Signatures | An Online Gallery
SUMMER 2024
WML’s Signatures featured on WERU! Listen to the 7/18/24 edition of Creative Maine, a monthly show exploring Maine’s culture, art and crafts. Producer and host, Adina Salmansohn interviews the library’s Rich Hewitt and musician and conductor Silas Yates.
Produced by Witherle Memorial Library with support from Castine Arts Association and initial funding from the Maine Community Foundation.
Publications and compositions are the property of Silas Yates unless otherwise specified, and may not be used without permission. All rights reserved.
Project developed by Rich Hewitt with help from Kathryn Dillon and Alicia Anstead. Signatures website designed by Michelle Keyo. © Witherle Memorial Library 2024.
About
Phillips Exeter Academy, Royal Exonians 1961. Silas Yates, back row, fourth from the left.
Used with permission for publication from the Phillips Exeter Academy Archive.
Silas Yates: A Musical Life
"I am a music group organizer rather than an artist. I do play trombone and practice or play every day of my life. As a trombone player, I’m a work in progress."
Studio Tour
Silas Yates takes you on a tour of his home studio.
Scale Exercise
"This exercise takes me about 7 minutes. This exercise sheet contains only the first two scales (B Locrian and C Ionian). You keep moving up until you get to high C. That’s about 16 scales, all in the key of C, each starting on a different note in the key of C."
Influences
Sound of Silence, Song and Album Title
Written by Paul Simon, Recorded by Simon & Garfunkel, October 19, 1964 (original acoustic version) September 12, 1965 (overdubbed electric version).
America the Beautiful, Poem and Song
Lyrics by Katharine Lee Bates, 1893. Melody by Samuel Augustus Ward, 1882.
Silas Yates and Friends in Concert
April 27, 2024
Emerson Hall
Emerson Hall was alive with the sound of music recently as Castine’s music man Silas Yates brought three of his musical groups to town for an afternoon performance.
The music of Silas Yates and his Friends event was sponsored by the Witherle Memorial Library and the Castine Arts Association and featured groups which Si directs and performs in: Sentimental Journey, a big band group; Interplay, a jazz ensemble; and the Castine Brass quintet.
The concert celebrated Si’s musical life which began when he picked up a trombone at age 13 and has continued over the decades right up to today as a musician, arranger and director. In addition to the groups that performed at the concert, Yates also organizes and directs the Annual Bucksport Trombone Concert and is probably best known as the director of the Castine Town Band which performs in town throughout the summer.
Castine Brass kicked off the concert with pieces that ranged from Bach to Bernstein. They were followed by Interplay, which performed some jazz standards including Si’s arrangement of "Autumn Leaves’’ and a toe-tapping version of "Bye Bye Blackbird.’’
Sentimental Journey completed the afternoon concert with its performances of jazz classics like "Feeling Good’’ and show tunes such as "Send in the Clowns.’’
The concert was organized in conjunction with Signatures, the library’s online gallery, which will launch an exhibit of Yates life and work.
Written by Rich Hewitt
Reprinted from Stroll magazine, June 2024
The Castine Brass Quintet
Interplay, a jazz ensemble
Sentimental Journey, a sixteen-piece big band
Sentimental Journey
Playlist and Concert Notes
Interplay
Playlist and Concert Notes
Castine Town Band
"Scheduling rehearsals and concerts for the Castine Town Band starts on January 1st of the year. I try to get the concerts, rehearsals and rain locations on the Castine Town Calendar before other groups can preempt dates. I do this as close to January 1st as I can. Once this is done, I send out information to all the band members. We begin rehearsing in May for the Memorial Day Parade. Our first band concert is July 4th and then we perform every two weeks after that on Friday evenings. Our last concert for the summer is in mid-August. We also play a holiday concert on the first Wednesday after Thanksgiving.
I plan the music for the band concerts starting in January. I have spreadsheets of all the music we’ve played that go back to 2004. I do this so we don’t repeat music too often. Sam Friedlander is the band librarian. Without her help in preparing music for the band, I probably wouldn’t be doing this job. These concerts require massive amounts of communication with band members, band board members and venue providers (The Town of Castine, the Wilson Museum). This year I sent over 1500 emails to organize things." —Silas Yates
Castine Town Band, keeping the beat for 18 years
By Anne Berleant, August 18, 2016
Castine Patriot
Read the Article
Castine Band, A History
by Jean Miller, June 2018
Compiled from records at the Castine Historical Society, The Wilson Museum, and archives of the Castine Town Band. Copy provided by CTB.
Read the Article
Nadia Boulanger, Composer and Conductor
“One year the school hired Nadia Boulanger, a renowned conducting and composition teacher, to conduct the Mozart Requiem for orchestra, chorus and vocal soloists. I remember the rehearsal and concert to this day. I was just a student at the time of the Nadia Boulanger concert. I remember some talk that upon arrival at the campus, she wanted to do Beethoven’s 5th instead of the Mozart Requiem. I can still remember her saying 'et lux perpetuated' to the chorus trying to get them to sing with passion.
She was very nice to me. I, of course, had no clue about what I was doing. The trombone part is a duet with the tenor soloist. He was also very nice to me. I’m thinking both he and Nadia were just trying to keep me from freaking out. As I remember, I was too dumb to be afraid.” ––Silas Yates
“Tuba Mirum” from Requiem in D minor, K.626, by W.A. Mozart. Published by Bärenreiter Kassel: Serie I – Geistliche Gesangswerke, 1965.
Provided by Bagaduce Music Lending Library – Blue Hill, ME
Boulanger Visits Exeter, Gives Concert, Lecture
by Hugh Gordon
The Exonian 20 March 1962
Nadia Boulanger spent three days at PEA teaching piano, organ, and theory students, and directing a performance of Mozart’s Requiem Mass Saturday evening. The performance of the Requiem was the most significant musical event that has taken place at Exeter for many years. For the first time, many of the players were performing because of the beauty of the music rather than to get through it. Mile. Boulanger directed the PEA Glee Club and Orchestra, the Beaver Country Day School Glee Club, members of the Rockingham Choral Society, and other musicians, after only nine hours of rehearsal. The chorus made an impressive spectacle on the bleachers, great rows of black and white, well disciplined in their movements. “You play as if by a metronome,” Mile. Boulanger once said during a rehearsal. “This is not music. Music breathes. When you look at a beautiful piece of glass, you think it has perfect symmetry, but if you examine it closely, you see that it is not symmetrical. It is the same with music.”
The soloists, Ingeborg Jarrett, soprano; Marguerite Paquet, alto; and Irving Pearson, bass, were excellent, particularly Mile. Paquet . . . The trombone accompaniment of Mr. Pearson in the Tuba Mirum was perfect.
Phil Wilson, Trombonist
"One of my history teachers at Exeter was Phillips E. Wilson. Mr. Wilson had a son, Phil, who was a professional trombone player. When he visited Exeter, he would rehearse the Royal Exonians. Phil was an outstanding rehearser of bands with a sense of humor, an attention to detail, a lot of drive and a commitment to the music. I remember one of his sayings was “Your job is to make music out of whatever tempo the fascist band director counts off.” Phil was drafted and played in the Norad Commanders, a jazz band of musicians from all of the service bands. After his stint in the Army, Phil came home to Exeter. I saw him the day he got the call to play with the Woody Herman band. Phil was a trombone sensation in Woody’s band. His playing was incredible.
An interesting thing happened during my time in Stanford’s Red Vest Band. One night the Woody Herman band played in San Francisco and I went to see it. Phil Wilson was playing in the band and remembered me. He sat down with a few of us between sets and asked what I was doing. I told him what I was doing with the Stanford Band and the Red Vest Band. He asked if I’d like to have him rehearse the band the next day. We went back to Stanford and, amazingly, put a rehearsal together. I picked up Phil in San Francisco the next morning and drove him back to Stanford. He rehearsed us for over 3 hours. The band was never the same after that.
He went on to teach at Berklee School of Music for 30 years. While at Exeter, he gave me a few lessons and served as a musical role model for me. I’d have to say Phil was a big influence on my life." —Silas Yates
Woody Herman's Swingin' Herd
It's a Lonesome Old Town
Phil Wilson, soloist
Phil Wilson is a professor emeritus at Berklee College of Music where he began teaching in 1965. The City of Boston proclaimed December 9th, 1995 Phil Wilson Day, recognizing his contributions to jazz education.
Phil Wilson: The Focus on Emotion
A core member of the Berklee faculty since 1965, trombonist and composer Phil Wilson worked hard to overcome his musical obstacles, and inspires students to do the same.
By Rob Hochschild, December 5, 2000
Berklee College of Music
The Sound of Silence, Song and Album
"My second six months were in the field. There was absolutely no music there, you were basically camping out. You would get, maybe once a month, a shower. When they took our uniforms, they would just throw them away and give us new ones they were so dirty. We were so dirty it was interesting. I didn’t think of music.
The day I left Viet Nam . . . Marine’s going out of Viet Nam go to Okinawa. And a friend of mine, another communications officer, luckily got assigned to a battalion in Okinawa…so he let me stay in his apartment while I was waiting for my flight to Hawaii and Travis Air Force Base. And he had a new recording of Simon & Garfunkel and I remember sitting there listening to The Sound of Silence to this day. I probably listen to The Sound of Silence once a week." ––Silas Yates
Silas Yates recommends VOCES8 performance of 'The Sound of Silence' arranged by Alexander L'Estrange. January 29, 2018. Used with permission.
Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams, I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light, I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
"Fools" said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
Then the sign said, "The words on the prophets are written on the subway walls
In tenement halls"
And whispered in the sound of silence
Paul Simon 1964
America the Beautiful
“I’ve been doing it for 20 years…the Carmon Dragon arrangement of America the Beautiful, I love conducting that, I like to conduct it in my head, it’s just such a neat piece.”
“There are a lot of pieces, I just think are religious they are so good. I am physically moved whenever I hear the Marine Band play the Carmen Dragon arrangement of America the Beautiful. I don’t know what it is but it gets me, and I want our ensembles to move other people, that’s my whole goal.” ––Silas Yates
President's Own United States Marine Band
Jason K. Fettig conducts the President's Own United States Marine Band in Samuel Augustus Ward's “America, the Beautiful” on June 27, 2021, at the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Va.
The Castine Town Band
Silas Yates conducts the Castine Town Band in “America, the Beautiful” Samuel Augustus Ward/arr. Dragon.
America the Beautiful, arr. Carmen Dragon
The author of "America the Beautiful," Katharine Lee Bates, was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts in 1859 and grew up near the rolling sea. Bates, who eventually became a full professor of English literature at Wellesley College, made a lecture trip to Colorado in 1893 and there she wrote the words to "America the Beautiful."
On July 4, 1895, Bates' poem first appeared in The Congregationalist, a weekly newspaper. Bates revised her lyrics as early as 1902; a version was published in November of that year in The Buffalo Illustrated Times. She made some final additions to the poem in 1913.
For several years "America the Beautiful" was sung to almost any popular air or folk tune with which the lyrics fit: "Auld Lang Syne" was one of the most common. Today it is sung to a melody written in 1882 by Samuel Augustus Ward, a Newark, New Jersey, church organist and choirmaster. Ward originally composed the melody (also titled "Materna") to accompany the words of the sixteenth century hymn "O Mother Dear, Jerusalem." When the National Federation of Music Clubs sponsored a 1926 contest to elicit new music for Bates' poem but failed to find a winner, Ward's music prevailed.
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
Ensembles
Phillips Exeter Academy: Royal Exonians
"I began playing in Phillips Exeter’s dance band, The Royal Exonians. Exeter’s chorus and orchestra gave about 6 joint concerts a year with various girl’s schools in New England. After each concert, the Royal Exonians played for a two-hour dance. It was my first semi-professional experience."
Stanford University: The Red Vest Band
"The Stanford Band had a smaller group called the Red Vest Band which played for basketball games. This was a jazz band with two players on each part. In addition to being the manager of the Stanford Band, I also conducted the Red Vest Band."
Interplay, a jazz ensemble
"About 10 years ago five of us started a small jazz group, Interplay. The group is still going. We rehearse every week. Over the years I’ve produced over 300 lead sheets and arrangements for the group. Like Sentimental Journey, we’ve all become good friends and have a lot of fun playing and rehearsing. We recently played a concert at “The Elms” which was a sold-out event. Maybe we have “arrived.”
Interplay has performed at the Penobscot Maritime Museum, Bangor Public Library, UMO Women’s Basketball Team, The Castine Golf Club, and several private events.
Sentimental Journey, Big Band
Sentimental Journey, which rehearses every Wednesday at All Souls Congregational Church in Bangor as it has for 20 years, had its beginnings as a klezmer music band more than 20 years ago. While Sentimental Journey has no designated band leader, trombone player Silas Yates of Castine currently serves in that capacity. “I’ve had a lot of experience rehearsing bands,” he said. “I’ve been doing that since I was 16.” Yates joined Sentimental Journey when he moved to Castine from Michigan in 2000. “I’m excited about the music,” he said. “That’s why I do this. No one’s in it for the money.” Bangor Daily News, February 27, 2014
Ensembles (continued)
The Castine Brass
"The quintet has been going since 2001. We try to rehearse once a week, and play as part of Castine Town Band Concerts and in church. We’ve even played a wedding and a memorial service. Over the years we’ve had close to 20 different people playing in the group."
Annual Trombone Concert
In 1985, Don Blodgett and several trombonists from Washington, D.C., played at the Elm Street Congregational Church, Bucksport, where they raised money for maintaining the church’s 154-year-old Hook organ. After Don's death in 2017, Silas Yates took over as concert organizer. The summer concert usually features 25 to 35 trombonists, was probably the largest trombone festival in New England.
Royal Exonians Recordings
Phillips Exeter Academy
Royal Exonians 1960
Playlist
Down South Camp Meeting
Moonlight in Vermont, Jump for Joe
Harlem Nocturne–Funny Valentine (Medley), Intermission Riff
Walkin' My Baby Back Home
Peter Gunn Theme
Musicians
Brian Cooke, Carl Chase, Tom Seeley, Jim Eddy, John Caron, Dave Buck, Art Johnson, Dunc Martin, Pete Prescott, Si Yates, Dick Hoffman, Holden Gutermuth, Jeff Frazier and Doc Talbot.
Liner Notes
The 1960 Royal Exonians became popular early in the year under the guidance of former R. E., Rick Shute ’55, who disciplined the “new talent” in good section playing. Leading the sax section was co-leader Dunc Martin, with Prescott and Frazier playing lead trumpet and trombone respectively, and Eddy’s drumming providing a solid base for the rhythm section. The band filled out with eager and enthusiastic players, and played a much praised job before Christmas at the Exeter High School. Throughout the winter term they played with consistent technical skill and spirit at the usual Glee Club concerts. The most remembered being with Dana Hall and Beaver Country Day, when the band and the dancers swung together with extraordinary rapport. Even Artie Landers loved them! Plans for this recording began in early February when the leaders realized that this band was outstanding.
Two of the many new arrangements in the R. E. book this year are the notorious PETER GUNN and JUMP FOR JOE, which was arranged for them by Rick Shute. PETER GUNN shows off the band’s sheer power and features their driving rhythm section and brilliant brass. The medley HARLEM NOCTURNE – FUNNY VALENTINE was the perpetual dedication number of co-leaders Dunc Martin and Carl Chase, who solo respectively. MOONLIGHT IN VERMONT and WALKIN’ MY BABY BACK HOME, two favorite dance numbers were as much appreciated for the mood they created. Stan Kenton’s INTERMISSION RIFF and Goodman’s DOWN SOUTH CAMP MEETIN’ show the band’s excellent ensemble work.
In the News
"Peads, RE’s Make Record; Recording Session April 20"
The Exonian, April 9, 1960, pp. 4
Recorded and produced by Vogt Quality Recordings, Wellesley, MA. Used with permission for publication from the Phillips Exeter Academy Archive.
Royal Exonians Recordings
Phillips Exeter Academy
Royal Exonians 1961
Kidder Smith, guitar; Tim Ransom, drums; Dan Fruedenberger, Silas Yates, Nat Bissell, trombone; Bruce Moulton, Pete Prescott, Tom Murphy, Randy Kehler, trumpets; Brian Cooke, piano and leader; Tom Seeley, bass; Edward Walworth, Ross Faneuf, Phil White, John Caron, Holden Gutermuth, saxophones.
Playlist
It's Sand, Man
A Foggy Day in Londontown
Temptation
Splanky
Angel Eyes
Fast Company
In the News
"Peads, Royal Exonians to Distribute Annual Recording of Favorite Songs"
The Exonian, Wednesday, May 3, 1961, pp. 1
Liner Notes
A more polished, more musically sophisticated Royal Exonians than in previous years emerged from the Fall term trials of organizing the 1961 band. An excellent alto saxophonist, new Lower Middler Phil White, led a skillful sax section of otherwise older Exonians. The trumpet and trombone sections were impressively led by Pete Prescott and Si Yates, respectively, both returning R. E. members. By the end of the Fall term the band was playing very well technically, with dynamic contrasts that make good dance music especially pleasing. The band was aided in its training by former R. E. members Tom Gallant, who has worked with Woody Herman, and Phil Wilson ’55, who is joining Stan Kenton next fall.
The band made its bester Winter term appearances at Rogers Hall and at Dana Hall, where it played with coordination and spirit to enthusiastic dancers. The trumpet and saxophone sections showed the band’s versatility at Dana by backing up the “Four Freshman”, a close-harmony singing group. The Royal Exonians also played for the Winter Dance, setting up on the upstairs balcony of the new Lewis Perry Music Building.
The Spring term was particularly active for the R. E.’s, who played at more glee club dances, including a very lively, successful dance with Concord Academy in the Chapel. Other activities included Spring Proms at surrounding high schools, a concert in Portsmouth, N.H., and a chapel appearance, not to mention the work that went into this recording.
The greatest achievement of this year’s Royal Exonians, however, is the large number of modern arrangements added to the R. E. repertoire this year, giving a freshness to the band’s sound that had been lacking in former years, and presenting a challenge to the players. The Royal Exonians are probably influenced more by Count Basie’s band than by any other; It’s Sand, Man, featuring a tenor solo by Holden Gutermuth, is a traditional Basie number, which the R. E.’s perform especially well. Splanky, another Basie number, was arranged for R. E.’s by last year’s leader, Carl Chase. Temptation is a Latin-flavored tune that was the most popular number at dances. Another favorite dance number was Angel Eyes, especially requested near the end of the evening. Brian Cooke’s arrangement of Gershwin’s Foggy Day demonstrates the band’s excellent control and tonal variety, which made it an outstanding group. Perhaps the most difficult piece of music that the R. E.’s attempted was Ernie Wilkin’s Fast Company, an arrangement that calls for dynamic contrasts, solos by piance, alto, and trumpet, and the virtuoso playing of the high-note specialist Prescott.
Kidder Smith, guitar; Tim Ransom, drums; Dan Fruedenberger, Silas Yates, Nat Bissell, trombone; Bruce Moulton, Pete Prescott, Tom Murphy, Randy Kehler, trumpets; Brian Cooke, piano and leader; Tom Seeley, bass; Edward Walworth, Ross Faneuf, Phil White, John Caron, Holden Gutermuth, saxophones.
Recorded and produced by Vogt Quality Recordings, Wellesley, MA. Used with permission for publication from the Phillips Exeter Academy Archive.
Interplay
Vintage Interplay
(Formerly known as Plus Four)
Molly Pitcher, vocals
Silas Yates, trombone
Sonja Hannington, flute and tenor sax
James Williams, guitar
Brad O’Brien, bass
Howard Jones, drums
Terry LaMar, percussion
Chucho
Honeysuckle Rose
Just Friends
Get Out of Town
Recorded in 2014 at Main Street Music Studios in Bangor in 2014.
“Chucho” follows Paquito's big band chart. "Honey Suckle Rose” and “Just Friends” arranged by Silas Yates with help from Matt Catingub and Bob Florence. "Get Out of Town” arranged by Silas Yates.
Interplay Today
David Halvorson, bass
Bobby Duron, drums
James Williams, guitar
Steve Orlofsky, saxophone and flute
Silas Yates, trombone
Sentimental Journey
Silas Yates, Musical Director
Scenes from a Rehearsal
January 24, 2024
All Souls Church, Bangor
Gracie Theater
Husson University, Bangor, 2016
Watch the Concert in three parts available below.
Musicians
Saxophones
Eric Jankowski, alto saxophone
Jim Haddix, alto saxophone
Dave Simonds, tenor saxophone, clarinet
Jason Carlisle, tenor saxophone
Steve Orlofsky, baritone saxophone
Trumpets
John Thomas
John Wiebe
Jim Paton
Tim Hall
Trombones
Don Menninghaus
Silas Yates
Adina Salmansohn
Jim Randall, bass trombone
Rhythm Section
Alice French, piano, vocals
David Halvorson, bass
Dave Saucier, drums
In the News
The Castine Brass
Silas Yates, Musical Director
"The Castine Brass started as a larger brass group with 7 players. The group had been together maybe one or two years before I moved to Maine. I began playing with the group in 2000. We played some German brass band music and some other rudimentary brass music. The group gradually migrated into playing some Canadian Brass Quintet music which was more difficult. Some players dropped out and I became the leader." —Silas Yates
Rehearsal
April 17, 2024
Emerson Hall, Castine
John Wiebe, trumpet
Arthur Billings, trumpet
Tom Wheeler, French Horn
Silas Yates, trombone
Candace Hart, tuba
Earlier Musicians
Luki Hewitt, French horn; Silas Yates, trombone; Richard Noyes, trombone; Charlie Ulrich, trumpet; Dave Unger, trumpet.
Silas Yates, trombone; Loren Fields, horn; Candace Hart, tuba; Tim Hall, trumpet; Arthur Billings, trumpet.
A Consideration of Autumn Leaves:
An Arrangement and Theory
1. The Tune
"Autumn Leaves" is based on a French song "Les Feuilles mortes" ("The Dead Leaves") composed by Joseph Kosma in 1945. The original lyrics were written by Jacques Prévert in French, and later by Johnny Mercer in English.
The falling leaves drift by the window,
The autumn leaves of red and gold.
I see your lips, the summer kisses,
The sunburned hands I used to hold.
Since you went wawy the days grow long,
And soon I'll hear old winter's song.
But I miss you most of all my darling
When Autumn leaves start to fall.
2. "Autumn Leaves", arranged by Silas Yates (2008)
3. "Autumn Leaves" performed by Interplay
Audio recorded on May 13, 2024.
David Halvorson, bass
Bobby Duron, drums
James Williams, guitar
Steve Orlofsky, saxophone and flute
Silas Yates, trombone
4. The Arrangement Explained
In this 10-minute video, Silas Yates walks viewers through the music theory behind his arrangement of "Autumn Leaves." The explanation includes recordings of the song by well know performers and a piano demonstration of how the iconic So What phrasing was employed.
Music Theory by Silas Yates
Silas Yates is a man of music.
He has had a varied life, one that has led him from the halls of Phillips Exeter Academy to the jungles of Viet Nam; from a big city emergency room to the cabin of a 30-foot sloop, and to a small town on the coast of Maine.
But ever since he picked up a trombone at the age of 13, music has been a part of his life in one way or another for more than eight decades; and, it remains a vital aspect of his life. It commands much of his time each day, whether he is performing, choosing or arranging charts for one of the groups which he directs and/or performs in, researching little-known facts about those pieces, or following a grueling practice schedule alone in his downstairs studio.
The thing about Si though, is that he not only loves music, he also loves sharing his music with others. Performing and conducting the Castine Town Band is the most visible way in which he shares his music. But he also regularly dispenses interesting and often arcane details about the music – which popular tune contains an example of a major second; how the Miles Davis album "Kind of Blue" created the "so what" voicing; or who Dusko Goykovitch was.
It’s all part of the man and his music.
This volume, Music Theory, is another way in which Si shares his music. He says he’s not sure when he wrote it, or why. It may have been for a course he was teaching long before he and Dianne moved to Maine. It is his attempt to explain the basic structure of music in a way that people can understand what all those little black dots on the sheet music really mean.
Music Theory is a short volume, but it is not one you’ll read in a single sitting. It follows a progression, moving from individual notes to scales and intervals, from triads to chords both major and minor. Si also has added an assignment for you to practice what you’ve learned to make sure you understand the concepts and won’t become "hopelessly confused" when you get to the next section.
Music Theory won’t make you a musician. But it might help you to understand why you enjoy the music you already listen to.
Rich Hewitt
Castine, Maine
May 2024
© Silas Yates. First edition 1995; Second edition 2024.
Introduction © Rich Hewitt 2024
Silas Yates: A Musical Life
I am a music group organizer rather than an artist. I do play trombone and practice or play every day of my life.
As a trombone player, I’m a work in progress.
Getting Started in Music
How did I get started in music? I began playing trombone when I was 13 in junior high school. My trombone teacher was Gunnar Sorensen. Mr. Sorensen was a trumpet player who had played with Red Nichols and the Five Pennies, a famous Dixieland band in the 20‘s, 30’s and 40’s. Although Mr. Sorensen was not a trombone player, he was a good teacher. I remember things he taught me to this day.
At Phillips Exeter Academy I played in the orchestra. Irving Forbes conducted the orchestra and was my teacher. I learned a lot from him. The orchestra was quite good. Irving hired professional string players which helped give us a real orchestra sound.
In the spring of my junior year at Exeter, the band elected me as president. I have no idea why they did that. I’d been rehearsing the Royal Exonians. Maybe that’s why. I had this idea that the band would march in every football game. I knew nothing about marching. The band was entirely student run, but Irving Forbes conducted it for football games. We got a list of all the incoming freshmen musicians from the admissions department and sent out letters to all of them. We got a good response and the band marched in all the games.
After Exeter, I went to college at Stanford. I had no plans for music, but I brought my trombone. The university had fired the band director who was also a local high school band director. The band loved the man, Julius Shuchat, so the band refused to play at football games. I wasn’t in the band at the time. That year, the University hired the Vince Guaraldi jazz trio to play for football games.
I think I joined the band in the winter of my freshman year. Once again, for some reason, I became the band manager. This band was also entirely student run. The new conductor, Arthur Barnes, wrote the music for each show and directed the band, but we decided what each show would be about and what the formations would be.
While at Exeter and Stanford, I attended two summer jazz band camps. These were called the Stan Kenton Stage Band Clinics. One was in East Lansing, Michigan at Michigan State University and one was at the University of Nevada Lake Tahoe extension. The camps were staffed with professional jazz musicians and were among my first experiences with professional players. I became an immediate convert to the way they thought about themselves and the way they thought about music.
Still, I was a history major at Stanford and it was always assumed that I would become a businessman or a banker like my father. As the manager of the band for a year, I rehearsed the Red Vest Band, took a few music theory courses and played in the wind ensemble. Stanford had a very small music department at the time. My history professors were my main influence.
Silas Yates: A Musical Life, Continued
Graduation and Viet Nam
And the Viet Nam War was going on and we all knew we’d be drafted. I ended up going to an Officer Training Course and became a Marine 2nd Lieutenant 6 months after I graduated from Stanford. My time in the Marine Corps wasn’t much fun. I didn’t really believe in the war, but I did my job the best I could.
In Viet Nam I worked in teletype communications in an underground bunker for 6 months. Twelve hours on, twelve hours off. No days off, ever. I read and corrected 1000 messages a shift. Then, the Marine Corp assigned me to an infantry battalion as its communications officer. I was in the field for 6 months. Every month or so, I went to the rear and got a shower and ate real food. It kind of spoiled my appetite for camping. The only music I saw was a Philippine small combo where a trombone player, for show, played with his foot.
I mustered out of the Marine Corps in December 1969. I bought a 30-foot wooden sloop in Little Creek, Virginia and headed south. I had no idea what I would do with my life except that I probably wasn’t going to be a banker.
I got to Miami in mid-January and docked behind a house owned by Joan Storer. She took us (me and a fellow Marine who went south with me) to a country club where a jazz trio was playing. I talked to the musicians and found out that the University of Miami had a jazz program and the rest, as they say, is history.
Music Education
In two years, I had an undergraduate degree in Jazz and Studio Music. The GI bill paid the tuition. The musicians and teachers at the University of Miami were spectacular. There were 4 jazz bands that rehearsed 4 days a week. The top group, called The Concert Jazz Band, rehearsed two hours a day 4 days a week. When you heard them rehearsing difficult music, you thought they might hurt themselves. They were just incredible, literally unbelievable. They gave me a view of what was good in music that I have never forgotten. I try to live up to those standards to this day.
However, once again, because I was an addicted organizer, I found myself running things again. I became the Program Coordinator of the Jazz Program. My job was scheduling 150 students and 11 full time faculty, reviewing audition tapes, directing one or two jazz bands, managing the jazz music library and on and on. One of my friends called it “The Silas Yates Chair of Pain.” I was there 6 days a week, often 12 hours a day.
Was I a musician? My senior recital was embarrassing even though I had some incredible young players in my group: Mike Gurber-piano, Danny Gottlieb-drums, Mark Egan-bass, John McNeil-trumpet, Allen Eager-saxophone. These musicians had played with and would play with some of the greatest jazz players on the planet. I earned my master’s degree in music theory/composition in 1974 and decided it was time to retire the Silas Yates Chair of Pain.
Silas Yates: A Musical Life, Continued
Transitions
I went sailing for a few years and worked on boats. I wrote advertising copy, thanks to all the writing I did as a history major. I took a 9-month course in Communications Electronics so I could legally install radars and radios on boats. I didn’t play for a few years.
Then I heard about an opening in a jazz band at Florida International University and started playing again. Within about a year of playing in the band, I was directing it. I started teaching humanities at Miami Dade Community College. In the beginning we taught this course with an art teacher. The music teacher would have half the class for half a semester and teach them music appreciation. The art teacher would do the same thing. We’d switch in the middle of the semester. Then an edict came down from the higher echelons of the educational administration saying that all humanities teachers would now teach all there is to know about art, music, literature, philosophy, drama and architecture in one semester. Thanks again to my history degree, I was able to do this, but it took a lot of hours of research the first time around.
My wife and I moved to the Florida Keys. She was a nurse and became involved in the volunteer ambulance corps. Soon, I got sucked into it and became a paramedic. I started working in the Jackson hospital ER in Miami. We saw 300 to 500 patients a day. I discovered you couldn’t do much in an ER if you weren’t a nurse. I went to a special paramedic-to-RN nursing program and started working in ER’s. We moved to Michigan and on my second day on the job in the ER in Lansing, Michigan, I got a call to teach music theory at a community college 40 miles down the road. I ended up teaching advanced music theory, directing a jazz band and running 4 small jazz ensembles.
A Maine Adventure
We had sailed the east coast in Maine several times while on vacation. On one of those trips, I picked up a book about the Nearing homestead in Brooksville, and we thought this was a pretty nice area. When I asked Dianne if she wanted to live in Maine, she called my bluff and said "yes!"
Once we were settled in Castine, it didn’t take long for me to get involved in music again. It started with the Castine Town Band. Dianne and I heard them playing for Memorial Day after we had moved here and by the summer, I was playing trombone in their concerts.
Over the years, I’ve played for local musicals at the Grand and elsewhere; everything from Gilbert and Sullivan to The Pajama Game and West Side Story to Willie Wonka. I organize the Annual Bucksport Trombone Concert and, in addition to the town band, I organize and play in three other groups, Sentimental Journey, a 16-piece jazz band; The Castine Brass, a brass quintet; and Interplay, a jazz quintet.