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Maurice Levy: This is Maurice Levy, speaking to Patricia Prattis Jennings
for the Oral History of Music in Pittsburgh project. It's January the 11th,
1992. Well, what's your first recollection of music in your life as a
youngster?
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Patricia Prattis Jennings: Well, I, I probably can't recall my first
recollection, but I do know that my piano training began as a result of the
fact that any time we would go somewhere where there was a piano, I would
head for the piano and probably make some rather chaotic sounds. So when I
was six years old, my parents bought a piano and got me a teacher so that
some order could be made out of that chaos.
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Levy: So you, you you took piano lessons and you worked your way through
what was the now? You were a concertmistress of the orchestra at the
Westinghouse High School.
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Jennings: Yes, I was, but a lot happened. A lot happened between the age
of six and that. I began to study with a lady who lived in the Coronado
apartments named Adele Riyadh. And she would come to the house on the
streetcar at that time. And she was rather firm. I studied with her for
four years, and it wasn't very long into my piano lessons that my affinity
for music and the piano made itself known, and I always have felt that by
the age of seven, I knew what I wanted to do, what I wanted to be.
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Levy: So you played the piano. What was your first public performance as a
youngster?
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Jennings: Probably a Tea at the church where I became later the Sunday
School pianist and the organist, which was Wesley Center AME Zion Church.
And, you know, there was some kind of a program almost every Sunday
afternoon.
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Levy: Located where?
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Jennings: That is at the corner of Center Avenue and Francis Street in the
Hill District.
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Levy: How old were you when you first began this job? Musical job? At the
church.
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Jennings: I was not very old. I might have been 8 or 9 years old, and I
stayed at the church in some musical capacity until 1978. That was more
than 30 years. And I think that both jobs, Sunday school pianist and
organist, were jobs that that I acquired because of some sort of emergency.
That person who had been doing the job became ill.
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Levy: The, were you involved with the choir at all?
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Jennings: At the church? Levy: At the church? Jennings: Well, as as
organist? Yes.
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Levy: And as accompanist, but not as a...
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Jennings: Not as a rule. I, I purposely stayed away from that because as
the as the years went by, especially and I joined the symphony, there was
always a hassle involved in getting ready for tours, finding somebody to
fill in. And I did not want to be the person in charge of the music,
because I didn't want to have to try to find somebody to do that for me, it
was a little easier to find substitute organists and plus, quite frankly, I
have a lazy streak. There wasn't as much responsibility involved in being
the organist, and I enjoy playing the organ. On occasion I would have to
conduct the choir and I always enjoyed and enjoyed doing that too. But my
main job from the age of 13 was as church organist and of course, the first
time I played the organ I was so nervous and the processional hymn was God
of Our Fathers, and that was probably the most wobbly God of Our Fathers
the congregation ever heard, because my foot was moving the pedal up and
down because of nervousness very quickly. But it didn't take long before I
began to feel quite comfortable. And then I was there for so many years
that, um, my organ skills improved to the point where I could use them with
the orchestra, with the Pittsburgh Symphony, as I do to this day, I am not
a great organist. I don't have great virtuoso techniques at the organ, but
I can play many things that the orchestra needs.
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Levy: The you. Of course, they gave you an opportunity to learn the
literature of the liturgical literature.
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Jennings: Well, I think, uh, there wasn't any great conflict, as with any
group of humans that are trying to work together, there are always
problems, but I don't have recollections of any great problems until near
the end of my time there when the the. The minister that that came there
just had slightly different ideas about how things should, should be
handled than than I did. And so there were there were some problems there.
But I would say that over the course of those 30 odd years, we all got
along quite well. And for for a brief time, the choir director was Paul
Ross, who is also a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony. And we had also been
at Westinghouse High School together in the orchestra. And one of the
things that Paul did that was quite wonderful, this is while we were at
Carnegie Tech, was to engage many of our of our schoolmates to come a at
Easter time to perform the Messiah. And it was a great boon for the church.
They had never heard anything quite so grand. I mean, timpani were brought
into the church along with with lots of strings and so on. And of course
the musicians weren't paid, so we always had a big party afterwards. That
was their pay.
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Levy: Now, who do you recall who conducted the Messiah?
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Jennings: Well, at that time it was it was Paul Ross who conducted. And
Paul is quite a fine conductor. He has finally started doing some more
conducting. I know that this tape is not about him, but I have to to to to
brag for him a little. He is now conducting the Three River Symphonette,
which is a spin-off of the Three Rivers Young People's Orchestra, and I'm
happy that he is doing some conducting. I always felt that he should really
pursue that talent, but I think he just was afraid that it would be too
hard for a young black man to do that. Uh, since since he was a very young
man, there are great many young black conductors who are doing very well.
So perhaps he was a little too skittish.
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Levy: Very sort of a pioneer in, in some way. He came along, uh, 30 years
ago. Jennings: Yes.
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Jennings: But I think there are some black conductors in his age group.
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Levy: Oh, yes. No, no, but they they weren't they were very few and far
between back in the 60s. Jennings: That's right.
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Jennings: Well, I think that many of my musical pursuits revolved around
my violin playing. When I was eight years old, I started to study the
violin with Kras Malno, who at that time was the principal violist with the
Pittsburgh Symphony. He didn't stay with the orchestra, you know, at that
time, the orchestra's season was quite short, and it was harder for the
musicians to make a living. They had to have some alternate, alternate work
in the summertime. When I joined the orchestra, we played civic light opera
in the summertime. But at any rate, Kras Malno got out of the orchestra and
went into the ladies garment business and and left Pittsburgh. But the
Lemington School Orchestra at that time was conducted by Peter Horlick. I
don't know whether you would remember him, and I think he had a brother
around named Samuel Horlick.
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Levy: I know the name, but that's all.
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Jennings: But at any rate, um, so I, I enjoyed that ensemble experience,
and I must say that Mr. Horlick and I had had some kind of a spat. I don't
know what he told me to do, but the smart aleck that I was at that time, I
must have said something very naughty to him. So my mother took my radio
out of my room for six weeks. I was an only child and my radio was very
important to me. So anyway, um, I guess I just studied the violin until I
was 12, but continued playing in the All-City Orchestra. I was a charter
member of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony at that time. Karl Kritz was the
conductor, and Marie Maazel, who was Lorin Maazel's mother, was the
organizer of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony. Then when I went on to
Westinghouse High School, I was the concert mistress of that orchestra,
which was conducted by the wonderful Carl McVicker, who is still living.
He's way up in years, but the last time I saw him, he was in fine fettle.
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Levy: About 87, 86 or 87, if I remember correctly, that orchestra was one
of the few, if not the only, Pittsburgh City Orchestra that win the state
championship. That's correct.
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Jennings: Yes, I think we we went they were called forensic for some
reason. They were called forensic competitions. And I think back in those
days, the public school music program in Pittsburgh was such that there was
a rivalry between orchestras, as there is now between football teams, the
Peabody Orchestra and the Allderdice Orchestra and the Westinghouse
Orchestra. And we all thought we were the best at the same time that the
orchestra did well in those competitions, I was also I guess the the first
violinist of the string quartet. And we we won a prize to playing the slow
movement of the Emperor Quartet. And I think I still have a picture of us
young'uns playing in our string quartet.
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Levy: The, uh, is your high school career then was, uh, revolved around,
of course, your participation in the Westinghouse Orchestra at the
Pittsburgh Youth Symphony, uh, and your other interests. You were taking
lessons both in the violin and the piano.
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Jennings: But by then I was just taking piano lessons. But things were
getting pretty heated up piano wise, because at at the age of ten, I began
studying with Harry Franklin, who was known as, if not the best teacher in
Pittsburgh, certainly one of of 3 or 4 master teachers. I believe at the
age of 13, I won the Pittsburgh Concert Society Auditions and within
another year or two won the major auditions. So this would indicate that I
was doing quite a bit of practicing at that time. Between that and studying
in school, you know, not doing my academic subjects, I was probably a
pretty busy person.
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Levy: Plus your activities at the church, too.
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Jennings: That's right. That's right.
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Levy: I you you had an eight day week going.
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Jennings: That's true. I think. Now, how did I do all of that? Of course,
I came from a family where my father would say Prattis’ don't get B's so
high achievement. Doing one's best was certainly always a factor. And I did
do very well. I think I graduated third or fourth in my high school class,
though I have to admit, I ducked out of physics and took biology in my
senior year to keep my standing up high. And I've always been sorry because
I never really have learned physics. It's not too late.
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Levy: Well, the physics of then is a little simpler than the physics of
today.
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Jennings: I'm sure that's true.
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Levy: And the central musical activities in the black churches, of course,
were the choirs. And we talked a little bit about that before, uh.
Primarily in your church. Uh, what was the repertory? The choir. And you
were the accompanist?
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Jennings: Well, my church was the AME Zion Church, which is African
Methodist Episcopal Zion. So it had it had elements of various things. It
was, um, we we did have gospel music. We had a gospel chorus which sang
every Sunday, and the cathedral choir, which also sang every Sunday. And I
would say that the Cathedral choir's repertoire was standard Methodist
church repertoire, with a few other things thrown in. We, we did, um,
classical classical choir repertoire. Right this minute, I can't think of
very much, but we did the the Hallelujah from the Mount of Olives, of
Beethoven, and Mozart, Gloria. We did. Oh, Divine Redeemer. Uh, one of the
popular songs was Let Mount Zion Rejoice, which must have been related,
obviously, to the to the AME Zion church. And the gospel chorus did, um,
what I would call kind of middle of the road gospel songs. And I loved
those songs very much and used to come home and try to play them. And on
occasion I was asked to substitute for the for an ailing gospel chorus
pianist, and I always enjoyed that very much. And I think the people were
enchanted by the fact that this little girl who's at home studying Mozart
and Beethoven could go over and play Lead Me, Guide Me or whatever the
gospel chorus was singing.
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Jennings: As a matter of fact, in 1977, uh, I won a $200 prize in the
American Song Festival for a gospel song that I wrote called Jesus Is All I
Need, and I performed that song as the lead singer at the church a number
of times, and it was very well received. It's never been recorded other
than by me and my own living room, but I'm quite proud of that. But I would
say that, you know, there's a, um, not a hierarchy that's not the right
word. But the churches become more formal as you move from from your basic
Baptist churches up through Methodist and Episcopal and so on, and become a
little bit more stodgy along the way. The AME Zion Church, I would say,
because of the Zion factor, was a little looser than, say, the AME church,
but perhaps less loose than certain Baptist churches. I'm speaking as if
I'm an authority on denominations, I am not, and I may be talking through
my hat.
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Levy: No, I think that's that's something that I've heard elsewhere, that
the fact that some of the churches, as we indicated before, the gospel, uh,
music was not an integral part of the service. And one of the churches did
not have a gospel choir because the minister didn't want it. And many of
the members of the congregation did not want it because they felt that
wasn't appropriate for their church.
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Jennings: Yes. Well, I think that, um, uh, that much of that has to do
with the general pathology of being an African American in this country,
trying to decide how much of your background you want to identify with. And
I could cite many other examples, but that's, that's as, as, as good as
any, I think, especially back in those days, people didn't, thought that
that that music was too colored, you know, and I'm sure many people still
think so. I haven't really thought about it much lately, because I'm just
totally uninvolved in that, in that world at this point in my life. But I
certainly think that there is nothing that that I mean, gospel music can be
extremely moving and should certainly be accorded its place in the musical
vernacular.
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Levy: The church experience, uh, as you indicated, this wide variation
from the Baptist and not putting it on a hierarchy, let's put it on a
spectrum from
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Jennings: That's the amount of.
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Levy: Of the classical liturgical music.
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Jennings: I would say that there was more emphasis on the classical
liturgical music and music, which was accompanied by the organ, because it
was a large pipe organ.
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Levy: And that's that's at the AME.
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Jennings: The AME Zion Church..
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Levy: I'm speaking of the Baptist church.
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Jennings: Yes.
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Levy: And then because many of them were, uh, I could be wrong with this.
Many of them were rural in origins. Yes. These churches. Sure. And and, uh,
the Baptist conventions set up certain kind of, uh.
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Jennings: Furthur along on the spectrum were the, the sanctified churches
and a lot of the storefront churches and the music. You know, many of those
churches used other instruments besides just piano and organ. They used.
Well, I haven't been in many of them, really, but tambourines and guitars
and drums and all kinds of things. And it's interesting to think about that
now, because on all of these Christian music stations, radio stations now,
I'm, I'm just flabbergasted by the music that I hear. It sounds just like
rock music on the rock stations, the same kinds of of instruments. I could
never turn one of those stations on and immediately identify the music as
religious music. And I think that people that grew up in the in the musical
church tradition that I did were always a little shocked by the idea of
saxophones in church or guitars or tambourines in church. It seemed a
little naughty. But of course, to the people that attended those churches,
those were were as normal as the organ and piano were in the church that I
grew up in.
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Levy: And the churches, of course, did reflect the the development of that
particular group and who who accumulated this kind of musical tradition.
That is the varried musical instruments as opposed to piano, organ, period.
Right, right. And the, uh, because that's as I've talked to people from
other, uh, the Catholics and so forth, uh, back in the 60s and 70s there.
Maybe see if this is analogous when the guitar mass came in, recall that
remember that in the in the late 60s.
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Jennings: Of course, I'm very conservative and I disapprove of all that
kind of thing. And I think they should use Latin, go back to Latin. And I
know there are people who agree with me.
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Levy: Really? You think Latin? You mean the Catholics. But. But you're not
a Catholic.
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Jennings: No, but but I like the idea of of
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Levy: So Pope John really undercut your. That's your belief.
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Jennings: That's right. I don't approve of him at all.
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Levy: It's, uh. Of course, as the as all institutions, whether they're
musical or other, they, they pick up bits and pieces and those things that
are valid stay.
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Jennings: Yes. And of course, institutions and the Symphony is no
different from any other institution. Try to do things that are going to
keep people interested in what they're doing, in what's going on in those
institutions, to keep people coming, to keep money coming in, to be
relevant, to be current.
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Levy: Well, the the promotions that the Symphony uses is an example the
couple's night, the singles night, that, that kind of thing. And, uh, the
expose series.
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Jennings: That's right. And I wonder if somebody's listening to this tape
in 100 years, what they'll be doing like this if they still exist.
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Levy: That's it's one of the, I guess, one of the reasons we're trying to
to put this project forward is to get what when you go through it, you
don't see it.
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Jennings: It's all evolution.
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Levy: It's all evolution. And we're and we're the. You have lived, uh, we
have both lived through, of course, the contemporary contemporary music,
the changes there and, uh, but some institutions were untouched by the
whole thing. One thing,
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Jennings: Yes. And it's difficult to please all of the public, though some
of the contemporary or new works that we perform. I, I have to wonder about
them. I have to to wonder of their validity. But there's no way for us to
know which of these pieces of music, and some of them I call music
guardedly, will survive. And 100 years ago, they may not have known what
would survive into this part of.
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Levy: What the Rite of Spring in 1911. Who would have predicted that would
have become part of this?
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Jennings: That that would become a classic. Yeah.
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Levy: Uh, what kinds of things did you participate in at Carnegie Tech?
Uh, you, of course, were involved with the piano, with with Harry Franklin
and.
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Jennings: Yes, and I played in the College Community Orchestra, which for
a while was conducted by Samuel Fayview, who had been the concertmaster of
the Pittsburgh Symphony for a while. It was later conducted by Sidney
Harth, whom we all know as a great violinist and great conductor, and
husband of Teresa Harth, who is principal second violinist of the
Pittsburgh Symphony. Uh, I also worked to train students from the drama
department occasionally when they were learning dramatic works that had
music involved. One that stands out in my mind was Euripides, The Bacchae,
uh, which was a wonderful experience. A woman, a woman was brought in from
Greece named Zuzu Nicolodi to work with the dancers for The Bacchae. And
some years later, when the orchestra went to Europe and while we were in
Athens, Zuzu came for me in her chauffeur driven Mercedes to take me out to
lunch. So that experience stands out. And I think we worked on some other
some other work.
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Levy: Did you work in the musical with any of the musical comedies there?
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Jennings: I may have right this minute. I don't. It's odd, but I don't
remember. I do remember during that period of time, I worked at the White
Barn Theatre as musical director for Gypsy. And I worked with them learning
music and then played all the shows. That was, that was a lot of fun. I
enjoyed musical comedy very much, and that's probably a part of my my life
that was brief, but but but sweet and that I miss.
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Levy: Now, you indicated that you had played with Walt Harper when you
were.
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Jennings: Yeah, I sang a few times with the Walt Harper band, as well as
the Carnegie Tech Jazz Band, which at that time was conducted by Dave
Stock. And I wasn't really very good. It was. It was the kind of thing that
you wish you could do, but you're just not that good at it. I wrote songs,
I sang certainly at the piano. I've written songs since, but I wasn't cut
out to be a jazz singer. But I do remember one evening a performance of
Walt Harper's band and Daisy Lampkin, who at that time I think was the vice
president of the Pittsburgh Courier, which was the newspaper that my father
edited, came up to the stage and expressed disappointment that my life had
come to that, to singing with a jazz band. And of course, she has been dead
for many years, but she'd probably be be gratified to know that I did a
little bit more with my life than singing with a jazz band.
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Levy: Well, what other experience? Well, while we're on the topic of jazz,
what has been your experience with jazz? You is it anyway a uh, an
avocation? You listen to it?
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Jennings: No, I, uh, I would love to have been able to play jazz piano,
especially when I was younger. I admired the guys that could just sit down
and play, uh, improvise rapidly. Now, another person that was at Carnegie
Tech when when I was there and Dave Stock was Tom McKinley, who was the
composer, William Thomas McKinley. He was a terrific jazz pianist. And
there were others there. And I used to hear them in the practice rooms, and
I would go in and try to do what they were doing, but I just didn't have
the knack. It's a certain kind of quick thinking, a coordination of hand
and brain that I just didn't, didn't have. I could play slow jazz songs
because it was like slow motion, but I never, never made it. There are some
some women jazz pianists and organists. They're much more rare than men. I
don't know whether it has anything to do with innate ability or if it's
just a certain orientation that men have towards improvisatory jazz. I
would go to the jazz clubs as a young person and,
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Levy: You you were, as you said, you do appreciate the the artistry.
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Jennings: I appreciate the skill that goes into fine jazz playing, though
I must admit that I have always found the drums a little hard to take. But
piano music. I have some Oscar Peterson albums and I've always loved good
jazz singing. I think I probably have 7 or 8 Nancy Wilson albums, and I
have Streisand albums. I don't know whether she's really considered a jazz
singer. I've never really become a great fan, though it's heresy to say so
of Ella Fitzgerald. Perhaps I came along just a little bit too late to
appreciate her the way many other people do. I was a Nancy Wilson fanatic,
and of course that's where the word fan comes from, and did all I could to
imitate her when I was, when I was a young woman. I thought she was a great
stylist, and unfortunately she got off the track a little bit. But she's
she's still around singing.
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Levy: She's are you you were an accompanist for the choir at Carnegie
Tech.
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Jennings: Yes, yes, yes. Roland Leich was the conductor at that time and
we did great works. And of course, the chorus would sing occasionally with
the Pittsburgh Symphony. So, uh, Doctor Steinberg, William Steinberg would
come in, and I had to be especially well prepared. I remember preparing
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the Brahms Schicksalslied, the Brahms Requiem,
and other great works that we had an opportunity to sing with the
orchestra. So I was a I was a busy, busy person.
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Levy: Well, it was a it was a broad range of music offered at Carnegie
Tech. Yes. There it is now.
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Jennings: Even broader now the music school is is really flourishing.
00:28:19.000 --> 00:28:21.000
Levy: Yes, they revived it.
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Jennings: And of course, the current head of the music school, Marilyn
Taft Thomas and I were there at the same time, and I would not have
predicted this for her. She was always a lovely person and very a
conscientious student. But it's very interesting as one progresses through
life, especially if you stay in the same town, to watch people evolve and
grow into...
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Levy: People your your contemporaries, they just sat next to you in a
study hall or something. And there they are someplace.
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Jennings: Another person who who surprised us all was Jake Milliones, who
was a big city councilman. Now, he played the bass fiddle in the
Westinghouse High School Orchestra when I did, and he was a very quiet
person, I would never have predicted that he would become such a public
figure. Mhm.
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Levy: Well, the Carnegie Tech, uh, experience, um. It.
