I am so happy that my husband is a musician.

It is great fun to be married to an artist.  Bruce plays the violin and is the Director of the Mallette String Quartet, which performs at weddings, corporate events and, on occasion, reality TV shows.  He is also a talented arranger and an even more talented composer. I met Bruce while volunteering for a local community orchestra in 1987.  It took three months to get his attention, and, long story short, we have been together nearly 30 years!   The full love story can be found here.

Bruce Composing

Bruce composed several pieces performed by the then West Valley Symphony (San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles County)  in the late 80’s and early 90’s.  Because he did not have the ease that is available today with computers and music software, he did everything by hand.  He played music on his keyboard (pictured below) then paused to jot the notes down on music paper. Once finished with the score for the entire orchestra,  Bruce then painstakingly wrote the individual parts for EACH of the musicians.  The West Valley Symphony was a FULL ORCHESTRA.  That includes violins, violas, drums, trumpets, French horns, clarinets, flutes, cellos, oboes, etc.   Consequently,  it took Bruce weeks to write all those parts.   That music, the score, and the parts,  are safely stored in his filing cabinet. 

 

Rediscovering Bruce’s Music

In those days cassettes were the recording medium.  The cassettes of Bruce’s music were stored in our garage for decades and nearly forgotten until earlier this year, when I became interested in converting some old cassettes of mine to MP3s.  I purchased a cheap cassette-to-MP3 converter, which caught Bruce’s attention. “Hey, maybe we can convert my compositions!”  The converter I purchased was not transferring the recordings well, so I invested in a better one on available on Amazon. I acquired it as a review item, so it was half price for me.  But, still, even at full price, it is a worthwhile investment to preserve favorite recordings that are on cassettes.  Bruce’s music is now transferred to MP3.  What is amazing to me is that these cassettes held up for nearly 30 years!   Thank goodness they did, as they were the only recordings that exist of  Bruce’s music.

The “Music for the Not-So-Meek”

 In 1989 Bruce composed a four-minute piece called, “Music for the Not-So-Meek” to be performed at the symphony’s Halloween concert.  My mom took advantage of this special occasion and hosted a costume party at her house.  Friends and family were invited.  And, boy, almost everyone really got into the spirit of it.  For example, one friend, pictured below, came dressed in a Viking costume. He wore this to the concert hall, too!

The orchestra members were also dressed in costume. 

 

The performance went well and the audience enjoyed the music.  Today we can enjoy the music, thanks to the MP3 technology.  I added images from a talented artist on Pixabay to accompany the music.  They go well with this mischievous, playful melody.

In conclusion,  I think my husband is quite talented.  Don’t you?  

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