CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL STRING ORCHESTRA PLAYS ON IN 75TH YEAR

The 1920 Central High School Orchestra, the school's original orchestra, as pictured in the 1920 Central High School Girardot.

The Cape Girardeau Central High School marching band may get most of the press, but the orchestra has history on its side.

Before Cape Girardeau Central High School had a marching band, it had an orchestra.

Founded in 1920, the high school's String Orchestra is celebrating its 75th year. The marching band came along in 1921.

"Most high schools had an orchestra rather than a band," former Central High orchestra director Melvin Gilhaus said.

"The school would hire someone to direct a group of students who were taking private lessons," he said.

Across the nation, school bands emerged during World War I as a way to develop military bands, Gilhaus said. "They started teaching kids on a group basis."

The musical, "Music Man" has some historical foundation to it, Gilhaus said.

"Band instructors would start a town band and a school band. Harold Hill, unfortunately, wasn't a musician, but a con man."

Gilhaus said string teachers at one time thought children couldn't be taught to play the violin in a group setting.

Today, that view has changed completely. "Most musicians running around today with violins started in some group program."

The high school's original orchestra consisted of 14 musicians, including four teachers.

This year, about 30 students make up the orchestra. About 100 students are involved with the marching band.

Steve Schaffner, the orchestra's director, said the band is more visible in the community.

"We are not as loud or as big," he said of the orchestra.

But Schaffner, a 1977 graduate of Cape Central who returned to the school as orchestra director in 1991, has a sound appreciation of the orchestra's history.

He explored the early history of the high school musical group as part of his master's degree work at Southeast Missouri State University.

The 1920 orchestra was the first instrumental music ensemble to be included in the school's curriculum.

In its early days, the orchestra performed frequently.

"Back then, the focus of music education was more geared for the public," Schaffner said.

"In the '20s and '30s, it was a weekly and biweekly type of thing," he noted. The orchestra began giving monthly performances as the musical standards improved.

"Now, we do basically four concerts a year," he said.

For decades, the orchestra had a full complement of musical instruments. But in the last 20 years, it has been primarily a string orchestra.

In his cramped, windowless office, Schaffner pages through aging editions of the "Girardot," the high school's yearbook, pointing out photographs of some of the past orchestras and their directors.

One of the orchestra's prominent directors was Frieda Rieck, who attended music school in Berlin, Germany, from 1912 until the outbreak of World War I in August 1914.

She was hired as orchestra director and music teacher for the Cape Girardeau public schools in 1921, and served in that capacity for 26 years.

She served as head of the music department at Southeast Missouri State University from 1946 to 1962.

Over the years, the orchestra has had its ups and downs. During the 1930s and early '40s, the orchestra generally had more than 50 members.

Rationing during World War II reduced the availability of quality instruments, Schaffner said.

Metals earmarked for the war effort forced instrument makers to use alternative metals and materials. Violins, violas, cellos and basses became difficult to obtain because the bulk of the string instruments had to be imported from Europe.

Gas rationing reduced or eliminated field trips by the orchestra.

In the 1960s, the orchestra program prospered under Gilhaus.

"I started in 1964 in the summer. That was when we basically restarted the program," said Gilhaus, who directed the orchestra for 27 years. He retired in 1991.

"With the increasing demands of the junior high music program and the high school, they needed a real full-time string person," he recalled.

Gilhaus said scheduling concerts has become increasingly difficult.

"To schedule concerts, you have to do it a year in advance, and then someone will schedule a track meet on top of it anyway," he said.

Gilhaus said the more serious music students usually end up in the orchestra.

"They either didn't want to march or don't care about marching," he said.

But orchestra members aren't all brain and no brawn. A number of the high school's football players have been in the orchestra.

"Several years ago, I really hit it big," he said. "I had the defensive line in the bass and cello section," Gilhaus remembered. "That seemed to me when I hit my stride in really directing talent."

The current orchestra includes the viola-playing high school quarterback and the place kicker who plays cello.

One of Gilhaus' students in the 1970s was Schaffner, who ended up working as a professional road musician for a number of years. He plays violin, fiddle and guitar.

Gilhaus plays the violin. Both men spend their spare time performing with the Paducah Symphony Orchestra. Gilhaus also performs with the Jackson, Tenn., orchestra.

Gilhaus loves to listen as well as perform orchestral music.

"It is a magnificent tapestry of sound, to listen to a live symphony orchestra," he said.

At Cape Central High School, that tapestry of sound has continued unbroken for three quarters of a century.