When Maud Hart Lovelace was born in 1892, Mankato had just 9,000 inhabitants. From the hill behind her home on Center Street, she could see the whole city, with the winding Minnesota River in the distance.
"Horse and buggy days," she called them. And from her idyllic childhood memories of growing up in Mankato, Lovelace later wove a series of bestselling children's books, which are still in print today.
Her Betsy-Tacy stories began appearing in 1940, and roughly one a year was published until the series ended 15 years later.
Lovelace set the books in the fictional town of Deep Valley, Minn., a thinly disguised version of Mankato, and they paint an evocative picture of "the family life, customs, jokes and traditions" of what now seems a hopelessly distant, more innocent era.
Some of the Betsy-Tacy magic is being revisited this week in "Celebrate Mankato Past and Present," the opening concert of the Mankato Symphony Orchestra's new season.
Alongside music by Brahms and Vivaldi is a new work by the orchestra's resident composer, Benji Inniger: Songs From Deep Valley: A Betsy-Tacy Suite, a piece honoring the legacy of Lovelace and the characters she created.
The idea of a musical salute to Betsy-Tacy comes from the books, which are packed with references to songs the characters sang at parties, social gatherings and school functions.
Inniger drew liberally on these references when putting his Betsy-Tacy Suite together.
"The foundation of much of the piece comes from a wonderful compilation of music mentioned in the stories called The Betsy-Tacy Songbook, put together and published by the Maud Hart Lovelace Society," he says.
"The book was a tremendous resource to study the lyrics and harmonies of the time, and I also listened to many historical recordings of the tunes to gain more ideas and interpretation."
Eight songs made the final cut for the suite of highlights that Inniger eventually put together, with titles including "School Days," "Meet Me Tonight in Dreamland" and "Let Me Call You Sweetheart."
"These are common folk tunes, and there is quite the variety of arrangements and interpretations out there in the history of recorded music," he says. "I attempted to soak that in and make something that I thought would work for the musicians."
Inniger's initial idea was that the songs should have a relatively modest accompaniment.
"I originally imagined a performance by a much smaller 'riverboat band,' with trumpet, clarinet, trombone, bass and banjo," he says. "But we wanted to give the piece the best fit possible into the MSO season by featuring what this wonderful community orchestra can do, hence the evolution to full orchestra."
The Mankato Symphony's idea for a Betsy-Tacy tribute evolved in other ways, too, as the orchestra's executive director, Hannah Bretz, explains.
"Costumed characters from the Betsy-Tacy books will immerse the audience in Mankato history and the world created by Maude Hart-Lovelace," she says.
"The actors will interact with audience members prior to the concert and usher patrons to their seats, and the Blue Earth County Historical Society will provide a preconcert talk. We hope this adds to the excitement of the experience and connects the audience to Benji Inniger's music."
Inniger admits to not having read the Betsy-Tacy stories before he started working on the MSO project. They were, though, somehow in the very air around him.
"This is my 18th year living in Mankato, and Maud Hart Lovelace's name frequently pops up in local events," he says.
And although he'd previously visited the author's childhood home on Center Street, Inniger still needed what he calls "a crash course refresher on the background of the Betsy-Tacy stories and Maud's life."
What he found out in his research percolated into the musical world of the Betsy-Tacy Suite, where soprano and baritone soloists will sing the songs that Inniger has included in his medley.
"There are definitely flavors of jazz, Dixieland, ragtime, period ballad, militaristic music and show tunes in the suite," he says. "I'm hoping that it will be a fun, sweet, nostalgic journey through this importance piece of Mankato culture."
Bretz says Inniger's composition is "uplifting and beautiful, reminiscent of Aaron Copland's majestic works."
It is, she says, a fitting tribute to the memory of Ed McLean, a native of Mankato who died in 2016. His substantial planned gift to both the Mankato Symphony and the Blue Earth County Historical Society underpins Saturday evening's concert.
"The 'Celebrate Mankato: Past and Present' event will mark the legacy that Ed McLean created through his philanthropy," Bretz says. "I also hope the concert will strengthen the community's appreciation for the history that surrounds us."
Concert info
What: Mankato Symphony Orchestra's "Celebrate Mankato Past and Present"
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5
Where: Mankato West High School (1351 S. Riverfront Dr., Mankato)
Tickets: $5-$35 (under 18 free)
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