Klarinet Archive - Posting 000162.txt from 2004/07

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] bumblebee
Date: Mon, 5 Jul 2004 12:38:04 -0400

Unfortunately I don't have any of the recordings of the old
Goldman band conducted by the father. I do have one conducted by
the son but it was never the same after the old man died. Jimmie
Burke still played in it, doing the Carnival of Venice variations
so fast that it blinded one in its speed. Burke had only one
usable arm, the other having been a withered stump since
childhood. You might think that this would not affect a trumpted
player but it did because he could never work the spit valve
properly. His was a specially made instrument that enabled a one
armed man to play it and operate the spit valve.

But I must now tell you another Goldman story that will be
printed in the newsletter of the Mozart Society of America in
January, 2005. The piece is written by Elwood Derr, a wonderful
musicologist from the University of Michigan.

It seems that Goldman decided to leave his entire estate to the
Univ. of Michigan and a small part of that estate actually got
there a couple of years before Goldman died. Responsible for the
archive (and which contained a Mozart manuscript, which is how I
got interested in the story as told brilliantly by Derr) was the
famous bandmaster William Revelli (spelling?).

A problem arose when Revelli seems to have gotten the
understanding that the collection was left not to the University
but to him personally, and that is how he treated it. The
university certainly knew of the donation but it was never
catalogued in any of the various University libraries. The
result was that, after a few years, no one really knew very much
about the bequest or even remembered who gave it, though it was
stored in a room named after Goldman. And it contained lots of
other things including some very valuable paintings and
autographs.

When Revelli died, the whole collection was put into cardboard
boxes and left laying around. Occasionally, someone would come
and borrow the contents of a box for some sort of public display.
The Detroit Symphony did that, made a big splash about the item
they borrowed, and then returned it. But some of the collection
simply disappeared and no one knows where a few of those pieces
went.

It was only about three years ago that Derr was contacted with
respect to an inquiry about the collection. He went and
investigated the cardboard boxes and discovered a Mozart
manuscript. It is not a tremendously important one, just a
fragment of a violin part to a set of dances, but as a Mozart
manuscript, even a fragment, it is worth a ton of money. It is
mentioned as being lost in a volume of the Mozart edition, the
one where that set of dances appears. And the reference to that
manuscript is made from a bad photo taken of it ca. 1920 when it
was sold by a European auction house, which is how Goldman got it
for about $300. That's quite an investment. Today, it would be
worth about $75,000.

Now the entire collection, or what remains of it, has been
catalogued in one the university libraries and its contents
preserved properly. I even got an excellent digital photo of the
manuscript for use with the MSA newsletter article.

The remainder of Goldman's estate never made it to the
University. Either he changed his mind, or had not fully
completed the paperwork, but the family kept it, probably
donating it to an institution that respected it a good deal more
than the University of Michigan and William Revelli.

That Revelli must have had some ego.

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Forest Aten [mailto:forestaten@-----.net]
Sent: Monday, July 05, 2004 9:12 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: Re: [kl] bumblebee

Remember Jimmie
> Burke, the solo cornettist with the Goldman Band. As far as I
> was able to determine, he could ONLY play fast.)
>
> Dan Leeson
> DNLeeson@-----.net
>
>
Dan,

Do you have any of the old Goldman Band recordings?
I can remember, as a kid, listening to a remarkable recording of
the band.
Jimmy Abado performed the final movement from the Tchaikovsky vio
lin
concerto.....wow, what incredible tonguing.
I owned this recording many, many years ago. My Mother tossed it
in a
cleaning frenzy. I would love to hear it again after 40 years
passing. I've
searched the net...without luck.

Forest Aten

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