Music Meets Drama

“Am only just back from my trip to the coast – have had a simply marvelous time, hospitality – friendliness, two concerts, speeches – interviews – my honorary degree – (Marion Bauer also received one) – and such scenery from the southern desert to the Canadian Rockies.” July 12, 1932….a letter to Mr. Austin at the Arthur P Schmidt Company in Boston – her publisher. Gena Branscombe recounts the honorary degree conferred on her from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.   She was proud and thankful to be given a Master of Music degree alongside fellow composer and colleague, Marion Bauer. Gena joined the faculty of Whitman College as Head of the Piano Department in 1907.   During her two year tenure at the college, she taught piano, theory and composition.   Concerts of her music were performed there. Metropolitan Opera soprano, Lillian Nordica was on concert tour in Seattle and performed Gena’s song “Hail Bounteous May.”   She met her futur...

A husband in the early 1900’s …..the social mores of the day seem to tell us that he would have been head of the family, the sole bread winner, what he said was the word of the household, and family life revolved around him at his beck and call. Household duties such as cleaning, meals, entertaining and the raising of children would have been his wife’s duties. Imagine my surprise when I first met and interviewed Gena Tenney Phenix and her husband, Phillip, and asked Mr. Phenix what his father-in-law was like. His answer was straightforward, “My father–in-law was a saint.” Not quite expecting that answer, I hesitated before asking him to explain himself. Mr. Phenix proceeded to inform me that his father-in-law, John Ferguson Tenney, Gena Branscombe’s husband, was a man ahead of his time and one who fiercely believed his wife’s career was as important as his own. Gena and John’s marriage was one of equality. So who was John Ferguson Tenney and how 100 years ago did he become a...