In the early hours of February 3, 1959, American rock 'n' roll musicians, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. Richardson ("The Big Bopper") were all killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, together with pilot Roger Peterson. Just hours before, the trio had performed what would be their final concert at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa—part of the "Winter Dance Party" tour of the Midwest. The tragic event would become known as "The Day the Music Died" after singer-songwriter Don McLean immortalized it as such in his 1971 song "American Pie."
64 years later the music, of course, has not died—but lives on, as does the memory of those lives lost. To that memory Tuesday afternoon's Classical Music With Foley Schuler will pay tribute with several special musical selections. Featured will be a recent work by American composer Michael Daugherty inspired by the legacy of the Surf Ballroom and by the events of that fateful night and early morning in February, 1959.
In his program notes for the piece he writes:
"One of my favorite road trips in Iowa is a drive to the majestic Surf Ballroom, located in the small resort town of Clear Lake, around 140 miles northwest of Cedar Rapids, my boyhood hometown. Opening in 1934, many of America’s most famous swing, jazz and rock 'n' roll bands have performed at ‘The Surf’ for generations of music lovers, dancing the night away on the immense hardwood floor.
The Surf is also remembered as the place where young rock 'n' roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper gave their last performances of the Winter Dance Party tour on the evening of February 2, 1959. They died hours later in a charter plane crash caused by severe winter weather. This tragedy is often referred to as ‘the day the music died.’ But did it really?
In memory of the three rock 'n' roll legends who perished in February 1959, and in celebration of the Surf Ballroom being declared a National Historic Landmark in January 2021, I have composed a one-movement dance symphony entitled Last Dance at the Surf."
In addition to Daugherty's dance symphony tribute, your host (who has made his own pilgrimage to The Surf Ball Room and Museum as well as the crash site memorial) will share some those memories, along with several other related selections, including music composed by Antonín Dvořák while he was living in Iowa just an hour and a half from Clear Lake in the summer 1893, and a perfmance by one of the world's most acclaimed a cappella choral ensembles, The King's Singers, as they give their own haunting interpretation of Don McLean's song (really, an elegy for an entire era), "American Pie."
You can hear Foley Schuler's musical selections—and stories behind the music—every weekday afternoon from 1 until 4 on Blue Lake Public Radio.
