{"id":30018,"date":"2014-10-28T13:55:52","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T21:55:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/?p=30018"},"modified":"2021-03-01T14:21:37","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T22:21:37","slug":"11-questions-for-ghosts-of-wars-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/11-questions-for-ghosts-of-wars-past\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201c11\u201d Questions for Ghosts of Wars Past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Like Paula Jardine\u2019s A Night of All Souls, Mark Haney\u2019s \u201c11\u2019 for brass ensemble, about the Renfrew Heights Veterans Housing Project, brings people together in open dialogue about death and through it a renewed respect for the courage of life.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was a dark and stormy night…<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Remember, remember<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a dark and stormy night\u2026but that wasn\u2019t enough to stop Mark Haney\u2019s brass players from strapping on their rain gear and heading into Mountain View Cemetery for this year\u2019s A Night of All Souls<\/em> ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark was following a thread similar to Paula Jardine (creator of A Night of All Souls<\/em>), which is to bring people together in open respect and dialogue about death and the dead. And with this being the centenary of the First World War, Mark Haney\u2019s \u201c11\u201d is also helping to shed light onto a Vancouver neighbourhood touched by war\u2014and maybe even heal some ancient wounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11 Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I asked Mark, a professional double bass player by trade, how he came to be writing music in a field so far removed from his occupation, he started by describing his years as a commercial musician \u201cjust gigging and trying to make a living\u201d. He alluded to a few professional disappointments that prompted him to question his core purpose as a musician. He concluded that what he needed to do the kind of projects that he loves\u2014the ones that fascinate him most\u2014even if the money wasn\u2019t there. Then one night in 2000 at the bar at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the famed double bassist Edgar Meyer bottom lined it for him: \u201cIf you wanna write, you gotta play; if you wanna play, you gotta write\u201d. Mark knew he had to start creating his own music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mark Haney shields a fellow musician from the elements at last Saturday\u2019s\u00a0A Night of All Souls.\u00a0
Photo courtesy Tim Matheson<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Two years ago, Mark approached the Parks Board for an\u00a0artist studio residency\u00a0at the former caretaker\u2019s suite in East Vancouver\u2019s Falaise Park. The field house stands not far from the Renfrew Heights Veterans Housing Project, a neighbourhood with a unique history that would become his focus for writing and telling important community stories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Among the many materials Mark Haney and fellow researcher Diane Park uncovered at the National Archives was this one featuring wartime musicians, including Mark\u2019s\u00a0Doppelg\u00e4nger\u00a0on double bass, flanked by tubas.
Photo courtesy Library and Archives Canada.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Greatest Generation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Mark began his research, he was shocked to discover how much he didn\u2019t<\/em> know about the Second World War. \u201cIt\u2019s not like the Hollywood war films at all\u201d, he said, \u201cThere were no tours of duty<\/em>\u00ad\u2014most men were in the war for four or five years.\u201d He described the scene of D-Day in which they \u201cturned people into cannonballs\u201d driving them up onto the beaches of Normandy even as their comrades around them were mowed down. In preparation, soldiers trained for months on the beaches of England to \u201chead inland no matter what.\u201d \u201cYou can\u2019t fail\u201d, was the drill and \u201cYou don\u2019t help anyone. Period. Get inland.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edge of darkness<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the war, many veterans returned to Vancouver suffering from what today would be diagnosed as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They bought homes in the Renfrew Heights Veterans Housing Project, but with no support other than similarly traumatised veterans, problems began. \u201cIt was a tough neighbourhood\u201d, said Mark describing the problems, which included physical abuse and alcohol, as the veterans tried to lead normal lives. But, feeling more and more isolated from mainstream society, the veterans retreated into their homes and the local Legion Hall. Many of their children bear the scars of a war fought before they were born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aerial photo of Falaise Park and the Renfrew Heights Veterans Housing Project during construction.
Photo courtesy Library and Archives Canada<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mark realised that the stories of these veterans and their families needed to be told. “It\u2019s a living history we\u2019re about to lose”, speaking of the veterans but also the Project kids, now in their 60\u2019s. But to tell their stories, he first had to earn their trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is your name?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a gigging musician Mark knew how to put on a show, but the last thing the veterans needed was a showman. The veterans had had a lifetime of training at being shut down, so their first inclination was to close ranks. \u201cWhat\u2019s your agenda?\u201d, they\u2019d ask, \u201cWho are you?\u201d and \u201cWhat do you want?\u201d, they\u2019d demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Marketed to veteran\u2019s as a “working man’s Shaughnessy” the houses were actually tiny. Construction of the Renfrew Heights Veteran\u2019s Housing Project in 1948.
Photo courtesy Library and Archive of Canada<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Who among you lived in the Project?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As a tough community that\u2019s been together for years, there\u2019s a lot of pride too, but Mark added, \u201cAlong with the pride and the community, there\u2019s an edge of sadness\u2014always\u201d. He\u2019d have to prove through his music that he was interested in them as individuals, and that his project wasn\u2019t a flash in the pan\u2014he would see it through to completion. \u201cMy piece is about eleven individuals in the war\u201d, said Mark, \u201cI composed it to put a human face on the wars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Laura Williams was part of the Women’s Division of the RCAF.\u00a0 After the war, she and her husband Frank Helden moved into the Project. Their daughter Betty Helden became a big supporter of “11”.\u00a0 Photo courtesy Betty Helden<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even so, he learned that some veterans couldn\u2019t go to Remembrance Day events. \u201cThey\u2019d stay home and cry\u201d, he said. Often they\u2019d go to the Legion and drink, but it was more wallowing than release from the pain, \u201cAll they did was re-live the war\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not all the veterans represented in \u201c11\u201d have passed away. Diane Park, a videographer who\u2019s working with Mark on \u201c11\u201d mentioned 99-year-old Edmond Champoux. \u201cHe\u2019s very much alive and a big supporter of \u201811\u2019. He has shared stories with us of surviving the horrors of D-Day (as an Engineer he was one of the first on the beaches at Dieppe), as well as the Battle of Falaise Gap\u201d, she said adding, \u201cHe lived in Renfrew Heights from the early 1950’s until moving to Burnaby two years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Edmond Champoux during the war. Photo courtesy Edmond Champoux<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When were you born?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Mark found ways to help make people feel comfortable and open up. Last summer, he put up a display about their story at his field house. \u201cIt was very touching\u201d, he said, \u201cI learned so much in so many ways, by communicating and working with people who grew up in the Project.\u201d Gradually, people began warming up to him. They still needed somebody to talk to, and as they began to open up to him, the stories increased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At A Night of All Souls on Saturday, Attendees could come in from the rain for tea and gingersnaps and view the display created as part of the \u201c11\u201d project.
Photo courtesy Tim Matheson<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

To put humanity into the story, Mark developed a system of numbering in which each of the 11 brass instruments would spell out the name of an individual veteran (using only the letters from the veteran\u2019s name that corresponded with musical notes). At Mountain View on Saturday night, some of the players actually played at the gravesite of the deceased veteran whose name they represented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When did you die?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Although Mark scored \u201c11\u201d for brass instruments, he was sensitive to avoid any direct military references. In the drizzle on Saturday night,<\/em>\u00a0the brass players sounded sombre and perhaps a little amphibious too as they called out to each other from around the cemetery. \u201cThe last section I wrote follows the solo trumpet asking \u2018When did you die?\u2019\u201d Mark said, \u201cAs each of the 11 musicians said their date, it was more like writing dialogue than music.\u201d Huddled under umbrellas around the smouldering Swedish torch (a burning log set on end), we listened to waves of brass polyphony waft through the cemetery and occasionally letter\/notes would well up in great wet chords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On Saturday night at Mountain View Cemetery participants volunteered to hold umbrellas for the beleaguered musicians making it a truly immersive\u00a0experience.
Photo courtesy Tim Matheson<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Falaise Park<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark\u2019s been getting reports of friends and relatives of the veterans who are planning trips (from as far away as Edmonton, Calgary, and Nelson) to attend this special Remembrance Day concert in Falaise Park. He hopes for perhaps less rain than at Mountain View, but then laughs, \u201cWe now know we can do it in the rain if we have to\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Together with Diane and the 11 musicians, they plan to accommodate all sorts of groups by providing wheelchair accessibility, an opportunity for nearby school children to sing a new song-version of \u201cFlanders\u2019 Fields\u201d, and Linda Jones, a veterans\u2019 entertainer (and Project alumnus) will sing once again. Afterward, everyone will gather in the gym at nearby Vancouver Christian School for coffee and snacks, where the display materials will put a human face on courage in the face of war and tragedy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like Paula Jardine\u2019s A Night of All Souls, Mark Haney\u2019s \u201c11\u2019 for brass ensemble, about the Renfrew Heights Veterans Housing Project, brings people together in open dialogue about death and through it a renewed respect for the courage of life. Remember, remember It was a dark and stormy night\u2026but that wasn\u2019t enough to stop Mark […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8],"tags":[151],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30018"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30018"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30034,"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30018\/revisions\/30034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jasonhall.ca\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}