Lc Rounds Up Musicians For Cowboy Brass Band
Contrary to popular legend, it wasn’t barbed wire or the six-gun that tamed the Old West.
Frequently it was a brass band that soothed the frontier’s saddle sores.
“If your town didn’t have a brass band, you weren’t civilized,” said Larry Jay, director of instrumental music at Lewis and Clark High School
With thoughts of enhancing public civility, Jay asked for volunteers - LC students to join the Inland Empire Cowboy Brass Band. Twentytwo students ambled forward.
Jay said he believes LC is the only high school in the country to have a cowboy brass band.
Brass instruments were a natural choice on the cold plains and in the high altitudes of the mining towns where “woodwinds were too fragile,” Jay explained.
The bands of yesteryear used the brighter sounding “peck horn” to produce the middle voice. Today, the peck horn has been replaced by the mellower, orchestral sounding French horn, Jay said.
The group - 18 boys and four girls - practices twice a week before school. Jay has gathered 40 pieces of authentic pre-1900 music written for brass bands. Included in that collection is “Buffalo Bill’s Farewell March and Two Step,” and “A Grand Medley of Old War Songs.”
The group will perform at LC’s end-of-the-year barbecue. By that time the musicians are hoping to have their uniforms stitched and buttoned down.
The Inland Empire Cowboy Brass Band will be decked out in traditional pre-20th century garb: tan pants - “they won’t stay up without suspenders,” said Jay - winecolored shirts with gold detailing, and big white cowboy hats.
“Maybe this summer we’ll go down to Browne’s Addition and play at the gazebo, or play at the floating platform at Riverfront,” Jay said.
“I liked the historical aspect,” said Adrian Pauw, 17, a piccolo player who volunteered. “I like being able to play the music of the time and knowing how it connects with history.”
A few years ago, Jay, a student of the Old West, discovered that from 1860 to 1911 cowboy brass bands provided many Western towns and outposts with their only musical entertainment.
The cowboy band was the civilian counterpart of the military brass band. Many of its members were former soldiers who kept Union soldiers on the march.
Even Gen. George Custer had a brass band. Fortunately for his musicians, he left them behind when he marched into Little Big Horn, Jay said.
The brass bands of old died out when public schools began to teach music at the beginning of the 20th century. High school bands became the focus of civic entertainment.
Jay is looking forward to putting together the group’s first big program in November.
He not only wants to introduce people to the music but to the music’s historical aspect, its place and time in the history of the West.
Ferris musicians win in Oregon
The Ferris Orchestra won fourth place at the Northwest Invitational Festival in Gresham, Ore., April 17. Mike Delaney, the orchestra instructor at Ferris, conducted the 16-piece chamber orchestra.
The Ferris orchestra played the Concerto Grosso, Opus 6, by Handel and two pieces from “Outdoor Life” by George McKay.
“Interestingly enough, McKay was a professor of music and composition at the University of Washington, a local person,” Delaney said.
Delaney reserved his highest praise for his students.
“I’m blessed to work with students who are absolutely high quality students and people,” he said. “We don’t see that advertised very often. We did well.”
The festival featured 100 entrants from schools in Alaska, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, California and Canada.
“This festival is recognized up and down the West Coast as the premier string festival, so it’s quite a big deal,” said Jon Bentz, principal of Ferris.
Liberty students compete
Five students from Spangle’s Liberty High School participated in the State Agriculture Mechanics Contest at Walla Walla College April 11.
This year’s contest theme focused on hay equipment and processing.
Students Brandon Jeske, Cyrus Cousins, Jerrod Brash, Josh Tellessen and Barry Greenwalt competed in 11 areas: written examination, baler timing, hydraulics, tractor electronics, problem solving, tractor and bailer inspection, swather component identification, water quality analysis, construction electricity, welding and safety.
Epcot competition awaits
Sacajawea will be sending a winning team of eighth-graders to the national Bayer-National Science Foundation Community Innovation competition at the Epcot Center at Walt Disney World in Florida the week of May 26.
The members of the team are Eli Penberthy, Lindsey Watts, Erin Richardson and Klara Bowman. They will compete for individual prizes of $1,000, $3,000 or $5,000.
The subject of their investigation: grass burning.
One team from the United States will be awarded a grand prize of $25,000 to take back to its community to help implement the proposed solution.
“They had to identify a problem in our community, write about and research in the area. They had to contact people for information,” said the team’s science teacher, Virginia Ledgerwood-Kral.
“They must have thought very highly of their presentation for them to have been chosen.”
The team will present its ideas to a national panel of scientists.
Ledgerwood-Kral said the team was able to make a thoroughly professional presentation because of its computer skills.
“We used the technology made available to us through the district. We used the computers available to us and used Power Point presentations and the Internet,” she said.
“They are a really strong team of four women who are really strong in their research.
“We’re really trying to make a win-win situation here in Spokane for the grass growers and the public,” she added.
Bagel sale to benefit Ferris band
Ferris High School will hold a fund-raiser to benefit its band on Sunday. The Bloomsday Bagel Sale will be in the Ferris parking lot, near the bus ramp, from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
, DataTimes