when his parents forced him to
sing in church choirs. “I didn’t
like it at the time, but 1 thank them
for it now,” Mount said, laugh
ing.
While his peers were making
their Gl-Joes fight each other with
guns, Mount was cutting out
pictures of electric guitars from
Sears and Roebuck catalogs and
arranging his Gl-Joes to play in
SHELBI WESCOTT
a band.
Feature Editor
Electric guitar was his instru
David Mount, Clackamas En ment of choice during his high
glish instructor, opens a worn school years, much to his par
case and exposes two delicate ents' dismay, and he remembers
fiddles. He gently pulls one from the instant approval from his
peers because
its quiet resting
he was in “a
place and fingers
rock band.”
the bow with his
What I love most
“
I
right hand, while
never did get
holding the in
is the sheer sound
any
dates
strument in his
of an instrument.
though,” he
left.
laughs.
Then, his fin
When
gers begin to fly,
David Mount
Mount went to
moving up and
English Instructor
college, he in
down the frets -
tended to be a
his face distant
professional
with careful con
centration. Fiddle music fills his musician.
“The saddest day in my mom ’ s
tiny office in Streeter Hall and I
am immediately transported into life was when I dropped out of
college to pursue a music career,”
another time and place.
Suddenly, I am not in an office he said.
anymore...I’m not at school any
Mount played clubs up and
more. I’m sitting on a porch, some down the Sunset Strip in Holly
where in the mid-west. The setting wood and soon
is reminiscent of a Mark Twain realized that he
novel; boys in overalls sit with didn’t want to
their shoeless feet dahgling off the spend the rest
railing; girls in long dresses are tap of his life trying
ping their feet to the addicting to make people
interested in his
rhythm of the music.
Just as quickly as it began, the music.
He changed
music stops and I’m back at
Clackamas in an office by the his direction to
teaching and yet never lost his
parking lot.
“What I love the most,” musical focus. Even while work
Mount says, putting his fiddle ing on his Ph.D. at UCLA, Mount
back into its case, “is the sheer could be found over at the music
department, playing instruments
sound of an instrument.”
Starting spring term, Mount with fpiends.
As Mount got older, his taste
will be teaching a music and lit
erature class (EN-299) where he changed from rock and roll into
will be combining his passion for more old-time
music with his knowledge of lit music. During a
trip to England,
erature.
“We may start with a story and he
became
then listen to some music that re enamoured with
lates to the story somehow. We the sound of the
will free-write to music and have Viola De Gamba
guest speakers come in and share and knew he
their knowledge,” Mount ex wanted to learn
to play it.
plained.
Students don’t need to worry
Instead of play
about a lack of musical knowl ing contempo
edge; the musical focus will be rary viola music,
more intuitive than technical.
Mount
re
“We will try to educate each searched the his
other on what we know,” Mount torical music and
said. “1 hope students will add learned to play
their knowledge of contemporary sheet music from
the 17th Century.
music to the discussions.”
It is his incred
The class was the creation of
Mount who wanted a way to use ible passion for
his first love, music, as a teach music, historical and otherwise,
ing tool in his literature classes. that makes him the perfect can
Many stories throughout time didate for teaching the new Mu
have a musical background and sic and Literature class. Students
many musicians have used mu can expect to become immersed
sic as a way to put poems and in a different world of music and
stories into a universal language. words combined as one.
“Music and Literature...it’s just
Mount’s own musical back
ground dates back to childhood one language to another.”
Theeight-year
English instructor
will usehis knowledge
ofthe music world m
his teaching next term
go
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David Mount plays a Viola de gamba and
strums on his banjo. The English instructor
will teach a new class at Clackamas next
term—EN-299. The course will combine
Mount's passion for music with his
knowledge of literature. He feels that the
musical focus will be more intuitive rather
than technical knowledge.
PHOTOS BY SHELBI WESCOTT I Clackamas Print