“Indeed there were several seasons of music from a variety of professional symphonic groups. “History shows us that there remained a group of Syracuse citizens who would not be denied a local symphony,” writes Linda Pembroke Kaiser in her book Pulling Strings. The original SSO had met a slow demise due in part to financial difficulties of its own. The Second Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, or SSO, the successor to the original founded by Melville Clark, was recently dismantled after declaring bankruptcy in May. Pulling Strings, her first book, is available from Syracuse University Press, www. She has written articles for the International Folk Harp Journal, and recorded an album of harp music, Lullabies for Earth Children. Linda Pembroke Kaiser performs on the harp, piano and guitar. The more I found out, the more I felt like I was the one to do it.” People sort of knew who he was … but there was much left untold. “That’s why I figured he was going to go into obscurity. “He was so multifaceted,” she told the Syracuse New Times. What began simply as curiosity – Kaiser owned a Clark harp – led to a well-researched, fully illustrated and engrossing account of Clark’s life. An account of his presentation of one music box to the royal family at Buckingham Palace is fascinating. Readers will enjoy learning about Clark’s collections of rare musical instruments, music boxes and antique harps. Then, he masterminded the launch of a balloon offensive used by the British military to carry messages to Europe to demoralize German troops. As a harp soloist and accompanist, he joined a troupe led by first daughter and accomplished vocalist Margaret Woodrow Wilson, and toured military camps and hospitals in the eastern U.S. He also invented nylon strings for instruments, a record-changing device, and even a mechanical fruit picker.ĭuring World War I, Clark organized “sings” with the troops at Camp Onondaga. The design made the instrument accessible and affordable. He was a prolific inventor, best known for the Clark Irish Harp, a smaller, less expensive and more portable version of the traditional concert pedal harp. The book is organized around Melville Clark’s activities. “They didn’t say, ‘Oh, we can’t sell those kinds of thing.’ They could, and they did.” “I thought it was interesting that the family kept its music company afloat by selling refrigerators,” Kaiser told the Syracuse New Times last year. In addition to exploring the life of Melville Clark, Pulling Strings also conveys what was happening in Central New York musically, socially and economically during his era. Today, Clark Music sells Steinway pianos to colleges and universities in Upstate New York. In 1960, the company was purchased by Guido Singer, who moved the showroom to Erie Boulevard. Later, it sold the first phonograph in Syracuse and the first harp. Founded by his father George Waldo Clark, Clark Music opened downtown in 1859 selling sheet music. Clark was instrumental, so to speak, in founding the original Syracuse Symphony in 1921 (see sidebar).Ī prominent harpist himself, Clark was also an inventor and collector, and ran local Clark Music store beginning in 1919. Clark, Syracuse harpist Linda Pembroke Kaiser explores the extraordinary career of another Syracusan, musician, community leader and entrepreneur Melville A. In her book Pulling Strings: The Legacy of Melville A.
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