ALTISSIMO FEATURE ARTICLE

24 Notes That Tap Deep Emotions
Jari A. Villanueva

Altissimo is proud to present the history of “Taps.” We are pleased to provide this article with the permission of the author, Jari A. Villanueva (pictured below). Please access his website

TAPS
Of all the military bugle calls, none is so easily recognized or more apt to render emotion than the call ‘Taps.’ The melody is both eloquent and haunting and the history of its origin is interesting and somewhat clouded in controversy. In the British Army, a similar call known as ‘Last Post’ has been sounded over soldier’s graves since 1885, but the use of Taps is unique with the United States military, since the call is sounded at funerals, wreath-laying, and memorial services. Up to the Civil War, the infantry call for “Lights Out” was that set down in Silas Casey’s (1801-1882) “Tactics,” which had been borrowed from the French. The music for Taps was changed by Union General Daniel Butterfield for his Brigade (Third Brigade, First Division, Fifth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac) in July, 1862. Daniel Adams Butterfield (31 Oct. 1831-17 July 1901) was born in Utica, New York and graduated from Union College at Schenectady. He was the eastern superintendent of the American Express Company in New York, when the Civil War broke out.

Despite his lack of military experience, he rose quickly in rank. A Colonel in the 12th Regiment of the New York State Militia, he was promoted to Brigadier General and given command of a brigade of the V Corps of the Army of the Potomac. The 12th served in the Shenandoah Valley during the Bull Run Campaign. During the Peninsular campaign Butterfield served prominently when during the Battle of Gaines’ Mill, despite an injury, he seized the colors of the 3rd Pennsylvania and rallied the regiment at a critical time in the battle. Years later, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for that act of heroism.

As the story goes, General Butterfield was not pleased with the call for ‘Lights Out,’ feeling that the call was too formal to signal the days end. With the help of the brigade bugler, Oliver Wilcox Norton, Butterfield wroteTaps to honor his men while in camp at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia following the Seven Day’s battle. These battles took place during the Peninsular Campaign of 1862. The call, sounded that night in July, 1862, soon spread to other units of the Union Army and was even used by the Confederates. Taps was made an official bugle call after the war. The highly romantic account of how Butterfield ‘composed’ the call surfaced in 1898 following a magazine article written that summer. The August, 1898 issue of Century Magazine contained an article called “The Trumpet in Camp and Battle” by Gustav Kobbe, a music historian and critic. He was writing about the origin of bugle calls in the Civil War and in reference to Taps, wrote:

“In speaking of our trumpet calls I purposely omitted one with which it seemed most appropriate to close this article, for it is the call which closes the soldier’s day-‘Light’s Out’. “I have not been able to trace this call to any other service. If it seems probable, it was original with Major Seymour, he has given our army the most beautiful of all trumpet-calls”

Kobbe was using as an authority the Army drill manual on infantry tactics prepared by Major General Emory Upton in 1867 (revised in 1874). The bugle calls in the manual were compiled by Major (later General) Truman Seymour of the 5th U.S. Artillery. Taps was called “Lights Out” in these manuals since it was to replace the “Lights Out” disliked by Butterfield.

The title of the call was not changed until later, although other manuals started calling it Taps because most soldiers knew it by that name. Since Seymour was responsible for the music in the Army manual, Kobbe assumed that he had written the call. Kobbe’s inability to find the origin of “Light’s Out” (Taps) prompted a letter from Oliver W. Norton in Chicago who claimed he knew how the call came about and that he was the first to perform it.

Norton wrote: Chicago, August 8, 1898
“I was much interested in reading the article by Mr. Gustav Kobbe, on the Trumpet and Bugle Calls, in the August “Century.” Mr. Kobbe says that he has been unable to trace the origin of the call now used for Taps, or the “Go to sleep”, as it is generally called by the soldiers. As I am unable to give the origin of this call, I think the following statement may be of interest to Mr. Kobbe and your readers. During the early part of the Civil War I was bugler at the Headquarters of Butterfield’s Brigade, Meroll’s Division, Fitz-John Porter’s Corps, Army of the Potomac. Up to July 1862, the Infantry call for Taps was that set down in Casey’s Tactics, which Mr. Kobbe says was borrowed from the French. One day, soon after the seven days’ battles on the Peninsular, when the Army of the Potomac was lying in camp at Harrison’s landing General Daniel Butterfield, then commanding our Brigade, sent for me, and showing me some notes on a staff written in pencil on the back of an envelope, asked me to sound them on my bugle. I did this several times, playing the music as written. He changed it somewhat, lengthening some notes and shortening others, but retaining the melody as he first gave it to me. After getting it to his satisfaction, he directed me to sound that call for Taps thereafter in place of the regulation call. The music was beautiful on that still summer night and was heard far beyond the limits of our Brigade. The next day I was visited by several buglers from neighboring Brigades, asking for copies of the music, which I gladly furnished. I think no general order was issued from army headquarters authorizing the substitution of this for the regulation call, but as each brigade commander exercised his own discretion in such minor matters, the call was gradually taken up through the Army of the Potomac. I have been told that it was carried to the Western Armies by the 11th and 12th Corps when they went to Chattanooga in the fall of 1863, and rapidly made it’s way through those armies. I did not presume to question General Butterfield at the time but from the manner in which the call was given to me, I have no doubt he composed it in his tent at Harrison’s Landing. I think General Butterfield is living at Cold Spring, New York. If you think the matter of sufficient interest and care to write him on the subject, I have no doubt he will confirm my statement.”

-Oliver W. Norton

The editor did write to Butterfield as suggested by Norton. In answer to the inquiry from the editor of the “Century”, General Butterfield writing from “Cragside”, Cold Spring, under the date of August 31, 1898 he wrote:

“I recall, in my dim memory, the substantial truth of the statement made by Norton, of the 83rd Pa., about bugle calls. His letter gives the impression that I personally wrote the notes for the call. The facts are, that at the time I could sound calls on the bugle as a necessary part of military knowledge and instruction for an officer commanding a regiment or brigade. I had acquired this as a regimental commander. I had composed a call for my brigade, to precede any calls, indicating that such were calls, or orders, for my brigade alone. This was of very great use and effect on the march and in battle. It enabled me to cause my whole command, at times, in march, covering over a mile on the road, all to halt instantly, and lie down, and all arise and start at the same moment; to forward in line of battle, simultaneously, in action and charge etc. It saves fatigue. The men rather liked their call and began to sing my name to it. It was three notes and a catch. I can not write a note of music, but have gotten my wife to write it from my whistling it to her, and enclose it. The men would sing, “Dan, Dan, Dan, Butterfield, Butterfield” to the notes when a call came. Later, in battle, or in some trying circumstances or an advance of difficulties, they sometimes sang, “Damn, Damn, Damn, Butterfield, Butterfield”. The call of Taps did not seem to be as smooth, melodious and musical as it should be, and I called in some one who could write music, and practiced a change in the call of Taps until I had it suit my ear, and then, as Norton writes, got it to my taste without being able to write music or knowing the technical name of any note, but, simply by ear, arranged it as Norton describes. I did not recall him in connection with it, but his story is substantially correct. Will you do me the favor to send Norton a copy of this letter by your typewriter? I have none.”
-Daniel Butterfield

On the surface, this seems to be the true history of the origin of Taps. Indeed, the many articles written about Taps cite this story as the beginning of Butterfield’s association with the call. Certainly, Butterfield never went out of his way to claim credit for its composition and it wasn’t until the Century article that the origin came to light. There are however, significant differences in Butterfield’s and Norton’s stories. Norton says that the music given to him by Butterfield that night was written down on an envelope while Butterfield wrote that he could not read or write music! Also, Butterfield’s words seem to suggest that he was not composing a melody in Norton’s presence, but actually arranging or revising an existing one. As a commander of a brigade, he knew of the bugle calls needed to relay troop commands. All officers of the time were required to know the calls and were expected to be able to play the bugle. Butterfield was no different he could play the bugle but could not read music. As a colonel of the12th N.Y. Regiment, before the war, he had ordered his men to be thoroughly familiar with calls and drills. never went out of his way to claim credit for its composition and it wasn’t until the Century article that the origin came to light. There are however, significant differences in Butterfield’s and Norton’s stories. Norton says that the music given to him by Butterfield that night was written down on an envelope while Butterfield wrote that he could not read or write music! Also, Butterfield’s words seem to suggest that he was not composing a melody in Norton’s presence, but actually arranging or revising an existing one. As a commander of a brigade, he knew of the bugle calls needed to relay troop commands. All officers of the time were required to know the calls and were expected to be able to play the bugle. Butterfield was no different he could play the bugle but could not read music. As a colonel of the12th N.Y. Regiment, before the war, he had ordered his men to be thoroughly familiar with calls and drills.

What could account for the variation in stories? My research shows that Butterfield did not compose Taps but actually revised an earlier bugle call. This sounds blasphemous to many, but the fact is that Taps existed in an early version of the call Tattoo. As a signal for end of the day, armies have used Tattoo to signal troops to prepare them for bedtime roll call. The call was used to notify the soldiers to cease the evening’s drinking and return to their garrisons. It was sounded an hour before the final call of the day to extinguish all fires and lights. This early version is found in three manuals the Winfield Scott (1786-1866) manual of 1835, the Samuel Cooper (1798-1876) manual of 1836 and the William Gilham (1819?-1872) manual of 1861. This call referred to as the Scott Tattoo was in use from 1835-1860. A second version of tattoo came into use just before the Civil War and was in use throughout war replacing the Scott Tattoo. The fact that Norton says that Butterfield “composed” Taps cannot be questioned. He was relaying the facts as he remembered them. His conclusion that Butterfield wrote Taps can be explained by the presence of the second Tattoo. It was most likely that the second Tattoo, followed by “Extinguish Lights”, (the first eight measures of today’s Tattoo), was sounded by Norton during the course of the war.

It seems possible that these two calls were sounded to end the soldier’s day on both sides during the war. It must, therefore, be evident that Norton did not know the early Tattoo, or he would have immediately recognized it that evening in Butterfield’s tent. If you review the events of that evening, Norton came into Butterfield’s tent and played notes that were already written down on an envelope. Then Butterfield “changed it somewhat, lengthening some notes and shortening others, but retaining the melody as he first gave it to me.” If you compare that statement while looking at the present day Taps you will see that this is exactly what happened to turn the early (Scott) Tattoo in Taps. Butterfield as stated above, was a Colonel before the War and in General Order No. 1 issued by him on December 7, 1859 had the order: “The Officer’s and non-commissioned Officers are expected to be thoroughly familiar with the first thirty pages, Vol. 1,of Scott’s Tactics, and ready to answer any questions in regard to the same previous to the drill above ordered” Scott’s Tactics include the bugle calls that Butterfield must have known and used. If Butterfield was using Scott’s Tactics for drills-then it is feasible that he would have used the calls as set in the manual. Lastly, it is hard to believe that Butterfield could have composed anything that July in the aftermath of the Seven Days battles which saw the Union Army of the Potomac mangled by Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. Over twenty six thousand casualties were suffered on both sides. Butterfield had lost over 600 of his men on June 27th at the battle of Gaines Mill and had himself been wounded. In the midst of the heat, humidity, mud, mosquitoes, dysentery, typhoid and general wretchedness of camp life in that early July, it is hard to imagine being able to write anything. In the interest of historical accuracy, it should be noted that it is not General Butterfield who composed Taps, rather that he revised an earlier call into the present day bugle call we know as Taps. This is not meant to take credit away from him. It is only to put things in a correct historic manner.

Following the Peninsular Campaign, Butterfield served at 2nd Bull Run, Antietam and at Marye’s Heights in the Battle of Fredericksburg. Through political connections and his ability for administration he became a Major General and served as chief of staff of the Union Army of the Potomac under Generals Joseph Hooker and George Meade. He was wounded at Gettysburg and then reassigned to the Western Theater. By wars end, he was brevetted a brigadier general and stayed in the army after the Civil War, serving as superintendent of the army’s recruiting service in New in New York City and colonel of the 5th Infantry In 1870. After resigning from the military, Butterfield went back to work with the American Express Company. He was in charge of a number of special public ceremonies, including General William Tecumseh Sherman’s funeral in 1889. Besides his association with Taps, Butterfield also designed the system of Corps Badges, which were distinctive shapes of color cloth sewn on to uniforms to distinguish units. Butterfield died in 1901. His tomb is the most ornate in the cemetery at West Point despite the fact that he never attended. There is also a monument to Butterfield in New York City near Grant’s Tomb. There is nothing on either monument that mentions Taps or Butterfield’s association with the call. Taps was sounded at his funeral.

How did it become associated with funerals? The earliest official reference to the mandatory use of Taps at military funeral ceremonies is found in the U.S. Army Infantry Drill Regulations for 1891, although it had doubtless been used unofficially long before that time, under it’s former designation “Extinguish Lights.” The first use of Taps at a funeral was during the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia. Captain John C. Tidball of Battery A, 2nd Artillery ordered it played for the burial of a cannoneer killed in action. Since the enemy was close, and worried that the traditional 3 volleys would renew fighting, Tidball had the bugler sound Taps as a tribute to the fallen man. The custom, thus originated, was taken up throughout the Army of the Potomac, and finally confirmed by orders. This first sounding of Taps at a military funeral is commemorated in a stained glass window at The Chapel of the Centurion (The Old Post Chapel) at Fort Monroe, Virginia. The window, made by R. Geissler of New York, was dedicated in 1958 and shows a bugler and a flagstaff at half mast. The window design is based on a painting by Sidney King. In that picture a drummer boy stands beside the bugler. The grandson of that drummer boy purchased Berkeley Plantation where Harrison’s Landing is located.

The site where Taps was born is also commemorated. In this case by a monument located on the grounds of Berkeley Plantation. This monument to Taps was erected by the Virginia American Legion and dedicated on July 4, 1969. The site is also rich in history, for the Harrison’s of Berkeley Plantation included Benjamin Harrison and William Henry Harrison-both presidents of the United States and one a signer of the Declaration of Independence. It must be pointed out that other stories of the origin of Taps exist. A popular one is that of a Northern boy who was killed fighting for the south. His father, Robert Ellison a Captain in the Union Army, came upon his son’s body on the battlefield and found the notes to Taps in a pocket of the dead boy’s Confederate uniform. When Union General Daniel Sickles heard the story he had the notes sounded at the boy’s funeral. There is no evidence to back up the story or the existence of Captain Ellison. As with many other customs, the 24 notes that that comprise this solemn tradition began and continues to this day and although Butterfield merely revised an earlier bugle call, his role in producing those 24 notes gives him a place in the history of music as well as the history of war.

Jari A. Villanueva is a Master Sergeant in the United States Air Force Band at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington DC. A graduate of Peabody Conservatory and Kent State University, he is currently working on an exhibit to be opened at Arlington National Cemetery and research on what will hopefully result in a work entitled “Day is Done, The History of Bugle Calls in The United States With Particular Attention To Taps.”

Contributed by Jack Kopstein

FREDERICK NEIL INNES
(1854-1926)

As the saying goes, some are born great, some achieve greatness, while others have it literally thrust upon them.  Frederick Neil lnnes achieved his greatness at a young age. When most young boys are playing with marbles, he was already playing trombone in the Life Guards Band of London England, where his father before him was a cornetist in the same band.  lnnes really started his musical career at age eight as a chorister in the choir of St. Paul’s Church, Knightsbridge, London, England.  Besides the trombone, he studied violin, piano and harmony at the London Conservatory of Music.

It has been said that Innes did for the trombone what the great Paganini did for the violin.   As the latter created a school of violinists, Innes did likewise for trombone players; his trombone exercises and various tutors for trombone became the panacea for an instrument.  Innes was born in London, England, on October 28, 1854.  As a young man, his thought was that the trombone should take a more prominent place as a solo instrument.  He went in for more sensational methods to bring this about in a one-man campaign.  He was always an innovator even in his later advent into the musical society of America where he arrived in 1874 in Boston.

He played one season in the Howard Street Theatre, but he left suddenly for a return to Europe, in the latter part of 1875.  He was then twenty- one and beginning to dazzle the public with his brilliant trombone playing.  He went directly to Paris, where he vas engaged as special trombone soloist at the Follies Bergere, which was a new medium in this city.  Heretofore the trombone had never been used in such a spectacular manner.  The newspaper, Le Temps, characterized Innes as the greatest and newest thing in music to hit Pads in many years.  After one season at the follies Bergere, he went to Hamburg, Germany, where he was engaged as soloist with the Hans Halle Orchestra.  For a time he played solos with the famous Parlow Orchestra in Berlin.  He also played at the Winter Garden with Lauber and his orchestra and toured Europe’s principal cities as soloist.  It was during his engagement in St. Petersburg, Russia, that Innes met the young Czar of Russia, who was musically inclined.  The Czar so admired Innes that he honoured him by presenting him with a walking stick, having on it the coat of arms, set in rubies and diamonds.  After the mentioned tour of Europe, Innes returned to Paris, where he resumed playing at the Follies Bergere.

There is an interesting story told about how Innes happened to return to America.  In 1879 and 1880, Jules Levy was at his peak as a soloist and was being featured with Gilmore’s Band at Manhattan Beach. The story goes that Pat Gilmore was slightly jealous of the attention Levy was getting, so he sailed for Europe in fall of 1879, in quest of someone to trim the sails of the high flying Levy.  When he arrived in Paris, he was told of a young trombonist who was playing at the Follies Bergere.  Quoting a written account:
“Gilmore went to the Follies Bergere to hear Innes play, and was astonished by this young man’s virtuosity.  It had never occurred to him before, to use a trombone soloist as competition for Jules Levy, but after hearing lnnes play, this was something different.  He sent his card around with an invitation for lnnes to join him at another cafe in Paris.  As Gilmore was very convincing, it wasn’t long before he had convinced Innes that he should come to America to become trombone soloist of Gilmore’s Band.”

Innes arrived in New York, during the summer of 1880, going directly to Manhattan Beach, where Gilmore’s band was engaged in summer concerts. The following day Innes was programmed as soloist, following Jules Levy’s playing of his own “Whirlwind Polka”, after which Innes rose to play the same identical solo much to the astonishment of the audience, and to the genuine embarrassment of Mr. Levy. In fact, he was furious.

For one whole week, Innes continued playing, if humanly possible, any number that Levy might play.  The entire New York music scene was talking about the battle of the “Blasters” out at Coney Island.  The newspapers played it up, consequently great crowds traveled to Manhattan Beach to see and hear the goings on.  Mr. Levy was getting madder by the minute, but Gilmore was in his glory.  It was during the above mentioned engagement that Levy played a new solo written by Aronson, entitled the “Sweet Sixteen Waltz”, in which Levy injected his own extemporaneous Cadenza made up of everything he could do on the comet.

lnnes had been tipped off that Levy was going to do.  When his turn came to play, he also had something up his sleeve.  Innes had written a new solo for the trombone, entitled “Sea Shells Waltz” with a minute and one-half cadenza.  He arose to play his solo, playing with all of the skill he possessed.  Some of Levy’s followers had complained to the management about this rivalry.  Mr. Gilmore decided that Innes could play anything he wished, including Levy’s solos, but it was to be played on separate programs from Levy.  This one summer engagement gave Fred lnnes tremendous publicity, which even Gilmore had not anticipated.

Interspersed with his playing in Gilmore’s Band, he made one tour with the Mapleson Opera Company, then under the direction of the composer Arditi and at least two summer engagements with Baldwin’s Band at Point of Pines in Massachusetts.

Inries played with Gilmore’s Band until the spring of 1887, when he went to San Francisco to accept a solo engagement at the Exposition being held in the Golden Gate Park.  According to our research, we find that Innes was to play with the local band.  It seems he and the band were to be sponsored by the Market Street Railroad Company, but when Innes arrived in San Francisco, the comptroller had absconded with the money for the musicians and had left California, leaving a flock of creditors in his wake.  Innes talked with the Exposition president (a prominent banker,) a Mr. PB Cornwall, about his difficulties, who in turn conferred with the Board of Directors.  Out of this came the organization of a concert band to play at the Exposition under the direction of Mr. Innes.  He received permission to send east for a number of prominent musicians to fill positions in his band and to play several engagements at the Exposition; this was the beginning of his career as a bandmaster.  After the close of the engagement, he returned to New York, where he temporarily took over leadership of the Thirteenth Regiment Band of New York.  After a few months he organized his own traveling band and began booking engagements across the country.

Innes had always dreamed of having a purely Symphonic band, playing the classics only, but he was also a practical man and knew that the public was not ready to accept the concert band as a Symphonic organization.  He filled his programs with the classics, but he also had them interspersed with lighter music and presented many noted operatic singers.  Misses Lillian Nordica, Schumann-Heink and Alice Nielson appeared with the Innes Band.

Many of the finest musicians in the band business played at one time or another with the Innes Band, between 1887 and 1920, namely; Ben Bent, Herbert Clarke, Bert Brown, Bohumir, Kryl, I V. Short, Richard Shuebruk, Pechin and Keneke on cornet; Mantia and Manzia, euphonium; Leo-Zimmerman, Chas. Randall and Ernest Clarke trombone; Alexander Selmer, Nonito and Schreuers,  Jacob Epstein clarinet.  The personnel changing from year to year.

One of the first engagements that the Innes Band filled was in the playing of concerts at Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York, where his new band was received with great enthusiasm.  His first major engagement was at the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893.  His band played at numerous Expositions including the Omaha Exposition in 1898, the Buffalo Exposition in 1910, St. Louis Exposition in 1904, and the San Francisco Fair in 1915.  The last important engagements of the lnnes Band were the Cotton Exposition in Waco, Texas, and the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota.

In 1914, Innes moved to Denver, Colorado, where he succeeded Mr. Al. Sweet as conductor of the Denver Municipal Band, continuing in this capacity until 1916, when he opened his Music School; however he continued to contract outside engagements with his concert band until 1920.  Innes remained in Denver until after his wife’s death in 1923.  He moved to Chicago in 1923, where he became head of the Conn Band School.  In late 1926, he was stricken with heart trouble and died in a Chicago sanatorium on December 31, 1926. He was buried beside his wife in Cincinnati, Ohio.

A writer was fortunate enough to have conversation with Mr. Innes during the summer of 1926 in his office at the Conn Band School.  He told of the many fine performers who had played under his direction and other facets of the then dying band business.

Innes Band’s never recorded for any phonograph company. Mr. Innes never liked the idea of using small bands for recording sessions.  Neither would he allow even the mention of cutting and revising of standard overtures and selections to fit on a 10 or 12 inch disc
Innes composed several Orchestra Suites, also one Romantic Opera entitled, Ambassador.  He wote a descriptive Overture called California, and one grand march entitled Triomphale.  He also wrote a number of two step marches, one the best known being, Prince Chaffning.  His most notable solo compositions were Sea Shells Waltz, Phenomenal Polka and the Charmer Polka.

Henry Woelber once had this to say of Innes:
“Innes had very few intimates; little is known of his early history in England.  No person’s attitude here on the part of his America friends ever attracted his intimacy other than to call forth a general good comradeship and light talk.  Although a man of courage and rare intellect, he loved to frolic, and in spite of more or less adversity, he smiled; but behind that smile was plenty of sadness, disappointment, and sorrow.”

The following note appeared in the International Musician, many years ago. Quoting:
“in 1913, lnnes led the annual master bar concert given by the Boston Musicians Mutual Relief Society.  After the rehearsal he strolled through the West End to have, perhaps, his last look at the old Howard Street Theatre where he had played in 1874.  Then to the Charles River embankment Pausing he sighed: ‘Yes, there is the same old rooming house, with its back piazza, and pleasant memories of my canoeing days, and swinging in the old hammock in the moon light.’  Older men, later, realized why Innes was so fond of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.  Masters of melody, and verse, find opportunities everywhere, for their genius.”

Contributed by Jack Kopstein

The following two vinyl recordings found in a Canadian Collectors catalogue are two of the most valuable and interesting recordings ever made in Britain. *Unfortunately, these recordings are not available on our website.

Masters of the March Volume 1
(Rodney Bashford and Leo Stanley)
Band of the Royal Corps of Signals / Droit DR91
Conducted by: Lt. Col. RB Bashford OBE and Major G. Turner MBE
Information below appears on both records

So many thousands of marches have been written that good march tunes are not easy to come by. Most of the successful ones sound simple, and it is this simplicity that makes them difficult to write. John Philip Sousa (the American march king) said that a good march must make a man with a wooden leg step out.

A large proportion of the march repertoire used by the British Army is of foreign origin but in this series we pay tribute to the British march writers past and present. The aim is to offer the listener a cross-section of a composer’s works, and some of the marches are appearing on record/cassette for the first time. Where possible two writers of contrasting styles appear on each recording and when appropriate the composer is invited to conduct his own works, thus ensuring an authentic interpretation.

The style of march writing has changed over the years. Many written in the mid 20th century depend inevitably and unavoidably on the cliché but had strong melodic lines with traditional harmonies. The titles rarely had any influence on the musical content and in the main would have been equally successful under other names. Recent contributions are more adventurous in harmony and rhythm and if written for specific occasions composers often draw on appropriate well known themes cleverly weaving them into their original thoughts.

Side One – Leo Stanley
Alamein / With Might and Main / March of the Commandos / The Partisans / Guard of Honour / The Mechanical Horse / Swift and Sure / Great Occasions

Side Two – Rodney Bashford
Marche Militaire / Foxhunters March / Splice the Mainbrace / Tyrol Troop / The Galloping Major / The Queen’s Company / Cavalry Walk-  Cavalry Ride – Cavalry Trot / The Light Division / The Inkerman March

Masters of the March Volume 2
(JH Howe and Kenneth Alford)
Regimental Band of the 1st Bn The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise’s) / Droit DR 92
Conducted by: Major JH Howe MBE and WO KG Lamb FVCM BBCM
(Major Howe Bio is taken from record cover)

Jimmy Howe comes from a Brass Band family. A native of North East England, he began his musical career playing the cornet in local colliery bands. In 1933, he joined the Royal Scots as a band boy, and served with his regiment in Palestine in 1938, and also in France at the outbreak of World War Two. Captured at Le Paradis, he was a prisoner of war in Poland and organized a Stalag Ban with instruments obtained through the British Red Cross which helped to sustain the morale of the men in captivity.

After the war, he studied at Kneller Hall and was appointed bandmaster of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1949, serving with them in Hong Kong, British Guyana, Berlin and the United Kingdom. In 1956, he took the Band to Helsinki, playing at the British Industries Fair.

He was commissioned Director of Music to the Scots Guards in 1959 and was subsequently appointed senior Director of Music Household Division in 1970. The following year he was awarded the MBE for his services to Army Bands.

Since his retirement from the Army in 1974, he has conducted many leading Symphony Orchestras and the radio programme Friday Night is Music Night and Melodies for You. He is still active as a guest conductor and adjudicator of music festivals making appearances in the USA, Canada, and Europe. As well as the marches on this album, he has compositions of light music to his credit, also many arrangements of popular works are to be found in the military and brass band repertoires. He is a Vice-President of the national ex-Prisoner of War Association and an active member of the Dunkirk Veterans  Association.

Side 1 – Kenneth Alford
Holyrood / The Mad Major / Dunedin / Old Panama / Cavalry of the Clouds / The Vanished Army / Colonel Bogey on Parade
Side 2 – Jimmy Howe
Fairfield / Pride of Princess Street / The Civic / Balmoral Castle / Pentland Hills / Stalag March / Glasgow Fair / The Corner FlagCOnt

Contributed by Jack Kopstein

Today, the U.S. military is often used as an example of racial equality and opportunity, but before 1948 segregation was the rule. Even though President Truman ordered formal integration, President Franklin Roosevelt made a step forward six years before that by suggesting that the Navy create black bands to elevate the status of black Navy men.

During the World War II, blacks were recruited into the Navy to serve only as cooks, mess attendants, or stewards. By Executive Order of the President blacks were allowed to serve as yeoman and other ratings in 1942. Starting in 1943, 5,000 musicians were recruited from across the country to officially serve as musicians. They were then sent to the Great Lakes Naval Base, near Chicago, for training to play in big bands. As a result this experiment was called “The Great Lakes Experience of World War II.” Following training, 25-piece bands were formed to tour naval bases across the United States and to raise morale where they played. When the war ended, the musicians went home. Some of them formed bands or joined other bands, and some became renowned jazz artists and arrangers. A couple of the more notable ones were Von Freeman and Clark Terry, the jazz trumpeter who later performed with Duke Ellington and the ”Tonight Show” band. Many of them just went into other lines of work.

In Seattle, we know that one of these bands may have been stationed at Naval Air Station Seattle, now known as Warren G. Magnuson Park. One member of the band (not known if he is shown in the photo) was Alvin Larkins.  Larkins came to Seattle when the Navy stationed him at NAS Seattle in 1943. After a long career of teaching music, Alvin Larkins Park was named after him in the 1970′s. Other known members of the band include, drummer Duke Moore (arriving in Seattle in 1942). Moore and other black musicians were best known for the jazz group, “The Question Marks.” Another member was vocalist Babe Williams, known for his renditions of tunes by the Ink Spots and Mills Brothers.

On February 28, 2003, tribute was paid to the Navy’s first “official” black musicians through several events in Chicago.

Jive Bombers jazz band of World War II: In January 1943, the U.S. Naval Military Band transferred from the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois to Sand Point Naval Air Station in Seattle. A group of these musicians formed their own jazz ensemble, the “Jive Bombers.” This information and the band roster was prepared by Jacqueline E. A. Lawson and band member John Willis correctly captioned a photo in the collection of the National Archives.

The Naval Military Band, originally formed at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, consisted of about 24 members. The Military Band was transferred to Sand Point Naval Air Station in January 1943. They performed weekly at bond rallies in “Victory Square” which was located in downtown Seattle in front of the Olympic Hotel on University Street between 4th and 5th Avenues. They also participated in parades and performed at various Navy functions.

Several members of the band (about 18 of the below-named individuals) formed a jazz group, calling themselves the “Jive Bombers.” They performed locally (out of uniform) at various private functions — such as weddings and fraternity parties — often with jazz groups organized by local musicians such as Al Hickey and Bob Marshall.

Here are the names of the musicians pictured at the top:

First Row
Robert Braxton, clarinet
Andrew E. Wade, III, clarinet
Al Hickey, clarinet
Wm. Funderburg, saxophone
Charles Ethridge, saxophone
John Irons, trumpet
“Doc” Wheeler, trumpet
J. Chavis, trumpet

Second Row
John Willis
“Baby” Greer
“Deany” Clark
Clifton Rice
Robert Young
unidentified
F. Leftrict
Dave Bradford
Alvin Cola

Standing
unidentified
Jarvis
J. Jacquet
Alvin Larkins
Robert Marshall
Edward Middleton
Edwin Middleton

After discharge from the service, some members of the Jive Bombers remained in the area and continued to play professionally for private and public social functions and dances. Additional local musicians who performed with these groups included: Kenny Boas (piano), “Baby” Greer, Ralph Davis (drums), Elmer Gill (piano), Duke Moore (drums), Johnny Moton (piano), Wyatt “Bull” Ruther (base), Leon Vaughn (trumpet), and Gerald Wiggin.

The Jive Bombers also made a recording of the Dixieland tune ROSETTA as seen above Since this recording is marked as “3” there may have been several others in the same series recorded by WESTERN RECORDING STUDIOS (Seattle Washington). The label shows the name THE USS Bunker Hill. It was one of 24 Essex class aircraft carriers commissioned during the war. The ship went into action in the Pacific in 1943 and the Jive Bombers band may have been the ship’s band and made the recording prior to shipping out.

On February 28, 2003, tribute was paid to the Navy’s first “official” black musicians through several events in Chicago.

Sources
Laney, Mary. Time has come to honor Navy’s black musicians in WWII. February 10, 2003 Chicago Sun Times.
Lazarus, Judy R. The Navy’s ‘jazzy’ history. February 2003. Great Lakes Bulletin.
Museum of History and Industry. Duke Moore drummer with The Question Marks. 2002.
Museum of Music. Integrating the Navy with Jazz: The Great Lakes Experience, 1942-1945.
May 19, 2003. Vibrations.
Seattle Parks and Recreation. Alvin Larkins Park. December 31, 2003

A Concert for Brass Band, Voice, and Piano
Contributed by Jack Kopstein

On September 27, 1974, the Music Division of the Library of Congress recreated a typical concert of brass-band and vocal music from mid-nineteenth-century America. Recorded selections from that concert were presented. These recordings were the result of several years of research by Jon Newsom of the Music Division and many more years of experience and study by the late Frederick Fennell, founder and former director of the Eastman Wind Ensemble and professor of music at the University of Miami, and Robert E. Sheldon, then of the Smithsonian Institution’s Division of Musical Instruments and presently Curator of Musical Instruments in the Music Division, Library of Congress. Because the purpose of these recordings was to demonstrate the style and quality of the popular music of the era, the musicians used instruments appropriate to the period.

Band concerts of the mid-nineteenth century frequently included vocal music, which as a genre was inseparable from the band music of the same era. The performances included a number of songs performed by Merja Sargon, assisted by Bernard Rose, who also plays two piano solos using the Smithsonian Institution’s 1850 Chickering square piano. Although this is a parlor instrument, it is the kind used by Jenny Lind on her American tour of 1850-52. The iron-frame piano, first introduced by Alpheus Babcock in 1825, was manufactured by Jonas Chickering in Boston in 1840 and was widely popular by the 1850s. Miss Sargon and Mr. Rose are joined in one piece by Robert Stallman, who plays a modern adaptation of the Boehm-system, wood, conical-bore flute. It produces a timbre very much like that of the 6- and 8-keyed flute common in the period.

The Programme (Click on a Track to Listen)
1.   Hunters’ Chorus, from The Rose of Erin (Band)
2.    O Summer Night, from Don Pasquale (Band)
3.    Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway (Vocal)
4.    The Herdsman’s Mountain Song (Vocal)
5.    Captain Shepherd’s Quickstep (Band)
6.    Captain Finch’s Quickstep (Band)
7.    Indiana Polka (Band)
8.    Old Memories (Vocal)
9.    The Moonbeam Waltzes (Band)
10.    La Fontaine (Piano)
11.    Upon a Summer’s Day(Vocal)
12.    Slow March: Midnight! (Band)
13.    Scots Wha Hae: Variations (Piano)
14.    General Taylor Storming Monterey (Band)
15.    Lilly Bell Quickstep (Band)
16.    Why, No One to Love? (Vocal)
17.    Free and Easy (Band)

Songs that Won the War
Contributed by Jack Kopstein

It seems hardly possible with all the world strife happening that in 2010 it will be 65 years since the end of World War II. It is even more astonishing that songs we sang and played during the war are still popular and have taken on a complete life of their own. Young people and baby boomers alike have helped to keep the home fires burning, so to speak, with their support of the great “Songs That Won the War.”

In 1941, as the battle machine began to gear up, the popular culture shifted to war-themed entertainment, including song hits like the Andrews Sisters “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” (recorded by Tommy Tucker and later the Ink Spots), and “Kiss the Boys Goodbye,” recorded by Tommy Dorsey, with vocals by Connie Haines. Much of the music heard during the early period of the war was subdued and the days of urbane little ditties gave way to more sophisticated and emotional songs.

Some songs which had been reasonably popular before the war took on real meaning when the young men began to enlist and head off to training camps, and eventually into battle conditions. One such song was the 1938 hit “I’ll Be Seeing You.” Wartime thoroughly changed the hit parade songs and other hit songs. “The White Cliffs of Dover,” “Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition,” “I left my Heart at the Stage Door Canteen” all made their appearance. One of the greatest tunes from the war was the Irving Berlin number “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” which Berlin has been said to have written on a boiling hot day in 1942 in Los Angeles.

Irving Berlin’s revue with an all-star cast, This is the Army opened on Broadway in July 1942 and it toured the country and. Berlin  himself stopped the show every night with his rendition of O How I hate to Get up in the Morning, in which he depicts soldiers wanting to kill the bugler. The show also had a march which has become a classic This is the Army Mr Jones.

Songwriters became quite creative in their attempts to fit wartime sentiments in a 32-bar popular song. Some of the top songs of 1943 included “Do Nothin Till You Hear from Me,” “Have I Stayed Away Too Long,” and “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To.”

The year 1943 saw one interesting development on radio. Because of a musicians strike over revenues, for a time all instrumental music was banned from broadcast, leaving the airwaves to the sound of Capella voices. Typical of the time m famous singers recorded new arrangements of standards backed by a small choral group. One of the most beloved singers of the era was Peggy Lee who took a child’s nursery rhyme and turned it into a smash hit called “A Tisket and Tasket.”

Hit songs of 1944 included “Spring Will be a Little Late this Year,” a song which originally appeared in an unsuccessful 1938 musical that experienced a sudden surge of popularity. The tune became Number 1 over ten times on the hit parade and all the great band leaders of the time went into the sound studios to make a recording, with the Frank Sinatra version featuring Tommy Dorsey winning the sweepstakes for most records sold.

With the war’s end in 1945, the best songs came from Broadway. The upbeat songs captured the optimistic and hopeful attitude of the Allied countries. Songs like “Let It Snow,” “June is Busting Out All Over” and “It’s a Grand Night for Singing” led the charts.

Popular music kept the morale of the people up and the servicemen and women were entertained and able to sustain a life-line to America. It was like no other period in history because the music was broadcast live or by transcription and wherever battles were fought the music was there to shine a light on the dismal scenes of war the men and women were experiencing. The songs and the music helped immeasurably to win the war.