The November meeting of the Foothills Music Club was held at the home of Joseph and Kathleen Erwin on Thursday, Nov. 10.
Members heard a varied performance. Some highlights were Jean Carter, who said she had been singing “The Man I Love” for 75 years, though listeners said her performance belied those years.
Karen Molnar was joined by the flute, oboe, clarinet and French horn through a “Music Minus One” CD for two movements of the Beethoven Woodwind Quintet.
Kathleen Foster explained the pontecello, which is when a cellist draws the bow over the strings very close to the bridge. The technique which creates an eerie effect that she demonstrated in the “Bourree” by W.H. Squire.
According to club members, the most unusual and evocative presentation of the afternoon was the sonnet by Rupert Chawning Brooke, “Blow Out, You Bugles,” set to music by Joseph Erwin. A literary society in England contacted Arthur Godfrey about setting this sonnet to music. Godfrey asked Lee Erwin, who was working for him, to set the sonnet, which was about World War I. Lee was too busy, so he passed it on to his brother, Joe, who was 25 years old at the time and was teaching at Julliard.
“I had forgotten all about it,” Erwin said, “but Kathleen was going through our old music and found it.”
Patti Peake sang and was joined at the piano by the composer to end the program with a big “blow out.”
President Jeanette Shackelford presided at the club’s business meeting. Plans are under way for the two public concerts and the auditions that will be open for local high school students to compete for scholarships.
The public concerts will be on Jan. 12 at Isothermal Community College and March 8 at the Tryon Congregational Church, both at 3 p.m. The January concert will feature FMC members in vocal and instrumental solos and small groups. The March concert will feature local organists and the recently modified pipe organ and new console installed at the Congregational Church.
Both concerts are free, and there will be an opportunity to leave a donation that will be used for scholarships
– article by Elizabeth Gardner