The Sounds of Music

Olga Bloom, wanting to create a sanctuary for musicians, purchased a vintage coffee barge in 1972 and through her own determination and will, paneled the interior with cherry wood from an abandoned Staten Island Ferry and established Barge Music. For almost forty years, beginning in 1977, the floating barge, anchored just under and in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, has been hosting weekly concerts.  Olga, who died in 2011, was a close friend and for a few years I would often spend Saturday morning with her at the Barge.  She believed that music should be in the public square because, “I’m trying to persuade people that no matter what you are going through, if there’s music, it’s all worth it.  Without music there is no survival.”   For Olga Bloom music was an outlet for the soul.

I thought of Olga this weekend as people who are passionate about music surrounded me in New Hampshire. It began on Thursday evening when TJ Wheeler performed in the beautifully landscaped garden at the Laconia Public Library. The air was still and warm as TJ pulled a wooden board up under his feet and began tap dancing, while still seated, to the rhythm of the blues he was singing and strumming.  Along with the music he provided commentary on the cultural history of the music. TJ didn’t just stay with the guitar, he moved first to a one-string instrument that appeared to be made from an old cane.  Then he picked up a ukulele pronounced he said as ”OO– ulele” not “UK- ulele”, with a body made from a wooden cigar box.  I had never seen anything like this before and he told us these instruments are made at C. B. Gitty in Rochester, New Hampshire. Then he switched to a banjo and invited the children on the lawn to pick up one of the instruments, most of them handmade that were on the ground next to his feet.  By the time the concert was ending many of the people on the lawn were dancing, people riding by on bicycles had stopped to listen to the music and there were smiles all around.

On Friday I was in Littleton having lunch with a friend and had an opportunity to hear a few impromptu concerts played on the brightly painted pianos that are on the street to provide “glad music”. People passing by sit down and play with music ranging from Bach to the American songbook.  The “Pollyanna” influence is everywhere in evidence in Littleton now. The cross walks are painted a bright emerald green with the words:  Stop, Walk, Wave, stenciled in large white letters.

In April an exhibition entitled “Taking the Lead:  Women and the White Mountains” opened at the Museum of the White Mountains at Plymouth State University.  Dr. Marcia Schmidt Blaine had provided me with the catalogue and I have been trying to find the time to visit.   As Plymouth was going to be filled with music on Saturday morning, beginning with a concert by the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra, I thought it might be the perfect day.  It was.  Because in addition to spending time studying the fascinating exhibition just around noon, Ruth Harlow, a retired teacher, walked in and began singing. An a cappella soloist she was just one of the musicians performing in various venues around Plymouth. Dressed in a blue dress, with a handsome straw hat, she fit in perfectly with the early women mountaineers.

On Sunday morning Bob Bengtson, the music Director at the Congregational Church of Laconia played the Allegro Maestoso from Handel’s Water Music as the organ postlude, filling the sanctuary with glorious sound. The Church was filled, as people were there to say farewell to Rev. Dr. Warren Bouton, who had served as Senior Pastor for twelve years, and his wife Brenda, who are retiring to Delaware. They will be missed in the community.

Sunday afternoon, after picking a large bouquet of black eyed-Susans, it was time to think about traveling back to New York. But not before driving to Tilton Island for one of the concerts held each Sunday evening through July and August in the Alan & Savina Hartwell Bandstand. It was lovely walking across the river, and listening to jazz  performed by the East Bay Jazz Ensemble, (sponsored by the Kenneth Partridge Construction Company).  During breaks the sound of the Winnipesauke River could be heard rushing over the rocks, there was a quiet breeze through the trees and a few children played in the water next to the shore.  The music of nature is equally beautiful.

Olga once told me “Life is a glissando, during which there are appearances.  And what do you get?  A scale.  Do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do! And within the movement of this scale, you have music.”  She believed that “Music is a manifestation of nature and should exist in a place of natural beauty.  We feel tenderness toward people who will look for a seashell and treasure it; we admire people who cultuviate little gardens in their windowsills.  These are the people who come to the Barge.”