Hello folks,
My turn, I guess. On December 13, 1931 my mother gave birth to a little blind, cross-eyed boy in Los Angeles - me. By age six after several operations, I could see with the help of my little thick lenses (about 20/200 worth). Mother taught me piano lessons and discovered I had so-called absolute pitch. After a few years she enrolled me in private lessons, which I continued into early college. I was headed for a career as a pianist, even went with my teacher to NYC and had an interview with Edwin Hughes. But by then I had discovered as a college undergraduate a keen interest in composing, arranging, singing, music theory, and teaching. I explained to Hughes that I was really interested in composing and teaching, and he said the world needed good composers and teachers more than another struggling concert pianist, so I came home and headed in that direction. At LA City College I met Bob Florence, who started this thread. We became a duo piano team and played every modern piece we could find. While Bob headed in the direction of big band and jazz, I headed into composition and early music.
When I transferred to USC in my junior year, I tried out for a piano scholarship but put down my major as composition. I got a call from Ellis Kohs, composer on the USC faculty asking me "You are down here for a scholarship, but where are your compositions?" I grabbed what I had (a flute/piano sonata and some clarinet duos) and took them down to USC, and they gave me the scholarship. After I graduated they asked me to join the faculty.
In the late '50s I connected with John Biggs, and both of us took up recorder. He later formed an early music consort in which I sang tenor and countertenor, played Renaissance winds and keyboards. John played recorder and gamba, and his wife Salli Terri was our alto. Claire Gorden was our soprano.
After getting a BM in composition, I decided to go for the master's plus a teaching credential thinking that I would not be able to get a college teaching job with a lowly MM. I taught high school in a small northern Claifornia town until I was able to get an award from the Ford Foundation (that became the Contemporary Music Project with the MENC) as composer-in-residence with the Wichita, KS schools. Following that I returned to USC for the doctorate, studying with Ingolf Dahl and Halsey Stevens and became a Lecturer in Theory and Composition there. In a class in advanced keyboard harmony that I taught was a guy named Michael Tilson Thomas. He played my Piano Concerto with the USC Symhony, a real thrill for me.
This is going on too long, so I'll bring you up to date quickly. I secured a position at the University of Oregon in '66, moved to Eugene, and taught theory and composition and directed the Collegium Musicum there until my retirement in 1997, have been Chair of the Composition Department since 1975, and published books in counterpoint, theory, and church music. I've been involved in church music since a kid and have published lots of anthems, organ music, and other church-related music. As the choirmaster of my church choir for over thirty years, I've felt like a Kappelmeister with a willing and talented choir and organist to compose for.
I got involved with computers back in the old Apple //e era, even did a bit of machine code programming. I got in on Finale Version 1.0 that came on floppies and cost $1000. About 1990 I taught a Finale Workshop, and the tutorials for that class were for Finale 2.7 or so. Since Finale 3.7 I've offered updated versions of the tutorials on the SHSU FTP site, and since Fiale 2002 I've offered them by way of my email address. There are versions in Norwegian, Russian, and Portugese. As far as I know, there are probably others. My tutorials have always been free. My dear wife got me GPO for Christmas, and I'm eagerly learning to use it.
The people on this list are fantastic: talented, knowledgeable, helpful, patient, and positive.
". . . Control of your computer has now been returned to you."
Happy scoring!
Hal -- Harold Owen 2830 Emerald St., Eugene, OR 97403 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit my web site at: http://uoregon.edu/~hjowen FAX: (509) 461-3608 _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
