Friday, February 4, 2011

Homegrown Radio 2/4/11 – Eberle Umbach

Happy Friday, everybody.  It’s time for another edition of Homegrown Radio, & I have to say you folks are in for a treat today & every Friday this month, because our February Homegrown Radio artist is none other than my dear spouse, Eberle Umbach!

If you follow Robert Frost’s Banjo at all, you’re familiar with Eberle’s writing as well as with her skills at musical composition.  Eberle is a true multi-instrumentalist: she’s a proficient pianist, harpsichordist, marimba player, drummer, flautist, melodica player, bass player (both electric & upright), Appalachian dulcimer player, & has turned her hand (invariably with good results) to everything from banjo ukulele to cello.  She has a love for quirky instruments as well, & plays a mean kazoo & slide whistle! 

But Eberle has often said that she is much more happy as a composer than as a performer, &  her compositional skills are formidable.  She wrote much of the material in the Alice in Wonder Band’s repertoire, wrote the score for a dramatic production of Antigone, wrote much of the scores for two silent movies she & I composed & performed as the Bijou Orchestrette (the films were both by Nell Shipman: Back to God’s Country & The Grub Stake), & has written all or part of the scores for a number of dramatic productions, from Under Milkwood to The Second Shepherd’s Play.  These days her musical skills are much caught up with her newfound Catholic faith, & she has written a number of works in this direction. 

Today’s composition, which I adore, is from a soundtrack to a dramatic adaptation of Carl Sandburg’s Rootabaga Stories.  Let’s see what Eberle has to say about her piece, “Rootabaga Hoedown”:

I enjoy inventing ancient music. When John and I were writing and recording music for a production of Carl Sandburg’s Rootabaga Stories, I wrote some ancient Americana – a hoedown for psaltery and bouzouki. John gave me the beautiful psaltery and I’d been wanting to write a song for this exotic creature for some time (John or the psaltery…? you decide!) The bouzouki came from a chapter of my own ancient history – when I was 14 my family came home with this instrument from a trip to Greece, and I hadn’t thought about it for decades until my mother gave it to me not long before the Rootabaga project. I don’t think it’s an instrument of great value, but it sounded very cool – John had been playing it and I loved the sound. At that time, we only had a Sony MiniDisc (no multi-tracking) but I had a very particular idea for the sound of the hoedown and I wanted to play both parts. So I recorded the bouzouki part and John put it on a CD – then I played the psaltery along with it and recorded the whole thing in John’s cave-like sitting room, a perfect ancient setting!

I know you’re going to love this one!

8 comments:

  1. This is wonderful - a triumphant synthesis of Olde Tyme and old time! But I guess with so many of the old songs being in modal form ('Oh, Death' and the like), the interface is actually quite natural. Anyway, a great piece and thanks to both of you for it.

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  2. Hi Dick: Yes, I love this one. Eberle loves modal music. She was quite a hand on the banjo for a while & favored the more modal tunings--Sawmill (AKA Mountain Minor) & Double C. So glad you liked it.

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  3. This is great! And very medieval-sounding, too; substitute a cittern for the bouzouki (they're practically the same instrument anyhow) and you'd have a genuine medieval ensemble.

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  4. Hi Roy: Glad you liked it! As Dick says, it does seem like a synthesis of Olde Tyme 7 old time.

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  5. I enjoyed this piece - it's lively and gave me such a bright optimistic feeling! Sort of like reaching the top of a hill and seeing a lot of beautiful country all around.

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  6. Hi HKatz: There's certainly a lot of brightness & energy in the piece. Glad you enjoyed it!

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  7. I really enjoyed that! It was fresh and clean and, to my ears, a little exotic!

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  8. Hi TFE: Glad you liked it--yes, fresh, as are most of Eberle's compositions. Thanks!

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