"Look mom and dad, I can fly!"
A little about me
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Monday, November 2, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Family History
My paternal grandfather, Daniele (1864-1956), immigrated to America from the city of Cervinara, which sits in the scenic Valley of Caudina in the Province of Avelina in Southern Italy. It's not far from Naples.
Photo from Google Earth: "From the Mountains of Cervinara"
Cervinara is first mentioned in a document dating from 837 AD when it was part of a Feudal state. In 1800 the population grew to about 5,000, and in 1900 (around the time my grandfather left) Cervinara's population had risen to about 7,400.
The region functioned primarily as an agricultural economy because of the fertile soil. Cervinara is known for its' wine grapes, apples, pears, vegetables, hemp, porcini mushrooms, truffles, and chestnuts. The trees are alder, beach, poplar, and chestnut. Other industries around the turn of the century included stone and marble quarries, a coal mine, and lumber.
Beginning in 1900 a wave of modernization in and around Cervinara began. The Benevento-Napoli steam railway, an aqueduct, and a new power plant all provided basic services to the community.
Some people prospered, but a lower-class - the children of laborers and craftsmen - were drawn away by the lure of gold-paved streets in America. Four million Italians entered the United States in the decades around the turn of the century, and about a third of those settled in New York. The resulting mass-exodus of human capital created social, economic, and cultural disruption in the Campania region of Italy. The population was out of balance.
Many people from Cervinara (or "Cervinaresi") chose to emigrate to New York City, Toronto Canada, and Troy NY where they found strong support in the local communities for immigrants departing from the port of Naples and arriving continually at Ellis Island. Many of them came from the region of Campania - including the city Cervinara.
Cervinaresi in America organized into clubs and lodges to provide a cultural and linguistic connection with their homeland. In New York City, the Lodge Cervinara Caudina Valley of the Great Order of the Sons of Italy was started in 1915. A similar organization existed in Troy, NY. My grandfather Daniele was a member of the NYC Lodge.
At least one immigrant from Cervinara made a huge impact in America: Gaetano Clemente. Clemente founded the Clement Contracting Company in the Bronx, and constructed many of the roads and buildings in Manhattan. The Medical Center in Washington Heights, buildings for Columbia and Fordham Universities, as well as some roads (e.g. Casanova Street in the Bronx) were all constructed by his company. Gaetano didn't forget about his roots in Cervinara, where he had stared out in the construction trade. He returned to Cervinara, raised the funds, and constructed a grand monument in the city square. The Piazza di Cervinara memorial monument was dedicated by Gaetano in 1930.
My grandfather Daniele arrived at Ellis Island on April 13th, 1893 via the steamship Kronprinz Friedrich Wilhelm. He was single, 29 years old, and promptly took up residence in New York City. His reasons for leaving Italy were primarily to explore the New World for opportunity and a better life. There may have been some inter-personal reasons for his rapid departure, and those are details best left unspoken.
Daniele married Annina Tammaro (1874-1951), and they resided at 235 East 126th Street in Manhattan - an area of the city known for its' large Cervinaresi population. My grandmother Annina was from Solofra Italy, located a little south of Cervinara.
My grandmother Annina was very religious, and up until her final days kept in close contact with friends and family in Italy. She corresponded frequently with the Sisters of the Insigne Collegiata S. Michele Arcangelo in Solofra (Avellino), especially around the Catholic holy days. I still hold her beloved wooden Rosary beads as a memento to remember her by (photo below).
My grandmother Annina was very religious, and up until her final days kept in close contact with friends and family in Italy. She corresponded frequently with the Sisters of the Insigne Collegiata S. Michele Arcangelo in Solofra (Avellino), especially around the Catholic holy days. I still hold her beloved wooden Rosary beads as a memento to remember her by (photo below).
When Annina immigrated to America from Solofra, she brought with her on the ship a collection of hand-crafted copper cooking pans, and a heavy mortar and pestle made from white Italian marble. These items are still in the family and held by myself and my brother Larry.
To read more about my grandparents, check out the following blog post:
To continue with the story, my grandfather had three brothers: Pasquale, Annibale, and Raffeale.
I have no record or information about my grandfather's brother Raffaele. I think he may have enlisted in the Italian military and was a casualty of one of the many Italian conflicts.
Pasquale (b. 1862) decided to immigrate to the United States, and follow in the footsteps of his younger brother (my grandfather) Daniele. He arrived at Ellis Island from the port of Naples in 1903 at the age of 41. Pasquale was looking to make a better life, but had left his wife and an infant or two behind in Cervinara to fend for themselves.
On April 19th, 1913, Pasquale's impoverished (and probably destitute) wife Amalia Mercaldi [misspelled as Mercaldo in the passenger record] arrived from Naples on the ship Cedric and were processed at Ellis Island with her two children: 14 year-old Luigi (b.1899) and Mario (b. 1903) age 10. [The US immigration records erroneously indicate their last place of residence as "Cusinara" - which does not exist].
Amalia was born in 1861, and was already 52 years of age when she arrived at Ellis Island. There were about twenty other "Cervinaresi" accompanying them to America on that ship.
According to one account, Amalia didn't know how to locate her husband Pasquale, who had apparently abandoned his family. She enlisted the aid of an US immigration official who located Pasquale in New York. It is unclear that after 10 years apart if the family was able to reunite. But Amalia and her two children were welcomed into the larger family.
Pasquale and Amalia's oldest son altered his first name from Luigi to Louis, and rose rapidly to become one of the world's premiere French hornists. After a year performing with the Saint Louis Symphony (at age 17), he joined the NY Philharmonic in 1917, and performed over 5000 concerts with them during his incredible 45-year tenure. He retired from his position as Assistant Principal with the New York Philharmonic in 1962. His colleagues in the world-renown French horn section included the Principal James Chambers, and with horn colleagues Joseph Singer, William Namen, Mark Fisher, and beginning in 1950, Ranier "Dinny" DeIntinis.
Amalia was born in 1861, and was already 52 years of age when she arrived at Ellis Island. There were about twenty other "Cervinaresi" accompanying them to America on that ship.
According to one account, Amalia didn't know how to locate her husband Pasquale, who had apparently abandoned his family. She enlisted the aid of an US immigration official who located Pasquale in New York. It is unclear that after 10 years apart if the family was able to reunite. But Amalia and her two children were welcomed into the larger family.
Pasquale and Amalia's oldest son altered his first name from Luigi to Louis, and rose rapidly to become one of the world's premiere French hornists. After a year performing with the Saint Louis Symphony (at age 17), he joined the NY Philharmonic in 1917, and performed over 5000 concerts with them during his incredible 45-year tenure. He retired from his position as Assistant Principal with the New York Philharmonic in 1962. His colleagues in the world-renown French horn section included the Principal James Chambers, and with horn colleagues Joseph Singer, William Namen, Mark Fisher, and beginning in 1950, Ranier "Dinny" DeIntinis.
In addition to the NY Philharmonic, Louis regularly performed before an audience of ten thousand with the Stadium Symphony Orchestra beginning with the first concert on June 23rd, 1918. The summer concerts were held at the Lewisohn Stadium at 136th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.
He kept it up well into the 1950s, and never missed a concert over all of those years. In the book "Mother is Minne" about the eccentric patron and unsalaried impresaria of the Stadium Orchestra, Minnie Guggenheimer, her daughter writes (page 85), "The same claim [about never missing a concert] is made by Louis, a dashing Neapolitan who began playing French horn in the Stadium orchestra when he was fifteen and is still blowing strong."
Louis probably retired from his orchestra positions because of the mandatory retirement age of 65. However, he remained on the faculty of the New York College of Music. His students included David Helfrich, Alyce Whitman, and Allison Feld. Louis died in 1970 in Yonkers, NY.
To learn more about Louis and see some photos, visit my blog posts about his extraordinary musician...
Pasquale and Amalia's second son Mario (no photo available) followed in his older brother Louis' footsteps by joining him as a world-class French hornist. Mario performed in the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Larry Huffman, a music historian wrote to me that Mario's colleagues in the French Horn section at the MET were Silvio Cosica and Richard Moore in addition to Gunther Schuller. I met Mario when he came to visit our house in Dobbs Ferry, NY around 1976. We talked about Schuller, and he recommend that I get in touch with him.
Mario taught at the Manhattan School of Music, and at the Juilliard Preparatory Division. From his colleagues at the music schools who knew him well, Mario was said to have had an extremely high-strung and nervous personality.
Mario taught at the Manhattan School of Music, and at the Juilliard Preparatory Division. From his colleagues at the music schools who knew him well, Mario was said to have had an extremely high-strung and nervous personality.
Mario and his wife Olga had a daughter by the name of Linda Quinn, and three grandchildren (Gina, Samatha, and Timothy). Mario was born on January 9th 1903 in Cervinara, and died on October 7th, 1988 in White Plains, New York.
Olga was born on April 4th, 1914 and may have been a concert pianist. She died in November of 1995 in White Plains - where the family lived in an apartment at 76 Lexington Avenue (Cousins, if you read this, please get in touch!).
Olga was born on April 4th, 1914 and may have been a concert pianist. She died in November of 1995 in White Plains - where the family lived in an apartment at 76 Lexington Avenue (Cousins, if you read this, please get in touch!).
Little is known about what happened to my grandfather's older brother Pasquale. My grandfather and grandmother seem to have assisted his wife Amilia financially. Pasquale may have died in 1921 when Amalia was 60 years old, or perhaps he was a victim of the influenza pandemic of 1918. Perhaps Pasquale returned to Italy. A handwritten note with "legalese" absolving all debt to my grandfather was signed by Pasquale's widow - my grandfather's sister-in-law, Amalia - as follows:
Translation:
I the undersigned declare that of the outstanding accounts that existed between my deceased husband and his brother Daniele, I have been totally satisfied and nothing further is owed to me.
Amalia Mercaldi
September 3, 1921
My grandfather's brother Annibale remained in Italy. He was a musician, and moved from rural Cervinara to Naples to teach music. It's clear from these photos that Annibale was elegant and distinguished looking.
The years that followed must have been very difficult in Italy. Two world wars intervened, and moving between the United States and Italy became difficult. At one point new US Immigration restrictions limited the flow of Italians entering into the United States. Italy too issued new requirements that Italian men needed to serve in the military, or lose their citizenship rights.
In 1946, after WWII, Annibale wrote the following letter to my grandfather offering his gratitude for the basic food rations my grandparents had mailed him. You can see from the photo below, he had aged and his hair turned white (he looks just like my Uncle Charlie in this photo). He was retired, but taught music at the Metronome Conservatory in the heart of central Naples. The private music school was founded in 1900.
Naples, 23 May 1946
My dear brother Daniele, sister-in-law and nieces (nephews). I thank you with all my heart for having exhumed a starving corpse; I have received with great pleasure your letter and the package with the wonderful macaroni, coffee, sugar, two pairs of socks and the beautiful necktie. I was also able to save all the red and white thread (used for stitching on the package), of which we have none here, I have eaten the great macaroni even, though cooked without condiments, since I have none, I have had a great cup of your coffee, I have sent you many of those blessings (intentions) that God will give you all long life; I couldn’t believe that after many, many years you have remembered me, the last heir of an unhappy family. Here we can no longer go forward; a pound of dark pasta costs 150 lire; a pound of rice, 100 lire; half a measure of oil, 50 lire; three mouthfuls of coffee 30 lire; potatoes are 30 lire per pound; I find myself disheartened. I have resumed, after many years, the music business to try and earn something. But it seems that I can do nothing (not succeed). I have a small pension from the city hall, but it is not enough for me to buy 20
0 grams of black bread a day and to eat boiled potatoes. If I could come to you (emigrate), I would do it voluntarily. I have an only son who is still a prisoner (of war) in Egypt. I am alone and discouraged and if God wishes me to live longer I must die before (his son), of starvation. I still am in good health and would like to live longer. Today I will again satisfy myself with your delicious macaroni and I am always sending you and your family blessings (of God). I beg you all to remember this poor wretch of God, don’t abandon me for who knows how things will turn out and in turn if I can be of use to you please ask and I will do anything I am able. If you write please put a (razor) blade in the envelope so I can shave, since they are not available here. In Italy, we pin our hopes on the Italian Fiorello La Guardia, (mayor of NY), who has promised that he would not let us starve.Kisses and infinite thanks to all.
Yours for life
Annibale
It is worth clarifying that in 1946, one US dollar equaled roughly 575 Italian lire (Italy adapted the Bretton Wood System in 1949, which pegged 625 lire to one US dollar for decades). But with inflation, one US dollar in 1946 would be the equivalent of $10.91 in 2008 inflated dollars. Thus, 100 lire for a pound of rice mentioned in the letter above was equal to 17 cents (US) but in 2008 it would cost us about $1.86 today. Compare that to the wholesale price that is normally around 20 cents per pound, $1.00/lb for Supermarket, or 50 cents/lb when on sale.
Also, the mention of Fiorello H. La Gaurdia is interesting. La Guardia was a very popular Italian-American figure, and known world-wide. He was the 99th Mayor of City of New York from 1934 to 1945. But in 1946 (when Annibale's letter was written) La Guardia had left his position as Mayor to become Director General for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). Thus La Gaurdia would have been the face of international humanitarian relief efforts in war-torn Europe - including Italy - at least until his death in 1947.
That's about all I could discover about my ancestors on my own. Feel free to contact me with additional information.
I am indebted to the assistance and input from a number of people who helped me research this family history blog post:
Pasquale Tassone, a fellow Maestro concertatore and good friend, provided the Italian-English translation of the documents above.
Larry Huffman corresponded with me regarding his historical records regarding Louis and Mario. His website (www.stokowski.org) provides an amazing wealth of detailed historical information about orchestral musicians.
I also learned some important details from Italian historian and journalist, Angelo Marchese, who posted an article about Louis on a Cervinara-related website. We corresponded by email.
John A. Misso called me on his "magicJack" from Cervinara this summer. He is a liasion for ex-patriots and their descendants who emigrated from Cervinara to the US, and would like to reconnect.
I offer my appreciation to all of then for their invaluable assistance.
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San Gennaro, Patron Saint
(painting of San Gennaro above is by Girolamo Pesce) San Gennaro is the Patron Saint of Naples, Italy. He is also the Patron Saint of my ancestral village of Cervinara in the Campania region of Italy not far from Naples. Given the proximity of both of these cities to Mount Vesuvius, this Saint has played a key role in protecting the region from a modern day cataclysmic natural disaster.
San Gennaro is also the martyred Saint of Prisoners. He was arrested by the Romans in 305 A.D. when he visited imprisoned Christian deacons. After being tortured (thrown to the lions and incinerated), the Roman's had him beheaded. A vial of his scared blood has been preserved at the Cathedral in Naples, and the blood miraculously liquefies three times a year and protects the city from calamity. The"Liquification" of his blood occurs each year on September 19th, and if it does not, people fear that something terrible is imminent: plague, war, or natural disaster.
Since 1926, a "Feast of San Gennaro" takes place every September 19th in Little Italy around Mulberry Street in lower Manhattan. The ritual of carrying a statue of San Gennaro through the streets is mirrored in NY city, Naples, and in the village of Cervinara (AV).
Here is a link to an interesting 10 minute mini-documentary video on YouTube about San Gennaro....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NvMAD6Dgg8
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Wednesday, September 16, 2009
IESO 2009 in Taiwan
He was selected as one of four student participants to represent the United States at the 2009 International Earth Science Olympiad (IESO) in Taiwan.
The conference began on September 14th and will conclude on September 22nd. High school contestants from 15 participating countries will work in teams to solve the world's environmental problems, do field science work, and experience the culture of Taiwan. Other countries participating this year include Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Nepal, Nigeria, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Thailand.
Joseph (in photo with microphone above) was selected earlier this summer by scoring amongst the top four in an exam administered at the UVM/GIV Engineering Institute held at the UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences (CEMS) in Burlington Vermont. The purpose of the UMV/GIV Institute is to help students gain an understanding of how research can work to solve societal problems through creative engineering. Students focus on how technology impacts humans, do hands-on engineering projects, participate in tours and engage in presentations by professors, computer scientists and mathematicians. The award ceremony from the UMV/GIV Institute is shown in the YouTube video below...
The IESO 2009 conference in Taipei Taiwan will focus on sustainability issues such as climate change. Now in its third year, the international event has seen a sharp increase in the number of participating countries from six to 15, with the United Kingdom and Italy joining the competition for the first time. It marks the first time Taiwan has hosted the annual event aimed at enhancing young students' interest in and understanding of the natural environment, climatic changes and the relationship between humans and nature.
IESO contestants will travel to the 921 Earthquake Museum in central Taiwan's Nantou County for inspection. They will conduct field surveys in the 921 earthquake memorial park and then present their briefings to a jury of experts to vie for the "best teamwork" and "best field survey" awards. All the contestants will be taken to Taiwan's northern coastline known for its complicated geological formations.
The IESO American Team is chaperoned by Tom and Beth Tailer, co-directors of the UVM/GIV Engineering Institute. They have been providing online mentoring for Joseph and his American teammates all summer. Joseph had crammed for much of his summer vacation in preparation for the highly-competitive event, which includes team sequestering and lengthy written exams. Upon the US team’s arrival in Taipei, Beth Tailor emailed the parents indicating, “The students did a wonderful job at the opening ceremony, and their presentation and skit were well received.” She added, “The food is plentiful, and we already have many stories to tell.”
The first IESO competition was held in South Korea in 2007, followed by a second event in the Philippines the following year. This marks the first time Taiwan has hosted the annual IESO event, which is aimed at enhancing young students' interest in and understanding of the natural environment, climatic changes and the relationship between humans and nature.
The 2009 IESO will conclude on September 21st with an award presentation ceremony where it is anticipated that gifts will be given to the foreign contestants by the host country to help them better understand Taiwan's culture and lifestyle.
Here is the American team during a visit to the National Palace Museum...
Link: http://www.ieso2009.tw/home/home.htm
-----------------
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Magnificent Desolation
Except for a few enclaves of isolation and repression, most people on the planet are aware that our fellow humans have walked on the Moon. To date, only 12 individuals have set foot on that little piece of Swiss cheese in the sky.
Forty years ago on July 16, 1969 I remember being shuffled into the Middle School auditorium on a Wednesday morning along with other kids to watch the event on television. Through the electronic portal we could see the huge Saturn rocket and its Apollo 11 crew blast off from Kennedy Space Center - live. I was just 15 years old. Watching blastoffs was so much better than regular school work. It gave me a break from my teacher, Mr. Berrardi, who tended to make my life miserable for no good reason. He was a borderline psycho.
However, it wasn't until Sunday July 20th when the really exciting stuff happened. The cool-looking lunar module separated from the mother-ship orbiting around the Moon and slowly made its way down to the cratered lunar surface with two of the three astronauts from the mission. My parents had gotten my brothers and I up in the middle of the night to watch the event unfold on our little B&W TV in the kitchen. I recall that we stat in front of the tube in our underwear in the summer heat. It was four in the morning, and I don't think I had ever been awake at that ungodly hour before.
My brother Larry was listening carefully to all of the communications between the astronauts and the command center back in Houston. Whenever the TV news commentator, Walter Cronkite, would make a feeble attempt to translate the terse monotone technical dialogue into plain English, Larry would get agitated and blurt out, "why doesn't he shut up so that we can hear what's going on!" Without a doubt, we were all in awe. Nothing like this had ever occurred before in the history of the world, and there we were - as a family - to see it unfold for better or worse. Everyone was well aware of the historical significance the mission embodied and about the potentially grave risks involved. It was not Science Fiction. It involved real human lives.
The Lunar Module (or LM) landed without incident. People from around the world seemed to be following the story. Later we would learn that the astronauts had a hard time finding a landing spot, and had almost run out of fuel. The Lunar Module had just 25 seconds of fuel left (kind of like a commercial flight I once took on "US Scare").
Late on Monday evening July 21st the live televised moon walk began. The family huddled in front of our little TV again. The TV set had a decent picture for its 5" screen, but we fiddled with the rabbit ears continually in an attempt to improve the reception.
Then it was time for Neil Armstrong make his famous descent onto the Moon's surface. There had been much speculation about what he would utter as his first words on the dusty terrain. Of course great importance would be attributed to the first complete sentence spoken by a human on a celestrial body other than Earth. TV anchor Walter Cronkite indicated that Armstrong had been supplied with many ideas and suggestions by prominent people from around the globe - including (one would presume) from President Nixon. It would certainly land on the front page in bold type as the headline of the world's newspapers, and be interpreted and reinterpreted in the context of the Cold War, and in popular culture.
In the end Armstrong came up with something a little bland and apolitical. Although not terribly poetic, it does have a historical ring to it. Armstrong said, with the hesitation you might expect from a child in a school play: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Later, astronaut Dr. Buzz Aldrin joined him on the Moon's surface. Aldrin described his first view of the Moon as "Magnificent desolation."
I like Aldrin's phrase "Magnificent desolation." It's poetic and concisely describes that barren, dead world. It's odd that we had to invest so much research, time, and money to travel so far to learn that fact. Sure, we brought back some rocks, and I've seen them (even touched one) at the Smithsonian Institution. But the trip to the Moon was really about exploration for the sake of exploration. It was largely symbolic, although many benefits - such as the sugary orange drink Tang, Velcro, the handheld Dustbuster, microwave ovens, Teflon dish pans, an exciting movie about space staring Tom Hanks, and a dance step invented by Michael Jackson. All of this resulted, directly or indirectly, from NASA's massive space project begun by President Kennedy only eight years earlier.
Oddly enough, the long term societal benefits from the Moon landing may have resulted from this photo:
It is view of the Earth rising over the Moon's horizon as taken from by the Apollo 11 crew. This photo became iconic, and was soon available in wall size formats for average people to hang in their homes. It was a mainstay image of the time, and was used as the cover for the "Whole Earth Catalog" - the de facto owner's manual for operating the planet.
Humans had traveled to the moon to discover the Earth. Although we discovered that the moon is a dead planet, we noticed that the Earth is amazingly beautiful, but in peril. That turned out to be the great lesson of the Apollo missions.
Over time, as the number of humans who ventured into space increased, an interesting phenomenon known as the "overview effect" developed. Astronauts would arrive back on Earth with a sense of enlightenment about their home planet. After seeing for themselves the entire outline of the Earth standing alone in the vacuum of cosmos, they realized how small and precious the planet really is. It spurred a new awareness and a desire to maintain and sustain the ecological balance of the planet. The Moon was long dead, but the Earth was suddenly seen an oasis in space. It led to a change in our mindset, and R. Buckminster Fuller aptly coined the term "Spaceship Earth" to describe our mobile home.
A few years later I attended a public lecture at Scarsdale High School by the famed science writer Isaac Asimov in NY State. Asimov had written many landmark Sci-Fi stories, including the Foundation Series. During the Q&A he was asked about the historic Moon landing. He relied that he had written fiction about it for decades, and he had been very confident that t
he goal would be achieved someday. Walking on the Moon seemed inevitable to him, since "you could look up in the sky and see the damn thing." But he confessed that he did not anticipate one major detail. Speaking with his heavy NY accent, Dr. Asimov admitted that he did not foresee that nearly everyone on Earth would be watching the event on the Moon unfold live on television.
Here is a little YouTube clip from CBS about the Moon landing from the perspective of anchorman Walter Cronkite. It's a little corny, but if you were there it may jog your memory...
That's what happened forty years ago this week.
Links:
http://wechoosethemoon.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov
http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_home_page.html
http://www.wholeearth.com/index.php
Forty years ago on July 16, 1969 I remember being shuffled into the Middle School auditorium on a Wednesday morning along with other kids to watch the event on television. Through the electronic portal we could see the huge Saturn rocket and its Apollo 11 crew blast off from Kennedy Space Center - live. I was just 15 years old. Watching blastoffs was so much better than regular school work. It gave me a break from my teacher, Mr. Berrardi, who tended to make my life miserable for no good reason. He was a borderline psycho.
However, it wasn't until Sunday July 20th when the really exciting stuff happened. The cool-looking lunar module separated from the mother-ship orbiting around the Moon and slowly made its way down to the cratered lunar surface with two of the three astronauts from the mission. My parents had gotten my brothers and I up in the middle of the night to watch the event unfold on our little B&W TV in the kitchen. I recall that we stat in front of the tube in our underwear in the summer heat. It was four in the morning, and I don't think I had ever been awake at that ungodly hour before.
My brother Larry was listening carefully to all of the communications between the astronauts and the command center back in Houston. Whenever the TV news commentator, Walter Cronkite, would make a feeble attempt to translate the terse monotone technical dialogue into plain English, Larry would get agitated and blurt out, "why doesn't he shut up so that we can hear what's going on!" Without a doubt, we were all in awe. Nothing like this had ever occurred before in the history of the world, and there we were - as a family - to see it unfold for better or worse. Everyone was well aware of the historical significance the mission embodied and about the potentially grave risks involved. It was not Science Fiction. It involved real human lives.
The Lunar Module (or LM) landed without incident. People from around the world seemed to be following the story. Later we would learn that the astronauts had a hard time finding a landing spot, and had almost run out of fuel. The Lunar Module had just 25 seconds of fuel left (kind of like a commercial flight I once took on "US Scare").
Late on Monday evening July 21st the live televised moon walk began. The family huddled in front of our little TV again. The TV set had a decent picture for its 5" screen, but we fiddled with the rabbit ears continually in an attempt to improve the reception.
Then it was time for Neil Armstrong make his famous descent onto the Moon's surface. There had been much speculation about what he would utter as his first words on the dusty terrain. Of course great importance would be attributed to the first complete sentence spoken by a human on a celestrial body other than Earth. TV anchor Walter Cronkite indicated that Armstrong had been supplied with many ideas and suggestions by prominent people from around the globe - including (one would presume) from President Nixon. It would certainly land on the front page in bold type as the headline of the world's newspapers, and be interpreted and reinterpreted in the context of the Cold War, and in popular culture.
In the end Armstrong came up with something a little bland and apolitical. Although not terribly poetic, it does have a historical ring to it. Armstrong said, with the hesitation you might expect from a child in a school play: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Later, astronaut Dr. Buzz Aldrin joined him on the Moon's surface. Aldrin described his first view of the Moon as "Magnificent desolation."
I like Aldrin's phrase "Magnificent desolation." It's poetic and concisely describes that barren, dead world. It's odd that we had to invest so much research, time, and money to travel so far to learn that fact. Sure, we brought back some rocks, and I've seen them (even touched one) at the Smithsonian Institution. But the trip to the Moon was really about exploration for the sake of exploration. It was largely symbolic, although many benefits - such as the sugary orange drink Tang, Velcro, the handheld Dustbuster, microwave ovens, Teflon dish pans, an exciting movie about space staring Tom Hanks, and a dance step invented by Michael Jackson. All of this resulted, directly or indirectly, from NASA's massive space project begun by President Kennedy only eight years earlier.
Oddly enough, the long term societal benefits from the Moon landing may have resulted from this photo:
It is view of the Earth rising over the Moon's horizon as taken from by the Apollo 11 crew. This photo became iconic, and was soon available in wall size formats for average people to hang in their homes. It was a mainstay image of the time, and was used as the cover for the "Whole Earth Catalog" - the de facto owner's manual for operating the planet.
Humans had traveled to the moon to discover the Earth. Although we discovered that the moon is a dead planet, we noticed that the Earth is amazingly beautiful, but in peril. That turned out to be the great lesson of the Apollo missions.
Over time, as the number of humans who ventured into space increased, an interesting phenomenon known as the "overview effect" developed. Astronauts would arrive back on Earth with a sense of enlightenment about their home planet. After seeing for themselves the entire outline of the Earth standing alone in the vacuum of cosmos, they realized how small and precious the planet really is. It spurred a new awareness and a desire to maintain and sustain the ecological balance of the planet. The Moon was long dead, but the Earth was suddenly seen an oasis in space. It led to a change in our mindset, and R. Buckminster Fuller aptly coined the term "Spaceship Earth" to describe our mobile home.
A few years later I attended a public lecture at Scarsdale High School by the famed science writer Isaac Asimov in NY State. Asimov had written many landmark Sci-Fi stories, including the Foundation Series. During the Q&A he was asked about the historic Moon landing. He relied that he had written fiction about it for decades, and he had been very confident that t
he goal would be achieved someday. Walking on the Moon seemed inevitable to him, since "you could look up in the sky and see the damn thing." But he confessed that he did not anticipate one major detail. Speaking with his heavy NY accent, Dr. Asimov admitted that he did not foresee that nearly everyone on Earth would be watching the event on the Moon unfold live on television. Here is a little YouTube clip from CBS about the Moon landing from the perspective of anchorman Walter Cronkite. It's a little corny, but if you were there it may jog your memory...
That's what happened forty years ago this week.
Links:
http://wechoosethemoon.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov
http://www.asimovonline.com/asimov_home_page.html
http://www.wholeearth.com/index.php
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Friday, May 22, 2009
More about cousin Louis
I've already written about my cousin Louis who played French horn in the New York Philharmonic from 1917 to 1962,
Here is a recording (Columbia A6070) made during one of the NY Philharmonic's first recording sessions in February of 1918. That would have been Louis' second year with the orchestra in the Principal horn seat. The French horns are featured in the Waltz of The Flowers from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker - perhaps the first time the classic work was ever recorded.
Louis would have played under some renowned (mostly European) Music Directors and guest conductors:
Arturo Toscanini, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Willem Mengelberg, Bruno Walter, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Sir John Barbirolli, Fritz Reiner, Leonard Bernstein, Wilhelm Steinberg, Pierre Monteux, George Szell, Eugene Ormandy, Leopold Stokowski, Charles Munch, Max Rudolf, Georg Solti, Rafael Kubelik, Ernest Ansermet, Thomas Schippers, Serge Koussevitzky, Jean Morel, Hans Rosbaud, Karl Böhm, Skitch Henderson (aka "Mitch Miller," known for his popular TV program "Sing Along with Mitch"), a 26 year-old wunderkind named Seiji Ozawa in 1961, Nadia Boulanger in 1962, and composer-conductors Igor Stravinsky, Lukas Foss, Paul Hindemith, Carlos Chavez, and Aaron Copland. He also performed under guest conductor Lorin Maazel who returned in recent years as the NY Philharmonic Music Director, although Maazel will retire at the end of the current season.
This particular recording of "Wozzeck" has been hailed by experts such as Milton Babbitt as the gold standard of performances. Echoing that sentiment, Tufts University composer and musicologist Mark DeVoto wrote in "The Metropolitan Opera Guide to Recorded Opera" (1993) "...this live concert recording remains, in its remarkable expressive and dramatic qualities, the standard against which all subsequent recordings must be measured."
Knowing most of the commercial recordings of Berg's fist opera that have been released, I agree with this assessment. I'm also proud that my cousin Louis participated in such a historic performance by playing Assistant First Horn. I will listen to it with new ears.
Here is an excerpt of the Berg recording from YouTube. It's the orchestral interlude of Act III (The Adagio at m320 on page 465 of the full orchestral score). You can clearly hear the four French horns of the NY Philharmonic play at 2'00" and 2'47" points in the video.
In a previous post on this blog you can find an audio link to a performance by the NY Philharmonic of Mahler with cousin Louis playing Das Lied von der Erde conducted by Bruno Walter. Louis joined the NY Philharmonic just a few years after Gustav Mahler resigned as Music Director and died from his heart ailment.
To conclude our sampling of musical examples, here is a fine recording of Toscanini conducting the Overture to Rossini's Semiramide at Carnegie Hall in 1936 with the NY Philharmonic. At 37 seconds into the recording the French horns have a beautiful solo, and it is said on the web (by Abbedd) that Louis Ricci is playing First horn. You can hear my cousin Lui-Jean's pitch-perfect high notes in this recording. (Other wind prinicpals are: John Amans, flute; Bruno Labate, oboe; Simeon Bellison, clarinet; Benjamin Kohon, bassoon; Harry Glantz, trumpet; Mario Falcone, trombone). It is scored for four horns in "D" but Abbedd has a note that Louis is performing with a horn in "A."
Rossini Semiramide Overture (11.3 MB .mp3)
Below is a clip from the NY Times announcing Louis' retirement from the NY Philharmonic after 45 years of service. It's dated 5/18/1962. His last official concert would have been with Leonard Bernstein conducting at Carnegie Hall on May 20th, 1962. On the program were works by Stravinsky: "Fireworks" Opus 4, "Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra" (with Seymour Lipkin as the soloist) , and "Greeting Prelude." The Brahms Second Symphony in D Major ended the program.
but new information surfaces all the time. He was known to my family as Lui-Jean.
In the book "Philharmonic: A History of New York's Orchestra" by Howard Shanet (1975), I found the following photo...
The man sitting facing the camera with the French horn in the upper front left side of this historic photo really looks like it could be Louis. The photo of a recording session is dated from about 1925.
Here is a recording (Columbia A6070) made during one of the NY Philharmonic's first recording sessions in February of 1918. That would have been Louis' second year with the orchestra in the Principal horn seat. The French horns are featured in the Waltz of The Flowers from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker - perhaps the first time the classic work was ever recorded.
Louis would have played under some renowned (mostly European) Music Directors and guest conductors:
Arturo Toscanini, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Willem Mengelberg, Bruno Walter, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Sir John Barbirolli, Fritz Reiner, Leonard Bernstein, Wilhelm Steinberg, Pierre Monteux, George Szell, Eugene Ormandy, Leopold Stokowski, Charles Munch, Max Rudolf, Georg Solti, Rafael Kubelik, Ernest Ansermet, Thomas Schippers, Serge Koussevitzky, Jean Morel, Hans Rosbaud, Karl Böhm, Skitch Henderson (aka "Mitch Miller," known for his popular TV program "Sing Along with Mitch"), a 26 year-old wunderkind named Seiji Ozawa in 1961, Nadia Boulanger in 1962, and composer-conductors Igor Stravinsky, Lukas Foss, Paul Hindemith, Carlos Chavez, and Aaron Copland. He also performed under guest conductor Lorin Maazel who returned in recent years as the NY Philharmonic Music Director, although Maazel will retire at the end of the current season.
Perhaps the most demanding and forward looking of these great conductors was Dimitri Mitropoulos. Mitropoulos was a champion of modern music, and put the NY Philharmonic on the map with world and American premieres of some seminal new works. One of his performances with the NY Philharmonic has been immortalized in a 1951 live recording at Carnegie Hall. It is of Alban Berg's opera "Wozzeck" and the orchestral song of "Erwartung" Op. 17 by Schoenberg. It was performed on April 12, 13th, and 15th, and recorded for Columbia Masterworks on LP. The recording has been digitally remastered and was recently reissued on Compact Disk (Sony MH2K 62759).
This particular recording of "Wozzeck" has been hailed by experts such as Milton Babbitt as the gold standard of performances. Echoing that sentiment, Tufts University composer and musicologist Mark DeVoto wrote in "The Metropolitan Opera Guide to Recorded Opera" (1993) "...this live concert recording remains, in its remarkable expressive and dramatic qualities, the standard against which all subsequent recordings must be measured."
Knowing most of the commercial recordings of Berg's fist opera that have been released, I agree with this assessment. I'm also proud that my cousin Louis participated in such a historic performance by playing Assistant First Horn. I will listen to it with new ears.
Here is an excerpt of the Berg recording from YouTube. It's the orchestral interlude of Act III (The Adagio at m320 on page 465 of the full orchestral score). You can clearly hear the four French horns of the NY Philharmonic play at 2'00" and 2'47" points in the video.
In a previous post on this blog you can find an audio link to a performance by the NY Philharmonic of Mahler with cousin Louis playing Das Lied von der Erde conducted by Bruno Walter. Louis joined the NY Philharmonic just a few years after Gustav Mahler resigned as Music Director and died from his heart ailment.
Louis would have also performed in the NY Philharmonic Mahler festival of 1959-60, which was led by Bernstein and Walter with the blessing of Alma Mahler and has been credited for launching the symphonies of Gustav into the foreground of public consciousness. Ever since then, Mahler has been an orchestral obsession and a mainstay of symphonic programming.
To conclude our sampling of musical examples, here is a fine recording of Toscanini conducting the Overture to Rossini's Semiramide at Carnegie Hall in 1936 with the NY Philharmonic. At 37 seconds into the recording the French horns have a beautiful solo, and it is said on the web (by Abbedd) that Louis Ricci is playing First horn. You can hear my cousin Lui-Jean's pitch-perfect high notes in this recording. (Other wind prinicpals are: John Amans, flute; Bruno Labate, oboe; Simeon Bellison, clarinet; Benjamin Kohon, bassoon; Harry Glantz, trumpet; Mario Falcone, trombone). It is scored for four horns in "D" but Abbedd has a note that Louis is performing with a horn in "A." Rossini Semiramide Overture (11.3 MB .mp3)
You can follow along with the music when the Andantino (section B) begins at 37 seconds into the recording. The first horn is playing the top line of the 4-voice texture.
Below is a clip from the NY Times announcing Louis' retirement from the NY Philharmonic after 45 years of service. It's dated 5/18/1962. His last official concert would have been with Leonard Bernstein conducting at Carnegie Hall on May 20th, 1962. On the program were works by Stravinsky: "Fireworks" Opus 4, "Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra" (with Seymour Lipkin as the soloist) , and "Greeting Prelude." The Brahms Second Symphony in D Major ended the program.
Not surprisingly, Louis is a celebrity in the town of Cervinara (near Naples, Italy) where he was born. Below is a link to an web article by journalist Angelo Marchese summarizing his accomplishments. (scroll down to the bottom of the page).
Louis' brother Mario (who was also born in Cervinara) was also an excellent French hornist. Mario was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and lived in White Plains, NY with his wife Olga and children. There are many stories about Mario's visits with the family. Gunther Schuller, the American conductor, composer, and French hornist worked side-by-side with Mario in the orchestra pit for about 20 years.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Avery Fisher Hall
As you enter past the security checkpoint at Avery Fisher Hall, and travel up the escalator to the first floor, there is a modern sculpture before you (photo on right). I found it odd that the piece of art is "preempted" by a sign with information about the NY Philharmonic "Protocol and Late Seating Policy."
From my perspective, your initial entry into a building makes an important connection. I would much rather be "welcomed" into the public space than read the riot act. Do I need to ask, "Where's my lawyer?"
Also, I wouldn't want to be the artist of the sculpture (which was unmarked, but it looks like it might be by Henry Moore).
Above is a view from of the main lobby from the second floor. This place needs a renovation!
I assume this is an original. Hidden upstairs in the hallway is the bust of Gustav Mahler sculpted by Rodin. I was about to her his First Symphony in performance by the orchestra Mahler use to direct.
The NY Philharmonic made some nice displays of historical information about the orchestra. I snapped a photo of the score used by Lenny Bernstein of a Mahler symphony. You can see Bernstein's markings indicating the entrances of the instruments, but above the staff he wrote. "Have the courage to remain in 8!" He was Music Director of the NY Philharmonic from 1958 to 1969.
In 1962 the NY Philharmonic commissioned Aaron Copland to write a work to celebrate the opening of Lincoln Center. He wrote Connotations for Orchestra which is a 12-tone piece, and in a rather abstract modernist style (at least for Copland). Below is the score to his work with a dedication to Bernstein. It reads, " For Lenny, who asked for it, and created it in unforgettable fashion - this 'first copy' from a grateful composer-friend."
And then I found something of personal interest related to my own family. My cousin Louis was a long-time member of the NY Philharmonic. He performed from 1917 to 1962. Among the summer concerts he always participated in were the NY Philharmonic Stadium Concerts. Here is a poster from that series for the 1943 season....
I also found a very large panoramic photograph hanging on the wall which was taken in 1925 of the entire orchestra when they were on tour in Washington D.C. The US Capital building is in the back, and their music director at the time - Willem Mengelberg (1871-1951) - is standing with the orchestra. The Dutch conductor was friends with a former NY Philharmonic music director: Gustav Mahler. Mengelberg held lead position with the NY Philharmonic from 1922-1928, and shared the podium with Toscanni beginning in 1926. While individual members of the orchestra were not identified in the large photo, I was easily able to pick cousin Louis out of the crowd of 100-plus faces and snap a photo of him with my digital camera. He is pictured directly in the center of the photo.
I was very pleased to discover this previously unknown but historic "family" photo hanging in Avery Fisher Hall.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
The Ninety-nines
My aunt, Beulah Stark (second from the right), was one of the first women aviators in the state of West Virginia. She was a member of the women's flying club know as the Ninety-nines (or 99s). This photo was taken in Parkersburg, WV on April 15, 1945. The photo was donated to the West Virginia State Archives by her estate.
The 99s air club was founded by Amelia Mary Earhart (photo on right), and is still active today and known as the International Organization of Women Pilots, Inc. It is important to remember how Amelia Earthart inspired everyone during the Great Depression. My aunt had met her, and was inspired as well.
In May 1932 Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic (from Newfoundland to Ireland). She later set several flight records.
My aunt Beaulah must have been flying by the mid-1930s, since Earhart and her navigator disappeared in 1937 while attempting to fly around the world.
I've heard that the location of what is now called the Chuck Yeager Airport (CRW) in Charleston, West Virginia was selected with the advice of my uncle and aunt who were both aviators. The original Kanawha Airport opened in 1947. It is located at an elevation of nearly 1000 feet on a small mountain top near the city where the peaks were shaved off to create some level ground and a VERY short runway. Even in modern days, landing in Charleston has always been an adventure. Aside from the jagged mountains, dense fog is often a factor.
Links:
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Saturday, January 10, 2009
My Grandfather
My paternal grandfather Daniele was born in 1864 in the town Cervinara in the Province of Avellino (near Naples). He immigrated to America in 1893 and soon after joined the U.S. Navy as a musician in the band. His tour of duty included participating in the Spanish-American War of 1898. Returning to NY, he met my grandmother Annina. They got married and started their large family in 1900.
There are very few surviving photos of either of my grandparents. The elegant photo above was taken by J. de Santis studio on 165 8th Avenue in NY in 1909. At that point they already had five children, and my father had just been born. The photo below was taken in New York City, and the baby is my older brother Larry.
Daniele's instrument was the valve trombone, and he played it in the U.S. Marine band under John Philip Souza (seen in photo on the left). He traveled with the band on European tours between 1900 and 1905, and possibly on the 1910 world tour that included Great Britain, Canary Islands, South-Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji Islands, Hawaii, and Canada. My Aunt Aurelia (b. 1906) told the story about how her mother would kick her out of the bed when her father finally returned home after a long trip away. Below is a photo of Daniele with his trombone and uniform.
There is a family story that when Sousa's band gave a command performance for the President of France, that the world leader requested to hear an obscure Southern Italian song. No one knew it, except for my grandfather who had grown up in a Province of Avellino (close to the Partenio mountains). He began to play the folk tune on his trombone alone, and the orchestra joined in after him as best they could. The French President was pleased.
Here is a photograph of his actual trombone, and while it needs repairs, it hangs on my wall as a prized piece of family history.
After retiring from the Navy, he found work during the Great Depression as a tailor making alterations on fine women's suits.
Daniele was a founding member of the musicians union in New York City -American Federation of Musicians Local 802. On the left are two of his union cards, and below is a "Scroll of Honor" awarded to him from the Associated Musicians of Greater New York in 1953.
Above is a photo my grandfather taken in 1950 at the age of 86 snoozing on the porch of the summer house of my aunt Clara and uncle Charlie situated on Lake Oscawana in upstate New York.
He lived until he was 92, although he smoked De Nobili (rope cigars) and drank gallons of red wine while listening to his beloved Italian opera on the phonograph and radio. When my father married an aspiring opera singer, he was extremely pleased.
While my grandfather never learned to play jazz, he was fascinated by this music, saying to my aunt Helen "How do they do that?"
In his final years, his eyesight and hearing deteriorated, and he walked with a cane (seen in the photo on the right). He kept the cane handy as a potential weapon of self-defense while roaming the streets of NY.
My grandfather stayed busy with a family store just below the family's apartment - but it was never proved to be a profitable venture.
He made several trips back to Italy with family members before the war (including my father), but was happy living in New York and chose to remain there. He kept in contact with his family in Italy, including his brother Annibale who was a professor at the music school "Metronomo" in Naples (founded in 1900). During the initial years after WWII, he and my grandmother sent packages of food rations back to their families to aid during difficult times.
His famous slogan in his dialect of Italian was 'OOO-Fah' which meant 'Leave me alone, I want to sleep.'
Here he is (photo on the left) taking a walk in the park with my Aunt Ellia and Uncle Joe.
The photo on the right is of my grandmother Annina Tammaro. She came from a different town in Italy called Solofra.
The photo on the right is of my grandmother Annina Tammaro. She came from a different town in Italy called Solofra.
Links:
http://www.italyworldclub.com/campania/avellino/cervinara.htm
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