The setting….1944 ….Leonia,
New Jersey….the Biscaye home. The dinner
guests that evening were Gena Branscombe and her husband, John Ferguson
Tenney. Ruth Biscaye, for many years a
loyal member of the Branscombe Choral, was preparing dinner for her friend and
respected conductor.
Ruth’s children, Pierre and
Peggie, had attended the many Choral concerts at Town Hall and the Broadway
Tabernacle Church. Among the family’s
prized musical possessions was sheet music autographed by Miss Branscombe with
one dedicated to Pierre and Peggie. Most
prized, an autographed original manuscript for a choral arrangement of “There
was a King of Liang.”
That night at dinner Miss
Branscombe gave one of her conducting batons to Pierre and another to
Peggie. These batons had led the Choral
in one of their concerts that their mother sang!
Fast forward 70 years, all the
above items still exist and thanks to Pierre and Peggie, they are in my
possession. In my May 31, 2012 blog
entry, I told the story of Pierre contacting me and Peggie sending me music and
pictures.
In early June, Peggie Biscaye
Oury visited her daughter and family in New York City. We managed to schedule a visit and had lunch
together. As Peggie looked over the items
in my Gena collection, she would recall how Miss Branscombe’s walk made her
look as though she were floating from place to place. Elegant and kind were words used to describe
the conductor who touched their family’s lives.
What had come as a surprise a
few weeks before Peggie’s visit was that in his attic Pierre had found the
baton Miss Branscombe had given him in 1944.
He wanted to know if I still wanted it……my immediate answer was, of
course, “Yes!” The baton arrived nearly two
weeks ago along with a hand written note explaining the provenance of this gift
given to him in 1944……72 years ago.
The baton with a slender cork
bulb, once held in her hand, has scratches on it. The shaft of the baton is wood with a small
chip missing on the tip. A baton that is
old….now an antique. Held in her hand, part
of her being and emotions, with this baton Gena inspired her
Branscombe Choral to higher realms of music making!
What continues to touch my
heart is the people who knew or worked with Miss Branscombe have kept their
music, pictures, programs, letters and a baton.
How she touched and inspired their lives is why these possessions were cherished
for many years; a part of her continued to be with them.
This is a quote attributed to
Leonard Bernstein, “If one (the conductor) uses a baton, the baton itself must
be a living thing, charged with a kind of electricity, which makes it an
instrument of meaning in its tiniest movement.”