Friday, March 21, 2014

Another early music story before I return to FBC Bellflower



I have mentioned before that the family moved to Bellflower in the spring of 1948. I accepted the Lord and was baptized at First Baptist Church of Bellflower shortly before my 11th birthday in June of that year. I have also discussed that the church really became the center of my life during my teen years and that music played a large part of my life.

It wasn't long after my family began to attend the church than I was "discovered" and began to perform periodically on my violin. I learned to sing however outside the church. These were the days before TV, so once we obtained a piano, it was not unusual for the family to gather around the piano and sing. When we got together with our cousins we also got around the piano and sang. These were wonderful times!

In 1949, I began Jr. High School, Mrs. Burdick, the music teacher formed a Boy's Glee Club. I didn't really know what a Glee Club was but I knew it involved singing and I thought that would be fun. I still remember our first performance during the Christmas program; Gounod's "Ave Maria." In those days I was a boy soprano and I could do a pretty good High C (for the musically uninitiated -- a real high note.) It wasn't long in that same year the Dr. Charlotte Stevens was starting a boy's chorus for the entire district. Mrs. Burdick sent me over there. After a couple of rehearsals, Dr. Stevens told me that Dr. Whitney of the Whitney Boy's Choir was holding auditions and she had recommended Roger Whistler and me. During the late 20's and 30's this was a first class choir -- several tours to Europe as well as all over the US. This sounded exciting and I auditioned and became a part of the choir. We were active almost every weekend performing somewhere in the Los Angeles area.

The summer of 1950, the choir made a tour of California for about 6 weeks. This was exciting. We sang at service clubs and churches with two to three concerts per day. We stayed in people's homes for the night. I will relate one side story that actually affected me a lot later in life. I would estimate that about 50% of the churches were we performed were Pentecostal; some were very big churches. Almost all of these churches were pastored by flashy bombastic types. After a very very very long sermon, the invitation to come and tarry before the Lord was made. We soon learned that the service was never going to end unless we went forward, accepted the Lord (most of us were already baptized) and got filled with the Spirit. I can't tell you how many times I have faked it. I, along with the rest of the boys, were really turned off by these experiences. Later when I was contemplating joining the First Baptist Church of Chula Vista and I was told that the pastor and the church were involved in the Charismatic Movement and that they did things like speaking in tongues, I really didn't want to attend a church like that. It took a lot of thinking before Linda and I started to attend. We were very tentative in the beginning, but things changed. That is another story.

Doc Whitney was pretty old by the time I started to sing in the choir. He was prone to coughing fits during our performances. He would always tell the joke, "Heh, heh, heh. Sorry about my coughin', but remember, as long as you keep coughin' the can't put you in one." Shortly after our tour, he stopped coughin' and that ended the Whitney Boy's Choir. Singing was already important before I reached my teen years and went through my voice change. This laid the groundwork for what was to come in the music program at FBC Bellflower. 

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Music as a part of my Salvation


Music saved me from just being a lonely child. It really gave me a purpose. I mentioned in my last post that I would tell how music and the church saved me. This really did happen during my teen years at FBC Bellflower, but the story started much earlier.

First, let me present a little background. My mother was very musical. She was a trained singer and played the piano very well. After we settled in Bellflower, one of the early purchases was a piano. She always supplemented her income as a piano teacher. When we became a part of the church, she played piano for the church services. Dad wasn't particularly musical, but he did have a pleasant voice and sang in the church choir. Dad was tall -- over 6 feet. He played football in high school and became a semi-pro Heavy Weight boxer during the depression. I was short and squat and not particularly athletic. We spent a lot of time with my dad's cousin and his family. Oscar was short. His son who was a year older than me, was tall and looked like my dad. The big joke was that the babies had been switched at birth. Gene, the cousin basically my age was athletic. When we would get together it was not unusual for dad and Oscar to go out for a round of golf. They always took Gene with them. When I would ask to go I was told to stay home with the women. Obviously I wasn't saved by athletics, it was music that saved me.

When I was eight years old, my mom started to talk to me about learning to play a musical instrument. I thought this would be neat. I was told that I would probably get something for Christmas. "What kind of instrument do you want?"mom asked. "I want a trumpet!" I could see myself in a fancy uniform marching with a band and blowing on my trumpet. Finally Christmas arrived and I had my eye on a fairly long box -- it must be my trumpet. They saved that present to last. I could hardly wait to open it and there it was -- a violin! I was brave and didn't cry but the disappointment was overwhelming. Why did they do that to me? I found out later that part of the reason was that with WW II still on, metal instruments were very expensive. 

Well, I got over my disappointment and found out that I actually learned to love the violin. I took lessons until I was 18 years old. My teacher was so disappointed that I planned to be a pre-med when I started college. This meant that I would stop taking violin lessons.  She wanted me to be a violinist and major in music. I guess I was pretty good, but I was cocky and had made up my own mind that I was going to be a Medical Doctor. I think most 18 year old young people think they knew what was best for them. I certainly thought I did. 

The other thing that happened that helped me in my decision to give up the violin was the discovery that I had a good voice and loved to sing. Incidentally singing bears a strong relationship to playing the violin in that they both are dependent upon hearing. A violin has no frets -- you have to hear it. Of course, you can't sing if you don't hear it. One of the reasons that a lot of singers are off key is that they just don't hear it. Well, I discovered that I could sing, liked to sing, people liked to hear me sing -- and singing is a lot easier than holding a violin under your chin. 

Next post I will go back to FBC Bellflower because they had a wonderful music program and that is what really got me involved in the church and provided me with a social life.