from Jack Kopstein
Patriotic Music for All Occasions: Patriot Tunes Developed by Altissimo
The great sacrifice that helped to win the war
The Normandy landings, also known as Operation Neptune, were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. The landings commenced on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 (D-Day), beginning at 6:30 AM British Double Summer Time (GMT+2). In planning, D-Day was the term used for the day of actual landing, which was dependent on final approval.
The assault was conducted in two phases: an airborne assault landing of 24,000 British, American, Canadian and Free French airborne troops shortly after midnight, and an amphibious landing of Allied infantry and armoured divisions on the coast of France commencing at 6:30 AM. There were also decoy operations mounted under the code names Operation Glimmer and Operation Taxable to distract the German forces from the real landing areas.
The operation was the largest amphibious invasion in world history, with over 160,000[5] troops landing on 6 June 1944. 195,700[6] Allied naval and merchant navy personnel in over 5,000[5] ships were involved. The invasion required the transport of soldiers and material from the United Kingdom by troop-laden aircraft and ships, the assault landings, air support, naval interdiction of the English Channel and naval fire-support. The landings took place along a 50-mile (80 km) stretch of the Normandy coast divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
Due to a high demand, Altissimo! Recordings developed Patrotic Music for All Occasions, complete with 23 patriotic songs suitable for any occasion. Appropriately titled, Patriotic Music for All Occasions features many fantastic songs that represent America and its citizens’ love of country, and it’s the perfect patriotic summer holiday soundtrack. Songs like “Yankee Doodle” and You’re a Grand Old Flag” bring back memories of Fourth of July celebrations, while other songs such as “Amazing Grace” and “Taps” round the album out in an inspirational and moving way. This album contains over 50 minutes of classic, stirring patriotic music. Each piece is performed by one of the many great Military Bands of this country, including the United States Army Band, The United States Marine Band, The United States Coast Guard Band, and the United States Air Force Heritage of America Band. Patriotic Music for All Occasions is the ultimate collection of all the patriotic music we have come to know and love.
Our current newsletter had the incorrect link. Click Here to Read the 4th of July Article
Contributed by Jack Kopstein
Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday of May. It is a day to honor those who died defending their nation.
Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day and originated in the aftermath of the 1861–65 Civil War, during which more American soldiers died than in any other war before or since. After the Civil War, grieving citizens around the nation began holding memorial ceremonies, decorating the graves of Civil War soldiers with flags and tributes. Waterloo, New York, is officially considered the “birthplace” of Memorial Day because it was the first to make the practice of honoring the Civil War dead a citywide event when it held its first Decoration Day in 1866.
General John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the veterans’ group the Grand Army of the Republic, made a formal proclamation designating May 30, 1868, as a day of remembrance of the nation’s war dead. The holiday was originally intended to honor the Civil War dead. After World War I, Decoration Day was expanded to honor those killed in all of the nation’s wars, and after World War II it became known as Memorial Day.
In 1971, Congress designated the last Monday in May as the national Memorial Day holiday. It has become a day on which the dead of all wars, and the dead generally, are remembered in special programs held in cemeteries, churches, and other public meeting places.
The traditional observance of Memorial day has diminished over the years. On Dec. 28, 2000, the White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance was established to promote the spirit of unity and remembrance through a minute-long observance. Congress wanted to bring the country together in an act of national unity, ensure that the nation remembers the sacrifices of America’s fallen, and to put ‘memorial’ back into Memorial Day.
The commission urges Americans worldwide to observe the National Moment of Remembrance on Memorial Day at 3:00 p.m. local time (duration: one minute). The 3:00 p.m. local time was chosen because it is the time when many Americans are enjoying their freedoms on the national holiday. Americans may observe a Moment of Remembrance by pausing for a moment of silence or listening to “Taps.” The commission also urges Americans to perform its Memorial Day anthem, “On This Day,” which was composed by award-winning composer Charles Strouse.
The Moment does not replace the traditional Memorial Day observances. It is intended to a be a unifying act of remembrance for Americans of all ages. By participating in the Moment Americans can help reclaim Memorial Day for the noble and sacred reason for which it was intended—to honor those who died in service to our Nation.
Many Americans confuse Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Memorial Day is a day for remembering and honoring military personnel who died in the service of their country, particularly those who died in battle or as a result of wounds sustained in battle. While those who died are also remembered on Veterans Day, Veterans Day is the day set aside to thank and honor ALL those who served honorably in the military – in wartime or peacetime.
Music has always played an import part of the Memorial day tributes and the Public Broadcasting System each year salute Veterans across America with a rousing program from Washington DC featuring the National Symphony orchestra and several musicians from the American service bands. Many of the songs and marches may be heard on Altissimo! recordings.
Other popular ways to celebrate Memorial Day include visiting your local veteran’s cemetery to lay flowers on a grave, or to visit a veterans hospital or VA association and talk to the veterans there. The tradition of wearing poppies in honor of America’s war dead takes its origin from the poem “In Flanders Fields,” written in 1915 by John McCrae. There is also a musical version of this poem arranged for band by Jack Kopstein.
In Flanders Fields
written in 1915 by John McCrae
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Flanders, in north-west Belgium, was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of the World War I. One of the few things said to have survived the bloodshed was the poppy. John McCrea, a Canadian doctor serving on the battlefield, wrote this poem after treating the battle wounded and burying the dead.
View original post at: http://www.calendar-updates.com/info/holidays/us/memorial.aspx
Altissimo Salutes
C.G. Conn History
C.G. Conn, the oldest continuous manufacturer of band instruments in America, literally gave birth to the U.S. band instrument manufacturing industry. Today, C.G. Conn encompasses some of the greatest names in musical instruments Always committed to serving the needs of students, music educators, amateurs, and professionals, C.G. Conn’s history reflects a history of commitment to originality and quest for the ultimate in design and craftsmanship. Conn continues to be an industry leader in musical performance.
One Saturday night in 1873, Civil War veteran Charles Gerard Conn got involved in a brawl that resulted in a split lip. Not good news for a man who played cornet with the Elkhart, Indiana “Brick Brown Band.” In order to get around this problem, Colonel Conn set out to perfect a special rubber-cushioned mouthpiece so he could continue playing. The new mouthpiece, which he later patented, caught the eye of other musicians. He made a few for his friends, but soon there was such a demand for his mouthpieces that he rigged up a lathe from an old sewing machine and began turning them out as fast as possible.
In 1875, a French musical instrument maker named Dupont stopped by the shop and asked if he might use Conn’s bench to repair some horns. After watching him work for several days, Conn decided that he, too, could make a horn. In that same year, in a closet-size shop only 20 feet square, Col. Conn produced the first American-built cornet.
By 1879 the shop moved into larger quarters, and Conn began adding instruments to his line. In 1888, Colonel Conn brought 15 European instrument craftsmen to the United States and gave them the space, the tools and the incentive to make the finest instruments their skills would allow. Their expertise, teamed with the Colonel’s ingenuity and ambition, soon produced instruments so exceptional that they were accorded highest honors in the 1893 World’s Columbia Exposition in Chicago.
Twice the Conn plant burned to the ground. Twice it was rebuilt, bigger and better than before. Famous bandmasters and musicians visited the plant and personally endorsed “Conn Wonder Instruments.” John Phillip Sousa, Patrick Gilmore, Herbert Clarke, Arthur Pryor, A. Liberati and others were frequent visitors.
Vaudeville was at its peak, and the theaters and music halls of Elkhart saw a steady procession of the finest bands and musicians of the day. All played the Colonel’s instruments. Conn instruments – ornate and often jeweled – became world famous as Sousa and others toured Europe playing before kings, queens and czars.
The Colonel also loved strange and bizarre instruments. In 1907 he built an Immensaphone, the largest horn in the world. It measured 12 feet in diameter and 35 feet long. The Conn factory also built the world’s largest drum, a slide tuba to make noises like a ship’s warning whistle, tenor tubas for the jackass role in Strauss’ Don Juan, and a saxophone for one-armed musician Al Miller.
Since the first American cornet in 1875, C.G. Conn continued producing “firsts” throughout its distinguished history: the first American saxophone, first double-bell euphonium, first sousaphone (built to the great Sousa’s specifications), and a long list of many others.
In 1915, Colonel Conn sold the C.G. Conn Company to C.D. Greenleaf. Greenleaf, almost clairvoyantly, realized a need for the advancement of instrumental music in the schools. His foresight and energy continued to add to Conn’s innovations. He was responsible for founding the first national school for band directors, first and only center for the study of musical acoustics, first successful short action valves, first all-electronic organ and first fiberglass sousaphones, among other legendary advancements.
During World War II the Conn factory was completely converted to manufacture precision instruments for defence. Conn received four Army-Navy “E” Awards – the first given in the band instrument industry. During the Korean War part of the facilities was converted to defence production, and Conn achieved another record in precision manufacturing.
Many of today’s most preferred instruments owe their original success to Conn’s innovation. C.G. Conn French horns, for example, have been the horn of choice for the Hollywood film industry for most of the 20th Century. C.G. Conn Symphony Series trombones have a legendary place in the classical trombone world. Today’s best trumpet players are discovering the break-through performance with Vintage One trumpets. These innovative designs, enhanced by superior craftsmanship and technological breakthroughs, have provided today’s musicians with the superior instrument performance.
Building on the proven designs of the past, C.G. Conn continues to meet the demands of today’s best musicians. As well, amateur and student musicians can enjoy the very best in instrument technology and performance with brass instruments and saxophones from C.G. Conn.
Altissimo Recordings Salute CG Conn Band Instrument Company for their fine musical instruments and preserving band music in the United States and Canada.
View original here: http://www.cgconn.com/content/history.php
Altissimo commemorates the Civil War, which began on April 12th, 1861 and is remembered here in a musical sense with the bands and the music. It has been 150 years since the first shot rang out at Fort Sumter on that fateful day, but the music and the bands are perpetuated historically by several re-enactment bands across America. The Civil War Collection should assist in understanding the dedication of the bands and musicians both today and during the great conflict.
Civil War Band Collection:
1st Brigade Band of Brodhead, Wisconsin
History of the 1st Brigade Band
In 1857, a group of citizens of Brodhead, Wisconsin, decided to form a brass band. They initially called themselves the Brodhead Tin Band, from the set of inexpensive tin instruments that they had purchased. Soon they purchased a set of brass instruments, however, and became known as the Brodhead Brass Band, or “B.B.B.” Under that name, they performed at the debate between senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas on August 27, 1858 at Freeport, Illinois.
During May and June 1861, the members of the band enlisted in the Union Army as the band of the 3rd Wisconsin Volunteer Regiment, commanded by Col. Charles Hamilton. The high spirits of the time inspired Edwin Oscar Kimberley, the band’s leader, to write a song in praise of Col. Hamilton, “Hamilton’s Badger Boys” (the song was later published in 1899). Despite this valiant beginning, the 3rd Regiment participated in the campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia during 1862, suffering from the hazards of battle and losing instruments during retreats. In July 1862, the government decided to reorganize music within the military and the regimental bands were mustered out. The 3rd Wisconsin Volunteers were discharged in July.
In early 1864, the citizens of Brodhead and other nearby towns raised the funds to enable the band to enlist again, as a brigade band associated with the 1st Brigade, 3rd Division, 15th Army Corps. This time, they bought top quality instruments produced by D. C. Hall of Boston and had proper uniforms made by the Smith and Bostwick Department Store Janesville. They also copied their music into the leather-bound partbooks of this collection, which contain about sixty tunes, including dances, songs, hymns, and marches.
By the end of August 1864, the band was looked upon as a credit to the brigade and their services were sought after. Kimberley wrote:
“We continue to improve in playing slowly, and are looked upon as gentlemen and good musicians by the entire division! General Smith is trying to get us at his headquarters, he thinks all the world of us. I think if Brodhead could hear us play, or Janesville they would open their eyes”.
(Edwin Oscar Kimberley, to his mother, undated letter in Wisconsin Historical Society)
After a furlough over Christmas of 1864, the band returned south and participated in Sherman’s march through the Carolinas. During a brief respite in the action in April, Kimberley reported that the band had received attention from Gen. Sherman, himself:
Last night, according to previous notice, we repaired to Sherman’s headquarters for a serenade. A new song, composed by prisoners [Lt. H. S. M. Byers of Iowa, who wrote the song while a prisoner of war in Charleston, S.C.] is in my possession, entitled When Sherman Marched Down to the Sea. After some rehearsing, I was the first one to sing it before our old hero, Billy T. [Sherman] and his entire staff, after which I sang another and rec’d a very high compliment from Sherman. After playing several pieces the crack band of the army made its appearance, namely the 33d Massachusetts and played several pieces. After all this we played another piece and returned to camp, assured we had done honor to ourselves at least. After getting in camp our Brigadier [Clark] came with a compliment from Sherman to our band, stating we were the model band of his entire army. This, said by a Gen’l of such wide world renown is certainly a big thing!-a great feather in our caps. The Massachusetts Band spoken of has always had the name of being the best band in Sherman’s Army – pronounced by Sherman himself at Savannah. Not wishing to boast I will say of ourselves – we are not afraid of any Band in this Dept. of Tennessee or Georgia. During the campaign we done considerable playing and [were] spoken of very highly as good players and a band of gentlemen. We have strived to live up to and merit a continuance of that good name.
(Edwin Oscar Kimberley, to his mother, 7 April, 1865,)
At the end of the war, the 1st Brigade Band participated in the Grand Review in Washington, D.C. on 8 June 1865 and, after a brief period in Kentucky, returned home. As a final hurrah, the band was invited to play at the homecoming celebration held by the town of Galena, Illinois, for General Ulysses S. Grant on August 18, 1865.
The band continued in existence with varying membership into the early twentieth century as the Brodhead Silver Cornet Band.
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About the music collection
The musical legacy of the 1st Brigade Band presented here consists of a set of twelve, leather-bound partbooks (although one of the twelve has lost its leather cover and some pages) and seven envelopes of other music manuscripts. The partbooks contain about 55 numbered selections and several unnumbered tunes. Most of the numbered tunes appear in all of the partbooks (although sometimes with variations in the numbering), but the unnumbered tunes generally appear in only a few of the partbooks. Usually the unnumbered tunes are fit into empty staves or pages among the numbered tunes, so it is possible that the other players had these added tunes on loose sheets that have been lost, or perhaps the musicians wanted the melody easily available. There are also instances where a number and title were entered at the top of a page, but no music was copied.
There are partbooks in the collection for the following instruments: 1st and 2nd E♭ cornet; 1st and 2nd B♭ cornet; solo alto E♭ horn; alto E♭ horn; 1st and 2nd B♭ tenor horn; 1st and 2nd B♭ bass horn; E♭ tuba; and drum/cymbals. A few partbooks are likely missing, since the band contained about sixteen members.
The music found in the folders is not present in the partbooks, with one exception (Col. White’s quickstep). Several items consist of a signature of folded sheets with the music for that tune entered as single parts for the various instruments one after the other, and in some cases also containing a scored version of the piece. Because most band music was unpublished, especially as band arrangements, this type of item represents the way that band music circulated among bandleaders, who would then copy out the parts for their own band, or have the players copy out their parts, and then send the packet to the next person on the list.
This collection is housed in the Special Collections Department of Memorial Library at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
The Music
About half of the pieces in this collection are identified as quicksteps. At the time of the Civil War, quickstep was a generic term applied t a broad class of duple meter (either 2/4 or 6/8) compositions and arrangements. They were what we would now call marches and their main purpose was to carry the band and troops along while marching. (At that time, marches were stately pieces (usually 4/4, or occasionally in 12/8, meter) meant for processions and ceremonial occasions.) Quicksteps were also commonly also used in concerts and serenades. Some tunes have “quickstep” as part of their titles and in some it was simply understood. The word was frequently abbreviated to QS or Q.S.
Because moving troops was the main duty of a Civil War band, their appetite for quicksteps was insatiable. There were eventually so many arrangements that frequently they were not given titles; just numbers in the band book (this was also common with waltzes and polkas). Tunes of all sorts (from hymn tunes to popular sentimental ballads to excerpts from European opera and concert music) were adapted to the quickstep idiom. In addition, quickstep medleys have five or six tunes strung together with little or no transitional material and the added tunes were virtually as popular as the first one. In this collection two good examples of quickstep medleys are “The Battle Cry of Freedom” (paired with “Kingdom Coming”) and “Weeping Sad And Lonely (When This Cruel War Is Over)” (paired with “Hoist Up The Flag”).
There are also several numbers either written or arranged by Claudio Grafulla, a prominent bandleader and composer of band music, including “Centennial quickstep,” “Attila quickstep,” and “Colonel White’s quickstep.”
As would be expected, there are patriotic tunes, including “The star spangled banner,” “America,” and “Hail Columbia.” Several of the partbooks contain musical notations for various military purposes, such as reveille, tattoo, and cheers. Also present is an arrangement of “Dixie,” by Dan Decatur Emmett, which was popular in the North as well as in the South, followed by “Ned Kendall’s Favorite Reel”.
The third group of musical material represents sacred music, including “Pleyel’s hymn,” “Notting Hill,” and “Come, ye disconsolate,” by Samuel Webbe. There are at least three different funeral marches.
The composers of almost all of these pieces are not identified in the partbooks themselves. Some have been identified by using various catalogs and reference sources, but it is likely that the unidentified tunes in this collection are unique. Since Kimberley is known to have composed, it is likely that some of the arrangements are by him.
Today’s 1st Brigade Band
The 1st Brigade Band was organized in 1964, by Fred Benkovic, a Milwaukee instrument collector, as a result of the efforts of citizens of Galena, Illinois, to reconstruct Gen. Grant’s homecoming celebration in 1865. Over the years, the group has performed countless times throughout Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest, as well as at various battlefields and historic sites throughout the country. The band has also released several recordings of Civil War era music, including selections from the 1st Brigade Band partbooks, which are often used in television and film productions based in the Civil War era. It is an affiliate of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and is supported and sponsored by Heritage Military Music Foundation, Inc.; a non-profit, educational, historical, and patriotic organization. Their headquarters is in Heritage Hall in Watertown, Wisconsin. For more information, please visit their website at http://www.1stbrigadeband.org
View this article and more: http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/MillsSpColl/BandBooks
The First in a New Series of Famous Bands of the World
Presented by MilitaryMusic.com
Contributed by Jack Kopstein
Republican Guard band
With over one and a half centuries of experience behind it, the Republican Guard Wind Orchestra is one of the figureheads of French cultural heritage.
On the 4th of August 1855, Jean-Georges Paulus was appointed at the head of the “Paris Guard Band.” On the 12th of March 1856, the decree making the orchestra official was signed by Napoleon III
The Conservatoire National de Paris and the Musical Gymnasium trained up new musicians taken from the populace and Adolph.Sax provided new wind instruments for the military bands.
Paulus, as orchestrator, adapted symphonic works for his new wind orchestra. This group rapidly made a reputation for itself, and on the 21st of July 1867, the Republican Guard Band carried off its first success at the international military band competition at the Grand Palais in Paris, playing the opening of Oberon and extracts from Lohengrin.
On the 18th of September 1870, the Paris Guard became the Republican Guard. The “Republican Guard Band” was immediately raised to the status of a veritable cultural ambassador for the French Republic.
Wherever they went, from the Royal Albert Hall in London in 1871 to the Peace Jubilee in Boston in 1872, Paulus and his “soldier artists” were a resounding success, firing public enthusiasm and making all the headlines, including A 70-day tour across the United States with 25 concerts between the 6th of June and the 14th of August 1874.
“…At one point catastrophe threatened as the hall (the Pittsburgh Opera house), which was of very light construction, started to crack under the weight of the audience. Nothing disastrous happened though, and the theatre held firm, despite creaking out its complaints. Even the noise of the thunderous applause did not cause it to collapse.” Report of the concert held on the 24th of July 1872
The status of the musicians from the Republican Guard was rather different. At that time, military bands recruited “simple soldiers” to swell their ranks but the State offered the musicians from the Republican Guard a more attractive career as an NCO, thus attracting the musical elite of the time such as Henri Paradis (solo clarinet) or Léon Fontbonne (solo flute).
A. Sellenick was the first composer-conductor at the head of the Republican Guard Band. He was the very prolific author of lyrical works and light music, some of which was specially written for the band. The care taken in recruiting the musicians and in the musical and professional qualities of the conductors reflects the artistic ambition of our band.
“The soldier venerates his standard but he loves his music. He is proud of it, fusses over it and is indulgent towards it because it moves him, encourages him, consoles him, reminds him of his native country and inspires him with patriotism.” “La semaine musical” from Lille, 9th April 1882.
The Marseillaise became the French national anthem in 1879, but its final version, tune and orchestration arranged by G. Wettge and A. Sellenick for military bands was not official until 1887. At this period, each concert given by the Republican Guard Band opened with the national anthem, putting the national values and Republican ideal to music.
Thousands of musical societies organised the cultural life of the country at the end of the 19th century, relaying or succeeding the popular choral movement. For thousands of amateur musicians, the Republican Guard Band represented an inaccessible dream of artistic and social success. This “model” of the popular orchestra, exported by the band when it journeyed abroad, helped to spread the international reputation of French culture.
• 1893 Gabriel Parès
• 1911 Guillaume Balay
• 1927 Pierre Dupont
1893 Gabriel Parès
“I was twelve when I suddenly fell head over heels in love with music (….) The Republican Guard Band, playing in the gardens of the Palais-Royal, opened my eyes for me. The orchestra was playing Lucie de Lamermoor. (…) Something inside me broke free and just one week later I bought a cornet mouthpiece with my meagre supplies of pocket money…”
Louis Ganne, author of “les Saltimbanques” and the famous Lorraine March
The “Belle Epoque” was to be a period of resounding success for our orchestra. The presence of the Republican Guard brought the prestige of the Republic into popular events: concerts in parks and bandstands, inaugurations, festivals, etc. and 72,000 spectators at the exhibition in Tourcoing in 1906! The cornet reigned over the light music of the period and cornet players had “star” status.
G. Pares, author of a treaty on “instrumentation and orchestration” enriched the repertoire of the orchestra still further, and the Band brought the works of “wise” composers to a huge variety of audiences, spreading and democratising the wide repertoire which held an important place in concert programmes.
It was also under the baton of G. Parès that the first recordings of the Republican Guard Band were made under contract to the Pathé firm. Several thousand titles were soon available.
The Republican Guard Band accompanied many diplomatic missions, which were becoming more and more urgent as the First World War loomed on the horizon.
1899, St Petersbourg: invited by the Tzar / 1902, Turin: international exhibition / 1904: Saint-Louis exhibition (USA), 41 concerts including Montreal and New York / 1906: 22 concerts at Covent Garden: Entente Cordiale / 1907: Valence …
“It would be an error to think that all orchestras must be organised according to a system based on the predominance of stringed instruments. Extremely good results can be obtained with the opposite balance of instruments.” Hector Berlioz, Treatsie on orchestration.
The Republican Guard Band accompanied the patriotic fervour in the aftermath of the victory of the Allies, just as it had after the First World War. A new type of popular music had crossed the Atlantic and the Republican Guard Band had to win back its place in a new cultural environment.
In 1948, F.J. Brun was appointed to direct an orchestra of 40 strings which was created in addition to the 80 wind players in the Band. The idea of joining the two groups into one immense wind and string symphony orchestra was born in the Champs Elysée theatre on the 26th and 28th of April, 1948 for the orchestra’s centenary.
Adaptations written for this new orchestral group were added to the repertoire.
Unfortunately, the symphony orchestra did not inspire the composers of the period and in spite of a certain amount of success and trips which led it as far afield as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, this orchestra was to remain a musical curiosity with no future.
1953 was to go down in history as the great tour of the century, organised by the Columbia Artiste Management. It covered 38,000kms across the United States over three months, 80 concerts and 178,000 spectators…
In 1961, Japan discovered this “French-style” wind orchestra and its repertoire for the first time.
1973 Roger Boutry
“When the Republican Guard Band came to Japan for the first time, we were far from imagining that its presence would put symphony orchestras into the shade. (…) Moreover, whatever the genre of the pieces they played, the sound and expression of the soloists had a particular charm and their ability to create an overall harmony and subtle balance evoked a true ideal for the genre.” Band Journal, Japan 1984.
The activity of the Republican Guard Band was now fully concert-orientated and no longer took part in military ceremonies.
R. Boutry, a talented composer and arranger, adapted the orchestra’s repertoire for the public of his time. His original compositions for wind groups gave the band a new flavour, sometimes inspired by contemporary composers and sometimes by American musicians and jazz.
The organisation of the orchestra on the stage was inspired by the symphony orchestra: the desks of the violins, violas, cellos and double basses were taken over by the clarinets, saxophones and euphoniums and the woodwind and brass soloists placed behind the tutti.
A succession of trips to Japan was embarked on in 1984 and continued in 1987, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2001 and 2007. There are many wind orchestras in Japan and a public of true connoisseurs rushed to see the Republican Guard Band in concert during its trips.
The Republican Guard Band became the Republican Guard Wind Orchestra in 1993, thus confirming its artistic and cultural vocation.
1997 François Boulanger
F. Boulanger obtained the creation of an administrator’s post for the orchestra, to be in charge of communication in order to satisfy the requirements of an orchestra seeking to uphold its reputation on the national and international stage.
Japan, Korea, China, Russia and Kazakhstan are the latest places to be visited by the Republican Guard, still enthusiastically sharing with its public a musical heritage which has been shaped by generations of musicians of whom we are the heirs and guarantors.
We would like to recommend the very well-researched book by Sylive Hue entitled “150 ans de Musique à la Garde Républicaine” (150 years of Music in the Republican Guard) for a full history of the orchestra.
For more information on this incredible and interesting band, check out this website:
| http://www.lesmusiciensdelagarde.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=19&Itemid=54 |
The phenomenal rise of the brass band in mid-nineteenth-century America can be better understood if we trace its antecedents and some of the technical developments that produced the type of brasswind family from soprano to bass that was the staple of our bands in the Civil War era.
The aristocracy of colonial America supported the kind of ensemble for which Mozart and Haydn wrote their divertimenti, serenades, Feldparthien, and other open-air music under royal patronage. Thomas Jefferson, for example, wished to establish such an ensemble at Monticello for the entertainment of his household and suggested instrumentation to improve the U.S. Marine Band. Clarinets and oboes carried the melodic line; natural horns and bassoons gave harmonic support. The same kind of band provided military music during the American Revolution and for at least three decades afterward. Thus in one sense the wind band, once the privilege of the European aristocracy, was gradually acquired, unceremoniously but intact and in an orderly fashion, by the American people for whom it became a symbol of their newly acquired social and political status as well as a source of entertainment. A reminiscence of one of the last vestiges of this tradition in America appears in an anonymous article entitled “The Boston Band” in the Boston Musical Gazette of July 25, 1838:
Full well do I remember when I first heard the sound of a Clarinet, French Horn and Bassoon: it was at a regimental muster, where I went with my father, as a spectator. It was reported all around the country for weeks beforehand, that the Boston Band was to be at muster, being hired at great expense by Capt. Taylor, the liberal and noble-spirited commander of the new troop of Cavalry. This band was all the topic of conversation among the boys, and many a luckless urchin had to do penance for listening to the wonderful stories of its performances, instead of attending to his task. I recollect that I was sent to mill, two miles distance, a day or two before the parade. I went whistling the Rogue’s March all the way, which a famous old revolutionary fifer in our neighborhood had learnt to me. The crusty miller took off my bags; but I kept on whistling. “What the deuse ails ye, John, heh?” said he. “Capt. Dusty, ye goin to muster to hear the moosic?” I replied, and kept on whistling. “Hang your music! go to grass with your whistling!” cried the miller, as he shouldered my meal bags and carried them to the hopper. . . .
At length the wished-for day arrived, and a glorious day it was, most clear and bright. . . . we saw a brilliant company of high-horse prancing over the plain. When they had arrived within half a mile of the parade ground, they slackened pace, and the music struck up Washington’s March. . . . The march was continued until the company came in front of the public house, when it halted, and Capt. Taylor gave orders for Yankee Doodle. This fairly bewitched the crowd, and they rent the air with huzzas. . . .
Capt. Taylor directed the musicians to continue their music for some time, which they did, and gave us several different tunes, one of which I perfectly recollect was St. Patrick’s Day in the Morning. This was very pleasant to every one; but there was one man in particular, in the very centre of a dense group, that, the very instant they commenced it, set to dancing like a Dandy Jack, and kept it up until the tune was ended, to the no small amusement of all around. I had a curiosity to get sight at him, and crowding into the ring, behold! it was none other than my old miller, who had scolded so much about my music a day or two before. Both this man’s parents were natives of Sweet Erin, and brought him to this country while a nursing infant. Just by way of remembrance, I cried out to him,–”So Capt. Dusty, you like the moosic?” “Hah! young spalpeen!” he replied, and they ceased playing.
Taste in music, as well as in almost every thing else, will have a change. These men, who, in their day, were considered first rate performers, would now be called but indifferent. Their number was only four. Belsted upon the Hautboy, Granger, (father of the late violinist), upon the Clarinet; the famous Peter Schminch, the French Horn; and old Dr. Faegnol, the Bassoon. It was said that Belsted played a fine violin. The first and two last belonged to Burgoyne’s band, and were taken with him at Saratoga. I believe these musicians found constant employ in their vocation. They have gratified their thousands; they have had their day, and have gone down with the generations. Such was once the Boston Band. 21
The melodic dependency of the band on the reed instruments was gradually undermined after 1810 when a Dubliner named Joseph Halliday introduced his keyed bugle. Like the earlier development of the chromatic woodwinds, in which the length of the bore, and hence the fundamental with its possible harmonics, could be instantly changed by opening or closing one or more keys, Halliday’s invention was nothing new in principle. The keyed trumpet, for example, was already known. Halliday simply cut holes in the side of a bugle and provided lever-operated padded keys for opening and closing them to get a full chromatic scale.22 Without having any special claims to originality, he had produced a good instrument at the right time which found an immediate market. It was only a matter of time before a full family of such instruments was developed: the ophicleides.23
In America the chromatic horns had gained at least an equal footing with the woodwinds as principal instruments as far as bands were concerned by 1835; we now generally consider that year, in which the first all-brass bands are known to have been established, as the beginning of the so-called brass band era.
Of course, not everyone greeted this development with enthusiasm. As the brasswinds became more homogeneous in sound, the loss of a band with highly individualized members was, as we have learned from reading Dwight, lamented by some. This is made more evident in the following excerpt from an 1893 article by William R. Bayley in the Philadelphia Evening Star. Bayley, who was an active bandsman from 1833 to the 1890s, recalls:
The average bands [during the 1840s] consisted of fifteen pieces–two E-flat bugles, 1st and 2nd French horns (without valves), the post horn, and E-flat trumpet. We had the brilliant tone of the slide B-flat trombone and F-bass trombone for bass, ophecleide [sic] (brass), and the serpent (a wooden instrument with keys), cymbals, snare and bass drums.
At the risk of being considered old fashioned I have protested against the summary banishment of many of these instruments. I have contended that all change is not improvement. These instruments, differing in the principle of their construction, had a different quality of tone, and therein is the strength of my plea. Band instruments of today are much better made and easier to learn, but from the E-flat cornet to the E-flat bass they are all constructed on the same principle, and have therefore the same kind of tone, only deeper, of course, as they descend.24
The fact that Bayley, writing in 1893, speaks of the homogeneous brasswind instrumentation indicates that the brass band was still predominant, at least in his mind.
In the 1840s a Frenchman, Adolphe Sax, inventor of the familiar saxophone, was one of several makers who developed a family of chromatic valved bugles–eventually called saxhorns–that combined the qualities of even timbre throughout their range, accurate intonation, effectiveness as ensemble instruments, and a degree of facility that made them playable without extraordinary technical ability while, at the same time, having the capability of satisfying the demands of a virtuoso. Sax was by no means the first to work on a chromatic horn. Inventors in Europe and the British Isles had been working with varying degrees of success in key- and valve-system chromatic brasswinds before the beginning of the nineteenth century. But Sax’s success was remarkably complete, owing in no small part to the fact that he produced a good set of instruments at just the right time.
As well as being a good inventor, Sax was an equally good promoter of his own interests. If he had been able, he would probably have banished all but wind instruments from the orchestras of the Western world – preferably, all but those he invented. An amusing article by Sax found its way into Dwight’s Journal by way of the London Musical Times. Originally printed in La France Musicale, it offers some of the following useful information under the headline “How Wind Instruments affect the Health.”
Persons who practice wind instruments, are, in general, distinguished–and anybody can verify the statement–by a broad chest and shoulders, an unequivocal sign of vigor. In the travelling bands that pass through our cities, who has not seen women playing the horn, the cornet, the trumpet, and even the trombone and ophicleide, and noticed that they all enjoyed perfect health, and exhibited a considerable development of the thorax? In an orchestra a curious circumstance can be noticed; and that is the corpulence, the strength which the players of wind instruments exhibit, and the spare frames of the disciples of Paganini. The same may be said, with more reason, of pianists.25
There were other factors as well that favored the acceptance of the new chromatic brasswinds. For one, there was already a demand for them not so much among orchestral musicians as among military bandsmen and a large number of aspiring amateurs. Valve horns in the soprano register–the French cornet à pistons and the German soprano Flügelhorn–had already found a secure place in the bands of Europe, and an outstanding quintet of Englishmen, the Distins, was to publicize Sax’s new family of horns through their widely successful public performances on the instruments. Thus, although families of saxhorns–and their German counterparts the Flügelhorns–were not destined to find a place in the orchestra they were to become standard band instruments for years to come, and not least of all in Great Britain and America, where, as we have noted, interest in the formation of amateur brass bands was growing at such a rate that by the mid-1850s it had reached the proportions of a significant popular movement.26
Moreover, the homogeneous quality of the saxhorn-type band and its carrying power in the outdoors were significant advantages. One writer who had heard a Canadian regimental band of the British type compared it unfavorably with the new all-brass style and was quoted in Dwight’s Journal under the editor’s magnanimous introductory remark that “happily all the world does not think alike”:
In the afternoon there was a review of the 39th Regiment of the Champ de Mars, near the court house. Whether it was intended for a scientific display or not I am unable to say; but this much is due–it was a creditable exhibition. The music by the band was good, though not “putting the Boston bands to blush,” as the correspondent of the Courier is pleased to say. On the contrary, the Brigade, or Brass, or Germania are, all three of them, quite as scientific and skillful. Last autumn, at the railroad jubilee ball, I heard this same band in contrast with Chandler’s Portland Band; and those of your readers who were present at Bonsecours at the time will, I think, join me in giving to Chandler’s the highest encomiums. The 39th band is large, but it has some dozen men blowing their breath away on clarinets, bassoons and flutes, to but little purpose. In short, it is a great waste of wind. The band is modelled as our Boston bands were fifteen years ago. Take away the inefficient reeds and give them tubas instead, and this Crimean band would crash out a mighty march; but now it wants body, as an Englishman would say of his beer. The melody is one grand squeak, sounding like the sesquialtra [sic] of the organ, and about as well adapted for melody as that stop would be with a swell accompaniment. There is a brilliance to the American bands not yet attained by the English, if this is a fair specimen of their proficiency. 27
Earlier, Dwight himself had expressed the contrary view: “A certain peculiar and pleasing effect invests [brass band] music, at first, but it is of a kind which lacks character and durability. For genuine enjoyment I would as soon listen to a Choral Symphony performed with flutes and the voices of eunuchs.”28
But Dwight was also constructive in his criticisms and often balanced his invective with positive statements:
The more pathetic, the more human the music to be interpreted, the more cold and inadequate do the tones of these instruments appear. With all their mellowness and smoothness, with all their luscious commingling, they sound to us like soulless, watery, Undine-like natures; and while we have the perfect shape of the melody we loved, it still affects us somehow like its ghost. But when that “Hungarian March” was played, so full of sad, determined, truly moral heroism, who did not feel the fitness of the music to the organs that conveyed it, and a more real, although simpler, satisfaction.
The same criticism, or an analogous one, applies to this whole modern improvement in the construction of brass instruments; to the whole Sax-horn family, the valve-trumpet, &c., so softened down and made so smooth and flexible instead of the harsh, spirited, crackling blast of the old straight trumpet. That had character, if it was somewhat intractable; but these are somewhat emasculated in their gentleness.–But this opens a whole field of discussion, which we may not enter now.29
Later he reviews a concert and makes this comment on what he considers an appropriate type of music for brass: “The selections for the brass instruments were better than usual. That solemn old Chorale was just the thing for them; and the piece from Meyerbeer’s ‘Camp of Silesia’ was quite stirring. Give us more Chorales, if you wish to edify us.”30
Dwight’s appreciation of the technical advantages of the new valve brasswinds is mitigated by his concern that the advantages lead to abuse:
It certainly cannot be questioned that the employment of valves greatly facilitates the performance of difficult passages in music. Of the truth of this we have sad evidence in the readiness with which half-fledged artists essay the execution of compositions wholly beyond their calibre of comprehension, on the one hand; and, on the other, in the performance, by virtuosos, of parts unfitted and never intended for the particular instruments they profess. But however much be gained in ease and rapidity of execution, the full equivalent, and more, is lost in quality of intonation. Like dampers upon vibrating strings, this multiplicity of valves and keys interferes with the free action of the metal and essentially dulls and deadens its tone. In confirmation of this, compare the unsatisfactory effect of the valve trombone with the richness of intonation that belongs to that noble instrument in its original form.
This article is Public Domain from the Library of Congress. The original article can be found here, and the footnotes can be found here.