Fourth-Quarter Fiddlin’
A Memoir of An Engineer’s Makin’ Music
by
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“This is the story of how music has always been a huge part of my life, the hugeness of it only more fully realized in my later years. I always wanted to learn how to play the fiddle. But somehow I never had time. This is the story of how, late in life, at the age of 62, I began to learn how to play the fiddle, but in doing so began to take violin lessons—not fiddle, but violin lessons! It’s the story of how I was so captivated by the violin that I took weekly lessons for more than three years just for the joy of it. Then later, when someone mentioned to me that I might be able to audition and play with the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra (MSO), an orchestra of which I was not even aware of its existence. I auditioned and played second violin with the MSO for over 12 years.”
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About the Book
Tony Hopper started fiddlin’ at age sixty-two – something he knew his great-grandfather was good at back in the hills of West Tennessee.
He was so awestruck with the violin that he continued weekly violin lessons for over three years. Then, someone told him he should audition as a violinist for the Montgomery, Alabama Symphony Orchestra.
He ended up playing violin with orchestra for more than twelve years, and in this memoir, he looks back at his musical exploits, which started when he took up the trombone for his junior high school band.
Along the way, he highlights family members who were passionate about music, including three aunts who had their own live daily radio program; his great grandfather, John Will (J.W.) Dyer, who was a businessman, farmer, court official, musician, and fiddler; and a great-great-grandfather who was a bugler in the Union Army.
While conducting research for this book, the author also discovered that his great-grandfather, J.W. Dyer, and his four sons collaborated with another family on a brass band and that family has risen to the apex of the classical music world.
If you’ve ever longed to learn to play a musical instrument or want to know more about the musical history of the South, you’ll enjoy Fourth-Quarter Fiddlin’.
About the Author
Tony Hopper, Ph.D., earned his degree in electrical engineering from Auburn University. He has been a senior engineer in the aerospace industry, a college professor, a cattle farmer, and a sitework contractor. He and his wife of over sixty years, Iva Kate, live near Montgomery, Alabama. They have two children and five grandchildren and will soon be great-grandparents.