Mable Bailey

1939 -

About

Mable Bailey (b. 1939) Mable Bailey's first contact with a music instrument was at the age of eleven.  When she first heard the sound of a piano at Mt. Carmel Baptist Church.  For two years she begged her single mother, Mrs. Bettie Farmer, to allow her to study piano.  After two years of begging, her mother finally consented to pay for piano lessons.  Her first piano teacher was Mrs. Silverburg, the church pianist, and in 1950 at the age of eleven, Ms. Bailey began her lessons on the piano.

After about two years of study with her new piano teacher, Mrs, Silverburg became terminally ill and was deceased in 1952.  Ms. Bailey's mother engaged a new teacher who had advanced keyboard skills and a host of students studying with her.  The new teacher was also more expensive and was a financial strain on Mable's mother's budget.  However, the new teacher, Mrs. Blackburn, was an excellent teacher and introduced Ms. Bailey to more advanced music literature. 

Mable's skills blossomed overnight when she began to learn the piano exercises of Hanon and the sonatinas of Clementi and Diabelli.  At her first and only recital with Mrs. Blackburn, she played Rubenstein's lovely piece titled “Romance.”  A few weeks later, Mable's piano lessons were terminated because her mother could no longer afford to pay for the lessons.  Because she advanced so quickly in piano, Mable thought the teacher would voluntarily reduce the payments so she could continue her lessons, but, unfortunately, that wasn't the teacher's choice.

Since Mable understood why there would be no more piano lessons, she became her own teacher.  By now she was a sophomore in high school with lots of college prep studies, but she always found time to practice the music in the three music books she owned; Hanon, Clementi, and Diabelli.  The music was a drag on the other siblings in the home, but her mother's encouragement kept her practicing in spite of  comments from siblings and the neighbors.

Because of her persistence and determination, Mable's skills in sight reading, improvisation, and the embellishments of music in the church song book also developed rapidly.  The church officials began to notice her skill on the piano and asked her to help with the music at the services.  Mable eagerly accepted the opportunity to work in the church.  She was even given a small stipend for her service.  This was how and where her career in music began: in the church.

In high school, during the 1950s, Ms. Bailey discovered another talent she didn't know she had: the ability to sing.  Her voice was light, warm and airy.  She wanted to join the school choir, so she requested and audition with the choir teacher at McClymonds High School.  When he heard her sing, he immediately wanted her to join the choir.  Mrs. Phyllis Ellsworth, who was the accompanist for the choir, was so impressed that she gave Mable the name of a voice teacher who would love to have her as a student.  The voice teacher was Mrs. Esther H. Hughes who became Mable's voice teacher for the next four years, and she used the stipend she received from the church to pay for her lessons.

When Ms. Bailey graduated from high school in 1958, she discontinued her voice lessons with Ms. Hughes.  She decided to join the Women's Air Force Corp so she could eventually attend college to get some type of degree in music.  Her mother didn't have the resources to send any of her children to college.  When Doc Hess, the principal of McClymonds High School learned that Mable planned to join the WAC so she could get a college education, he financed her first year of college with money from his own personally bank account. 

The following four years of college were financed by a scholarship the school counselors got for her from “The Mary Ruth Trust Fund.”  Mable was able to register for class at San Francisco State college that same year.   Getting the scholarship was a miracle because it was enough money to cover the tuition and the books for her classes.  The only downside with the award was that Mable was advised not to study music but Fine Arts and Education, so she could become a school teacher.  She followed the suggestion of the counselors, but she also added as many music classes to her schedule that she could manage.

While in college, Mable was able to continue singing and playing the piano in church.  She also found a voice teacher in San Francisco named Ina Souez. Ms. Souez was a retired opera singer.  She had lived and performed in Europe for several year as a notable opera singer.  When her voice began to fail, she returned to the United States and settled in San Francisco as a voice teacher. 

When Mable entered Ms. Souez's studio, she was amazed to see all of the paraphernalia on the teacher's wall.  The walls were covered with numerous photos of the operatic diva in full costume.  These were pictures of her performing in some of her most famous operas.  Ms. Bailey was extremely impressed and felt honored to be in the singer's presence.  Ms. Souez was also impressed by Ms. Bailey's voice when she heard her sing some of the songs she had learned with Ms. Hughes.  In fact, she offered to give her two lessons for the price of one.  Ms. Bailey accepted the offer and studied with Ms. Souez until she graduated from college in 1963 and got her first teaching job in the Oakland, California. 

After teaching in an elementary school for a year or two Mable decided to quit her job. She didn't like the teaching because it wasn't what she wanted to do.    She was able to get enough money to finance one year at a college to study music.  In the fall of 1967 she enrolled at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque as an undergraduate in music.    While she was there she took only music classes: music theory, music history, voice, and piano.  That one year at the University of New Mexico was the best year of her life because she was doing what she had always wanted to do: study music.  And, it was at this college that she learned what writing music was all about.  Writing her first song in the music theory class was the hardest thing she had ever done in her life, and that one song opened for her a whole new area in the field of music.

After her year of study at the University of New Mexico, Ms. Bailey returned to Oakland and was hired

to teach English at a junior high school.  She continued to think about her experience in Albuquerque and wanted to take some classes in music composition. That summer of 1969 she took her first class in music composition at the College of the Holy Names in Oakland, California. Sr. Theresa Agnes, a Catholic nun, was her composition teacher.  The sister had been a student of Darious Milhaud, the Composer in Residence at Mills College which was also located in Oakland.

Mr. Milhaud was a contemporary composer of classical music.  His style was steeped in the twelve tone scale, and most of his composition styles were atonal and well-structured in the twelve tone pattern.  Because Mr. Milhaud was the nun's teacher, the nun was also an advocate of the twelve tone system, consequently, the type of music she insisted that her students learn was the system of notation she had learned.  Her teaching strategy was very narrow, but none of the students in her class objected to it.  Most of the students were open to the new ideas of contemporary music.  Mable Bailey had been immersed in the eight tone scale, so learning the new ideas was a new challenge for her.

Learning to compose music in the contemporary style was exciting and challenging for Mable as stated.  As long as she followed the strict rules of this particular style, she was allowed to write whatever she wanted to write and be as clever as she wanted to be. The style was fascinating and different from the music she had been playing as a piano student.  Personally, she preferred to compose music that had some semblance of a tonal center.  However, she learned to write in the style of the twentieth century from Sr. Theresa Agnes although its form was indefinite, its rhythm patterns unrestricted, its melodies weird, and its chordal structures uncommon and vague.  Mable's principle thought as she worked with her teacher was “Anything goes as long as you follow the rules, but remember to let your imagination be your guide.” That summer was very productive, and Mable was able to compose several pieces of music that were easy and exciting to write.  She began to think that maybe she had finally found her “niche.” 

In 1973 Mable Bailey quit her teaching job in Oakland, again, and she moved to Denver, Colorado.  She wanted to find a better way to live, and a future filled with things she wanted to accomplish.   After settling in her new home, she began to study composition in 1974 with Norman Lockwood, a retired Composer in Residence at the University of Denver.   With him she was permitted to compose whatever she chose and in any style she preferred, tonal or atonal.  Mable composed mostly tonal music while using some of the elements of atonal music.

During her work with Mr. Lockwood, she worked as a substitute teacher in the Catholic and Public Schools in Denver to pay for her living expenses and her composition lessons. In 1975 she signed a teaching contract with Denver Public Schools and became a full-time teacher with full benefits.  For her elementary school students she composed some original music for singing and dancing. In middle and high school she made arrangements of popular songs to motivate her students.

Ms. Bailey continued to study with Mr. Lockwood while working as a full-time teacher.  After several years as a Denver teacher, she decided to return to college for a Master's Degree.  According to her teaching contract, she could take a sabbatical leave of one year with half pay to earn a higher degree after teaching at least five years.  In 1981 she decided to enroll in the University of \Denver as a graduate student and work for a  MA in Composition.  She terminated her lessons with Norman Lockwood and began her study with Professor Donald Keats at the University of Denver. 

Professor Keats was an advocate of atonal music, but his students were allowed to write in a mixed style of tonal- atonal music. There were no fixed  rules to following when composing.  He was always fair with his criticisms and suggestions.  Mable preferred form and clarity when composing, but the Professor seemed satisfied with a loose form and whatever clarity that could be maintained.   He was a fantastic pianist, and Mable's piano skills were inferior to his.  Often, she couldn't play what she wrote, but the teacher could play what the student wrote.  There was definitely a lot to learn in the instructor's class, but not enough time to learn everything.

Because the Denver University used the quarter system instead of the semester system the periods of instruction for the classes were shorter and the learning was not very thorough, Ms. Bailey decided to attend the University for two years instead of one in order to complete all of the classes she wanted to take.  At the University she studied music theory, music analysis, flute, voice, orchestration, counterpoint, electronic music, music history, and composition. She took a work-study job and a financial loan to pay for the second year of study.

During her stay at the Denver University, Ms. Bailey composed the bulk of her music.  She also began to develop her own distinctive style and tastes for the sounds and rhythms she wanted to hear in her compositions.  Her style was becoming her own; it was neither like the Professor's of any other student's compositions in the class.  The composition students were asked to write for single and multiple instruments in various styles and forms.  Most of the writing were short pieces written for certain instrumental combinations.  None of the students had the opportunity to write sonatas, or symphonies which would have required more time and organization on the part of the professor and the students. 

In order to complete a Master's Degree in music at the University of Denver, Ms. Bailey had to write a Master's Thesis, have and oral examination about her thesis by a board of Professors, and present a recital of the of her compositions for  forty-five to sixty minutes. The first two parts of the for the MA was a breeze for Ms. Bailey.  They were completed with a minimal of effort.  The third part required more personal planning.   From the variety of pieces Ms. Bailey composed she chose samples of the music she had written during her two years at the University that she wanted to use in her graduate recital.  The recital had to reflect a multitude of styles, voices, and combinations of instruments: vocal  (solos and choral), pieces for brass, woodwinds, and strings.  A variety of musicians had to be asked to perform the different types of compositions.  Scores had to be copied and issued, programs and invitations had to be printed and issued and a site for the recital had to be prepared.  Ms. Bailey was able to complete all of the details, so she could obtain her the degree she had struggled most of her life to earn.

In 1983 Mable received her MA degree in Music from the University of Denver.  After graduation, she returned to a teaching job in Denver.  She taught general music in elementary schools and middle schools. Eventually, there were not many schools that needed music teachers because many of the public schools had to eliminate their music programs to accommodate class size and curriculum. Consequently, Mable had to become endorsed to teach another subject.   She spent seven years teaching English Literature at Abraham Lincoln High School.  During her final year at the high school, she was asked to teach band, choir, keyboard, guitar, and drama.  The last year was the “hump that broke the camel's back,”and Ms. Bailey decided to retire.

Ms. Bailey retired from her job with Denver Public Schools in 2007.  Today, she composes exercises for her piano students and songs for a few voice students.  Other music she writes is mainly functional music for the church.   Before her MA, she had spent many hours in Colorado trying to perfect her skills in music.  She studied piano and electronic music at Metropolitan State University. After receiving her MA, she studied arranging and composition at the University of Colorado, and the study of voice, piano, strings woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments at Red Rocks Community College.  Currently, she spends precious moments perusing old music she has composed with the notion of improving them or expanding them into longer compositions.  Her desire to continue her work in composition is her mission and her joy.

Related Information

Works by Mable Bailey