Howard Terrell, 102, of Howe holds the master copy for his oratorio “Sing A New Song” while explaining how to cross reference scores to each musician in an orchestra to his friend and neighbor Larry Garber. (Standard-News Photo by Amy Oberlin)
Larry Garber wants Howard Terrell’s five original symphonies performed by live orchestras.
Not because he loves music, but because he loves Terrell.
Terrell, 102, a United States Army and Air Force veteran, taught at Howe Military School for 15 years and wrote a large body of music. Much of it has not been performed.
“Symphony No. 1 in C-Sharp Minor” comes to life Saturday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m. at Plymouth Congregational Church, 501 W. Berry St., Fort Wayne. The concert is free but donations will be taken to offset the thousands of dollars needed for facility rental, professional musicians and high-tech recording.
Garber hopes it will be the first of five concerts. He lives next door to Terrell and they spend hours together, talking about their lives and their interests.
Garber runs a construction company and takes great pride in his work. He pours the same passion into helping Terrell realize his dreams.
“Symphony No. 1 in C-Sharp Minor” is the first of five symphonies composed by Terrell and the first to be played. The $38,000 project is made possible by Garber and the Howard Terrell Family Trust, overseen by Howard’s son, Royce.
Garber plans to solicit funds from local supporters to continue producing Terrell’s symphonies. Donations can be made through an online fundraising portal at givesendgo.com/Howard_ Terrell.
Garber said he looks forward to sitting beside Howard on Feb. 25, witnessing the performance of music Howard has heretofore only heard in his head.
Last year, a selection of chamber music written and arranged by Terrell was performed by five professional musicians, directed by Maestro Robert Nance, at the Presbyterian Church in Howe. It was just a small sampling of Terrell’s original compositions.
A lifetime of music
For most of his life, Howard wrote music. He and his family moved to LaGrange County in 1971 for his job as teacher and band leader at Howe Military School. He retired in 1986 to spend his time composing.
His first symphony, written in 1951, will be played by members of the Philharmonic Players Association. A musicians’ strike canceled many shows by the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, freeing members of the association for special projects like Terrell’s symphony.
“We’ll have three big rehearsals,” said Nance, conductor.
The Terrell family turned Howard’s legacy of original music over to Nance, president and artistic director of Heartland Sings, a nonprofit vocal music production company based in Fort Wayne.
“It’s all hand written,” said Nance. “It tends to have motivic music that is very memorable … The listener gets it.”
He marveled at Howard’s daily commitment to composition, describing the style as a pure reflection of the mid-1950s style: simple, classical, clean, basic and emotional.
Nance worked with Terrell to produce “Sing A New Song” in 2011, featuring the South Bend Chamber Singers. “Sing A New Song,” a modern oratorio, chronicled Jesus’ life. Terrell started writing the music in 1954 and completed it in 1974.
Nance took on Terrell’s first symphony this year. Fifty musicians from the Philharmonic Players Association will play the 90-minute, four-movement concert.
“It’s a majestic thing,” said Terrell. “It just flowed out of me onto paper.”
The first 60 measures were written with a guitar purchased for $5.35 from Sears, Roebuck.
“It was all inspiration,” Terrell said. “I didn’t just write it. I lived it.”
In the handbill for “Sing A New Song,” he describes inspiration as “divine guidance and direction to a receptive soul.” He said he tries to “obey God’s leadings.”
Serving his country
A band standout at Cambridge Springs High School in Pennsylvania, Terrell’s talent led him to a musical career.
“Nobody ever had to tell me to practice,” he said. Every spare minute went to music.
Weighing 125 pounds at 19 years old in 1940, Terrell took a 9½-pound Garand rifle and entered World War II. He met his wife of 64 years and mother of his four children, Regena, who passed away Aug. 19, 2007, while stationed at Craig Field in Selma, Alabama.
While serving in the U.S. Army Air Corp in Washington, D.C., he studied music and played in the U.S. Air Force Band and Orchestra. Always partial to the upright bass, Terrell joined the Airmen of Note, a unit of the USAF, playing Glen Miller inspired swing dance music.
“I have a natural feeling for bass,” said Terrell. “I can write the bass line and I can write the music to accompany it.”
Terrell’s career included serving as Master Sergeant and band leader at Loring Air Force Base, Maine. After that, he and his family moved to Madrid, Spain, where Terrell helped organize a band at Torrejon Air Force Base.
In 1961, Terrell retired from active duty and took a job as music teacher and band director at Peekskill Military Academy in New York. He also taught at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia, before moving to Howe in the early 1970s to work for the military academy.
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