April 11, 2025 • 20 mins
Tyler was not feeling good so Brandon brings in Dr. Mike Allsen, Professor Emeritus from UW- Whitewater, to talk about Easter Morning Brass, Trombone Choirs, and his upcoming book on the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
This is a pseudo part 2 to Moravians: The Easter People
This is a pseudo part 2 to Moravians: The Easter People
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to this episode of Let's Chat with Brendon Tyler.
Tyler is unavailable this time around. He isn't feeling the greatest,
but we do have doctor Mike Olson, Professor Emeritus of
u W Whitewater in studio. He was also my music
minor advisor for my first year of my undergrad to
welcome to the program.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Thanks Tyler, well the Tyler, Thanks Brandon. In longtime, no see.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It's been literally like twenty four hours because a trombone
choir rehearsal exactly. Doctor Olson also is co director of
the Glenwood Moravian Trombone Choir, which does include a couple
of trumpets. So for starters, I know we have audio
filacies sent me to share, but why is it primarily
(00:53):
just cylindrical instruments.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
That's a great idea, great great question. The real Moravians
and we'll hear a little we'll hear a sound sample
of this later on. Is to play with soprano, alto
tenor and bass trombones. So in fact, when we started,
we actually did that, and there are a few Moravian
groups around the country that still play with soprano alto
(01:18):
tenor based trombones. But we decided a long time ago
that we'd rather sound good and play interesting music.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
So they'refore adding a couple of trumpets and then every
once in a blue moon bring on like a guest
instrument for like one piece, which doesn't happen all the time.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Right, So I mean we we maintain the sound of
a cylindrical more choir, you know, so we don't. Generally
tubas are not too bad.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Says that after rehearsing down in the river.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, but the you know, if we're putting euphonium in
the group or a horn in the group, it really
messes things up.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Now, I know a lot of our listeners won't know
what in the world cylindrical instruments are besides, right, just
like trumpets, trombones, things like that. So what makes them
cylindrical instruments?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Well, basically, a cylindrical bar instrument like a trombone, is
really just a long tube, right yep, and that tube
does not grow very much over the course of fifteen feet.
Cylindrical or conical bar instruments are like the horn or
the euphonium or the tuba, where basically from the very
(02:32):
beginning of the tube at the mouthpiece starts to grow
and bigger and bigger has a somewhat different sound, a
little bit more mellow sound, and cylindrical bar instruments tend
to be a bit brighter, okay.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So, and then the first piece of music you wanted
to share is as a Moravian lower brass tune that
on the file is one sixty eight A.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
So's yeah, it's Jesus source of my salvation. Okay. So
this one is a little bit of all, like I said,
diversion from the cylindrical boar because they actually use tubas
on the bottom. But these are all trombones, sort of
tenor and bassed trombones, normal garden variety trombones that you're
(03:20):
used to sing. Later on, well, I'll play an excerpt
where it's soprano alto tenor based trombones. So what we're
hearing here is part of the I guess, the core
repertoire of this of this band, this ensemble, and that's corals.
Corals are basically SATB soprano alto tenor bass settings of
(03:49):
German hymn tunes. And there's a lot of Moravian groups
around the country that just play corrals. Our group at
Glenwood as you well know a lot more than corrals.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Oh yes, yeah, yes, yeah. Sometimes you hear other tunes
that you arranged or composed a lot of them, right,
And aren't a lot of arrangements from like the fourteenth
or fifteen hundreds. Usually we do.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
We do some a lot of everything we do well.
For example, right now we're working on a piece by
Maurice to Refle, who is the twentieth century French composer.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Yeah, we do plenty of early music as well. And
basically the idea is just it's a lot more challenging
than just playing corrals.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Indeed. Yeah, like I have had to learn and relearn
trombone on the fly. Essentially you're doing well. Yeah, and
when I got moved over to bass trombone, you started
calling me grasshopper.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah. Now there's there's a there's a dated reference that
none of your your younger viewers will get.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
No, No, it doesn't reference come from some media in
like the seventies or eighties.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah. Yeah, basically it's kung fu. So anyway, it's talking
about corrals. The title, I guess the title of my
talk here or episode.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Is Easter brass, brass and the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Right the well, the Easter. I know you had James.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Who on last last week last.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Week Thursday to talk about Moravians as the Easter people. Well,
Easter is a big deal in the Moravian church, and
it's a big deal with instrumental music as well. The
we we don't do it very big in Madison because
we're a very very small church in a large town.
But in places where it's a much more dominant Moravian
(05:48):
community like Winston Salem, South Carolina, or Bethlehem in Pennsylvania,
it's a very commonplace for Easter to start at mid
night and for these large brass groups to basically possess
from all corners of the town into the church to
(06:08):
be there at sunrise.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
And this is talking home Aravian and Winston.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Sale right exactly, the big Holy land.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
I know U. Pastor Matt Knapp of Surge Bame Moravian
was trying to get my dad at one point to
go take part of it because there's like hundreds of
people who go around, go like around the community right
to play their horns and my dad's a trumpet player.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Right, Yeah, it's it's it's a huge we don't do that,
bigot Madison.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Now it's like we have a small group and it
takes the entire back of the sanctuary. Yeah, the sanctuary,
and like there's not a lot of room, although I'm
sure you would always be happy to have more people join.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yep, yep. Yeah. The group has expanded and contracted over
the year. For a long time we had about eighteen
regular players and it's a little smaller these days, but
really good sounds good. So anyway, the talking about the
Easter service on Sunday or a week from Sunday, we'll
(07:16):
be playing the Easter Sunrise Service and that's traditionally just
trombones and we play play basically six hymns in the
course of that service as accompaniments. And yeah, that's so.
Those are those are traditional corrals that we you know,
(07:36):
have played now for forty some years.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Like I know I've played some of those growing up
in Dori County and at some point my dad ended
up taking control of the Moravian group the band, and yeah,
because and they sometimes use more than just brass because
they're working for what they have and right oftentimes their
dad's bringing and like middle school and high school students
(08:02):
to play sometimes.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah, that's not a lot, and that's the case with
actually a lot of a lot of Moravian churches. They
tend to have a church band other than a group, yep.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
And they my dad typically just does that over at
Shiloh Church and just on the west side or southern
door area of Door County, like once a year. So
they don't have a brass group like you dude that plays. Yeah,
you're around like every third Sunday of the month, usually
on less of it's like a special occasion where get
(08:35):
moved to like a fourth or a second exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, it's it's a really wonderful group and as you
as you've found out, it's it's a bunch of friends indeed,
and it's very ecumenical. I mean we have I think
there's only about four or five guys in the group
that are actually members of the church. There are Catholics,
there are agnostics, maybe be an atheist or two in
(08:57):
the group, but it's all it's a really kind of
a wonderful friendship.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
A friendship. Brass choir r small ensemble and sometimes smaller
ensembles can be more enjoyable playing than those larger ones.
I find myself having fun in both types of ensembles.
Where let's say, in the some prairie community band like
where this past November I was elected to their board,
and then one of the meetings I was asked if
(09:27):
I wanted to basically be the chairman of the advertising committee,
and I'm like, I could do that. And then a
few months later, flip and break my kneecap as in't
split in half three semiars.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Couch.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, it wasn't exactly fun. And then the other tune
that you wanted to share was Jesus makes my heart rejoice.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Right, and let me tell let me set this one
up by saying, this is another specifically Moravian trauma related tradition.
There are what are called funeral corrals. I don't know
if you've ever looked in the Green book, our corral book,
and there are all of these corrals that have designations
like old men, younger women, single women, widows. This is
(10:19):
actually a tradition that goes back to the eighteenth century.
In the Moravian settlements, the trombone choir became kind of
the I guess, sort of the public address system, if
you will, and so they are basically the loudest thing around.
So they would gather together to play that the hem
(10:41):
oh sacred had now wounded, called the passion corral doti,
and that would be everybody's signal to put down what
they were doing, because everybody's probably within earshot of the
drama choir and put down what they're doing and listen
to the next because the next him would if there
(11:02):
was death in the community, the next team would tell
you what part of that community the death had occurred in.
So that's why you certain hymns are for widowers and
so forth. This one is actually for little girls, so
this would be a young girl who had died would
be announced with this particular corral. And this performance is
(11:23):
actually by a group called the Boston Baroke and it's
guys that are playing on soprano, alto tenor based trombones.
But these are instruments as they would have used back
in the eighteenth century. This is a very interesting sound.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
And how long have you been playing trombone?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Oh gosh, since fifth grade? So you did that got
your pH basically fifty years? Four years?
Speaker 1 (11:49):
You have you preferred doing bass trombone more or tenor.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Well, I played tenor you know, most of my most
of them early on, but then I actually took an
audition for the Madison sim I refer to that as
coming out of the closet as a bass trombone player.
I basically played bass trombone for forty some years and
I prefer bass right now.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah, And does your base rambone have like the singular
attachment have it's got to it's got two yeah. So
the other one is I like to say, a de attachment,
was it?
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah? Actually the horn that you're playing now is the
horn that I played in the Madison Symphony. When I
first played played.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Bass nice and I know that when I was in
the beginning part of the recovery of surgery, You're like, here,
play around with us. For I did a little, and
then my mom ended up using it for Sebasspool's musical
that my dad happens to conduct, and he gets people
from the Peninsula and Focmand and high school students to
play in it because Sebastool is a very very tiny school.
(12:49):
I went to Sturgeon Bay. But either way, it's like, hey,
that's pretty cool to good A bunch of people come
together and put it like rehearse frequently.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
You know, your mom, when I talked to, was very
excited about the idea of having a base trombone in
the house.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah, and she had fun using it her one of
the things that she would come back from rehearsal and
she would just go, I splatted and then laughed about it.
And then I don't know if you've ever seen the
or like, I don't know how much of a football
fan you are as well, but you have YouTube channel
of Tom Grossey. He is in New York. He was
(13:25):
born and raised in New York as a Green Bay fan,
and then after the NFL Draft he's actually moving to
I like to say Milwaukee. I know it's somewhere in Wisconsin.
And he has this character by the name of Ref
And the only thing Ruff would say is flag, and
I think everyone sell he might say no flag. And
my mom likes watching Grassy's stuff as well. There were
(13:48):
a couple of times close to the end of the
six weeks of not being able to bend my knee
and we would just try to hold conversations just for
a little bit of just saying splat splatinoseplat splat splat, splat, splat,
splat splat.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Well, I try not to make too much splatting.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Yeah, yeah, make sure everything sounds good.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
When I play.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
So yeah, And then you also do have a book
coming out for like relating to the Madisons of.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Sure, sure, I talked about playing in the Madison Symphony.
I played in the orchestra for many years, and I've
also been writing program notes for the orchestra since nineteen
eighty four, before you were born, I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Yeah, I was born in ninety eight.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah, rub it in man the but I the Madison
Symphony is actually going having it one hundredth anniversary season
next year, one hundredth season. First concert was in nineteen
twenty six. And I've been writing a working on a
book on the history of the orchestra. It's called A
Century of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and it's coming out
(14:55):
very soon. I'm not exactly sure if it'll be either
May first or June first this point. So, and at
that point we'll have a website up on the Madison
Symphony site. It will tell folks how to get the book.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yep, So like you can get it like through them.
You can get it through Amazon, and wasn't it like
a bookstore somewhere.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah, Actually, it's probably better to order it not through
Amazon because the Madison Symphony actually gets more money out
of it that way. And I think Jeff Bezos has
plenty of money.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yeah, he just kind of owns the company. He doesn't
really do much on it anymore.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, I know, but if you can avoid giving giving
them more money than the mso I think it's probably
a good idea.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I would agree it's always better for local organizations to
get more of the cut.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
But this, this book has been a real labor of
love for the last six years. It's been wonderful to
go back and really find some of this history. For example,
one of the stats that is always just amazing to
me is the fact that the orchestra has only had
four music directors in the course of one hundred years,
(16:02):
and only two in the last sixty sixty years basically.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
And then one last question that absolutely comes out of mind,
and I don't know if you have a different answer,
but do you know how or why the Moravians got
so intertwined with music to the point where there it
became unseparable because I've played a piece called Moravian Polka
my first summer playing with the some Prairie community band.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Oh well, I think it has to do with traditions
that go back well before the Moravians. With the Moravians,
I mean.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
With the before John Hass.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah, yeah, to John Huss and the Bohemian Brethren. A
lot of the music that was associated with these groups
was actually war music. I mean, and James talked a
little bit about the yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
With a little bit of the huh site wars.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Right, And so I mean this is music that I
don't know, it's like battle Him of the Republic or
something like that, you know, music that really gets under
your skin. But no, I think I think in general
it's just it's been a much more positive thing in
Moravian life. Absolutely, the Moravian they used to actually be
(17:13):
organized as choirs. And the one of the things, all
of the Moravian hymns, for example, are intifinal, like the Hosanna.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yep, the Hosannah and some of the others, And aren't
they like.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
For men versus women or one side of the congregation
versus the other.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
I was gonna go into something like how many different
keys are written for the same hymn. Well, did I
see that happening a lot?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Actually, one of the funny story is there there's this
tune called Hosanna which is done on Palm Sunday and
on for Sunday of Advent. Is this just joyful him
that is sung between either the men in the men
and women of the congregation or one half of the
(18:02):
congregation and and the other. And we actually played it
once one year with the Oregon back when we had
a decent organist, and she had forgotten that she'd agreed
to play the tune in a flat major rather than
a major, and so we came in an a major dona.
(18:24):
Then she came in, Oh boy, yeah it was. It
was so we stopped and start over again.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Well gotta because that's just those are very conflicting keys, right,
A flat name major, Yeah, very very conflicting, right. And
I did enjoy my music minor. I was happy I
got through our all skills that class. I was afraid
that if I couldn't pass out or had to move
to a different minor, because I viewed or all skills
as absolute hell for me due to a super anxiety
(18:56):
and that's that super anxiety prevents me from singing in
front of others. But how are if I use a
mouth east, I can actually do multiphonics and have fun
doing it and not have any anxiety problems. Just like
I know, buzzing your lips and then just doing humming
slash thing, and when you're buzzing your lips, which is
the exact same thing. When you're doing that.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
It's just.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Multiphonics, correct. And I ended up barely passing with like
a D minus. And it was the only I only
had to take the one class out of the four levels.
But I was like, oh, this that class. I'm like,
I'm glad I never have to do that again.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
To this day, when I say saying something new, I
always play here trombone naturally.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Well, you can always get other music stuff that's going on,
and especially like the Dane County area, by checking out
the for example, of the Madison Symphony website. You can
go to the university's website. You can find all the
music stuff that's being played there. The some Prairie community
band has their own website, and I there may or
may not be something within the city of some Prairie
(20:00):
calendar for when the concerts are during the summer. I know,
I think it was last summer when we started going
to like three different parks. Then, thank you for coming
out of the program.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
My pleasure,
Welcome to this episode of Let's Chat with Brendon Tyler.
Tyler is unavailable this time around. He isn't feeling the greatest,
but we do have doctor Mike Olson, Professor Emeritus of
u W Whitewater in studio. He was also my music
minor advisor for my first year of my undergrad to
welcome to the program.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Thanks Tyler, well the Tyler, Thanks Brandon. In longtime, no see.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
It's been literally like twenty four hours because a trombone
choir rehearsal exactly. Doctor Olson also is co director of
the Glenwood Moravian Trombone Choir, which does include a couple
of trumpets. So for starters, I know we have audio
filacies sent me to share, but why is it primarily
(00:53):
just cylindrical instruments.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
That's a great idea, great great question. The real Moravians
and we'll hear a little we'll hear a sound sample
of this later on. Is to play with soprano, alto
tenor and bass trombones. So in fact, when we started,
we actually did that, and there are a few Moravian
groups around the country that still play with soprano alto
(01:18):
tenor based trombones. But we decided a long time ago
that we'd rather sound good and play interesting music.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
So they'refore adding a couple of trumpets and then every
once in a blue moon bring on like a guest
instrument for like one piece, which doesn't happen all the time.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Right, So I mean we we maintain the sound of
a cylindrical more choir, you know, so we don't. Generally
tubas are not too bad.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Says that after rehearsing down in the river.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, but the you know, if we're putting euphonium in
the group or a horn in the group, it really
messes things up.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Now, I know a lot of our listeners won't know
what in the world cylindrical instruments are besides, right, just
like trumpets, trombones, things like that. So what makes them
cylindrical instruments?
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Well, basically, a cylindrical bar instrument like a trombone, is
really just a long tube, right yep, and that tube
does not grow very much over the course of fifteen feet.
Cylindrical or conical bar instruments are like the horn or
the euphonium or the tuba, where basically from the very
(02:32):
beginning of the tube at the mouthpiece starts to grow
and bigger and bigger has a somewhat different sound, a
little bit more mellow sound, and cylindrical bar instruments tend
to be a bit brighter, okay.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
So, and then the first piece of music you wanted
to share is as a Moravian lower brass tune that
on the file is one sixty eight A.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
So's yeah, it's Jesus source of my salvation. Okay. So
this one is a little bit of all, like I said,
diversion from the cylindrical boar because they actually use tubas
on the bottom. But these are all trombones, sort of
tenor and bassed trombones, normal garden variety trombones that you're
(03:20):
used to sing. Later on, well, I'll play an excerpt
where it's soprano alto tenor based trombones. So what we're
hearing here is part of the I guess, the core
repertoire of this of this band, this ensemble, and that's corals.
Corals are basically SATB soprano alto tenor bass settings of
(03:49):
German hymn tunes. And there's a lot of Moravian groups
around the country that just play corrals. Our group at
Glenwood as you well know a lot more than corrals.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Oh yes, yeah, yes, yeah. Sometimes you hear other tunes
that you arranged or composed a lot of them, right,
And aren't a lot of arrangements from like the fourteenth
or fifteen hundreds. Usually we do.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
We do some a lot of everything we do well.
For example, right now we're working on a piece by
Maurice to Refle, who is the twentieth century French composer.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Yeah, we do plenty of early music as well. And
basically the idea is just it's a lot more challenging
than just playing corrals.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
Indeed. Yeah, like I have had to learn and relearn
trombone on the fly. Essentially you're doing well. Yeah, and
when I got moved over to bass trombone, you started
calling me grasshopper.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Yeah. Now there's there's a there's a dated reference that
none of your your younger viewers will get.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
No, No, it doesn't reference come from some media in
like the seventies or eighties.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah. Yeah, basically it's kung fu. So anyway, it's talking
about corrals. The title, I guess the title of my
talk here or episode.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Is Easter brass, brass and the Madison Symphony Orchestra.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
Right the well, the Easter. I know you had James.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Who on last last week last.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Week Thursday to talk about Moravians as the Easter people. Well,
Easter is a big deal in the Moravian church, and
it's a big deal with instrumental music as well. The
we we don't do it very big in Madison because
we're a very very small church in a large town.
But in places where it's a much more dominant Moravian
(05:48):
community like Winston Salem, South Carolina, or Bethlehem in Pennsylvania,
it's a very commonplace for Easter to start at mid
night and for these large brass groups to basically possess
from all corners of the town into the church to
(06:08):
be there at sunrise.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
And this is talking home Aravian and Winston.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Sale right exactly, the big Holy land.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
I know U. Pastor Matt Knapp of Surge Bame Moravian
was trying to get my dad at one point to
go take part of it because there's like hundreds of
people who go around, go like around the community right
to play their horns and my dad's a trumpet player.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Right, Yeah, it's it's it's a huge we don't do that,
bigot Madison.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Now it's like we have a small group and it
takes the entire back of the sanctuary. Yeah, the sanctuary,
and like there's not a lot of room, although I'm
sure you would always be happy to have more people join.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Yep, yep. Yeah. The group has expanded and contracted over
the year. For a long time we had about eighteen
regular players and it's a little smaller these days, but
really good sounds good. So anyway, the talking about the
Easter service on Sunday or a week from Sunday, we'll
(07:16):
be playing the Easter Sunrise Service and that's traditionally just
trombones and we play play basically six hymns in the
course of that service as accompaniments. And yeah, that's so.
Those are those are traditional corrals that we you know,
(07:36):
have played now for forty some years.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Like I know I've played some of those growing up
in Dori County and at some point my dad ended
up taking control of the Moravian group the band, and yeah,
because and they sometimes use more than just brass because
they're working for what they have and right oftentimes their
dad's bringing and like middle school and high school students
(08:02):
to play sometimes.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah, that's not a lot, and that's the case with
actually a lot of a lot of Moravian churches. They
tend to have a church band other than a group, yep.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
And they my dad typically just does that over at
Shiloh Church and just on the west side or southern
door area of Door County, like once a year. So
they don't have a brass group like you dude that plays. Yeah,
you're around like every third Sunday of the month, usually
on less of it's like a special occasion where get
(08:35):
moved to like a fourth or a second exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yeah, it's it's a really wonderful group and as you
as you've found out, it's it's a bunch of friends indeed,
and it's very ecumenical. I mean we have I think
there's only about four or five guys in the group
that are actually members of the church. There are Catholics,
there are agnostics, maybe be an atheist or two in
(08:57):
the group, but it's all it's a really kind of
a wonderful friendship.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
A friendship. Brass choir r small ensemble and sometimes smaller
ensembles can be more enjoyable playing than those larger ones.
I find myself having fun in both types of ensembles.
Where let's say, in the some prairie community band like
where this past November I was elected to their board,
and then one of the meetings I was asked if
(09:27):
I wanted to basically be the chairman of the advertising committee,
and I'm like, I could do that. And then a
few months later, flip and break my kneecap as in't
split in half three semiars.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Couch.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
Yeah, it wasn't exactly fun. And then the other tune
that you wanted to share was Jesus makes my heart rejoice.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Right, and let me tell let me set this one
up by saying, this is another specifically Moravian trauma related tradition.
There are what are called funeral corrals. I don't know
if you've ever looked in the Green book, our corral book,
and there are all of these corrals that have designations
like old men, younger women, single women, widows. This is
(10:19):
actually a tradition that goes back to the eighteenth century.
In the Moravian settlements, the trombone choir became kind of
the I guess, sort of the public address system, if
you will, and so they are basically the loudest thing around.
So they would gather together to play that the hem
(10:41):
oh sacred had now wounded, called the passion corral doti,
and that would be everybody's signal to put down what
they were doing, because everybody's probably within earshot of the
drama choir and put down what they're doing and listen
to the next because the next him would if there
(11:02):
was death in the community, the next team would tell
you what part of that community the death had occurred in.
So that's why you certain hymns are for widowers and
so forth. This one is actually for little girls, so
this would be a young girl who had died would
be announced with this particular corral. And this performance is
(11:23):
actually by a group called the Boston Baroke and it's
guys that are playing on soprano, alto tenor based trombones.
But these are instruments as they would have used back
in the eighteenth century. This is a very interesting sound.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
And how long have you been playing trombone?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Oh gosh, since fifth grade? So you did that got
your pH basically fifty years? Four years?
Speaker 1 (11:49):
You have you preferred doing bass trombone more or tenor.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Well, I played tenor you know, most of my most
of them early on, but then I actually took an
audition for the Madison sim I refer to that as
coming out of the closet as a bass trombone player.
I basically played bass trombone for forty some years and
I prefer bass right now.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah, And does your base rambone have like the singular
attachment have it's got to it's got two yeah. So
the other one is I like to say, a de attachment,
was it?
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Yeah? Actually the horn that you're playing now is the
horn that I played in the Madison Symphony. When I
first played played.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Bass nice and I know that when I was in
the beginning part of the recovery of surgery, You're like, here,
play around with us. For I did a little, and
then my mom ended up using it for Sebasspool's musical
that my dad happens to conduct, and he gets people
from the Peninsula and Focmand and high school students to
play in it because Sebastool is a very very tiny school.
(12:49):
I went to Sturgeon Bay. But either way, it's like, hey,
that's pretty cool to good A bunch of people come
together and put it like rehearse frequently.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
You know, your mom, when I talked to, was very
excited about the idea of having a base trombone in
the house.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah, and she had fun using it her one of
the things that she would come back from rehearsal and
she would just go, I splatted and then laughed about it.
And then I don't know if you've ever seen the
or like, I don't know how much of a football
fan you are as well, but you have YouTube channel
of Tom Grossey. He is in New York. He was
(13:25):
born and raised in New York as a Green Bay fan,
and then after the NFL Draft he's actually moving to
I like to say Milwaukee. I know it's somewhere in Wisconsin.
And he has this character by the name of Ref
And the only thing Ruff would say is flag, and
I think everyone sell he might say no flag. And
my mom likes watching Grassy's stuff as well. There were
(13:48):
a couple of times close to the end of the
six weeks of not being able to bend my knee
and we would just try to hold conversations just for
a little bit of just saying splat splatinoseplat splat splat, splat, splat,
splat splat.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Well, I try not to make too much splatting.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Yeah, yeah, make sure everything sounds good.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
When I play.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
So yeah, And then you also do have a book
coming out for like relating to the Madisons of.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Sure, sure, I talked about playing in the Madison Symphony.
I played in the orchestra for many years, and I've
also been writing program notes for the orchestra since nineteen
eighty four, before you were born, I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Yeah, I was born in ninety eight.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Yeah, rub it in man the but I the Madison
Symphony is actually going having it one hundredth anniversary season
next year, one hundredth season. First concert was in nineteen
twenty six. And I've been writing a working on a
book on the history of the orchestra. It's called A
Century of the Madison Symphony Orchestra, and it's coming out
(14:55):
very soon. I'm not exactly sure if it'll be either
May first or June first this point. So, and at
that point we'll have a website up on the Madison
Symphony site. It will tell folks how to get the book.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yep, So like you can get it like through them.
You can get it through Amazon, and wasn't it like
a bookstore somewhere.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yeah, Actually, it's probably better to order it not through
Amazon because the Madison Symphony actually gets more money out
of it that way. And I think Jeff Bezos has
plenty of money.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yeah, he just kind of owns the company. He doesn't
really do much on it anymore.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, I know, but if you can avoid giving giving
them more money than the mso I think it's probably
a good idea.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
I would agree it's always better for local organizations to
get more of the cut.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
But this, this book has been a real labor of
love for the last six years. It's been wonderful to
go back and really find some of this history. For example,
one of the stats that is always just amazing to
me is the fact that the orchestra has only had
four music directors in the course of one hundred years,
(16:02):
and only two in the last sixty sixty years basically.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
And then one last question that absolutely comes out of mind,
and I don't know if you have a different answer,
but do you know how or why the Moravians got
so intertwined with music to the point where there it
became unseparable because I've played a piece called Moravian Polka
my first summer playing with the some Prairie community band.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Oh well, I think it has to do with traditions
that go back well before the Moravians. With the Moravians,
I mean.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
With the before John Hass.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yeah, yeah, to John Huss and the Bohemian Brethren. A
lot of the music that was associated with these groups
was actually war music. I mean, and James talked a
little bit about the yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
With a little bit of the huh site wars.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
Right, And so I mean this is music that I
don't know, it's like battle Him of the Republic or
something like that, you know, music that really gets under
your skin. But no, I think I think in general
it's just it's been a much more positive thing in
Moravian life. Absolutely, the Moravian they used to actually be
(17:13):
organized as choirs. And the one of the things, all
of the Moravian hymns, for example, are intifinal, like the Hosanna.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yep, the Hosannah and some of the others, And aren't
they like.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
For men versus women or one side of the congregation
versus the other.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
I was gonna go into something like how many different
keys are written for the same hymn. Well, did I
see that happening a lot?
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Actually, one of the funny story is there there's this
tune called Hosanna which is done on Palm Sunday and
on for Sunday of Advent. Is this just joyful him
that is sung between either the men in the men
and women of the congregation or one half of the
(18:02):
congregation and and the other. And we actually played it
once one year with the Oregon back when we had
a decent organist, and she had forgotten that she'd agreed
to play the tune in a flat major rather than
a major, and so we came in an a major dona.
(18:24):
Then she came in, Oh boy, yeah it was. It
was so we stopped and start over again.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Well gotta because that's just those are very conflicting keys, right,
A flat name major, Yeah, very very conflicting, right. And
I did enjoy my music minor. I was happy I
got through our all skills that class. I was afraid
that if I couldn't pass out or had to move
to a different minor, because I viewed or all skills
as absolute hell for me due to a super anxiety
(18:56):
and that's that super anxiety prevents me from singing in
front of others. But how are if I use a
mouth east, I can actually do multiphonics and have fun
doing it and not have any anxiety problems. Just like
I know, buzzing your lips and then just doing humming
slash thing, and when you're buzzing your lips, which is
the exact same thing. When you're doing that.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
It's just.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Multiphonics, correct. And I ended up barely passing with like
a D minus. And it was the only I only
had to take the one class out of the four levels.
But I was like, oh, this that class. I'm like,
I'm glad I never have to do that again.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
To this day, when I say saying something new, I
always play here trombone naturally.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Well, you can always get other music stuff that's going on,
and especially like the Dane County area, by checking out
the for example, of the Madison Symphony website. You can
go to the university's website. You can find all the
music stuff that's being played there. The some Prairie community
band has their own website, and I there may or
may not be something within the city of some Prairie
(20:00):
calendar for when the concerts are during the summer. I know,
I think it was last summer when we started going
to like three different parks. Then, thank you for coming
out of the program.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
My pleasure,
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.