Inspiration Behind Katherine’s Journey
A Long Journey Home Katherine was inspired by my love of piano music and involvement with our local symphony orchestra.
I fantasized playing piano as one of the guest artists at the symphony. Having the name Melody has always tied me to music, more on the instrumental side than vocal since I can’t sing an E from an A note if my life depended on it. At the age of twenty-six, my husband bought me a piano and I took lessons, only to discover I was not cut out to be a virtuoso. Therefore, the character of Katherine was imagined in my fantasies, playing Mozart and Chopin at concerts and performing for friends.
My love for piano music didn’t stop because I stopped playing. When our daughter was seven, she took up piano and played until she went to college. I in turn enjoyed attending the local symphony orchestra. Colorado Springs, where we lived for twenty years, had a wonderful orchestra and here in small Newport, Oregon we to have an amazing professional orchestra, often highlighting women composers or musicians.
Newport Symphony Orchestra, Adam Flatt conducting, guest pianist Amy Yang 2019
When a friend encouraged me to start writing again (having already written a novel and a memoir) my Katherine character surfaced begging to have her story told.
Finding a sense of home for her took me back to my early childhood of growing up in California and loving the beauty and quietness of the rolling hills covered in golden grass and dappled with stoic oak trees.
California became home to Katherine, and in the 1880’s for the most part it was ranch lands and farming with small towns scattered among the wandering oaks. When I think of where I really wanted to live as a child it was among these hills, on a small horse ranch, riding horses in the morning and playing piano in the lazy late afternoons.
Sacramento valley in early September near where I image Katherine grew up
When I married, we left California and moved east near Washington D.C. That experience gave me more input to Katherine’s story. She was torn away from her beloved California small ranch and sent east to a more formal and old-fashioned way of thinking and living. Even in 1981 for me, east coast and west were like night and day in formality.
With the completion of the continental railroad in 1869, travel became much faster. It took six to seven days by train to travel from Sacramento to Boston. Train engines still ran on steam and had to stop for water often.
We experienced this journey when we moved from Maryland back to California by train in 1982. It only took four days with train changes in Chicago and Seattle before reaching Los Angeles. It’s a journey I recommend.
Sacramento old town train station still exists but is not operational.
Milton Academy today is a coed preparatory boarding school in Boston
Girls from wealthy upper-class families often were sent to finishing schools such as Milton Academy founded in 1798 on the edge of Boston.
Such a school was the inspiration for Mrs. Wheeler’s finishing school in the book. If you are lucky, you will find a friend for life at school. I have known my best friend since eighth grade. Katherine finds her BFF, Joanna Mitchell, another girl from California, and together they create mischief and survive the formality of school and Boston society.
As Katherine’s piano skill flourished under Margaret Bowles’ tutelage it was expected she would perform for various orchestras. While concert music was well established in Europe, most American orchestras were just getting started in the late 1800’s. The New York Philharmonic founded in 1842 is the oldest, while Boston Symphony Orchestra wasn’t formed until 1881 under the leadership of George Henschel. They played at Boston’s Music Hall. It wasn’t until the Boston Symphony Hall was built in 1900 that the first Steinway piano was used.
The Old Music Hall in 1881
Katherine’s European Origins
The character of Katherine grew in my imagination as I traveled throughout Europe attending symphony concerts in Scotland, Austria, Czech Republic & more.
The orchestras and music halls we heard and saw provided great inspiration for Katherine’s performances.
In London we opted for the Mouse Trap play rather than a concert, but while in Glasgow attended the symphony in a very modest hall. Prague was on a budget and we attended a small chamber string ensemble. Yet while in Vienna we took full advantage to attend the Vienna Philharmonic in the beautiful Musikverein Hall.
Vienna Music Hall Weiner Musikverein.
The London Symphony we know today, did not form until 1902. The Queen’s Hall Orchestra was in London by 1895 and some of its members broke away to form today’s London Symphony.
The Vienna Ladies Symphony came about in rebellion to the renowned (men only) Vienna Philharmonic founded in 1842. Since women were not allowed, female musicians in 1868 began their own Symphony and began traveling around Europe. It is this orchestra Katherine plays with in London along with a small ensemble group.
In 2006, my husband and I were in Prague and found several similar ensembles playing at some of the old grand houses to celebrate Mozart’s 250th birthday, a delightful way to hear his music. Katherine would have visited the charming main square in Prague with its clock tower and shops while performing there.
Prague market place and clock tower - 2006.
It was in Vienna that Katherine experienced the magnificence of a full established Orchestra as she was invited to play with the Vienna Philharmonic at the posh Vienna Music Hall (Musikverein), built in 1870. My husband and I were privileged to attend a concert evening in 2019. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is over 100 members strong and plays in the lavish old gold gilded Wiener Musikverein. Katherine would have played here.
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Weiner Musikverein in 2019
West Coast Stories
Our town of Newport Oregon is fortunate to have its own symphony orchestra, the Newport Symphony Orchestra. I served on its Board of Directors for over ten years, thus, learning a great deal about how a symphony operates and how guest artists prepare and share their talents. We still attend concerts, and the music is amazing.
Katherine never made it to Bonn to perform, but escaped back to California to get away from a cheating husband. I, unlike Katherine, have a wonderful and faithful husband. Together we have settled on the Oregon coast but occasionally venture back to California with its rolling hills and oak trees. Katherine finally finds what she looking for in the small town of Oak Ridge in cattle country. The area southeast of Sacramento was the inspiration for the final scenes in the book. If you visit southeast of Sacramento you will still find cattle and small ranches.
In late September along I-5 in California, as you go past Stockton, you can see the stockyards filled with cattle waiting to go to market.
Many Different Lives
Katherine lives several different lives, finally finding the home that brings her happiness and love. None of us are the same people we were when we started life’s journey.
With hope we too can find a home filled with music that brings serenity and love.