The Community Music Center (CMC) celebrates a historical milestone next month: 70 years of helping Portlanders of all ages find the joy of making music together. Located in a repurposed firehouse in SE Portland, the center offers affordable music classes and lessons, free and low-cost concerts and workshops, low-cost instrument rentals, and other resources for the public. Currently more than 350 students are taking classes in drumming, piano, strings, vocal, cello, fiddle, and more, led by talented instructors.
Which brings us to Phil and Gayle Neuman. Accomplished musicians in their own right, they've performed around the world and have built more than 450 early instruments in their own workshop. These days they teach a weekly class on Renaissance music together on Thursday nights. We caught up with them as they were rehearsing for a concert to celebrate the CMC turning 70 years old.
How did you get started at the Community Music Center?
Phil: In 1980, they were looking for somebody to teach recorder part-time. So we came in for an interview. They were just looking for one teacher, but Gayle came in with me because we lived out in McMinnville and we had some other things to do in Portland. So they asked me some questions, and they said they'd hire me….
Gayle: And they turned to me and said, “You play, too? We'll hire you both!”
What drew you to the recorder?
Phil: I played the recorder as a kid. Mostly self-taught. In high school I joined a group. We played whatever we could find, old hymns, you name it. Then we connected with a guy who was a recorder teacher! What a concept. We never really had a teacher before. He turned us on to Renaissance music. It was just fantastic. Pretty soon we were playing concerts. After high school, I went to Mount Hood Community College and they asked me to teach a class on the recorder.
Gayle: I started on violin as a kid. I went to Mount Hood Community College to pursue music. I wanted to be an orchestra director and figured I ought to know some other instruments besides strings. So I took Phil's recorder class… (They both laugh.) Pretty soon we were playing early music together with vocalists and strings and recorders and never looked back.
So you both teach recorder?
Gayle: Yes, but we teach lots of other instruments, too. Currently in our class we also have people playing the sackbutt, which is an early trombone. We have the cornetto, which is like a cross between woodwind and trumpet. We have rackett, cornamuse, krummhorn, sordune, and douçaine.
Rackett? Cornamuse? I've never even heard of them.
Gayle: Double-reed instruments go way back to the ancient Egyptians. They used hollow bamboo canes.
Phil: A lot of these early instruments lost out to more modern instruments, because they have a narrower range -- fewer notes, you might say -- so people quit making them. But they sound amazing…
(Phil whips out a krummhorn, which resembles a giant wooden candy cane, and peels off a few buoyant notes that pulse with playful joy. In response, Gayle conjures forth a rackett, which looks like a pushed-together pirate's spyglass, and pipes forth a mellow, vibrant, reply.)
That sounds amazing! Where did you find these things?
Gayle: We made them. These types of instruments were hard to find and expensive to buy. We were in college and we didn't have a lot of funds, so we bought a lathe and drill and went from there.
Why Renaissance music?
Phil: It's very accessible. It was meant to be played on these types of instruments, so it's a great place to start. The rhythms are simple, and there are usually just two key signatures, which helps. It sounds wonderful and as you advance, you can easily add ornamentation if you want.
Gayle: Our students love Renaissance music, and they love composers like Palestrina, Josquin, and others who wrote marvelous works for four voices, six voices, eight voices. They love learning about imitative polyphony, canonic entrances, and all the stuff we teach in class.
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Learn more about the Community Music Center.
Learn more about the illustrious faculty who teach at the CMC.
Learn more about Phil and Gayle Neuman.