Remembering Germain Kalmykoff
(14)
Today’s instalment will consist entirely of further recollections by Vernon Murgatroyd, quoted as he sent them to me in another letter.
Vernon Murgatroyd:
I too, along with you, would very much like to have information regarding Germain. Especially would it be great to meet him again. However, there may be little chance of that, since he was one who moved a lot. The last time I saw him was at an Edmonton apartment at which time I drove him to Grande Cache. He wanted to visit there again, since it was one of his favorite teaching locations. I think it was because of its isolation that he liked it so much. Don't recall what year that would have been.
Thorhild was another place I drove him to. I remember that time so well, because we were having lunch at a restaurant in Redwater, and our conversation steered to composers Shostakovich and Glazunov, and political prisoners locked away for life, or waiting for someone to come and lead them off to execution. Well, Germain started to cry uncontrollably, so that I very heavily regretted that I had ever let our conversation get in that direction, or that far. I had never seen Germain even close to tears before, so was much alarmed and devastated by the situation, much wishing we could reverse the time (on the clock) that we had visited together that day, up to that time. Fortunately, other car rides we had were all happy ones, particularly out to the farm 7 miles SE of Innisfail where I had lived the first 14 years of my life. . . .
Germain was a very strong lover of Renaissance art and music. . . . Regarding Germain's paintings, I would often think they resembled something like deep-sea creatures, and others, like faces staring out of the darkness at the end of a long hallway, - both of which he negated. There must have been hidden meanings which I was never quite able to penetrate, and which were beyond his words to explain. . . .
On one of our numerous drives - this one out to Lousana - Germain was impressed with the number of dragonflies we encountered during our walk over nearby hills. So he decided to do paintings of them. . . .
On our drive to something like a nunnery near Hoadley or Bluffton, his conversation with the residents there was all in Russian - I think. They invited us to stay for lunch. I remember how good the Borscht soup was. I think that's what it was, anyway it was dark rose-coloured soup.
Incidents keep coming to mind, each memorable in their turn. Can't fix a date on the Calendar for them though. Oh yes, we would quiz each other on little-known music. Like "which Symphony has an additional distant ensemble of 5 violins, viola, & harp?" Answer - the Charles Ives 4th. Or what is Beethoven's Op. 134? Answer - a 4-hand piano arrangement of the Grosse Fuge Op. 133. Difficult to find and nearly impossible to play. The more pieces we knew, the more fun we had taking them apart!
Germain was often indeed difficult to find. Like unexpectedly, I would get a card from Viti Levy (Fiji's big island) - sent to the Red Deer Public Library because he "could never figure out my address." Cape Guardafui - the "horn of Africa" was another place, - the NE tip of Somalia. Or Lightning Ridge & Walgett, New South Wales, where it's so hot the residents live underground. . . .
Often he wasn't very well, and even admitted that while playing flute in the Calgary orchestra, he nearly passed out counting bars in a Prokofieff Symphony. Don't know which of the 7 it was, but with the 2nd, that's where you find the real Prokofieff. Germain would fear having panic attacks when surrounded by crowds and refused to go in with me to attend an Edmonton Symphony concert. I was afraid he would start walking home to Red Deer, such an impractical state of mind he was in, at that moment, which fortunately didn't last long. Happy times surpassed the reverse though, for which I was very relieved and thankful. . . .
He claimed to be the incarnation of Moussorgsky, with traces of late Beethoven. I didn't take that seriously, but perhaps he really did believe it of himself. . . . His artistic accomplishments could only be approachable to those who truly desired to reach his level. This was said of the composer Faure. . . . One of my most satisfying remembrances of Germain was when we had moved quite a few things from one location to another. He said to me "Well Vernon, if ever there is any time I can be of any help to you, be sure and tell me. You've been more help to me than I could ever have expected from anyone." [You're very welcome, Germain.] "