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MRS. IRENE LAKE, PIANIST.
(Florida)
Mrs. Lake had been recording on the
piano some old plantation songs - rowing songs, negro spirituals, lullabys,
work songs. The ease with which she caught the melody from the rendition
by an eighty-five year-old lady, swinging from a childhood memory of the
glamorous Florida in the days just preceding the War between the States -
the latter 1850's, to be exact; the quick ear which caught the airia as
the cracked voice strived to reach the high notes and flattened on the
lower ones; the nimble fingers racing up and down in deft runs to enliven
the original negro interpolations; the right hand marking the notes on the
ruled score paper, as the left softly struck the keys to confirm the tune
-- all brought an exclamation of "Marvelous!" from those in the room, who
had been attracted by the unusual proceeding.
Mrs. Lake is a woman of small stature, probably five feet tall, fifty-two
years of age. Her blond hair, now mostly gray, was parted in the middle
and waved softly over the ears to a small knot low on the neck in the
back. Her blue eyes, set wide apart, below a wide level forehead, lighted
with interest and enthusiasm as she worked swiftly, completing the four
songs in the rough in the short space of two hours.
She was dressed comfortably - the day was quite hot - in an inexpensive
voile dress, with blue, her favorite color predominating. A pale blue oil
skin parasol leaned against the piano. Rain or shine she carries a parasol
- even her most intimate friends in Jacksonville have never seen her
wearing a hat.
"How do you do it?" she was asked.
"Well, I suppose it is a talent I inherited from my mother, who was a very
fine musician. She was born in Athens, Georgia, in 1854.
"Her father was Eibe Heinrich von der Lieth, a German, whose father was
tailor to the Emperor of Germany, not Kaiser Wilhelm, but his father. One
of his duties was to embroider the royal crest and coat-of-arms on the
Emperor's clothing, as well as all household linen. He was a native of
Hanover, Germany.
"My grandmother, his wife, came from Leipic Diepmult, Germany - where she
was born in 1804.
"Grandfather fled Germany because he did not approve of the compulsory
military training instituted by the first Kaiser Wilhelm. He landed in
Charleston, South Carolina, after a thirty days' trip in crossing the
ocean. There he met my grandmother, they were married, and came direct to
the Athens, Georgia section.
"My mother was born there in 1854 - she was just a small girl during the
War between the States
"My father was James Alfred Grant, whose ancestors came to American on the
famous Mayflower.
"One of his most famous relatives was Josiah Bartlett, a signer of the
Declaration of Independence. I have a very old book with a reproduction of
the Declaration of Independence and Josiah Bartlett's name is very
prominently written thereon.
"Leonard Grant, my father's paternal uncle, gave Grant's Park to Atlanta,
now a beautiful landmark of the Georgia city.
"I went to the public schools in Athens, and then attended the same
private school for girls in Athens that my mother had attended in her
young girlhood.
"The school was in charge of Miss Callie Sosnowski, a Russian lady of
education, culture and refinement.
"By the way, Miss Sosnowski's niece married Charles Herty, famous for his
experiments in the pine and turpentine industry, and his discovery of the
process of converting scrub slash pine into paper used commercially in
paper bag manufacture and also paper containers, and other byproducts of
the pulp paper industry.
"I took the regular grades through Miss Sosnowski's, also studied music
there. There was an especially fine music department in connection with
the school.
"When I graduated, she thought I possessed unusual talent as a pianist and
secured for me a year's scholarship in the Chicago Musical College.
"I had wonderful training there, and after I graduated went back to
Athens, then a year or so later, I went to Boston and enrolled in the
Faelton Pianoforte School, from which I also graduated.
"My studies in the two northern cities brought me into contact with many
famous musicians. I know Josef Hoffmann personally, and was influenced a
great deal by his kindly interest and advice.
"Strange to say, in Chicago, I was thrown more with the theatrical
element, rather than musicians. However, all the large theaters had famous
orchestras, and their classical renditions and musical adaptations to the
tempo of the play, were like high class concerts themselves.
"I met Joseph Jefferson, famous interpreter of Rip Van Winkle. Then there
was Richard Mansfield, Rose Coghlan and her brother, Charles, Louis
Morrison, renowned for his portrayed of Mephistopheles in Faust.
"In Boston I met Maxine Elliott, a most beautiful woman, and an actress of
no mean talent. There I heard Ellen Beach Yaw in concert. She possessed a
marvelous voice of great flexibility and wide range - from below middle
'C' to almost an octave above high 'C'.
"It was a great advantage culturally, I suppose, to meet those famous
people, but when you are a girl you do not think of those things so much.
"In Boston we were required to attend
noted recitals to note especially the manner and technique of experts.
Then we would give concerts at the schools, for which invitations were
sent to a selected few, and thus we acquired polish, poise, and the ease
of contact of professional musicians.
"I remember one thing very distinctly in those recitals. The participants
were not allowed in the concert hall before our proper appearance on the
program. We were required to remain in an upper, somewhat remote room, so
that we would not be 'jittery' or unnerved by the possible errors or
misinterpretations of the scores by one preceding us. Thus when it came
time for each one to perform, the pupil was calm, collected, and as fresh
as if just opening the program. I practiced six hours a day at Faelton
School.
"I came to Jacksonville in September, 1906. It seems a long time ago, and
it seems much longer when I look back upon my musical career, which
started when I was so small I had to be lifted upon the piano stool.
"My mother was very musical, and also possessed a beautiful contralto
voice. My father also possessed some ability as a musician, my two sisters
were educated in music, so we lived in rather a musical atmosphere always.
My sisters, however, did not keep up their music, but took business
courses and later married, one living in Atlanta and the other, on the old
home place near Athens.
"Shortly after coming to Jacksonville, I met my husband, who is a brother
of Forrest Lake, one of the most famous citizens of the city of Sanford,
Florida, of which he was Mayor for fourteen consecutive terms. He is dead
now, after a rather stormy career in his latter days. My husband and I are
divorced, and I divide my time bweteen my two children, a son in
Jacksonville and a daughter, who has a dancing school in West Palm Beach,
Florida.
"I have taught music at different times, played in concerts, both amateur
and professional, and earned quite a reputation as an accompanist.
"I never played in orchestras, however, until after I came to
Jacksonville.
"When radio assumed its early proportions as a system of distributing
music to the public, I was thrilled by its possibilities, and eagerly
assisted in broadcasts when the first little station was established in an
old shed down behind the Florida Times-Union Building on West Adams
Street.
"When WJAX, the municipal broadcasting station, was opened in Jacksonville
with a program which lasted until three o'clock the next morning after
Thanksgiving Day in 1926, I was accompanist on several of the numbers, and
continued for many years, playing the score for Henry Cornely and his
associates, Prof. LePaige, and many others.
"I was glad to see the Federal Music Project established in 1935. I have
been associated with the program in Florida from the beginning, always
working in some capacity, and as accompanist in concerts for both public
and private entertainments, the Federal Theatre, and others. It has been
the salavation for old musicians, and an oasis in the land of promise for
the younger element who needed its coordinated training, and I am in hopes
that some way may be opened for its continuation.
"I think President Roosevelt's administration will go down in history as
the greatest endeavor in humanitarianism ever promulgated, and I am
heartily in favor of it. If he is able, or can be prevailed upon to accept
a third term, I am all for it!"
August 4, 1939.
Mrs. Irene Lake,
Pianist
1847 Pearl-st.,
Jacksonville, Florida.
Rose Shepherd, Writer.
Text from: Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection
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