- by Dr John Bergsagel, Københavns Universitet
Dear Gregory, Sharon and Creighton - and of course Conny,
It was very thoughtful of you to inform me of Jim's death a month ago. I was away at that time, but the news has weighed heavily upon me and I feel a need to write you a few words in memory of my friend.
It is half a century since Jim and I parted company on leaving Cornell, but I retain a warm feeling of a friendship that was close and comfortable during the years we were graduate students together in the excellent music faculty of that great university. Subsequently I was irregularly in correspondence with him for some years - until about 25 years ago - and felt no change in the bond of friendship that we had enjoyed. It is a pity that we were so far apart and too poor to travel; worst of all is that we both must have felt we were so busy that we didn't have time to write letters. When Gregory wrote a couple of years ago in search of his long-lost godfather, I thought that contact would be reestablished, as it had been with Conny - to the great satisfaction of my wife Charlotte as well as myself. Now it is too late.
I don't know how old Jim was - I was 22 when we met and I suppose he was a couple of years older. We called him affectionately Old Jim, but that was because, unlike us shiftless and lonely bachelors, he had a home, a lovely wife and eventually a son. His little apartment represented a level of maturity and dignity that we could only envy and Conny made it a haven of hospitality of which we took shameless advantage.
He also had a job, conducting the university choir, which he took very seriously and no doubt was responsible for diverting him from a career in musicology. He was a good musician. He had, I think, originally considered a career as a pianist; in any case, he played well and I remember with pleasure the hours we spent playing together - in particular the Schumann A-minor concerto, in which he played the solo part brilliantly to my orchestral accompaniment at a second piano. We had a lot of music to learn and loved the process. Once we made the trip into New York City by train to attend a performance of Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier at the old Metropolitan Opera House. It was a wonderful performance conducted by Fritz Reiner, I remember, and it inspired Jim, who was good at German, to continue dwelling in that cultural environment for a time. Accordingly, we went to see the "Reichstaats Gebäude," rather than the Empire State Building, before returning to Ithaca, and found it ganz aussrgewoehnlich nachdrucksvoll. He had humour and was good company.
I can understand that life was not easy for Jim - and perhaps not always for those around him either. I am sorry about that and want to recall for your benefit the memory of the man I knew - a good man, a good musician, a good friend. Though I hadn't seen him in 50 years I am sorry to think that he is gone and sorry that his life should end unhappily. However, we have just been reminded of the message of Easter and I am sure we have all remembered Jim.
With best wishes to you all,
John Bergsagel
Return to Memorial Page