David Irving Was Born in Kankakee, Illinois, but Was
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The Place Above the Stars My Journey from Horn Player to Composer and Defender of Animals An Autobiography by David Irving Copyright © 2019 by David Irving Dedications To my brother Darrel whose support has been so vital for the journey and without which I could never have traveled the path and endured. To J.R. Schlatter whose encouragement helped put me onto the road of a highly exciting musical journey where I met many wonderful musicians and many good and kind people. To all my incredible friends and associates past and present with the greatest love and affection. I have no doubt you have tended your gardens far better than the story told within ii To the One Above the Stars in whom I am sometimes privileged to marvel iii In Fond and Loving Remembrance Laurence Gerow Irving (1900-2002) Adeline Thomas Irving (1899-1997) Ann Irving 1926-2007 William Byron Irving 1928-2016 Irene Read 1918-2016 Irene Tysonia Read 1945-2017 iv Forward by Tim Page It is a moving experience to have known somebody for more than 40 years, to have admired his intelligence and musicianship, and then to be presented with an autobiography that proves that you’d never guessed at the richness of the life that he’s lived. I met David Irving in a writing class at Columbia University in the summer of 1976. It was a different New York then, scruffy and dangerous and profoundly unfashionable, yet it had a way of bringing people together – not just for necessary comradeship and self-protection but also to share amazement that we had inherited this once-glorious, now battered city as a place to recreate ourselves. Many of our fellow students were taking the course simply as a summer make-up to meet Columbia’s strict graduation requirements but David and I became friends because we really wanted to write. And so we wrote, filling our notebooks with stories and anecdotes and dutifully mimeographing our weekly articles so that all the students could read along and offer critiques. David was gentle and approachable and he wrote from the heart. I remember one story about an acquaintance of his who was slowly, sadly disentangling himself from life, becoming ever more passive and removed until, refusing to make a motion to save himself in a sudden crisis, was drowned on the spot. This, as the reader will quickly discover, was not a self-portrait. On the contrary, David was always a swimmer -- through cities, cultures and his deep and lasting friendships and now through a grave illness that he is facing courageously and doing what writers do with adversity – writing about it. The world has changed enormously since David’s childhood and what he called his “kind of Tom Sawyerish existence” in Indiana, with its then-vibrant river life and the ever-present sound of locomotives off in the distance, but he brings it to us still fresh. The young man fell in love with music and the music drew him off to great world cities, playing in the Seventh Army Symphony across Europe (his memories of postwar Vienna are undimmed as well as his formative experiences with the opera in Graz) moving on to Boston, to San Francisco in the beat and hippie years, and then to New York for the city’s long and improbable revival of fortunes. In between, David explored religion of many kinds, had some life-changing LSD experiences (both ecstatic and excruciating), came to know extraordinary people of all stripe, many of whom make appearances in this book. He became a distinguished horn player, playing under many of the leading conductors of his time, and then moved increasingly into composition, where he has given us some of his own intense and passionate music. He thinks about music too – one of the qualities I most admire about this book is the way David examines aesthetics of many sorts, taking nothing for granted, v either in his own music or that of others. In such passages, he seems both visionary and logician, a valuable combination. Late in life, this very kind man turned his attention to the betterment of society’s treatment of animals writing several books including The Protein Myth. Today, David is still a seeker, still asking questions and questioning answers and his book and his life may help and inspire the rest of us as we soldier through our own challenges. And now it is time for you to read on – and to discover a wise new friend. Tim Page February 17, 2019 Los Angeles vi Table of Contents Forward by Tim Page ................................................................................................ v Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................................................. 1 Prologue ....................................................................................... 1 The contents of this book ............................................................. 2 Exploring the ways of religion ..................................................... 3 My work ....................................................................................... 4 Studies and career ........................................................................` 4 Success as a composer – the Four Songs ..................................... 5 Time marches on .......................................................................... 5 Chapter 2 Early Childhood ................................................................................. 9 My parents ................................................................................... 9 Incubators ..................................................................................... 11 Connersville, Indiana ................................................................... 13 Early friendships .......................................................................... 14 Music influences in Connersville ................................................. 15 Being twins .................................................................................. 16 Getting to know myself ................................................................ 17 Siblings ........................................................................................ 18 Other growth experiences ............................................................` 18 Relatives and family friends ........................................................ 19 The birds and the bees.................................................................. 20 War ............................................................................................... 21 Looking back ............................................................................... 22 Chapter 3 Hoosier Days ...................................................................................... 23 Growing up in Bluffton, Indiana .................................................. 23 Cosmic Consciousness ................................................................. 26 Grade school ................................................................................ 27 Christian teachings ....................................................................... 30 Race in Bluffton ........................................................................... 31 Summer vacations ........................................................................ 32 A farmer's life .............................................................................. 33 Country school ............................................................................. 35 New coach in town – A dangerous throw .................................... 36 Return to Central School .............................................................. 37 Chapter 4 High School Days.............................................................................. 38 Music enters our lives .................................................................. 38 The ethos of the times .................................................................. 41 Bluffton friends ............................................................................ 41 Music becomes ever more important ........................................... 42 vii Being cruel and learning how not to be cruel .............................. 42 Finding culture ............................................................................. 43 School chums ............................................................................... 46 First girlfriend .............................................................................. 46 Everett .......................................................................................... 47 The preacher's daughter ............................................................... 49 Pursuing the dream ...................................................................... 50 Chapter 5 You're in the Army Now .................................................................... 53 Basic training ............................................................................... 53 Life in the band ............................................................................ 56 Agnosticism and liberation .......................................................... 58 The 7th Army Symphony Orchestra ............................................. 60 A dream come true ....................................................................... 61 A new hero ................................................................................... 64 Military antagonisms and army inspections ................................ 67 Falling in love .............................................................................