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re_alisma
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Interview with John XXXXX, age 72.
January 21, 1996
Transcribed January 29, 1996
A: Amy Callahan
J: John Berns
A: What kind of music do you listen to?
J: What kind of music do I listen to? I listen to a lot of the old easy listening music from the 40's and 50's. I listen to symphonies, and I listen to Pavarotti and all those other guys. I enjoy that. Piano music, I listen to, and string instruments. So, not too much of the later type of music. (laugh)
A: How did you become interested in those kinds of music?
J: I think I have always enjoyed listening to music; I mean, it's built into me. I really enjoy listening to music.
A: Is there one particular instance where a musical experience has especially affected you?
J: What do you mean by musical experience?
A: Can you think back to a time in your life when the importance of music suddenly hit you?
J: Well, I have to go back to say I think I have always enjoyed listening to music. I even enjoy listening to marching music- when I was in the service, I used to enjoy that. I think one of the favorites was John Philips Sousa and his music. I've always enjoyed it. I sang in a mixed choir in high school, and I really enjoyed that. I even bought a trumpet (laugh), and I went to school with it and I got two lessons all semester. So that was... And Grandma couldn't stand the noise.
A: Does that desire to perform still carry over into to your life today?
J: I still enjoy music, Amy. I just told your mother I think I'm going to join the choir. I keep saying that, and one of these days I'm going to do it because I really enjoy choir music, too.
A: What do you think of the new music that comes out nowadays?
J: Eh, I can't get excited about it, I really can't. To me, it sounds all the same (laugh). It's all got that same beat. It's got a different story to it, like. You have to understand, in the forties, it was a different type of music- the big bands, not the guitar player. And not the guy jumping around on the stage and looking like a crazy man and looking as goofy as he could. It was a different era, completely. It was the big band era where everybody would get dressed up and go to dances, and it was a different type of life altogether.
A: Do you still listen to the same music that you listened to in the forties?
J: Oh that type of music? Yes, I do. I got that CD player, all the records are that type of music. That music, and the war years. There was a lot of beautiful music played. You know, big bands played, which is not a guitar clunking away.
A: Is there a particular artist that sticks out in your mind?
J: Probably the best music produced was by Glenn Miller. Glenn Miller was tremendous. That type of music. Do you know Glenn Miller's music?
A: Yeah, it was the big band stuff.
J: Yes, Glenn Miller, he came up with a different way of arranging everything, and it was just beautiful.
A: What are a musician's personal qualities that you particularly admire?
J: Personal qualities about musicians. I think that compared to today, I think that they were more sophisticated. They were more down-to-earth people. They weren't wild people. And they had a big following just like today-the band leaders, the singers. Some of the singers were tremendous. So, yes I still like that era of music. I still listen to it. I still can't get enough of it.
A: Would you like to start performing?
J: Yes, I don't know, I don't know if I'm singing in the choir, you call that performing?
A: Well, you're certainly not just listening.
J: Yeah, right. I would be glad to. That's if I can find out if I can sing. If they took me in mixed choir in high school- I suppose if I can even hum, they'll take me. (laugh)
A: Why do you want to join choir?
J: Well, you know, when I did sing in the choir, it was thrilling when everybody was right on tune, if you know what I'm saying. When it just becomes one voice and it was just a tremendous feeling to hear that, to where that was being accomplished. With a whole bunch of guys and a whole bunch of girls, I enjoy that. I really do.
You ask me why do I want to join the church choir? Because before, hardly anybody sang. There was not very many people in the choir until we got a music coordinator. A fellow by the name of Russell Stern, and he plays the piano. You should hear this fellow play the piano. It's just beautiful. Gosh, can he play it. Now he formed the choir, and the choir's getting bigger and bigger and people are singing more and more hymns. We would hardly do anything before.
A: Do you think music plays an important part of the church service?
J: That's right. Yes, why do I say that? I think music has a big spot in religion. How can I say it. I think it draws you closer-just the music. It's another way of entering your mind-giving you serenity. Don't you feel that when you play the piano. You get that feeling?
A: Yes, sometimes.
J: It's something about music gets to your soul. And I never knew where my soul was, I don't know about you. Where was this thing? But I know when it finds it, and music gets to it.
A: Do you think that this feeling has something to do with how you feel about contemporary music?
J: That's right the other part, it doesn't get to my soul. Maybe you acquire that when you get older because we had songs back in the forties and fifties that jumped, but it was a different kind of a beat, not a garbage (laugh)-I shouldn't say garbage. But the garbled stuff that's going on today. Or the real loud stuff.
A: How has the music that you listened to changed over the years?
J: As I get older I enjoy more of the easy-going, the string music, waltz types. But I still like the jive-type stuff because that brings back memories. Yeah, the other stuff is more soothing.
A: Do you listen to music often?
J: Yes, oh yes, that thing's playing all the time. If it's not the radio, it's the CD player. I've got one that plays six and one. So I can play seven CD's which can go for I don't know how many hours, and it goes all day long. I just enjoy listening to music.
A: Are there ever times when you don't have music on?
J: No, I have to go turn it on. (Laugh) I feel like there's something missing in my life.
A: Do you ever feel lost out in the world where the music that you like to listen to isn't present?
J: Lost? No, not really, there's a time for it. When I'm in the car, I've got the music on. I even, I don't know if you know it, I bought a electronic piano or one of them organ. You know that. I'm going to try and learn how to play that. Just to listen and hear it play.
A: Is that a way that you like to occupy yourself?
J: Well, it really is, now that I've got the time to do it. I want to learn how to play that. My neighbor, Aby, that I play golf with, he said that he was going to get me started. I don't know if an old guy can learn new tricks like that. I understand you have to start when you're three years old. Yeah.
A: Is your musical taste changing in any way?
J: Well,, classical is coming more and more in. When I was younger, I wasn't too excited about that. But I always sort of liked opera, you know. That's because I've always liked music. But, now I have a lot of disks that have a lot of long-haired music on it. You know what I mean by long hair? (Laugh)
A: Sure.
J: It depends upon the era that you were born in for what kind of music you're accustomed to, and I have to say that I enjoyed the music that I was born into.
A: What role did music play for your parents?
J: Well, my mother played the piano very little; she knew how to do it. I wasn't involved with playing the piano-I was out playing. That was something that I wasn't going to do was fool around with the piano, so I went out and played. Now I'm sort of sorry that I didn't stay in and learn the piano. The way you play the piano is just tremendous. When you stop to think about it, you know they have all your fingers working in all different positions and your feet working. It just a good thing that your toes don't have something to push. It's quite an accomplishment.
A: How was the way in which your parents listened to music different?
J: Well, I don't think that parents were exposed to music like I was or like you were because there's Grandpa-where did he get his music from?. I think that if I recall, he always talked about all these songs that the people sang when they got together. And I don't think there were a heck of a lot of musical instruments around. Maybe a fiddle or a drum or something. But, they had music-they sang all those old songs around the campfire and get-togethers. But that's about all they had.
A: Where do you think your interest in music comes from?
J: Why do I have an interest for music, where maybe my parents don't. Is it in the genes or something like that? I don't know. It just popped up in me. I think more so than my sister and brother.
A: Do you think they would feel about it differently about it if they had lived in this era?
J: Well, definitely, if they saw music now, they'd remember, when they were young, I don't think they even had the radio. When I was young, they didn't even have an automobile. There was nothing like this. So, I think that being exposed to it, I learned to enjoy it. If I had never heard it, I wouldn't know what I had been missing.
A: Is there anything else that you want to say?
J: I really love music. I really do. Cause I can feel tunes- I can almost feel what's coming next on the song. I don't know why, but that's the way it is. Some guys can hit home runs and some guys can just strike out- that's the way it goes. I've always enjoyed music, I really did. That's the start. If you interview somebody that never even cared about it, you'd get a different outlook on it.
A: Well, that's it.
J: Yeah, I don't know what else to say, but I am going to join the choir one of these days if I keep talking about it. Your grandma says, yeah you've been telling me that for five years. So, one of these days I'm going to walk over.. Maybe I feel that I'm scared of being rejected.
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