My personal challenge is to remember my mask. I joked how this requirement could be misunderstood around Halloween: "masks required." So we all groan, I guess, and remember to have our "face diaper" with us. I think many of us wonder how effective masks really are. Nevertheless, I'm happy to get on board if authorities dictate.
On Sunday I entered the HFA maskless but a friend quickly accosted me about the matter. It was a friend from my church. "Where's your mask?" It really isn't a short jaunt back to the parking lot. I was able to handle the jaunt (in the face of my advancing years) and get a mask from the car before concert-time. A little like life on a tenterhook, eh?
Sunday's occasion was the symphonic winds concert, what we once called "band." The word "winds" might seem foreboding because of course the virus is an airborne thing. And of course it seems ironic that the mask-wearing audience sits so close to the maskless band members who are blowing air or "wind" through their instruments!
The "winds" term always reminds me of Spinal Tap's "Break Like the Wind" tour.
Once seated, and once acclimated to my face diaper - breathing a little more labored - I enjoyed the concert totally. The guy with the baton did not have the kind of advanced degree one might expect for a UMM concert. Maybe that's a bunch of hooey, this business of "degrees" or "stud papers," eh? A typical director with the advanced degree might well choose some esoteric musical fare. On the other side of the coin, we might enjoy some real crowd-pleasing stuff. I say amen and hallelujah to the latter. That's what we got.
No wonder there was a standing ovation at the end. There will be a time for the more esoteric or rarefied stuff. We must accent that now and then for an august institution of higher learning, right? And UMM is most certainly that.
Am I dating myself by saying "UMM?" Seems that "UMN" is taking over as standard. I'm rather puzzled by this, but people more intelligent than me make these decisions. I do not care for the present-day UMN slogan of "in the middle of somewhere," because it's a naked take-off on the expression "in the middle of nowhere," which we all know has been a dismissive remark about our campus, among those not in position to appreciate our attributes. And if you appreciate the attributes, you don't need a slogan.
Last fall, director Mike Odello ended the concert with a Sousa march, a guaranteed way to entertain everyone. John Philip Sousa was a commercial kind of guy. The audience responded enthusiastically then, just as they did on Sunday with the concert closer "Sleigh Ride," complete with the "whinny" at the end. About four trumpet players stood up to do the whinny. No surprise there was a standing ovation after all this.
The audience size seemed impressive at the recital hall. "Humanities Phase III" is just like the ethereal "ghost of Christmas future." We don't appreciate being reminded of it.
Bizarre, how it was the public school that got the full-fledged concert hall and not UMM (or UMN). I had thought when the Edson facility got re-named for the Morrisons, more music discipline events would be held there. Appears not to be the case.
As a true old-timer, getting more long-of-tooth all the time, I remember when all the music events were at Edson. HFA not built yet. I frankly thought it was a wonderful place for music and theater. I'm still not completely sure how the Morrison and Edson names are supposed to be juxtaposed there.
I probably would not have established the Ralph and Martha Williams Fund if it were not for the Morrisons. The two families had a seminal role with our local institution. I am also indebted to the Morrisons because they allowed me to establish an identity in the community separate from my parents and UMM. I became a journalist borne of the turbulent late 1960s and early '70s, when writers were really supposed to have an "attitude." I kid you not.
It is not the kind of attitude that young writers are supposed to have today. Today's writers, and all young people really, are coached to be idealistic and respectful toward those in authority. I came of age for the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, highly belated, and Watergate. Writers were heroes, going beyond what even the nation's top lawyers could accomplish. Can you believe it? Can you believe I'm in league with lawyers? Some local lawyers will gnash teeth at the thought.
My generation learned not to trust authority, at least not automatically. In fact we were encouraged to discard "convention" everywhere. I mean everywhere, like even in architecture. So it seems this is how we got the HFA with its way-too-large hallway and too-small recital hall. Priorities screwed up. And to top that: the science auditorium with its disregard for 90-degree angles. Bizarre. But we maintain these facilities to the highest of standards, to be sure. Still it's weird.
The Morrisons gave money to spruce up the art gallery. Pictures that include my father, the late Ralph E. Williams, are on the wall across the hallway. Bless UMM for making this kind of gesture.
But the best way to honor the Williams name is to keep presenting concerts of the type last Thursday through Sunday. Jazz, choir and symphonic winds.
I hung around in the hallway for a short time after the Friday choir concert, and a nice young man from the choir walked up and said "are you Ralph Williams' son?" Heh, heh.
Laura Wiebe was terrific directing the choir. Ditto with Derek Ziemer with jazz.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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