Capturing Our History: What You Can Do to Help Frank Buck, AMEA Historian


During his third season at Notre Dame, Lou Holtz looked back over his tenure and remarked, “We’re not where we want to be. We’re not where we ought to be. But, thank God, we’re not where we used to be.” Notre Dame went on to win a national championship that year. Holtz’s sentiment characterizes the progress we have made in assembling the history of our organization.


AMEA members do good things on a daily basis. In our haste to move forward, we tend to forget the good things we have done, capture them, and preserve them in a way that their memories will inspire future generations. In this article, you will read about recent work. You will read some thoughts about what could be ahead. Most importantly, you will see a way in which you can --contribute.


Past Presidents, Hall of Fame, and Award Winners In each issue of Ala Breve, a list of AMEA Past Presidents appears. Depending on our ages, many of those names serve as a reminder of the wonderful people we know, or knew, personally. We tell stories of hallmark performances by their groups or the wisdom they imparted. As years turn to decades, written records begin to serve as the primary way to preserve that history.


On the AMEA website (alabamamea.org), look for the “Past Presidents” link. Every single one is pictured with a short bio. A plan is in place to review those bios for needed changes as the years go by and update the page as new leaders take the helm.


Likewise, the AMEA website features pictures and bios of all Hall of Fame members. Whereas that site had previously featured only the pictures, we added bios this past year. As with the Past Presidents, a plan is in place to add pictures and bios of the new inductees each year. With any project, keeping something up to date is always easier than trying to research back through the years.


Third, we have gathered together the names of award winners for the “Outstanding Music Educator,” “Outstanding


Administrator,”


“Barbara Odom Service Award,” and our newest award, the “Outstanding Young Music Educator.” Every year, the names of the new winners will be added to this list.


Sleepless Nights and Memories of State Contest One colleague told me I was responsible for the hours of sleep he was losing, glued to a computer screen. What was the subject of the intrigue? Band contest programs…programs from the ABA State Contest dating back to 1950. Each little nugget of history captured the names of directors, the selections they played, and the ratings they received.


ala breve


Until now, those programs lived in garages of people who had carefully copied ratings off the wall posters decades ago. Today, they are all in one place—scanned and uploaded to a shared folder which you can access today. Go to the ABA section of the AMEA website and click the “MPA” link. On the next screen, you will see a link to the entire collection. If you find yourself not only scouring them well in to the night, and enjoying every minute of it, you will not be alone.


The project to collect the ABA programs and rating was on the front-burner because we already had a 35-year head start. As a 9th grader in 1974, I decided I wanted to be a band director, and it was that year that I got my first program, and for the first time carefully copied ratings from the charts on the wall into the program in my hands. It would be a process I would repeat every year.


This project has been far from a one-person job. Various people, each who had a few programs stored here or there began to come forward. With the help of such people as Bill Springer, Rush Gavin, Jerry Countryman, Orland Thomas, and Ron Sellers, we were able to plug many holes in the collection as we attempted to piece together the pre-1974 years. The holes are still not all filled, and probably will never be. But just when I thought everything that could be uncovered was uncovered, Lacey Powell found one of the few missing years in his garage—1953. The most recent addition came from our dear friend Truman Welch. Shortly after his death, grandson- in-law Scott Thompson sent me a collection of programs which included a program from 1949.


Could We Do the Same Thing for AVA? When I emailed Carl Davis about beginning an effort to collect AVA festival programs from the past, his response was enthusiastic. If the help of additional people was important with the ABA project, it will be absolutely essential to replicate it for AVA. This is the part where I am asking choral directors to put down this magazine and start looking through files, boxes, garages, storage rooms, and attics. Send me what you have.


My mailing address is 531 Eagle Pointe Lane, Pell City, AL 35128 for hard copies you would like to send. (If you would like to keep the original, Xerox a copy to send. With the expected volume, and many other on-going projects, I would not be able to duplicate and return material.) My email is Frank@FrankBuck.org for anything you wish to scan and send. If you are a college student, your contributions to AMEA don’t have to wait until you have diploma in hand. Several of our university libraries have copies of the Ala Breve in what is typically a “special collections” section. Ala Breve generally published these ratings. With the help of a cell phone camera, we can get those digitized.


What About All-State?


Much like our festival programs, a complete collection of All-State programs is nowhere to be found. Sure, I had collected quite a few from the 1980s and forward. Any possibility of trying to find programs from farther back seemed too remote to consider.


Earlier, I talked about the collection of programs Truman Welch had collected. Among them was virtually every All-State program from 1949 through 1969. I might add that they had been kept in chronological order. Because of Mr. Welch’s addition, the possibility to putting together a fairly complete collection now seems less daunting.


Again, look in your garages, storage rooms, and the like for that random program that you can mail or email to me. If you have AVA All-State programs, I need them; I don’t have a single one. If you have ABA All-State programs, email me to let me know what you have. I will respond with whether or not I am missing that one.


You Too Could Be an Author


The positive feedback following the release of the ABA programs and an Ala Breve article I wrote last spring has been appreciated. One phone call was from Dr. John M. Long. After reading the article, he called to follow-up on a bit of information about Walter Mason, AMEA President from 1948. Dr. Long suggested a book be written about Dr. Mason. While I would not begin to have the time to tackle a project of that magnitude, I think it opens an opportunity.


Alabama has had many music educators whose stories need to be told in an extended form. Alabama also has many students in high schools, colleges, and graduate programs who have papers to write and wonder what to write about. The opportunity to marry the one with the other is significant.


Dr. Bodie Hinton gave us a history of Alabama bands when he faced the task of a doctoral dissertation. William Dennison gave us the story of legendary band director Herman Moll. Beth Davis recently completed a dissertation on Dr. Ed Cleino’s life.


What works are out there now which chronicle the lives of some of our finest? What stories need to be told? Who do you know that could tell one of those stories and leave a lasting contribution to


AMEA’s quest to remember its accomplishments? What could you do to get the process going?


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