University Daily Kansan, July 22, 1983
Page 3
The music tradition lives, thanks to him
By MICHAEL PAUL Staff Reporter
Russell L. Wiley stepped onto the red and blue conductor's platform. He was about to begin rehearsal of the "1812 Overture" with high school musicians enrolled in the Midwestern Music Camp.
Russell L. Wiley, professor emeritus of music, conducts one of the bands in the Midwestern music and AWT Camp during a rehearsal. Wiley started the band in 1978.
As he looked at the musicians seated behind blue music stands, he sensed that they were anxious about rehearsing the work.
"I KNOW IT'S a difficult work," he said. "But I didn't select it. It's a tradition at the camp."
Wiley, professor emeritus of music, is indeed a part of that tradition.
He began the summer music camp in 1936 and rehearsed and conducted its high school musicians until 1974, when he retired as its director.
Wiley was invited to rehearse one of the bands for a concert scheduled for 1 p.m. tomorrow in Crafton-Preyer Theatre at Murphy Hall. In addition to conducting the "1812 Overture," he will conduct the "Irish Tune from County Derry," which has been adopted as the theme song of the camp.
ASIDE FROM HIS WORK with the summer camp, Wiley was director of bands at KU from 1934 to 1968 and later as the conductor of the symphony orchestra from 1942 to 1957
Although Wiley retired as director of bands in 1988, his influence still is being held.
James Barnes, assistant to the director of bands who played tuba in Wiley's last concert band in 1988, said he modernized the KU band program.
"He brought it into the 20th century. He was one of the few people at that time who took it seriously. Today college band programs are an important part of a University's program," Barnes said.
Wiley, who was born in Comanche County, Texas in 1906, is the youngest of six brothers.
"MY FATHER WAS a country fiddler. And all of my brothers picked up the violin and fooled around with it. You them could play it quite well." Wiley said.
Wiley first learned to play by ear and by the time he was 10, he was giving public performances - although not on a concert stage.
"We lived in Woodson, then, which is about 60 miles northeast of Abilene, Texas. And that area had more houses than you could shake a stick." he said.
COMMONWEALTH THEATRES
After Wiley finished high school, he worked for a few years to save money
"A professor that I knew had asked me to come to the school and organize the band and orchestra," he said, of organizing a band or orchestra.
1927, HE ENROLLED in Ran-
dolph College, a junior college in Cisco,
Texas. But he was more than a student.
"Every summer the churches would hold these two-week revival meetings and invite evangelists to preach. So, in the summer I would ride my pony four miles to these churches and play the violin at the meetings."
Wiley then attended Phillips University in Enid, Okla., in 1929 and 1930 and received a bachelor's degree in music. It was at the university that he met the teacher who had the greatest interest on his life — Rein Dukovanker.
"I never saw a teacher like that before," he said. "He was the greatest. Wiley also said that Duyksteraus was "hard as nails."
The band eventually corrected its mistakes.
To cover all of these interests, the film crew is traveling to many places, including Topoka, Lawrence, Wichita, Oklahoma and reservations in Western Kansas.
"That sounds like mud. You're playing four notes, I want three. That's all too slow," he told the musicians during rehearsal.
Travis said that much of the film was being shot in eastern Kansas because the producers wanted to avoid stereotypical views of Kansas as part of the
CENTRON HAS PRODUCED two other Kansas promotional films for the Department of Economic Development, according to Powers. They also have produced films promoting the state for various companies in Kansas and have produced educational film strips about the state for McGraw-Hill.
"I had to memorize my lessons for him," he said. "If they weren't memorized, he would end the lesson. That didn't happen too many times."
"I've worked here 35 years," Travis said. "We've never done anything like this before."
The second year 40 bands attended the festival and Wiley invited a famous conductor from New York — Edwin Franko Goldman.
ALTHOUGH THIS IS NOT the first Kansas promotional film produced by Centron, both Powers and Travis said that the metropolitan focus and the techniques made it unlike other Kansas films they have done.
More than 20,000 musicians now attend the festival each year, Wiley said. When the festival recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, it honored him by inviting him to conduct a 100-piece honor orchestra.
"WHILE HE WAS there, he award about an opening for a band director. He told Dean Donald M. Swarthout about me.
IN 1932 WILEY ORGANIZED the Tri-State Music Festival. The first year, he said, the festival attracted 10 tri-state from Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
"Apparently, he must have made a good impression, for Dean Swarhorth
"I really appreciated that," he said. But it was the impression that Wiley made on one of his students that led to his job at KU.
And, during rehearsal Wednesday, Wiley heard some sounds that Tekhoviksy had not scored in the "1832 Overture."
"I had a Swedish kid with blond hair, who had a marvelous tenor voice," he said. "He decided to leave Phillips to study at the University of Kansas."
that have had a lot of publicity already," she said. "Many people have heard of Matt Dillon. We want to show us the populist, modern, up-to-date thins."
Dixie Powers, Centron's vice president and general manager, said, "It will be a film of multi-faceted uses. It will be used to attract industry and visitors to the state. For residents, it will be a shot in the arm. It will show Kansas as a dynamic and lovely place."
"I I know the score, then I can keep my attention on the band, the orchestra," he said. "I can listen to the sound, and I can do the pianissimo, to the fortissimo."
Wiley said he had run into all kinds of obstacles while trying to establish his position.
The former band director, J.C. McCanles, had taught all of the instruments. And the School of Fine Wiley said, expected him to do the same.
To combat that image, the film will show water sports such as skiing and boating. It also will show hangliding and ski jumping, which is described as appealing to young people.
"THEY TOLD ME that I would have to remove everything from the room every day after I used it so that other people could use the room.
Travis said that the film would rely heavily on pictures, and that she had tried to limit the amount of narration in the script. She said that the limited narration "will allow the visual images to speak for themselves."
"They showed me this room in Strong Hall," he said. "It had four blackboards in it. Well, it was obvious that this wasn't a studio but a classroom.
Travis said that the film also would emphasize recreation opportunities, a focus on community and fun.
"Well, I resented that. It meant I couldn't even leave my music in the room. Eventually, they found some space in another part of Strong Hall for
"I had played some clarinet and some saxophone, but the idea of teaching all of the instruments in the band frightened me," he said.
"I wanted to develop a camp similar to the Interlochen Music Camp in Michigan," he said. "And the University seemed an appropriate place since it was near the middle of the United States."
teachers for the brass, wind, or percussion instruments, he said.
In 1936 Wiley began the summer music camp.
"WeVE GOT MORE WATER than Minnesota, and more shore than they do from Florida to Maine. And people still think this is a dvstate." she said.
Wiley said that he nearly left the job when he was shown his studio.
WILEY SAID THAT throughout the years he had made some changes in how he conducted and taught, but nothing drastic. He conducts without a baton, however, because it gives him greater use of his hands.
He said that the University did not offer any money for the camp for the first few years and that in the first year there were only 40 students at the
The next year, however, 250 students were enrolled and the camp began an orchestra. The camp continued to attract more students, more than 1,000 students were enrolled.
Powers said that after filming was completed, around Aug. 1, Centron film editors and sound technicians would begin process the film, which will premiere later this year at the Midwest International Conference, set for Oct. 9 to 11 in Lawrence.
The involvement of Karen Carlin, the governor's wife, as a fund-raiser and coordinator for the film sparked publicity and an investigation into possible conflict of interest. Carlin was paid $12,000 for her work with the film.
"These things serve a dual purpose. They are a plus to industry," she said. "The film will appeal to people who would be transferred here."
It's just part of the tradition that Russell L. Wiley started nearly 90 years ago.
The writer, Trudy Travis, scriptwriter for Centron Corporation Inc., 1621. W. Nith St., said that the film would emphasize the metropolitan and social aspects of the state, rather than "what fields and coworkers chewed their "cud."
Balancing the tourist and industrial appeals required some compromise,
Other filming sites in Lawrence include the Hallmark Cards Inc plant, the K-Mart Discount Store and the Independence Days Festival, which was held July 3 and 4 at Constant and Bercham parks.
As an example, Travis said, traditional tourist sights such as the beaches he and others had not been heavily emphasized, although they appear in the film.
At that time there were no private
"It will have a kaleidoscope view, with montages of scattered scenes. Some scenes will fragment, spin and reform into other scenes," she said.
The 15-minute film is being sponsored by the Travel Industry Association.
TRAVIS SAID THAT the KU scenes would publicize the educational opportunities in Kansas and would be used to promote shot at other colleges and universities.
New techniques will help give the film a contemporary look, said Powers.
The Museum of Natural History and Spencer Museum of Art will be among the sights featured in a promotional film titled "This is Kansas," which is being produced by a Lawrence film company, according to the film's writer.
"THE FILM IS NOT absolutely oriented one way or the other," she said. "Some impacts have been watered down to make room for others."
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