Getting Back to Work - And a Padgent
"I had a dear friend Lesley Bishop, She and her friend Rodger were from my marching band days at Utah State, have continued to be just wonderful friends, but Lesley was kind enough to pick me up at the airport, she lived in Salt Lake at the time, I contacted her to see if she could pick me up and give me a ride up to Utah State and she could. She was going to visit her mom who lived there in Cashe Valley.
"So I got back to my apartment. I hadn’t been there for about six weeks – I had paid all the rent up for the time that I was going to be gone. I got back and I had very little money to my name. I immediately started working again, there was a lot of work for me to do to get ready for band that fall. I had been gone for two months – because I had been on tour, and babysitting and gone for a month and so I had like no money in my checking account I wouldn’t be getting a paycheck for about a month, so it was a little tight right there. I don’t think my mom and dad realized how short I was on food and how little money I had, but I was incredibly independent and I knew they didn’t have any extra . It was really a tight time and I figured the Lord just blessed me and I made it through. I was smart to get all my rent paid up and my utilities paid up before hand. I lived extremely frugally, when people invited me over for dinner, I said, “Sure!”
"I got back into the swing of things, so this was 84 and it was almost my last year because I graduated.. actually my last two years. I graduated the next Spring with my degree in Music Education and then I still had to get my Student Teaching. I planned to do that the next year. So I was actually up there a whole other year living there at 637 East 600N, and attending the ward there, I decided not to be part of Sounds of Zion that year because I was going to be doing my student teaching and I figured that was going to keep me very, very busy. And now that I look back on it, I wish I had, because they made a bunch of changes to it and made it even better. That would have been very fun, but I needed to concentrate on working and then do my student teaching because I didn’t want to work while I was doing my student teaching. So I worked all that Fall, I still played in the Marching Band because it fun . But I wasn’t registered for school that fall. In January I did my student teaching.
"The Man Who Knew"
"Before I talk about my student teaching there was one other amazing music experience that I had – The Summer of 1985 they were premiering a new pageant for the church up in Clarkston which is a little town there in Cashe Valley and it is where Martin Harris is buried. And this pageant is the Martin Harris Pageant as “The Man Who Knew”. It’s a musical and I was -- In January of 1985 I was contacted by a couple of people that knew me from the Institute with my work from the Sounds of Zion, also from the music department at Utah State. They contacted me and asked me- actually called me to be the music production coordinator for the pageant. It was actually a calling.
"That summer of 1985 I was working and I was also in charge of music production for the music they were writing for this musical. What that meant was that: Ok the music would be composed and then it would go to an arranger, and the arranger would get it all scored out as to who would be playing which part and then they would bring the music to me. This is before they had music programs that you just plug into the computers and you just print out the music. If you wanted music to be done, it had to be printed or it had to be written by hand.
"So what happened is, I organized a group of music copyist who would go through and once we got the scores given to us – it was like 20 or 30 different parts had to be written out, you know like First Violin, Second Violin, First Flute, Second Flute, cello, bassoon, you know it was for a full orchestra. I went amongst my LDS friends and I contacted those I knew who were really good musicians and good music copyist and asked if they would be on the committee to help write out these parts.
"I submitted there names in and these kids were actually given callings to do it. I contacted those kids that I knew that were the best music copyist that we had. There was just some really sweet kids. For example, my friend Dave Taylor who is now Professor of Music up at BYU Idaho, he did all the percussion parts because he was a really good percussionist and knew all the notation for doing percussion parts. My friend Julie Huffy who was an excellent cellist did the cello and bass parts. And bless her heart she was going through morning sickness that whole summer and she was also an extremely slow meticulous music copyist and her parts were beautiful absolutely beautiful and that’s what she worked on all summer long and I know she would sit there and munch on cherries while she was eating because she was going through morning sickness but she was willing to serve, it was great.
"I don’t remember all who worked but I have these different kids that I contacted that were excellent musicians and they were doing parts for their instruments and they had to see about transposing them correctly. String parts are easy, percussion parts are easy some parts are easy, but when you get into the trumpet and clarinet, especially French horn and saxophone they have tricky transpositions, so they would do that.
"Once the music was copied, they would get the parts back to me, I would begin proofreading everything to make sure everything was transposed correctly or that it was written correctly. I was kind of the quality control person. I would get it to the people they would copy it, they would get it back to me, I would proof it and then I would turn it in to the committee. That’s what I worked on all summer long, there was a lot of music, a lot.
"I remember…this is the first time I’ve ever turned down a calling -- they called me in and my bishop asked me if I would be a family home evening parent. I was feeling extremely overwhelmed, I was working, I was also taking some classes that summer, and I’d been set apart to be this music production coordinator. And I said, “you know this is what’s been going on…. And he said, “I had no idea you were doing that.” I told him, “I just don’t think I could do this on top of everything else.” I was taking 9 classes, I was working, and all this other stuff. Anyways he said, “I am so sorry, I did not know about this other calling, and that’s very important.” I turned down that calling. But I was still a visiting teacher when I did that.
"I did that through that summer and when it came time for the…to actually perform for the pageant, I was in the orchestra there were university students and town people that were asked to play in the orchestra.
"We went out there – and come to find out we were trying to do it with a live orchestra and the dress rehearsals were just not working. It was windy, the sound was horrible, nowadays they could probably make it work, but it wasn’t working, pretty soon it was clear we were going to have to record the music. We had to do it really, really fast because the performances were going to be starting, and they had to have the music done.
"I remember going in on a Saturday and also a Sunday afternoon to the music department there, and Warren Burton who was the head of the music department had been asked – who is an amazing cellist – he’s also served as a mission president and is an outstanding member of the church – and he had been asked to be the conductor for the orchestra. So he coordinated the facilities there at Utah State to get all this music recorded. And whenever it got done (?) That was a really amazing opportunity to be able to be in on the beginnings of that pageant there. They now do it every other year. I haven’t got to see the pageant since I left there. One of these days I’m going to see it. But it was a great opportunity."
"So I got back to my apartment. I hadn’t been there for about six weeks – I had paid all the rent up for the time that I was going to be gone. I got back and I had very little money to my name. I immediately started working again, there was a lot of work for me to do to get ready for band that fall. I had been gone for two months – because I had been on tour, and babysitting and gone for a month and so I had like no money in my checking account I wouldn’t be getting a paycheck for about a month, so it was a little tight right there. I don’t think my mom and dad realized how short I was on food and how little money I had, but I was incredibly independent and I knew they didn’t have any extra . It was really a tight time and I figured the Lord just blessed me and I made it through. I was smart to get all my rent paid up and my utilities paid up before hand. I lived extremely frugally, when people invited me over for dinner, I said, “Sure!”
"I got back into the swing of things, so this was 84 and it was almost my last year because I graduated.. actually my last two years. I graduated the next Spring with my degree in Music Education and then I still had to get my Student Teaching. I planned to do that the next year. So I was actually up there a whole other year living there at 637 East 600N, and attending the ward there, I decided not to be part of Sounds of Zion that year because I was going to be doing my student teaching and I figured that was going to keep me very, very busy. And now that I look back on it, I wish I had, because they made a bunch of changes to it and made it even better. That would have been very fun, but I needed to concentrate on working and then do my student teaching because I didn’t want to work while I was doing my student teaching. So I worked all that Fall, I still played in the Marching Band because it fun . But I wasn’t registered for school that fall. In January I did my student teaching.
"The Man Who Knew"
"Before I talk about my student teaching there was one other amazing music experience that I had – The Summer of 1985 they were premiering a new pageant for the church up in Clarkston which is a little town there in Cashe Valley and it is where Martin Harris is buried. And this pageant is the Martin Harris Pageant as “The Man Who Knew”. It’s a musical and I was -- In January of 1985 I was contacted by a couple of people that knew me from the Institute with my work from the Sounds of Zion, also from the music department at Utah State. They contacted me and asked me- actually called me to be the music production coordinator for the pageant. It was actually a calling.
"That summer of 1985 I was working and I was also in charge of music production for the music they were writing for this musical. What that meant was that: Ok the music would be composed and then it would go to an arranger, and the arranger would get it all scored out as to who would be playing which part and then they would bring the music to me. This is before they had music programs that you just plug into the computers and you just print out the music. If you wanted music to be done, it had to be printed or it had to be written by hand.
"So what happened is, I organized a group of music copyist who would go through and once we got the scores given to us – it was like 20 or 30 different parts had to be written out, you know like First Violin, Second Violin, First Flute, Second Flute, cello, bassoon, you know it was for a full orchestra. I went amongst my LDS friends and I contacted those I knew who were really good musicians and good music copyist and asked if they would be on the committee to help write out these parts.
"I submitted there names in and these kids were actually given callings to do it. I contacted those kids that I knew that were the best music copyist that we had. There was just some really sweet kids. For example, my friend Dave Taylor who is now Professor of Music up at BYU Idaho, he did all the percussion parts because he was a really good percussionist and knew all the notation for doing percussion parts. My friend Julie Huffy who was an excellent cellist did the cello and bass parts. And bless her heart she was going through morning sickness that whole summer and she was also an extremely slow meticulous music copyist and her parts were beautiful absolutely beautiful and that’s what she worked on all summer long and I know she would sit there and munch on cherries while she was eating because she was going through morning sickness but she was willing to serve, it was great.
"I don’t remember all who worked but I have these different kids that I contacted that were excellent musicians and they were doing parts for their instruments and they had to see about transposing them correctly. String parts are easy, percussion parts are easy some parts are easy, but when you get into the trumpet and clarinet, especially French horn and saxophone they have tricky transpositions, so they would do that.
"Once the music was copied, they would get the parts back to me, I would begin proofreading everything to make sure everything was transposed correctly or that it was written correctly. I was kind of the quality control person. I would get it to the people they would copy it, they would get it back to me, I would proof it and then I would turn it in to the committee. That’s what I worked on all summer long, there was a lot of music, a lot.
"I remember…this is the first time I’ve ever turned down a calling -- they called me in and my bishop asked me if I would be a family home evening parent. I was feeling extremely overwhelmed, I was working, I was also taking some classes that summer, and I’d been set apart to be this music production coordinator. And I said, “you know this is what’s been going on…. And he said, “I had no idea you were doing that.” I told him, “I just don’t think I could do this on top of everything else.” I was taking 9 classes, I was working, and all this other stuff. Anyways he said, “I am so sorry, I did not know about this other calling, and that’s very important.” I turned down that calling. But I was still a visiting teacher when I did that.
"I did that through that summer and when it came time for the…to actually perform for the pageant, I was in the orchestra there were university students and town people that were asked to play in the orchestra.
"We went out there – and come to find out we were trying to do it with a live orchestra and the dress rehearsals were just not working. It was windy, the sound was horrible, nowadays they could probably make it work, but it wasn’t working, pretty soon it was clear we were going to have to record the music. We had to do it really, really fast because the performances were going to be starting, and they had to have the music done.
"I remember going in on a Saturday and also a Sunday afternoon to the music department there, and Warren Burton who was the head of the music department had been asked – who is an amazing cellist – he’s also served as a mission president and is an outstanding member of the church – and he had been asked to be the conductor for the orchestra. So he coordinated the facilities there at Utah State to get all this music recorded. And whenever it got done (?) That was a really amazing opportunity to be able to be in on the beginnings of that pageant there. They now do it every other year. I haven’t got to see the pageant since I left there. One of these days I’m going to see it. But it was a great opportunity."
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