In the Mood

It should be clear by now that I am not opposed to driving waaaay out of my way to visit musical landmarks.  On the way to Lincoln, Nebraska to attend Clarinetfest 2012 (more on that later) I left the Interstate to visit Clarinda, Iowa.  Clarinda is important to Music Zombies because it is the birthplace and home of Big Band Era superstar Glenn Miller.

Clarinda is a small town in the southwest corner of the state.  There isn't much else to see, unless you like farmland, and if you keep driving south for about 15 minutes, you'll end up in Missouri.  When you get into town, that is remarkably unremarkable, watch closely for the small signs directing you to Miller's home.  Once you get close to it though, it's evident that you are in the right place.

This museum is sort of a temporary one.  There is a scale model inside of a new planned museum.

Pennsylvania 6-5000!

One of the band's stand fronts.

The ubiquitous big band anthem.

Awarded posthumously in 2003.

One of Miller's trombones.  The horn only survives today because he didn't have it with him on the  flight to Paris.  He was traveling without the band because he was planning to make preparatory arrangements for a European tour.  The plane disappeared over the English Chanel in December of 1944.

The mouthpiece has Miller's name engraved on it.

His birthplace and home.

Glenn was born March 1, 1904.  Many of the items in the house did not belong to the family (they took their stuff when they moved away from Clarinda) but this calendar is authentic.

His piano, where he did his arranging.  The picture shows him working at it.  The curators have recreated the scene in the shot, down to the blue Wedgwood orb on the right corner and the Chesterfield cigarette on the left.

The front porch.  Cute little house.  Glenn was born in one of the upstairs rooms.  After the Miller's moved away the house was purchased by someone else, who had it completely renovated and remodeled.  Only recently was the house de-remodeled back to its original state, which is what you see now.

Because Miller's body was never recovered, there is no official grave site for him.  There are memorial sites to him, though, and a headstone can be found in Arlington National Cemetery (he had served in the Army).  He was only 40 years old at the time of his death, and the music world lost him much too soon.

Trombones hurt my brain

Trombones are non-transposing.  But they are Bb instruments.  But they read in C.  Errrrmmmm....

Let me explain my confusion.  Bb instruments need to transpose their music up a step to be able to match pitch with non-transposing instruments.  For example, the Bb trumpet (or clarinet, or tenor saxophone) produces the absolute pitch of Bb when playing (their) C.  So, for these instruments to sound in the correct pitch, their music is written up by step, so that the sound coming out of the instrument matches the absolute (concert) pitch.  In other words, when these instruments play C the actual note that comes out of the horn is a Bb.  And so on.

Trombones, as I understand it, read bass clef and their music is written in concert (absolute) pitch.  But they are considered Bb instruments.  The mind boggles.


Also, the people who play trombones really should not be referred to as "tromboners."  I think they prefer to be called trombonists or trombone players.