Dedicated to "SSIM" and a much larger Story, that one day, must be told. This article appeared in the June 2019 Issue of "The Journal of the Association of Concert Bands".
“Never Forgotten” has been played around the world. People like it. In every language, people ask, “What’s it about?”
As a high school director during the 80s and 90s, I’d get to school early and challenge myself to write the warm-up for that day. This eventually led to the Function Chorales™, an important topic for another article, and very much connected to this one. “Never Forgotten” was never intended for publication. It's simply one of many warm-ups written for the kids one school morning in 1985.
Before 2006, an honor band Musician asked, “What’s this about?”
I said, “You know, I forgot.”
When one writes a piece called, “Never Forgotten,” and then forgets why it was written, there is a disturbance in the “storm!” Unable to remember, I created a story to illustrate the Music. I tell the kids, “I’m not saying that this is what the piece is about, but it could be, couldn’t it? It’s Music, a voice for the silent, the wordless syllables of an eternal Poem.”
Here’s the approach. If I ever work with your kids, please keep this process and story secret!
We’ll read the piece, after which I’ll say, “Okay, that was Take 1. Remember it.”
To set up Take 2, I ask, “What will improve this?” Many discuss understanding the meaning or “story” behind the Music. I nod inconclusively and ask the students to honor the following concepts. I’ll specifically list them, mentioning appoggiatura, "purposefuls", my word for accidentals, modulation, and the nuances of phrasing and rubato.
Take 2. It’s improved. “Good. What do you think will make it better on Take 3?”
Prior to Take 3, I tell them a story. I ask them to picture a young Mother, perhaps from another country, sitting in green pastures at the foot of a gravestone. "It is the site of her 17-year-old boy. He was killed in some nameless war. This Music?… these are the Mother’s private, unspeakable thoughts.”
The baton drops… or at this point, the pen since I often avoid using the baton until the Music and the Musicians are ready. We play. Tears form in many eyes. Silence. Connection. The stuff of Music… or so they think.
The moment is quickly interrupted with a question. “But … I wrote this in 1985. To be perfectly honest, I forgot why I wrote it. And! Based on that last, albeit excellent rendering, I would still not remember!”
They look at me with nodded heads and furrowed brows.
“But one day," I continue, "I found myself crying. You see, I had remembered. How? Why? Deal. If we have time before the concert, (and we always do,) I’ll tell you the story. You'll leave here with one of the greatest lessons in Music!”
In 2006, I was at the Bruckner House in Linz, Austria for the premiere of “Last World Standing", a 33-minute work that received an 18-minute standing ovation. Conductor Karl Geroldinger had warned me not to expect much from the otherwise reserved, austere Austrian audience. Ha! Karl played a warm-up with his ensemble. I was speaking with someone in the hall when I became eerily aware of the Music and my visceral, sympathetic response to it.
At first, I thought, “Wow, this is beautiful. What is this?” Then, I found myself in tears. I felt suddenly hollow. Alone. I trembled.
Unbeknownst to me, Karl was using “Never Forgotten” as a warm-up. This had been his practice all year. Without any expectation, I heard the Music as it was intended. I bowed my head to hide the tears… because I remembered my Grandfather, for whom I had composed that simple piece on that one otherwise nondescript school day. Even now, my eyes water as I recall the moment.
But WHY?
From 1985 until that fateful day in 2006, I had never “heard” the piece, “Never Forgotten". I was always busy working on the piece, using it as a Teaching Tool, consumed by troubleshooting its problems. For all those years, distracted by the mechanics of the music-making, I no longer heard the Music. Now, with all guards down and rendered by such fine Musicians, the most important component of music-making was tacit. Because the Tuning and Intonation were Beautiful and Perfect, I heard the Music… not the notes.
I remembered.
In the next day's rehearsal, I share this story with the kids and then jump right into Function Chorales™.
Across 51 years of international Teaching, the difference is always profound. When Tuning and Intonation are understood after providing a specific language and method to address and improve them, the most important path to Music-making is now possible.
We talk about the journey needed to arrive at Take 4 and Take 5, which is usually in front of an audience and finally with a baton.
It is NOW that I can successfully share ‘one of the greatest lessons in Music’ mentioned above. I ask them, “Why did the “story” not work, and only seduce us into thinking it was working? The answer? Because as Musicians we do not use emotion to make Music. We use Music to make emotion. The emotion that comes naturally rests upon a truly profound and giving paradox. When we commit ourselves to the interior workings of Music, others may be brought to tears of joy.”
There’s much more to be shared!
Godspeed! Stephen Melillo
PS: Never Forgotten was eventually joined by 2 other Musical Haikus, "The Truth About Pirates" and "The 4th Year". These Musical Haikus were written as warm-ups for the SSIM kids in the 1980s. Now, they have been played around the world. They are known as "Three Musical Haikus for Band" from the STORMJourneys Chapter. They are inspired by, and forever dedicated to Beautiful people.