FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, Nov. 17, 2005
Contact: Dave Wellman, Director of Communications, (304) 696-7153
 

CD by MU professors features music from era of John Marshall

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Marshall University music professors of flute and voice and a guitarist have collaborated to produce a recording of music from the era of Chief Justice John Marshall, for whom the university is named.

The CD, titled “Rallying ’Round Our Liberty,” features Dr. Wendell Dobbs, professor of flute; Linda Dobbs, professor of voice, and Dr. Leo Welch, former professor of guitar at Marshall who now is at Florida State University.

The project was sponsored in part by Marshall’s John Deaver Drinko Academy and College of Fine Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the West Virginia Division of Culture and History.

Wendell Dobbs said that he first became interested in music of the early 19th century about 25 years ago while working on his doctorate. Since then, he has studied traditional music from Ireland, Scotland, and England as well as that of the United States.

When he first began looking at this literature, he found that the historically accurate instruments were not available for performing this music. However, he has since been able to acquire a historical copy of a flute produced by the London company Rudall and Rose. The instrument was made by John Gallagher of Elkins, W.Va.

“It’s been so serendipitous to find an instrument maker of John Gallagher’s skill,” Dobbs said. “He’s opened a whole area of discovery for me which simply would not have been possible on modern instruments.”

The flute is made from African blackwood with eight silver keys.

Most of the selections on the recording were arranged for guitar by Welch. Welch and Dobbs collaborated on some of the other arrangements.

The CD is available at the Marshall University Bookstore on the Huntington campus.  For further information, persons may contact Wendell Dobbs at (304) 696-2359 or by e-mail at dobbs@marshall.edu.

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Photographs of the Dobbs and Welch are available at http://www.marshall.edu/ucomm/muphoto.html.