Show features rare xylophone

Last March, Bradley Fuster, Chair of the Buffalo State music department, happened upon a very unique find while teaching a clinic at nearby Hoover Middle School.

What he found was a 1919 Deagan Wide Bar Artist's Special, an extremely rare and valuable xylophone.

"The instruments the Deagan Company made between 1915 and 1930 are the most sought after mallet instruments in the world and finding one in good condition is much more preferred than buying a brand new one," Fuster said. "The only other one I'd ever seen before was behind glass in a museum."

Fuster said the wood used to make the bars on this type of xylophone, old growth rosewood, has acoustic properties that are superior to the types of wood used today. Since the pinnacle of the Deagan Company, rosewood has been declared protected and is now unlawful to harvest.

To make the find more astonishing, this particular instrument is the bigger version of its kind, making it much more ideal, Fuster said.

Because the instrument was so old, it needed some work before it'd be in working order.

"You have to shave some wood off to get it in tune again," said Dan Darnley, who will be performing a solo on the Deagan. "It's never been tuned except by us, it's really in great condition."

Fuster said that each time this instrument is tuned, the quality of the sound diminishes as a result of the lessening of the wood, so it is lucky to have found one like this.

After purchasing the instrument from Hoover Middle School, the Deagan xylophone underwent a complete restoration, which cost $2,500 and took about eight months.

Fuster said as soon as he acquired the Deagan, there were ideas floating around to do a concert that would feature the instrument. He said there are many songs that have been written for the xylophone in the style of ragtime music and thought it would be a perfect way to highlight this unique instrument.

According to Darnley, the best way to record music in the early 1900's was the wax cylinder. Due to it powerful resonance, xylophone music was very easy to record using this method.

"That was all people had to listen to back then," Darnley said, describing ragtime as America's first pop music.

To add some visual interest to the show, Fuster enlisted the help of Carlos Jones, professor of theater and dance at Buffalo State. Jones is the director and the creator of the narrative concept that will accompany the music.

"Traditionally, when ragtime music is being played, it is presented in concert style, just plain," Jones said. "We're going to embellish it."

Jones is working with dancers from the theater department to bring the music to life visually. Jones said they will be performing dances appropriate to the early 20th Century, when ragtime music was popular.

This includes a town scene that features the xylophone as if it's on display in a park, with people crowding around it, Fuster said. The crowd is to be made up of the musicians and the dancers who will rotate in and out of the performance.

This concert will also feature Rob Patterson, percussionist for the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and Mark Hodges, the BPO's principle percussionist and professor of percussion at Buffalo State. Both will perform as percussionists and will appear as the Town Clerk and Town Sheriff, respectively.

To capture the look of the time period, costume design professor Ann Emo is designing outfits for the dancers that incorporate a lot of fun colors and evokes what Jones describes as an Americana feel.

"It's art," he said. "You should support art, it's good to learn something new and different."

Jones said he encourages people to go to this performance because it's a piece of American history and a chance to hear a very rare instrument that they might never get to hear again.

"Ragtime is very listenable even to people who know nothing about music. The history of it comes alive." Darnley said, adding that he hopes people can come to this concert, have a good time and leave feeling good and having learned something about early 20th century American culture.

"It's not a far stretch from ragtime to jazz to rock, it's the great, great grandfather of Lady Gaga," Fuster said. "I hope this performance will give people an appreciation for the ragtime style."

The concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Performing Arts Center in Rockwell Hall.

Mia Summerson can be reached by email at summerson.record@live.com.