Comments on: The Sax Education of Mormons, 1926

By: Julia

Julia — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 15:57:32 +0000

I didn’t ever play the sax, but my many friends that did took months of lessons and band practice to play things that sounded like music. If their parents had decided after a five or ten day trial, I am sure they all would have been returned!

The local instrument supply store allowed for rentals or purchases. You could rent to own the instrument for a set number of payments, you could buy it outright for a 20ish percent discount, or anytime between month 9 & 15, you could pay it off with a 15% discount.

Since our orchestras started in 4th grade and band in 5th grade, lots of parents bought the violin/viola/cello over the summer for the discount, and rented the band instrument. It has been a long time since I thought about playing cello, drums, cymbals, occasional bass, and barely passable piano.

Julia
poetrysansonions.blogspot.com

By: Clark

Clark — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 19:26:38 +0000

Ha Ha. Thank for that link (#18). It’s hilarious, and eye-poppingly conservative at the same time. I don’t want to threadjack, so I’ll save my thoughts for the future post. (“The evil is in the improvisation…” Bah! What about improv based on the hymns? What if the improv is reverent variations on theme, played on the organ in the temple waiting room? In retrospect, it was clearly an untenable position.)

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:15:00 +0000

That is so cool, Maurine! I would never have guessed that about you.

By: Maurine

Maurine — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:36:42 +0000

I fell in love with the saxophone when I was in Jr. High and High School. I begged my mom and dad to let me take lessons. But, my mother and her siblings all played the piano; my dad and his siblings all played piano or violin. Dad told me that the sax was a “boy’s” instrument and not one for girls. My one brother did play a trombone, but unhappily I didn’t do anything but dream of playing a sax. I stayed with piano and eventually got my university degree in piano performance and taught successfully at home and at Utah State University adjunct for many years. But, I am still mesmerized every time I hear a good sax player.

I’ve also been a sucker for good jazz music. When my son got his MBA from Tulane in New Orleans, he took us around to a lot of jazz clubs, which was a great treat for me.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:46:53 +0000

Aargh. I forgot to look for that article last night. Will try again. In the meantime, Michael Hicks has a couple of pages (p. 194-95 if the link doesn't take you to the specific spot) quoting Mormon condemnations of jazz, as when the 1928 MIA handbook asked that "rhythms not be 'augmented beyond the written score.'"

By: Clark

Clark — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:34:57 +0000

Jazz existed both before and after the big band era.

I suspect that jazz’s poor reputation is due to the atmosphere it was typically played in–similar to the proscriptions on bowling alleys and billard halls. Too much tobacco, alcohol, late nights, and gentiles.

But that’s just my supposition. I’m waiting anxiously for the expert to post the REAL reason, as alluded to in #13.

By: Bookslinger

Bookslinger — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:07:03 +0000

Sam, is it correct to associate Big Bands so closely or exclusively with jazz? I’m not sure that the Big Bands were always or exclusively jazz-playing.

Yes, I know jazz unjustifiably got a bad reputation. But the Big Bands were known for dance and other genres of entertainment music.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:42:19 +0000

That’s probably an overstatement, Carl — HWHunter left that career because it didn’t provide the financial stability he wanted for his family and because the constant travel made it hard for him to serve in the church. That’s not at all the same as saying that music wasn’t a “legitimate” or “upstanding” profession, which to me implies something unsavory. A lot of honorable work has the same inconvenient factors, whether that’s the financial instability of a free-lance church history researcher like me or the travel inconvenience of, say, a U.S. marshal.

By: Carl Youngblood

Carl Youngblood — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:33:52 +0000

Keep in mind too, that Hunter felt the necessity of abandoning a career as a musician to maintain his commitment to the church, so it obviously wasn’t seen as an upstanding profession in his time. In fact, it doesn’t seem to have gained legitimacy until it stopped being popular, which is really unfortunate.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:16:15 +0000

Sorry for the delay in posting, kevin — it was indeed trapped by the filter.

If I can find it tonight I’ll post an article from about this time decrying the degeneracy of jazz.