana!), and she and her husband were on root beer float duty. I hope they had a great turnout.

Elias enjoys a root beer float while seated next to his cousin, Sam, last summer.

Juliana invited my dad and me to speak at the park last summer before one of the band concerts. Her email reminded me of what a great time the Riggs clan had at the event, where I presented some history about G. Oliver Riggs and his St. Cloud Municipal Boys’ Band, and my dad talked about his connections to the park and his stint playing with the band. The emotional peak of the night for me was when Dad took out G. Oliver’s cornet and played it. I don’t know how he was able to maintain his composure – I still get choked up now, thinking about how cool it was to hear him play his grandfather’s cornet in the park that contains so many Riggs family memories.

Thanks to my cousin Kristina and her husband Doug, I have video to share from that evening. I have included some selected clips here (for more about that evening, you can read my post from last year, A Perfect Evening in “Riggs” Park).

An introduction/setting the scene:

The boys in the band, and G. Oliver’s legacy:

My dad’s municipal band experience, and G. Oliver’s cornet:

Doc Putnam’s Gold Star Band

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 03:26:00 +0000

When I wrote last month about how my great-grandfather’s Grand Forks band played at the 1909 North Dakota State Fair (see the blog post No Fair!), I knew I was missing something. I knew that G. Oliver had at least one other connection to the North Dakota State Fair, but I couldn’t recall what it was.

The answer came to me last week, when I was researching my post about Fairmont, and ran across the name of C.S. Putnam.

Clarence Simeon Putnam was a Fargo doctor who gave up his practice in 1903 when his downtown office burned, five days after his insurance had lapsed. It was a fortuitous fire for fans of band music. According to the North Dakota State University’s Gold Star Marching Band website, Putnam got a job teaching arithmetic at what was then the North Dakota Agricultural College. A longtime cornet player, he also took over direction of the college’s 14-member ROTC cadet band in the spring of 1903.

Putnam was born in Vermont in 1859. His dad had led a Union regimental band during the Civil War and had died during Sherman’s March to the Sea (as explained on this NDSU history department page). Putnam had pursued an interest in music for years, in addition to his medical practice, so the career change wasn’t quite as extreme as it seems. You can see a photo of Doc Putnam, circa 1915, by clicking this NDSU Archives link.

During the time Putnam began directing the cadet band, G. Oliver was directing bands 70 miles north of Fargo, in the town of Crookston, and he was doing a lot of solo work, on both the cornet and the violin. I don’t know how or when he met Putnam, but they clearly had met by the summer of 1908, because that’s when G. Oliver played in Putnam’s band.

G. Oliver Riggs played a cornet solo at this 1908 concert.

G. Oliver was invited to play cornet solos with Putnam’s band during its engagement at the 1908 North Dakota State Fair in Fargo (for a time, the fair was held in Fargo in even-numbered years and in Grand Forks in odd-numbered years). He also served as the band’s assistant director.

According to a preview article that ran in the Fargo Morning Call/Fargo Daily Argus, the Putnam Band was to give a free, pre-fair concert on July 19, 1908, at the Grand Theatre in Fargo. The band members would appear in their new uniforms for the first time, and with several new instruments. Numbers on the program included the Zampa Overture by Ferdinand Herold; the sextet from the opera Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti; and a cornet solo by G. Oliver, Facilita by John Hartmann. The other featured soloist was J.W. Jeffers, a euphonium player from St. Paul.

A concert preview with a photo of G. Oliver Riggs, on left.

I found a few other newspaper clippings in the family scrapbook about Putnam’s band. One was an article that ran during the fair. It previewed the day’s events (that particular day was Old Settler’s Day at the fairgrounds – not a theme you see anymore), which included a band concert at the Old Settler’s headquarters tent. It explained that the band had given an excellent concert the previous evening, before and after the auto races.

“Overtures, marches, and popular airs were played and the crowds gave evidence of their appreciation by spontaneous and generous applause ... (G. Oliver) pleased thousands of visitors at the fair grounds by playing a beautiful cornet solo, the Air “Facilita” by Hartmann during the band concert.”

Another article from the Fargo Call described a gathering of the band after the state fair had ended. G. Oliver “took the floor and in a characteristic speech, presented the genial doctor with an order for an elegant gold medal, the design to be selected by the recipient. On account of the lack of time the members of the band were unable to get just what they wanted and an order was placed with a local jeweler.”

Reading this left me with two questions: what did the writer mean by a characteristic speech; and, did Putnam ever order his medal?

The final clipping I found had a goofy headline and subhead: Will Help Some; Dr. C.S. Putnam Says G. O. Riggs Ought to be Able to Do Things. The headline contained almost as many words as the entire news item, which appears to have been published in the Grand Forks newspaper after G. Oliver had taken a job directing the band in that city.

“In a letter to Fred Redick of this city, Dr. C.S. Putnam, at the head of Putnam’s band of Fargo, says in part: ‘Am glad you have G. O. Riggs with you as director. You ought to have a cracker-jack band soon and the more the merrier. He ought to be able to do good work with you and I heartily wish you success.’”

G. Oliver wasn’t the only one who could do good work with a cracker-jack band; Putnam could have been talking about himself. Except for a few years’ absence from the band, from 1914-17, Putnam directed the NDSU band until he died in 1944. The band website doesn’t say what Putnam did during his break, but it does describe him as a dynamic leader. It also mentions that Putnam incorporated “Gold Star” into the band’s name in 1923-24, when it received a presidential citation and a Gold Star for earning its third consecutive 100 percent inspection rating as an ROTC unit.

Other interesting things I learned about Putnam are that he arranged the music for the official North Dakota State Song, the North Dakota Hymn, and he wrote the music for the NDAC alma mater, the Yellow and the Green. The university’s Carnegie Library was renamed Putnam Hall in 1951.

A Day Trip to the City of Lakes

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 09:20:00 +0000

My friend Laurel and I spent most of Wednesday in Fairmont, a town in southern Minnesota that’s about 12 miles from the Iowa border. Laurel is a Fairmont native, and she graciously volunteered to be my personal tour guide as I conducted research for a travel article I’m writing for the Star Tribune.

I knew that music and culture were important to the town’s growth a century ago, so I kept my eyes and ears open to possible connections between Fairmont and my musical great-grandfather, G. Oliver Riggs.

Guess what? G. Oliver didn’t let me down. He continues to be the Kevin Bacon of his generation. More on that six degrees of separation game* in a minute.

I don’t know if G. Oliver ever spent time in Fairmont, but it seems like a place he might have visited. Located on a chain of five lakes, Fairmont was a happening spot at the turn of the last century. Its opera house was built in 1901, around the time G. Oliver’s bands were playing at the Grand Opera House in Crookston. In the teens and early ’20s, the dance pavilion at Fairmont’s popular lakeside resort, Interlaken Park, hosted performing groups including the Interlaken Orchestra, the Fairmont City Band, the Menke Melody Orchestra, and Harold Bachman’s Chicago-based Million Dollar Band, which attracted 10,000 visitors.

*For those of you playing the Six Degrees of G. Oliver Game, it seems likely that G. Oliver and Harold Bachman were acquainted, or at least knew of each other. In 1909, Bachman became the protege of C.S. Putnam, band director at what is now North Dakota State University. A year earlier, G. Oliver was the cornet soloist and assistant director of Putnam’s band when it played at the North Dakota State Fair in Fargo. Also, Bachman studied music in 1915 under Hale VanderCook in Chicago, and in 1916 he played with the Chicago-based Bohumir Kryl Band. G. Oliver, VanderCook and Kryl were all well-known cornet students of Alfred F. Weldon.

Putnam’s Band in 1908. G. Oliver is in the second row, to the right of the drum.

But I digress. Back to Fairmont.

A view of the stage in the Fairmont Opera House.

Laurel and I weren’t able to visit the Interlaken Park dance pavilion because it burned down in 1972. But we did tour the opera house, which had just concluded a successful run of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, put on by Fairmont’s Civic Summer Theatre.

As Tom Arneson explains in his book, And the Curtain Rises: the Story of the Fairmont Opera House, small towns used the term “opera house” to describe these public venues, even though opera was rarely performed in them.

“... The use of ‘opera’ in the name was politically expedient, for at this time musicals and plays were believed by many to be morally corruptive (and actors and stage musicians to be of doubtful virtue), but opera was revered as product of high civilization. So an Opera House could be respectable and acceptable while a Variety Hall was not, even though what transpired in the buildings was exactly the same.”

The opera house began showing movies in 1912. It was remodeled and renamed the Nicholas Theater in 1927 – the city band played for the opening – and it operated as a movie theater until 1980. Fortunately, at the time it closed, efforts already were underway to purchase and renovate the building for continued community use (those efforts were led by Arneson’s parents, Robert and Mary, who died in a car crash in 1984). Today, the Fairmont Opera House operates year-round as a venue for live theater and music performances.

Organs that once were used at the Fairmont Opera House and now are on display upstairs.

Another music-related stop on our tour was the Sylvania Park Bandshell. I knew from my pre-trip research that the bandshell was built in 1926 and is still used for weekly summer band concerts.

The Sylvania Park Bandshell, on the eastern shore of Lake Sisseton.

The bandshell was designed by George Pass and Sons of Mankato, and the first concert was performed there on June 10, 1926. I haven’t researched the history of bands in Fairmont, so I don’t know for sure who directed the band that year, but it may have been the same man who directed the Fairmont band in 1929. His name was Guy C. Donnelly, and he was an acquaintance of G. Oliver’s.

How do I know this? Well, it occurred to me while I was in Fairmont that I remembered seeing a Fairmont man’s name listed somewhere in my Minnesota Bandmasters Association files. So when I got home, I dug out the group’s letterhead from 1929, the year G. Oliver served as president. It lists Guy C. Donnelly from Fairmont as the group’s first vice president.

I did some further research, and thanks to a link from Laurel, I learned that Donnelly began directing Fairmont’s band as early as 1919, according to the New Bands item in the Sept. 27, 1919 issue of the Music Trades:

(G. Oliver and St. Cloud band trivia buffs might notice another familiar name in this news item: Theodore Steinmetz, listed as director of a boys’ band in Eau Claire, Wis. Steinmetz would later direct the boys’ band in St. Cloud, in 1927, when G. Oliver was working for C.G. Conn.)

I don’t know how long Donnelly remained in Fairmont as director, or whether he continued to be involved with the Minnesota Bandmasters Association, as G. Oliver was, until it merged with the Minnesota Music Educators Association. That’s a research topic for another day.

The only other mention of Donnelly I found online was in a publication about the history of the Drake University Bands, written by alumus Thompson Brandt. According to Brandt’s book, The Curtain Rises on the Drake Band, Donnelly had been the high school band director for Gordon Bird, one of Drake’s most academically accomplished band directors. Bird was born in Fairmont, and Donnelly encouraged him to pursue a career in music.

This news interested me because I played in the Drake University concert, marching and pep bands for two years in the late 1980s. I didn’t play for Bird, though; he was way before my time.

Bird enrolled at Drake in 1932 and graduated in 1936. He served as assistant band director for one year and then took over as director, serving in that role until 1954.

I don’t know if Bird and G. Oliver ever met. Bird at one time served as president of the Central Iowa Bandmasters Association, so he certainly would have known Maj. George Landers, G. Oliver’s longtime friend who was a founding member of the Iowa Bandmasters Association. G. Oliver was a featured speaker at the 1941 Iowa Bandmasters convention, so it’s quite possible that his and Bird’s paths crossed.

Brandt mentions in his book that Bird “was inspired in music by his grandfather, who was influential in beginning Fairmont’s city band in the late nineteenth century. An uncle bought Gordon his first cornet and later financed his Drake education.” Brandt does not mention the names of these relatives of Bird’s. Perhaps G. Oliver knew them, too? I wouldn’t bet against it.

The Vocabulary of Music

noreply@blogger.com (Joy Riggs) — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:26:00 +0000

I’m happy to report that Sebastian no longer looks like a giant playing a toy viola. We replaced his rented 14 1/2-inch viola yesterday with a full-size, 16-inch beauty of an instrument, a Tanglewood 200 made by Eastman Strings. It’s all his now, or will be once I write a check for the second half of the total.

I am a string instrument novice, so these milestones are all new to me. I knew he needed a larger instrument. I’m ashamed to say that he's needed it for – oh, at least four or five months now? The trouble was in finding a time we could both go to the studio and have him try out a few different sizes.

Sebastian tries out his new viola and bow.

Sebastian has rented a viola through a local business, String Solutions, since he started playing in the fourth grade. He has moved up a couple of viola sizes since then, as he’s grown taller (current height is 5 feet 7 1/2 inches), and I knew that eventually we’d purchase a viola, if he decided to stick with it.

Karen Madsen, the owner of String Solutions, had Seb try two different sizes, the 15 1/2 and the 16. He felt comfortable with the 16, so then we had to choose between the moderately priced specimen and the more expensive model. He played the same song on both of them, and this led to an interesting discussion about how difficult it is to explain how one instrument sounds compared to another.

"We don’t have the vocabulary words to describe it," Karen said.

She’s right. As she noted, the cheaper viola had what might be called a brighter, pointed sound, and the more expensive viola had a warmer, deeper sound. But those words are inadequate in conveying the nuances of tone. It’s something you have to hear and feel.

A closer look at Sebastian’s new viola and its French-made maple bridge.

Karen also had Sebastian try a couple of different bows. Again, I am such a novice – I knew nothing about what bows are made of, how professionals still use wooden bows, but amateurs more often use bows made from fiberglass, carbon fiber, or some combination. I couldn’t help but think of Harry Potter, and how “the wand must choose you.”

The wand – I mean, carbon fiber bow – that chose Sebastian was the more expensive one. Go figure. Maybe it has unicorn hair inside it? He also got a new case with backpack straps and a handy subway handle, which Karen said is called that because people do use it to hang onto the instrument when they’re traveling on a subway.

Once all the costs were totaled, I was wishing we had a subway nearby so Seb could put out his case in the station and play for commuters, as a way of paying for his new instrument. But what I told him was this: if he wants to pay me back, he can do that by practicing often and playing well.

I won’t have the words to describe the sounds he’ll make on his new instrument, but I do have a word to describe what I feel when I hear him master a piece: pride.