A person's legacy can inspire beyond our thoughts, imagination, and life.
When I write blogs for this website I attempt to write them in a way that honors, acknowledges, and thanks the people that have inspired me in music and life.
Before I retired from the fire department, I searched the website of the high school in the town I was moving to in order to contact the band director. I wanted to introduce myself and offer my assistance to the band. Upon my search, I noticed the website listed the band director and choir director with the first name, Fernando. Knowing errors occur when information is entered into a computer or even a glitch in programming, I thought a mistake was made when names were entered.
However, I was wrong.
I sent an introductory email to Fernando Frank, the gentleman listed as the band director. He responded and we set up a meeting at the high school. Our meeting, believe it or not, felt like a re-acquaintance of old friends. At least it felt like that to me. Fernando may have felt like he was being thrown into a small room with a really weird trumpet-playing, former firefighting, story-writing, and just plain odd old guy.
We visited for a while and came up with a plan for me to help with the band program. During the visit, he told me that Fernando Vera, the choir director was the band assistant. While walking around the music wing and learning about the program, he mentioned how well they work together and strive for excellence in music.
“I thought the person imputing the names on the website made a mistake and listed both first names as Fernando,” I had told him, “I guess I will need to call you Fernando Band and him Fernando Choir.”
The next day, I walked into the front office of the high school and was met by Fernando Band and another gentleman. Fernando introduced me to Dr. Joshua White, the principal.
Dr. White, a former music teacher asked me if I would teach guitar, ukulele, and world music (general music) after we discussed my previous teaching experiences. I agreed, applied, and accepted the position. My intent was to teach until he could find someone to take the position. Once someone was found for the position, I would resume my retirement and pursue my trumpet playing career.
Even though I planned to work as a school teacher for one semester, I still applied for my Florida teaching certificate. A lesson I learned as a firefighter is to always have multiple plans. I didn’t plan on retiring from the fire department so I could begin a career in teaching, however, getting a certification is a way of showing your character. I wanted the Fernandos and Dr. White to see that I was committed to educating the students even if it were to be for a short amount of time.
Dr. White and the Fernandos have been fantastic colleagues. I cannot compliment them enough on their professionalism, character, and personal commitment to excellence in education, their relationships with the students, and their personal encouragement to one another. Bravo to them and I thank them for allowing me to be a part of the crew.
Something that has never been a part of my character is jealousy. However, I was a bit jealous that I didn’t have a cool name like Fernando while working with the music program. So, the Fernandos said I could be an honorary Fernando. Dr. White enjoyed seeing how well we got along in the music department so much that he would address me on my observations and emails as, Dan “Fernando” Hauger. Yup, he is just that cool.
As an honorary Fernando, I attempted to live up to the name but, there was just something missing. A concrete connection, a solid sense of semblance, and a full-fledged feeling of Fernando fullness.
Then it happened.
Fernando Vera (Fernando Choir), told me that he found my true doppelgänger and that I would be considered a true Fernando. Fernando Frank (Fernando Band) said, “You haven’t told him yet?” So, I knew whatever I was to be told, and shown, would be good.
They proceeded to pull up ABBA on YouTube and played their song, are you ready for this, Fernando. They paused the video at a specific location where Björn’s face was on the screen.
“See!”, they said excitedly, “That looks exactly like you! That is your doppelgänger, that makes you an official Fernando!”
Once my wife agreed that we had similar characteristics, I accepted the doppelgänger/Fernando/ABBA persona and smiled as a true Fernando.
One problem remained. We called Dr. White an honorary Fernando but wanted him to be a true Fernando. He looks nothing like anyone from ABBA, so, we wracked our brains to come up with a way to knight him as a true Fernando.
The day Dr. White became a true Fernando was the day he, once again, went above and beyond his duty as a school administrator.
Many times, in the south, the marching band will go to away football games. I know that sounds strange to all of my northern marching band friends, but, they do that in Florida and did the same thing when I lived in Texas. I will admit, it is fun to meet the directors of other schools and it helps build camaraderie between the bands. After the bands perform during half-time, they will meet during the third quarter and be a mass of band kids. Not one band against another, just a group of kids with a common interest.
I enjoyed attending the games with Fernando Band, meeting the other directors, and watching the kids interact. Even though I was no longer a twenty-something-year-old kid that practiced my trumpet from 1 am - 3 am in college and then get up for my 8 am class, I was able to make it through the late-night bus rides and still get up by 6 am the next morning for my coffee and quiet time.
The football team won a hard-fought game that extended their season. Their next game would be an away game on the next Friday, the last day of school before Thanksgiving vacation. So, Fernando informed the band students they were not going to go and would be able to start their Thanksgiving vacation early. The next day, he bought a plane ticket in order to visit family that lived in a different state. On Monday, he received an email from the principal (Dr. White) that stated how excited the superintendent was to have the band attend the next game.
Dr. White, knowing Fernando Band had bought his ticket and was going to fly home said to go visit family and he would take the band.
Originally, before we found out the superintendent wanted the band to go, Fernando asked me if I had any interest in taking the band to the game in his place. I had told him that I would enjoy the night off and that was when he told the kids they would not be going to the game.
After Dr. White said he would take them, I told him I would go too. Please understand that I am not a person of noble character, hero, good guy, or anything that would make someone say “Awwww”. I didn’t want Dr. White to have to do this alone and the students were used to me being in the stands with them. So, off we go to the game: Dr. White, me, and a group of incredible band students.
Although his actions of stepping up and taking the band would be enough to knight him a “Fernando”, Dr. White went further into the realm of awesomeness and brought one of the school’s marching baritones and played in the stands with the students.
The picture that accompanies this blog was the one I took of Dr. White at the game. By his permission, of course.
We had a lot of fun at the game and made some lifelong memories. I hope the students enjoyed the time as much as I did and although Dr. Fernando White hadn’t played a baritone, marching band style, for a long time, he held with the group and enjoyed the game too.
It should be obvious, from my previous blog, that I think music should be fun. Even when playing serious, sacred, or serene music, it can still be fun.
When I retired from the fire department and we moved from Indiana to Florida, we knew three things. We would live inland, I was going to play my trumpet, and I would teach trumpet lessons. What we didn’t know was, the couple that owns the house across the street lives in Indiana and are neighbors to one of my former shift mates from the fire department.
Talking about a small world.
As my wife and I talked to our new neighbors, Michael and Debbie Dirr (pronounced Deer), we learned that Michael’s uncle, Charles Dirr, the previous owner of the house they now owned, was an accomplished musician.
Well, the title of an accomplished musician is an understatement. The guy was a musical genius and performer.
Charles was an organist that played at multiple churches. He was a highly sought-after and very well-known musician as well as a soloist, composer, and educator.
Michael and Debbie invited me into their house in order to show me Charles’s music. I walked into the home to find a treasure trove of music and history.
Let me stop here for a second and tell you that I had never understood the draw to pipe organ music. Organist, please forgive me for saying that in a simple and musically vulgar way. No disrespect intended, but, to me, not being exposed to organ music, or players, I had very limited and naive knowledge of organists and the sounds of the organ.
Phantom of the Opera as well as Toccata and Fugue were the only two organ pieces I had ever paid attention to. Please understand that I am not hanging my head in shame because I limited my listening and didn’t explore various kinds of music. I am not ashamed of this because we are always learning and many times our tastes change.
Prior to retiring from the fire department and moving to Florida, I watched a few videos of an organist that would record her practice sessions at Royal Albert Hall. We all know that big brother is watching, so, I now see a lot of videos come across my feed about organists. The artist is Anna Lapwood. I hope she doesn’t mind me mentioning her in this blog, but, if for some crazy reason, she reads this, Thank you Ms. Lapwood for educating me and being an incredible musician and educator.
The reason I mentioned the fact that I began to listen to organ music prior to retirement is that I want to emphasize that I had no idea I would ever move to this town in Florida, meet the Dirr family, and learn about Charles.
Michael asked me if I would be interested in any of the music and I promptly replied, yes but I would like to be able to take time to look through it and see if it would be music I could study or use. I didn’t want to take music that would sit in my studio for a while then get packed into boxes and only get opened occasionally and looked at in awe.
Michael and Debbie had to return to the cold, frigid, frozen, chilled, and sub-zero north (Yes, that is how I see Indiana now) but left me a key to the house so I could open the home for items they may have delivered. I had a few minutes one day, so I contacted Michael and asked for permission to look at some of the music. He granted me permission and my few minutes turned into about an hour of amazement.
Mr. Charles Dirr was an organized musical genius.
He had his sheet music cataloged better than a college music library. As I thumbed through some of the music, I noticed he had written his name and address on the inside front cover of each piece of music, book, and musical selection he owned. Not only that, many of the pieces included the location, date, and the event that he played that particular selection.
Some of the music had multiple entries showing he used that selection for Easter, Christmas, and wedding services. I was able to see a recorded history of a professional musician’s journey of spreading joy in a community throughout the years. I stood in amazement and sadness. I actually felt sadness in the fact that I never had the opportunity to meet Charles Dirr, face to face. I am quite sure he would have been sick of seeing me arrive on his doorstep with my trumpet in one hand and a stack of music in the other so we could spend a while playing music if we had been neighbors. Then again, after getting to know him through the legacy he left in his music and the stories Michael shared, I think he would have requested a set schedule of our weekly music sessions.
Michael told me to invite Fernando Band and Fernando Choir over to look through music too. Fernando Choir was unable to visit, however, Fernando Band was introduced to Michael and then to Maestro Charles Dirr.
As we sat and looked through music, choosing pieces that we could use to learn and play, we listened to Michael as he told us stories of Charles.
Charles wrote music that has been published and royalties are still collected from his creation. We learned that he was invited to many locations as a guest artist, not only to play the organ but because of his superior knowledge of the instrument and the music written for the instrument.
Among the multiple stacks of music, we discovered a concert program from when Charles played clarinet in the local high school band. The same band my friend Fernando Band is the director. Fernando is well-versed in the history of the band, as well as the town. He enjoys learning about history as well as the people that made history. Michael gave him the program and Fernando stated he will have it presented in the glass display so the band students can see and read the program. His students will appreciate and enjoy seeing the program. They are fantastic students with a fantastic teacher.
Michael also told us a story that, to us, is sad and almost unbelievable. When Charles passed away, he had willed his music collection to one of his alma maters. He had multiple degrees, however, he studied organ at a particular school and wanted them to have his organ music collection. His collection includes main-stream songbooks for the times he was contracted to play weddings and other events that would not appreciate Saint Saens, Poulenc, Franck, and many other great organ compositions that Organists enjoy.
The university, which will go unnamed, was contacted. The following is a synopsis and will be written in my own words of their reply.
“Oh, that’s nice. Why don’t you list and categorize the music and we will decide if we could use some of it.”
I know from experience when people find out you are involved in music, they will present an instrument or music they claim is an antique that belonged to a great aunt’s, uncle’s former grandfather’s, mother’s step-sister’s friend’s niece that grew up in as a nun in the old world. Whenever you agree to look at the instrument or music, you either see that it is a knockoff instrument that was probably made in the late 1960s or ’70s, not well taken care of or the music still has the price tag on the back page directly above the 1980’s copyright date.
I think, and I could be wrong in my thinking here if the person at the university would have taken the effort and a few minutes to look through their database and confirm that Charles Dirr was a former student, did a quick search of Mr. Dirr and realized he is a published composer, and that Mr. Dirr was a highly sought after performer/clinician, they may have changed their mind. They would have received organized boxes of organ music with his handwritten notes, rehearsal markings, and dates of performances. They would have had a testament to the greatness that their university helped create.
Instead, they said, thanks but no thanks.
Oh well. Mr. Charles Dirr’s legacy will live on. He will live on through me, his family, the Fernandos, and the students that will now benefit from the music that was shared with us by the Dirrs. This is truly a, “Their loss, our gain”, situation.
This has been a lengthy blog entry, however, it could have been a lot longer. There is so much more I learned and wanted to share, but, I guess I could save that for future entries.
Thank you Michael and Debbie Dirr for sharing Charles with us. Thank you to Fernando Frank (Fernando Band), Fernando Vera (Fernando Choir), and Dr. Joshua White (Dr. Fernando White) for being incredible educators, administrators, and friends. Thank you Anna Lapwood for educating me on the art of an organist and the beauty of the organ. Last but not least, thank you, Maestro Charles Dirr. Thank you for showing a meathead trumpet player how important it is to pass on your legacy in music. Thank you for showing, teaching, and being what a true musician should be.
Enjoy the ones you are with, enjoy the legacy of the ones that have gone, and enjoy the music that is created.