About this project
IN A NUTSHELL
Piano books and sing-along songbooks with LARGE PRINT and music set in comfortable singing ranges for senior adults -- with audio options. See sample lead sheet (vocal part) and a few audio samples below.
WE ALL HAVE ELDERLY FRIENDS AND FAMILY
I know that we all have friends and family who could benefit from this project: mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts and uncles, neighbors and friends. We all have friends of mature ages who want to continue participating in life so they can enjoy it to its fullest.
FEEDBACK HAS BEEN GRATIFYING
"I am a 24/7 caregiver for my mother who will be 102 years old Jan 3. Music runs in our blood, and sometimes we sing together. I am really a church organist, and have an organ in her home where I am living to care for her."
"I downloaded everything and it worked great. The music is absolutely fantastic and old people can read the sheet music [lyrics because of the large print]. I hope all the senior groups in the country see your website."
"All the feedback I have gotten has led me to this point of bringing this great project to the attention of others, especially those who can believe in the importance of music in the life of senior adults, for personal enjoyment and for use by Educators, Activity Directors and Music Therapists working with a variety of (autism, alzheimer, parkinson, and brain-damaged) clients."
BACK STORY
Hi! My name is Frank Jo Maitland Geltner. Several years ago my wife, Jo Maitland Geltner passed on -- before she could complete a project she had been working on for nearly 20 years. I am counting on you (my backers) to join me in completing this memorial to Jo -- the completion of a project she started many years ago. SongFest, as it was then called, was to be a collection of 84 songs -- popular classics, from the late 1700's to the 1900's. She got the idea for the project while working at a Senior Residential Center (Olive Plaza) in Eugene, Oregon, after receiving a BA in Music and while working on an MA in Gerontology.
SOMETHING SPECIAL
What was different about this collection was that all of the music was to be made available in LARGE PRINT and comfortable singing ranges for senior adults, 65 and older. She developed the idea with a music professor at the University of Oregon School of Music, Randall S. Moore. They did a survey of senior song preferences, which became the list of songs to be targeted in this project -- all those, that is, that are in the public domain. They calculated that if the project was a success, they could tackle copyrighted music later on. They worked on it in their spare time, but never reached a critical mass. In the meantime, a lot changed over the years. People moved around and the project resided mostly in computers. Of course, the project's target audience continued to get older.
After the Ball Set in Comfortable Singing Range
Tentative List of Songs for This Phase of Project
Audio samples are included below some of the songs. If play arrow does not show, click on the left end of the black bar to reveal a green play link.
After the Ball
Ain’t She Sweet
Alexander’s Ragtime Band
Amazing Grace
America
America, the Beautiful
And the Band Played On
Auld Lang Syne
Battle Hymn
Baby Face, You’ve Got the Cutest Little Baby Face
Bicycle Built for Two
Bill Bailey
Bye, Bye Blackbird
By the Light of the Silvery Moon
Carolina Moon
Clementine
Cuddle Up
Danny Boy
Dark Town Strutters Ball
Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else But Me)
Doodle Dee Doo
Do Re Mi
Down By the Old Mill Stream
Down By the Riverside
Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue
For Me and My Gal
Give My Regards to Broadway
Good Night Ladies
Heart of My Heart
Home on the Range
I’ll See You in My Dreams
I Love You Truly
I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles
I’m Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover
In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town
In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree
In the Good Old Summertime
In My Merry Oldsmobile
It’s a Long Way to Tipperary
I’ve Been Working On the Railroad
I Walk in the Garden
I Want a Girl
K-K-K-Katy
Let Me Call You Sweetheart
Let the Rest of the World Go By
Little Brown Church
Love’s Old Sweet Song
Memories
Moonlight and Roses
Moonlight Bay
Moon River
Mother
My Bonnie
My Favorite Things
My Wild Irish Rose
Oh, Susannah
Oh, What a Beautiful Morning
Oh, You Beautiful Doll
On Top of Old Smokey
Onward Christian Soldiers
Over the Rainbow
Over There
Pack Up Your Troubles
Peg of My Heart
Play a Simple Melody
Pretty Baby
Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet
Put Your Arms Around Me
Red River Valley
Rock of Ages
School Days
She’ll be Coming Round the Mountain
Shine On, Harvest Moon
Side by Side
Sidewalks of New York
Smile, Smile, Smile
Smiles
Star Spangled Banner
Summertime
Sweet Rosie O’Grady
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
There’s a Long, Long Trail
Wait Till the Sun Shines Nellie
When Irish Eyes are Smiling
When It’s Springtime in the Rockies
When Johnny Comes Marching Home
When the Saints Go Marching In
When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain
When You and I Were Young, Maggie
When You Wore A Tulip
When You’re Smiling
While Strolling in the Park One Day
Whispering Hope
Yankee Doodle
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Yellow Rose of Texas
You Made Me Love You
You’re a Grand Old Flag
THE TRIBUTE
Jo passed on January 10, 2008. (The launch date of this project) Her birthday was March 8. (The final day of this project) By 2009, I decided that I wanted to make this project a reality. This is the second phase of the project. In phase one, I spent quite a bit of my own time and money to get the project to where it is today. If this Kickstarter project succeeds, we will further develop a website we have been working on: www.SeniorSongFest.com. That website, to be fully supportive of this project, will require additional web development and design work; and additional, more current, song titles.
SENIORS OF TODAY NEED SONGS THAT WERE SPECIAL FOR THEM!
We will continue to add more songs to cater to the current generation of "seniors." Critical to achieving our goal of 100 songs will be paying a music arranger. Lastly, to insure quality control of all elements, a music specialist will be required to get it all packaged for uploading to the website.
CAPACITY BUILDING
Now I need help to build the capacity to complete this project. We have completed approximately 40 songs. The target for this (phase 2) Kickstarter project is 100 songs. To accomplish this, I will need to pay musicians to finish all of the elements of each song: the piano part, the songbook/vocal/guitar part, an mp3 file and a midi file. And, because my target audience are folks who don't often feel comfortable with modern technology (computers, iPods, etc.), we will have to produce bound (spiral probably) volumes of printed material and companion CDs (for those who don't have access to a pianist).
MEET RANDALL MOORE
Randy has worked with many seniors over the years. He has written: "As I work with older citizens, I see they can sing and their faces light up when they hear and see the familiar words and tunes that are important, emotional threads in their lives." Our goal then, says Randy, is to complete a project "that will lead to increased enjoyment of life for hundreds and thousands of seniors to savor in their twilight years." Another friend commented: "I wish this would have been available when my Grandmother was alive, she would have loved it! Older Seniors are also hard to buy for and this would have made a nice gift."
MEET ART MADDOX
Art has taken the place of my wife in creating the arrangements in this second phase of the Senior Song Fest project.
Composer/pianist Art Maddox is noted for the warmth and range of his musical gift, encompassing the avant-garde, classical, traditional, symphonic, choral, theatrical and pop genres. Classically trained, he holds master's and doctoral degrees in musical composition.
Since 1981 he has worked with Emmy Award-winning composer/guitarist Mason Williams ("Classical Gas", "The Smothers Brothers Show") on many projects, including music for television, theater, and live concerts. He is arranger-keyboardist and music director for Mr. Williams' concert of music about rivers and water, " Of Time & Rivers Flowing", which has received over 40 performances throughout the United States. Most recently, the acoustic instrumental Christmas album "A Gift Of Song: Mason Williams & Friends" (Real Music, Fall 1992) showcases several of his orchestral compositions and arrangements.
Art's wide-ranging musical persona made him a natural collaborator for Oregon novelist Ken Kesey ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and "Sometimes a Great Notion"). In 1986, Art created the musical setting for Kesey's retelling of an Ozark folk tale,"Little Tricker the Squirrel Meets Big Double the Bear". The orchestral version of this work, commissioned and premiered by the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, has since been performed by the Oregon and Kansas City Symphony Orchestras, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York, and on conductor Bill McGlaughlin's syndicated radio program St. Paul Sunday Morning.
MEET GREG A. STEINKE
Greg helped to produce and arrange all of the songs in the first phase of the project -- those which can now be found on www.SeniorSongFest.com.
B.M. ‘64, Oberlin Conservatory; M.M. ‘67, Michigan State University; M.F.A. ‘71, University of Iowa; Ph.D. ‘76, Michigan State University.
Former Chair, Departments of Art and Music, (The Joseph Naumes Endowed Chair in Music), also Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Marylhurst University, Marylhurst, Oregon (now retired, 6/15/01); Associate Director, Ernest Bloch Music Festival (‘93–97) and Director, Composers Symposium (‘90–97) (Newport, OR); Former Dean, College of Fine Arts, Professor of Music, Millikin University, Decatur, Illinois; Director of School of Music, Professor of Music (composition/theory), former member of Musical Arts Quintet (oboe), Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana; Professor of Music (composition/oboe), Assistant Director of School of Music, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona; Professor of Music (composition/theory), Chairman of Music Department, San Diego State University, San Diego, California; and Professor of Music (oboe, theory/composition), Director of School of Music, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho. Michigan born. Composition study with Joseph Wood, H. Owen Reed, Richard Hervig, Paul Harder and Lawrence Moss. Also former Professor of Music and Chairman of Music Department, Linfield College, McMinnville, Oregon, and former faculty member at The Evergreen State College, California State University, Northridge, University of Maryland. Former musical director of the 20th Century Chamber Ensemble at the University of Maryland and the New Musical Arts Ensemble at Michigan State University; former member of the Winnipeg Symphony (First Oboe), University of Iowa Woodwind Quintet, Northwest Wind Quintet and New Art Players, University of Maryland Woodwind Quintet and Maryland Chamber Ensemble, the National Gallery of Art Orchestra, Tacoma Symphony, Woodwind Conspiracy of Portland, Arizona Opera (First Oboe), and Flagstaff Symphony. Currently active as a composer of chamber and large ensemble music with many published works and as an oboe soloist, specializing in contemporary music for oboe.
MEET TIMOTHY BROGAN
Tim is our webmaster at www.SeniorSongFest.com a project of Newport Internet Collaborative. Thanks Tim!
MEET OUR VIDEOGRAPHER
Howard Shippey is our videographer. He is the principal with Digital Video Designs -- www.dvdesigns.biz. Thank you Howard!
MEET OUR VIDEO PROJECT CAST
We all met at the Newport (Oregon) Senior Activity Center to tape our video. At the piano keys is Ramona Martin. Our singers around the piano (left to right) are Chrissie LaHiff, Kay Moxness, Betty Stier, Randall Moore, Evelyn Brookhyser and Frank Geltner. Thanks to Newport Senior Activity Center Director, Peggy O'Callaghan. Jo's photo can be seen on the piano.
MEET SALLY McBRIDE
More recently Sally McBride has worked with Randy in arranging some of the songs in our collection. Thanks Sally!
MEET CINDY CLAGUE
Cindy was one of Jo's first helpers, more than 20 years ago, in working with the then new Finale, music writing software. Thanks Cindy!
MEET VALENCIA McNATT
Valencia has helped to add a social media element to our project!
BECOME A BACKER AND PLEDGE TODAY!
Please consider becoming a backer at whatever level you can. We need early number of small and large funders to build the momentum of our Senior Songfest project. Our tribute to Jo!
CONTACT FRANK JO MAITLAND GELTNER
If you would like to contact Frank, you can reach him at 541-961-1482 or .
Thanks for your interest!
Risks and challenges
One of the greatest challenges is setting the program budget and calculating the amount of time really needed to complete the collection of songs, print them, package them, and ship them. I have set what I believe are realistic dates for shipping product. Obviously, the first task is to get to work arranging the remaining songs in the collection.
We have done quite a bit of advance work on our project. Approximately forty (40) songs have been completed, giving us some sense of what work lies ahead in completing the final sixty (60) songs for our collection. The cost of getting the project this far, I have covered out of my person savings. The major work is the compositional element in the piano pieces, which then serve as the foundation for the guitar/chord pieces and then the LARGE PRINT aspect. We have a professional composer prepared to take on the job if it is funded. We have a professional musician then prepared to process everything through music publishing software for the output required. A website development assessment has been done and that funding is accounted for in our proposal. We have allowed sufficient time for those backers who will need to receive the full collection as their reward. The local printing company has been lined up and trial printings have been done. So, for the most part, the major players in our project have enough background history to achieve the desired results in the time projected.
Our hope is that we raise sufficient extra funds to allow us to position our enterprise with more modern songs, i.e., those having music licensing fees. All of our current songs are in the public domain -- meaning there are no copyright fees.
If we exceed our goal, we will survey our backers for their song preferences and set about to arrange some of those songs for the collection.
I have personally been project oriented for all of my professional life: Alumni Association Director, University Program Consultant, Arts Administrator and now private business owner.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterQuestions about this project? Check out the FAQ
Support this project
Funding period
- (56 days)