ANTECEDENTS
John J. Haynie came to the University of North Texas as a temporary
instructor of brass instruments during the summer of 1950. Prior to
the appearance of Haynie, the Director of Bands, Maurice McAdow, had
taught the trumpeters for a period of five years, and there is some
evidence that even in the early 1940s NTSTC had a trumpet teacher
though not confirmed by college records. It is known without question
that E.K. Mellon did enroll and completed a degree in music. It is
also confirmed that E.K. Mellon had taught at the Eastman School of
Music for several years and had also played in five major symphony
orchestras. Much of the mystery hinges on the fact that Mellon left a
sizable library of trumpet music all of which bears a large EKM
stamped on each piece of music. This EKM library of Leduc publications
of French repertoire has been used repeatedly during the past fifty
years by John Haynie and his students.
THE HAYNIE LEGACY
Legacy by definition means “something received from an ancestor or
predecessor or from the past”. John Haynie’s forty years of legacy
building as trumpet teacher and administrator, in retrospect, can be
divided into four stages.
1950-1960
As a young man just out of college, John Haynie had little experience
teaching anything. Dean Walter Hodgson was not the least concerned
with that deficiency. He envisioned what might be some day. He liked
the way Haynie played the trumpet and wanted him to play wherever he
might be invited. Play he did. As the first full-time trumpet teacher
at UNT, recruiting quality students was the mission of his first
years. In the words of Dale Olson, author of the book The Haynie
Legacy, “In his first ten years we learned how to play the trumpet and
John Haynie learned how to teach the trumpet”.
1960-1970
By the mid-1960s John Haynie realized that he was spending far too
much time traveling, performing, judging and giving
clinics. Recruiting was unnecessary because a happy set of
circumstances guaranteed more trumpet players than he could ever
teach. Also he became very interested in how various parts of the
anatomy behaved when playing the trumpet. Dr. Alexander M. Finlay,
radiologist, was the catalyst for a learning adventure that would have
a profound effect on trumpet pedagogy, especially at UNT. While the
first ten years were devoted to performance and learning how to teach,
the second decade was characterized by teaching, performance and
research. The research was finding justification of what Haynie
believed and what he had learned to teach in his first ten
years. Haynie was fully prepared to accept the results and alter any
concepts he held that were in error.
1970-1980
In this decade Haynie was comfortable in his career, his department,
and found himself one of the most senior in university tenure,
departmental success, and was elected or appointed to many
departmental and university committees. This was a period of politics
as he served on virtually every important committee in the School of
Music and the University itself. With his colleague, Dr. Leonard
Candelaria, it is truly amazing how many of the world’s greatest
trumpet performers and teachers they attracted to the campus and
concert hall.
1980-1990
This was a period of winding down. The Haynie studio was running over
with fine students as was Dr. Candelaria’s and also the many TAs they
had to have. There was less interest in serving on committees and a
desire to spend more time with his students. After many years of
making no public appearances as soloist, Haynie once again took up his
trumpet for his personal enjoyment and to play at his church. In 1985
John Haynie retired and entered a program of modified service for the
university. In 1986 John Haynie would make a final musical statement
and a fond farewell by appearing as guest cornet soloist with
the University of North Texas Wind Ensemble at the Texas Music
Educators Convention in Sat Antonio, Texas.