Chip Minemyer: JSO's Blachly, dad share special bond through music

Jun. 17—This is Part I of II. Next time: Exploring the healing and inspirational power of music.

Alexander Blachly's son, James, was about 4 years old when he began to show a keen interest in dad's work in classical music.

Alex was directing the acclaimed vocal ensemble Pomerium, which he founded in New York, while teaching at Columbia University. He is now a professor of music and director of choral activities at Notre Dame.

Just a boy, James began developing a love for music that would launch his own successful career — eventually leading him to his role as maestro and music director of the Johnstown Symphony Orchestra.

James said his first musical language was what his dad was conducting — Renaissance polyphony — complex vocal compositions made up of several simultaneous melodies.

Father and son chatted about their lives in music in an interview conducted via Zoom.

"What James was hearing from a very early age was this wonderful counterpoint with the voices going in and out of being the prominent voice," Alex said. "It's constantly changing. It has what I would call a three-dimensional aspect to it more than a lot of other forms of music, because you can hear it differently every single time, focus on different things. It was a very heady kind of music that James was exposed to.

"I didn't know that he was particularly interested in it.

"He came to those concerts because we had no choice.

"We didn't have the money for babysitters, so he had to come along. And I didn't know that he was appreciating it particularly. He was just a kid, so he wasn't expressing admiration for the music or anything."

James called the style "extremely special and not common" and "music that truly transports you."

Those two-hour performances on top of numerous rehearsals could have turned off a young boy, but had just the opposite effect for James, he said.

"As a very young child, I just thought this was normal," James said. "I was kind of up for anything. and the music is just incredible — rich, rewarding, complex and satisfying.

"It continues to be kind of my home base. When I need to reset, I can go back and listen to some of my dad's great recordings and come back to center."

He added: "A significant portion of my childhood was spent listening to Pomerium."

For the pope

Folks who have followed James' career — including winning a Grammy Award for a recording of composer Ethel Smythe's 1930 piece "The Prison — might not realize that at an early age he was an accomplished composer of both vocal and instrumental music.

He wrote a piece inspired by the Renaissance period and the notion of "cantus firmus" — a preexisting melody that forms the basis of a larger musical work.

"The experience of hearing this music my whole life is really a cantus firmus of its own," James said. "If readers don't know what that is, it's often the basis of these compositions, like the backbone, and things are woven around it. Renaissance polyphony as performed by my father is my skeleton. Everything else just kind of hangs from that."

His cantus firmus became "Christe qui lux es et dies" — a composition inspired by his father's area of musical expertise.

In 2011, Alex took his Notre Dame Chorale to Rome, where they performed a passage from James' piece for Pope Benedict.

"The chorale that I conduct, the Notre Dame Chorale, loved that piece," he said.

"When I suggested we do the ending of that piece for the pope, they all said, 'Yes, that's perfect.' "

Alex said the pope would host a public meeting every Wednesday at the plaza in front of St. Peter's Basilica, and "if you write ahead and you're with a choir, you would be able to perform — for maybe 30 seconds."

Most groups sang "very simple music" for the pope, but not the Notre Dame Chorale.

"Benedict was sitting there listening to this piece, which is a very sophisticated piece, and he was quite interested," Alex said. "All of the simple pieces were fine, but he was a very sophisticated musician. And he clapped and clapped and clapped at the end. He was so happy to have heard something that was intellectually challenging."

James' reaction: "I was just overwhelmed."

He added: "Here in Johnstown, one of the things people have really taken notice of was that I've had one of my pieces performed for the pope."

James, in his sixth year with the JSO, now has a 4-year-old son of his own.

James recently spent two weeks away from home working with the New York Philharmonic. In a literal passing of the baton, James gave his son a conductor's wand before he left.

"I knew I had to give him something that would be a real connection to me," James said.

"I gave him his first conducting baton. So he already has one."

Alex's grandson is taking to music quickly, James said.

"I want him to make his own choices about what he wants to do," James said. "He has a beautiful voice already. He makes up lyrics really well."

It wouldn't be a surprise if that boy is soon playing instruments and composing music — joining in a very special family legacy.

"As James was growing up, he was known as my son," Alex said. "But now I'm known as his father. When people meet me, they say, 'Oh, you're James' father.' The roles have changed, they've switched. James is the famous one now."

James said he and his dad talk as often as they can, and the subject is typically music.

But having his father conduct a piece he wrote at the Vatican will be a tough moment to top.

"For my father to choose my piece to perform for the pope," James said, "that says more to me than any words could."

Chip Minemyer is the editor and general manager of The Tribune-Democrat and TribDem.com, GM of The Times-News of Cumberland, Md., and CNHI regional editor for Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia and North Carolina. He can be reached at 814-532-5091. Follow him on Twitter @MinemyerChip.