Exhibits

Music has been made in central Oregon for as long as the area has been inhabited by indigenous peoples, and when the earliest white settlers arrived in the mid-nineteenth century, they brought music along with them just as readily as any other cultural tradition. Compared to the other trappings of these settlers, music was eminently portable—it existed in minds and fingers and throats—and at least as essential to comfort and community. The material stuff of music, however, proved more challenging. Small instruments could be carried to Oregon, but bulky instruments like pianos could be moved only with significant effort. Newly printed music crossed to Oregon only in a chance manner, leaving musicians isolated from the latest ideas. And once instruments and music arrived, they were subjected to hard treatment and difficult climates, and had to be preserved as best as possible. 

The title of this exhibition—“Music By Hand”—suggests the improvisatory, haphazard, and handmade but nonetheless essential nature of music-making by the early settlers of central Oregon. Few of these amateur musicians would have been trained to read music, let alone direct ensembles, compose music, or maintain and manufacture instruments, so they drew on whatever materials and skills were at hand. Four musicians are featured—Till and Warren Glaze, a father and son who directed the earliest brass bands in the area; Marjora Tackman, an avid young pianist; and “Doc” Renno, a self-taught maker of violins and other string instruments—alongside some of the local contexts in which musicians performed. 

Once upon a time, Klunker bikes gathered at the base of an undeveloped Awbrey Butte. Members of Klisters Corner and the Black Rock Riders put in hours on their klunkers, ‘dirt bombing’ down old logging roads on bikes never meant for such terrain and returning with skinned legs and arms, and grins from ear to ear. Their exploratory journeys formed the basis for mountain biking history in Central Oregon. Using journals, sketches, early prototypes and gear from the pioneers of this now modern sport,

Klunkers and Stumpjumpers: A History on Two Wheels invites visitors to step back in time when there were only trails to be blazed. Exhibit can be viewed at Bend City Hall at 710 NW Wall Street, just two blocks north of the museum.