CHESAPEAKE BAY WIND ENSEMBLE
Written by Ryley Erhardt
Edited by Krista Slinkard

Welcome to the Altissimo! Community Band Spotlight for December. Each month we look at community bands across the nation, and this month we’re pleased to present the Chesapeake Bay Wind Ensemble.

The Chesapeake Bay Wind Ensemble is a non-profit band, which performs for communities in and around the Hampton Roads area (Williamsburg, Hampton, and Newport News).  Formed by Robert Arledge and the late Jim Paschall in 1998, it now consists of around forty members.  Impressively, nine of its current members are either active duty military or veterans of the Armed Services, including the Music Director who has over twenty-seven years of service.

As a non-profit, the Ensemble tries to give more than just music to its community.  Since its founding, the band has given over five thousand dollars in scholarships to promising youth in musical fields, permitting them to further their education.

Beyond this, the Chesapeake Bay Wind Ensemble specifically encourages high school students to join.  This gives these students professional musical experience that is difficult to acquire from school training alone.  With its youngest member having only witnessed fifteen new years, while the oldest is hinging on ninety, this creates a fascinating diversity within, which allows the older members to mentor the younger, preparing the next generation of Virginian musicians to perform at a high caliber.

The band’s current conductor, Tom Altringer has a fascinatingly eclectic musical history.  Commissioned as a Warrant Officer/Bandmaster in 1978, he spent the next twenty-three years traveling and conducting in such places as Brooklyn, Washington, New Jersey, and even Germany.  Perhaps his most interesting assignment was to the 6th Infantry Division Band in Anchorage, Alaska.  Besides worrying about musical perfection, Mr. Altringer had to address the issue of instruments not freezing up while performing.  After overcoming this unique adversity, conducting concerts in the milder weather conditions of Virginia must be a relief.

The fascinating variety represented within the Chesapeake Bay Wind Ensemble has allowed it to touch all ages within the Virginia Peninsula, while permitting the younger members to learn from the extensive professional experience of the older members.

Because of this professionalism and dedication to improving the youth of the community, we proudly present The Chesapeake Bay Wind Ensemble as our Community Band Spotlight for November. 

If you would like more information about the Chesapeake Bay Wind Ensemble, please visit their website at www.cbwe.org.

**Special thanks to Karen Kittell, President of the CBWE, for her help in making this article
***If you know of a community band you’d like to see featured, please send an email to krista@militarymusic.com

ALTISSIMO RECORDINGS SALUTES
THE ROSEVILLE COMMUNITY BAND
ROSEVILLE, MINNESOTA

JACK KOPSTEIN

concert-at-the-park

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Welcome to the Altissimo! Recordings Community Band Spotlight. We try to find a band deserving of some attention for their great community effort each month. This month, Jack Kopstein brought the Roseville Community band from Minnesota to our attention. Here’s what he had to say about them:

The ROSEVILLE COMMUNITY BAND, from Roseville, Minnesota, began as the Roseville Municipal Band. Founded by Mark Lammers, the first organizational meeting was held on March 10, 1964. In 1970 Lammers accepted a postition at Gustavus Adolphus College and was replaced by Roger Sorenson who directed the band for one year.

The directors changed hands as follows: Tom Haugen directed from 1971 – 1973, followed by Dave Magnuson, 1972 – 1974, Dick Miller from 1974 – 1975, and Dave Magnuson again from 1975 – 76. In 1976 Bob Lancette became the next director and remained until 1987. Sam Marks replaced Lancette and directed the band from 1987 until 1995, playing in the French Horn section from 1978 until becoming the director. Kay Foster served as interim director from September to January 1996. Rob McWilliams directed the band from January 1996 until July 1996. Patricia DeBenedetto served as director from that time until January of 1999. Sam Marks served, once again, as the interim director during April and May of 1999. Denny Schackel was director from then until July 2000, with Kay Foster picking up as interim again for fall 2000.

Daniel Kuch is the current director and has been since February 2001.

In 1978 the band was invited to participate in the INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL in Dublin, Ireland (the first adult community band to be invited to this event from the United States). A decade later the band geared up for another round of fundraising activities, and in July of 1992,  they played a series of concerts in Lucerne, Switzerland and Salzberg, Austria.

The ROSEVILLE COMMUNITY BAND has established itself as one of the top community bands in the upper Midwest. It is a true community band in that no auditions are required and membership is open to any adult musician. The purpose of the band is to provide the opportunity for the adult musician to play for personal satisfaction and provide a service for the community. Since 1980, at the annual spring concert, the band has awarded scholarships to area school musicians for the purpose of furthering their musical endeavours. The band observed its 30th anniversary by commissioning a composition. Internationally known composer, musician, and educator *Dr. Frank Bencriscutto composed “SUMMER IN CENTRAL PARK” for the band. The late “Dr. Ben”, a Roseville resident, conducted the work at the 30th anniversary concert in 1994.

Our hats are off to one of America’s finest community bands that maintain the wonderful tradition of hometown bands in the great State of Minnesota.

For more information about the Roseville Community Band, visit their website here.

The band is sponsored by the CITY OF ROSEVILLE PARKS and RECREATION DEPARTMENT

*Dr. Frank Peter Anthony Bencriscutto(1928-1997) was known as a conductor, educator, and composer. A longtime Director of Bands at the University of Minnesota, Dr. Bencriscutto and the band toured the USSR for seven weeks in 1969, with a final performance at the White House. An avid jazz musician, performing on saxophone and clarinet, he is also credited with introducing jazz into the music curriculum at the University of Minnesota. After retiring in 1993, Dr. Bencriscutto soon joined the faculty at the Musashino Academia Musicae in Tokyo, Japan as a visiting professor and conductor of the wind ensemble until 1996. He was posthumously awarded the 1997 Medal of Honor by the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic. The collection consists of programs, articles, compositions, and recordings related to Bencriscutto’s career.

**If you know of a community band you’d like to see featured here, please let us know! Email krista@militarymusic.com

THE BRITISH GRENADIERS MARCH
By Jack Kopstein

The British Grenadiers is a marching song for the grenadier units of the British military, the tune of which dates from the seventeenth century. It is the Regimental Quick March of the Grenadier Guards, the Honourable Artillery Company and the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. It is also an authorized march of The Royal Gibraltar Regiment, The Royal Canadian Artillery, The Canadian Grenadier Guards, The Royal Regiment of Canada, The Princess Louise Fusiliers, and The 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles.

A song entitled “The New Bath” found in Playford’s dance books from the 1600s is thought to be the origin. However, it is also suggested that it was derived from the Dutch march “De Jonge Prins van Friesland” (“The Young Prince of Friesland”, referring to Prince Johan Willem Friso); the first notes of this tune are similar. The march was introduced to Britain during the reign of the Dutch Stadholder-King William III. Today it is played as the Royal Inspection March in the Dutch army, and as a march to the crown prince.

The first known association of the tune with the regiment is in 1706 as ‘The Grenadier’s March’, and the first version printed with lyrics from around 1750. It was a popular tune throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and remained so until this day. During Operation Market Garden, a few men of the British 1st Airborne Division are said to have played this song using a flute and a few helmets and sticks as drums.

In the UK, it is played at Trooping the Colour. Additionally, the first eight measures are played during the ceremony when the Escort for the Colour marches into position on Horse Guards Parade.

The following text is the most well-known version of the song. The text arguably dates back to the War of Spanish Succession (1702-1713), since it refers to the grenadiers throwing grenades (a practice that proved to be too dangerous and was dropped soon after,) and the men wearing “caps and pouches” (i.e. the typical grenadier caps, worn by these elite troops, and probably the small cartridge boxes worn in front, known as a ‘belly box’) and “louped clothes”, then preserved only for the grenadiers.

Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules
Of Hector and Lysander, and such great names as these.
But of all the world’s great heroes, there’s none that can compare.
With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, to the British Grenadiers.
Those heroes of antiquity ne’er saw a cannon ball,
Or knew the force of powder to slay their foes withal.
But our brave boys do know it, and banish all their fears,
Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadiers.
Whene’er we are commanded to storm the palisades,
Our leaders march with fusees, and we with hand grenades.
We throw them from the glacis, about the enemies’ ears.
Sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, the British Grenadiers.
And when the siege is over, we to the town repair.
The townsmen cry, “Hurrah, boys, here comes a Grenadier!
Here come the Grenadiers, my boys, who know no doubts or fears!
Then sing tow, row, row, row, row, row, the British Grenadiers. Then let us fill a bumper, and drink a health to those
Who carry caps and pouches, and wear the loupèd clothes.
May they and their commanders live happy all their years.
With a tow, row, row, row, row, row, for the British Grenadiers.

There are a number of words in the song which are not in current usage
•    Fusees – The Grenadier officers carried fusees – fusils, or muskets rather than bombs.
•    Glacis – A term in the science of fortification, referring to the smooth sloping embankment that usually preceded the pit in front of the walls of a fort. Designed to deflect cannonballs, but also a dangerously exposed place to stand throwing grenades.
•    Bumper – A bumper was any container that could be used to clink with another reveller’s bumper in a toast to someone’s health. It could be filled with beer or some other alcoholic drink. It usually referred to a handled vessel such as a (pewter or ceramic) beer-mug or (leathern) jack, but it could refer to a (horn or pewter) beaker or even to a (treen, pewter or silver) punchbowl that could be picked up and passed around for everyone to quaff.
•    Louped clothes – (pronounced “loup-ed” in order for it to scan) It means ‘looped’, and refers to the lace (those ‘bastion loops’) worn as an elite distinction by the grenadiers during the War of Austrian Succession. Other sources suggest that it refers only to the laced shoulder ‘wings’ worn by Grenadiers.
•    toe row row – Refers to forming up in rows in a straight line, i.e. with toes on the line.
•    The song is also the regimental song to the Fort Henry Guard, a generic military regiment representing a British regiment of 1867 in British North America. The guard are part of the living museum at Fort Henry,  in Kingston Ontario. The march is played on fifes and as such some of the sequential notes are omitted because of the limitation of the instrument.

*Altissimo! Recordings has several international band albums from British regiments. Specifically, When the Guards Are on Parade features the band of the Grenadier guards playing a multitude of music, including “The British Grenadiers” march.

The march is also found on Regimental Marches of the British Army and 100 Greatest Military Band Favourites.

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA

contributed by Jack Kopstein

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Featuring over 2,000 world-class Canadian and international military and civilian performers, the Tattoo continues to live up to its reputation as one of the world’s premiere cultural and entertainment events. The Tattoo strikes a unique balance, featuring pipes and drums, military and civilian bands, historic re-enactments, dancers, acrobats, choirs, military displays and competitions, drama and comedy in a number of innovative acts, in a fast-paced two and a half hour family show. The Tattoo is held annually at the Halifax Metro Centre during the first week of July.

A different show every year, the Tattoo is a masterpiece of colour, music, artistry, athleticism and nostalgia that continues to amaze audiences each year.

To date, 23 countries have participated in the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo.  This past year was our 30th Anniversary!  It featured many bands from all over the world! Here are some examples.

CANADA:
Stadacona Band of Maritime Forces Atlantic
National Band of Naval Reserve
Land Force Atlantic Area Band
The Band of the Ceremonial Guard
The Massed Bands and Pipes of the Canadian Air Force
Pipes & Drums of the 2nd Battalion The Royal Canadian Regiment
3 Area Support Group Pipes & Drums
12 Wing Shearwater Pipes & Drums
14 Wing Greenwood Pipes & Drums
Nova Scotia Highlanders Pipes & Drums
Canadian Cadet Pipes and Drums
The RCMP Pipes and Drums
Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo/Black Watch Association Pipes
& Drums

OUTSIDE CANADA:
The Royal Band of the Belgian Air Force
Copenhagen Police Band
Military District Band I (Germany)
Royal Fire Brigade Band Malmo Sweden
Regimental Band and Corps of Drums of the Royal Welsh
Middlesex County Volunteers Fifes & Drums (U.S.A.)
The Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo thrills an audience of 60,000 every year.

For more information, please visit our website at www.nstattoo.ca

Our thanks for info to:
Leah Whitehead
Group Sales, Media Relations
and Publications Coordinator
Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo
1586 Queen Street, Halifax, NS B3J 2J1
Phone: (902) 420-4620
Fax: (902) 423-6629

Paul Lavalle and the Cities Service Band of America

Jack Kopstein

Paul Lavalle

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Paul Lavalle was a conductor, composer, arranger and performer on clarinet and saxophone. He was born Joseph Usifer on September 6, 1908 in Beacon, New York, and died in Harrisonburg, Virginia on June 24, 1997.

Lavalle’s parents were Ralph and Jennie Usifer, both Italian immigrants. Graduating from Beacon High School, he planned to study law at Columbia University. After winning a scholarship there, Lavalle studied music at the Juilliard School and was a student of composition of Joseph Schillinger. He performed in many 1930s bands, including one in Havana, Cuba. In 1933, he became an arranger and clarinetist in the NBC Symphony Orchestra when it was conducted by Arturo Toscanini. His first composition to be performed with this orchestra was Symphonic Rhumba (1939), conducted by Leopold Stokowski on December 6, 1942.

Paul Lavalle has combined an ability in organization with a solid background in music performance, conducting, and composition. As the conductor of the Cities Service Band of America during eight years of weekly broadcasts over NBC Radio, beginning in 1948, his name became known in millions of American homes. With the help of his brother, Michael Usifer, conductor of the town band, he learned the fundamentals of most of the instruments, but preferred to perform on clarinet and saxophone. After graduating from Beacon High School, he began majoring in law at Columbia University, but upon winning a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music during his freshman year, he abandoned law for music. After leaving Juilliard he performed with a band in Havana, Cuba, followed by a series of concerts with the NBC Symphony, conducted by Arturo Toscanini. In addition to the famous Band of America–selected as the official band of the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair–Lavalle founded the Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street, the Stradivari Orchestra, and the NBC Highways of Melody Orchestra. In 1966, he organized the McDonald All-American High School Band. In 1968, he became director of music for the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra, and in 1981 he began conducting the Wilton, Connecticut, Chamber Orchestra. Throughout much of his career, he guest¬conducted school and professional orchestras and bands in various sections of the United States.

Recipient of a number of honors and awards, Lavalle’s showy and energetic style of conducting won the approval of most audiences–as well as the criticism of a few more conservative conductors. Living in Wilton, Connecticut, for many years, Lavalle, learned to counteract a busy schedule in New York and elsewhere with hobbies, including gardening and golf.

Lavalle wrote a variety of musical works for band and orchestra, and several scores which he composed while driving into New York City each day. In addition to tone poems,  instrumental concertos and features, and symphonic arrangements, he  composed  a number of marches. All-American High School Band, Ballyhoo, Band of America, and Good Fellowship are listed in the 1982 Band Music Guide. Other marches included: Be Prepared (for the Boy Scouts); The Big Brass Band; Big Joe the Tuba; Boys Club of America; Bugle Calls A-Plenty; Dwight D. Eisenhower (built on the notes D-D-E we featured during the 1952 presidential campaign); The Merrymakers; and United Press.

Paul Lavalle applied for the conductor’s position of the Cities Service Band of America in 1948, and he won out over a number of other highly qualified applicants, including  Frank Simon, conductor of the well-known ARMCO Band in the 1920′s . Every Monday night for the next eight years, millions of Americans heard the introduction over NBC Radio begin with: “Forty-eight states . . . forty-eight stars …forty-eight men marching down the main street of everybody’s hometown! Here comes Cities Service Band of America, conducted by Paul Lavalle!” During the series of over 400 entertaining and stimulating broadcasts, this professional band entertained a vast radio audience, produced a number of record albums for RCA, and served as a beacon for school bands across the United States. He became instantly recognized and newspapers across America, including the Appleton Wisconsin Crescent,  suggested that “Maestro Paul Lavalle Walks in the Shoes of Sousa.”He became the inspiration for young band musicians across the USA and Canada. He travelled extensively performing and his recordings were snatched up immediately when they were released.

Lavalle worked on numerous radio programs, including The Dinah Shore Show (1939-40), The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street (1940-44), Plays for Americans (1942) and Highway of Melody with the Band of America (1944-56). On his radio shows he collaborated with Victor Borge, Mario Lanza, Robert Merrill and Dinah Shore. In November 1944, his jazz composition “Always” made it to number 29 on the top 40 charts. In 1940, The New York Times described him as “NBC’s ubiquitous music maker” and said he was “of small size, dynamic, dark haired…” Lavalle told the reporter, “Music is my life, and I am happy that it is so.”
In 1949, Lavalle and the band became one of the first musical groups to appear weekly on television. Beginning in 1964, the Band of America toured extensively and also became the official band of the 1964 New York World’s Fair, an engagement that lasted into 1965.

Lavalle guest conducted many orchestras, including the ABC Symphony, CBS Symphony, NBC Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1967, he was instrumental in forming the 100-member All-American High School Band (by 1968 known as McDonald’s All-American High School Band) which participated in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and Tournament of Roses Parade.

Actress Muriel Angelus met Paul Lavalle while she was performing on the radio, and they married in 1946. She retired from acting to raise a family. They maintained an apartment in Manhattan and a Colonial home in Connecticut. Their daughter Suzanne Lavalle Bothamley was an NBC reporter and became a realtor for Coldwell Banker Funkhouse. Paul Lavalle died June 24, 1997 in Harrisonburg, Virginia at the Rockingham Memorial Hospital

•     Paul Lavalle’s compositions

•    Band of America March (1949)
•    Big Joe, The Tuba March (1950)
•    Boys’ Clubs of America (Marching Song) (1948)
•    Dwight D. Eisenhower March (built on the notes D-D-E; the official theme of the 1952 campaign)
•    The United Press March (1952, composed for United Press International)
•    United States Overture (1951)
•    (Information from Paul Bierley, The Instrumentalist, Marquis Who’s Who., and The New York Time )and Appleton Wisconsin Post Crescent, The Beckley Post Herald W Va)and Wikipedia,Encyclopedia

If you were influenced by the Lavalle broadcasts please feel to blog, we would love to hear from you.

At the time of the American Civil War, music played an important part in military affairs. On a practical level, commands and orders were communicated by drum, or by bugles or trumpets in mounted commands. Bugles and trumpets were also making inroads into dismounted units, where drums were still standard. For marching, company drummers were generally grouped into regimental drum corps, and sometimes fifes, and even a bass drum, were added to complete this “field music”. However, regiments that could manage it organized proper marching bands, generally brass bands of from 16 to 24 players, in addition to their drum corps. These were standard for US regular regiments, and were also authorized for volunteer regiments in 1861.

Wealthier peacetime militia regiments had often hired professional bands, either for the occasion, or even on a long-term contract. Many such bands, some of them of a high musical standard, marched off to war with the early regiments; some only went as far as the railroad station, but others went to the front, and served as stretcher bearers in battle.

Some of these bands could number as many as 50 players, and in an army corps where most Regiments had bands, there might be 40 or such bands of music. In July 1862, Congress abolished regimental bands and only the fifes and drums were left. The bands were sorely missed and brigade bands were authorized in their place, while some regiments raised funds to support more modest regimental bands at their own expense, a practice which worked well in the British Army.

In the Confederate service, no such cuts were made, no doubt because not quite so many regiments had bands in the first place. As a result, a few Confederate bands served right through the war.

A drum corps was led by one or two NCOs entitled “principal musicians,” one of whom was usually termed a “drum major” (or in mounted corps, a “trumpet major”), while “fife majors” were also sometimes appointed.

Where a band existed, one of the principal musicians would take charge and was generally termed the “leader.” While drum majors may have marched at the head of bands, leaders appear to have been musicians; the drum major’s main responsibility was for the drum corps, though separately organized civilian bands attached to militia or volunteer regiments would probably have their own drum majors.

Regulations covered the dress of company musicians, who wore the uniform of their unit,    but with “herring-bone” braiding in facing colour on the coat front. Sometimes a drum major might wear no more than musician’s uniform, with the distinctions of an NCO; no specific chevrons were prescribed, but a version of sergeant’s or sergeant-majors’ chevrons, with an additional star or crossed drumsticks, was customary. For bandsmen, regulations simply required regimental uniform with “such additions in ornaments as (the commanding officer) may judge properly.” In practice, this could vary from quite modest modifications to elaborate uniforms that bore no relation to what, when fronting a band, a drum major would wear.

Thus attired, drum majors could make quite a show; when the raw student recruits of Company “1″ of the Confederate 4th Virginia Infantry encountered a colossal warrior “with a fierce moustache waxed into rat-tails,” arrayed in a uniform that made their eyes clink, they were convinced that they met up with the “commander-in-chief of all the Confederate armies,” but were disgusted to learn that he was merely the drum major of the First Virginia Infantry!

One of the most prestigious militia units of the period was the 7th Regiment, New York State Militia, which in the dark early days of war was one of the first regiments to march to the relief of an anxious President and a beleaguered capital, its journey funded largely by its businessman Colonel, Marshall Lefferts. The Seventh’s brief period of service was up even before the battle of First Bull Run, but its arrival at Washington had boosted the morale of the North, and hundreds of its members later served as officers, and even generals, in the Union armies.

In 1858, the Seventh’s dissatisfaction with its band, under Bandmaster Noll, came to a head during an excursion to Richmond, when the “mutinous conduct” of Noll and his men proved too much; “The fatigues of the journey,” opined the regimental chronicler solemnly, “the heat of the weather, and perhaps the free flow of wine and lager-beer, had demoralized the band …” Thankfully, Noll’s contract was up that November, and the next month band-leader and composer C. S. Grafulla (Washington Grays march, see note 1) was engaged in his stead; 38 musicians were selected for the new band, and a contract made for new uniforms and equipment. Under Grafulla’s leadership, the band went on to establish a national reputation for musical excellence.

The full dress of the Seventh was a shako and grey tailed coat, but the band adopted a more modern style based approximately on US regulation patterns, with a dark blue cloth shako, dark blue frock coat with scarlet trim and “plastron” front, and sky blue trousers. The scarlet facings were, perhaps, a reference to the earlier artillery status of the Regiment. The drum-major’s dress differed in several respects, having gilt epaulettes, and no plastron, but outer rows of buttons, nine in number as for the centre row. The cuff patches bore three small buttons, and the collar carried a brass “7″.

Instead of a bandsmen’s shako, the drum major wore a bearskin hat with a feather plume, gold tassels and a scarlet bag with gold cord trim. His scarlet baldric had brass fittings – apparently an eagle of the type worn on US regulation “Hardee” dress hats, linked with a chain to a shield bearing miniature drumsticks. The remaining trim was gold lace.

The trousers were not the sky blue worn by the other bandsmen, but the grey trousers of the Regiment’s officers, with a double, gold lace stripe set on black. The waist belt plate is that prescribed by the New York militia regulations of 1858 – gilt, rectangular, two inches wide, with a raised bright rim, and bearing a silver wreath of laurel and palm encircling the letters “N.Y” in silver Old English characters. Though sergeants of this regiment carried straight NCOs swords, the drum-major, in common with the other senior sergeants, wore an M 1851 type company officer’s sword, without sword knot, in a scabbard studded to fit in a black.

Drum Majors proved to be an invaluable inspiration to the troops and bandsmen as they strutted in front of the Civil war bands and the custom remains to this day with the hundreds of military, civilian and School bands across North America. Federal bands often led troops in momentous battles and the drum majors played an enormous part in the performance of the duties of bands.

Main Sources : FP Todd Military Equipage 1851, Francis A Lord “Bands and Drummer Boys of the Civil war”, Regulations for Uniform Dress of the United States Marine Corps 1859, January 1987 issue of  MILIITARY MODELLING©

1.    WASHINGTON GRAYS is performed on 5 ALTISSIMO recordings
The Bicentennial Collection
Forward march
Front and Center
The Great March
An American Patrol
Go to www. militarymusic.com for information