In honor of Independence Day, our contributing writer Jack thought it would be nice to give a short history of American march music. The following is an informative article he found for us to present.

A Short History of Marches

The origins of European and American march music can be traced to the military music of the Ottoman empire. The martial purpose of the music was to regulate the functioning of armies in the field by communicating orders, and keeping time during marching and maneuvers. The extensive use of percussion, such as cymbals, was also used for psychological effect as their use, especially in Western Europe, was unknown and had the capacity to frighten opponents. Indeed, the subsequent use of cymbals and other such percussive instruments in European ‘classical’ music was a direct importation from the Ottomans. In the early 1700s Europeans were first exposed to this type of music and interest would continue to build into the early 1800s when a vogue for Turkish marching bands swept through Europe. Pieces displaying this Turkish influence can be found in the works of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven with a notable example being “Turkish March” by Beethoven (part of Op. 113): Overture and incidental music for Die Ruinen von Athen.

The origins of march music began before the Gunpowder Age during which armies would maintain their troops’ morale by marching with music playing, whether that be from the beat of a drum or fife. American march music showed during the Revolutionary War and earlier wartime conflicts, in which a fife and snare drum would play while the troops marched to battle. This is why it can be said that march music is a military’s music.

While the tradition of soldiers playing music while marching into battle had ended soon after the American Civil War (mid 1800s), military bands continued to perform marches during related ceremonies and other events. This actually spawned a whole new tradition of playing marches as a source of entertainment.

Marches and the Concert Band
Around the late 1800s and early 1900s, most towns, organizations, theaters and even companies would have their own band. These bands, currently known today as community bands, would perform their music at special events much like the military band, but would often play at simple scheduled concerts and tours (such as the traditional gazebo concerts). By this time, published marches were plentiful due to prolific composers such as John Philip Sousa, Karl L. King and Henry Fillmore. Marches became a staple in the repertoire of these concert bands and can hence explain how the popularity of the march spread so rapidly across the world.

Marches and the Circus
Marches were further popularized with performances by circus bands. During the same period of the community band/concert band, circuses such as the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. Circus would have live music being performed by their own bands. The marches played were often a special variety of the march known descriptively as “Screamers”, “Two-Steps”, and “Cakewalks”. These marches served the purpose of exciting the crowd while circus acts were taking place.

Marches and the Marching Band
Again, during the same period college marching bands were also beginning to form. March composers would often dedicate marches to university bands. Marches were performed during half-time shows and pep-rallies. Marches were indeed heard everywhere.

The John Philip Sousa Revolution
American composer John Philip Sousa did indeed strongly revolutionize the march. His overall prolific writing of said quality marches added that much to its popularity. According to Sousa researcher Paul Bierley, Sousa’s marches were gems of simplicity and understatement, with rousing counterpoint and overall energy. Sousa also is said to have standardized the traditional march form. American march music was forever immortalized with Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever, a patriotic march which became the official march of the United States of America.

March Music Composers
Most march composers come from the United States or Europe, and have some sort of musical background to them. The most popular march composers existed in the late 1800s and early 1900s, mainly because modern march dedicators are hard to come by. The following is list of march music composers whose marches are frequently performed in the United States.
• Russell Alexander (1877-1915)
• Kenneth Alford (1881-1945) “The British March King”
• Edwin Eugene Bagley (1857-1922)
• Hermann Louis Blankenburg (1876-1956)
• W. Paris Chambers (1854-1913)
• Charles E. Duble (1884-1960)
• Henry Fillmore (1881 – 1956) “The Trombone King”

A full article on this topic can be found by clicking here

Contributed by Jack Kopstein
Posted with permission from the author Dr. Jill M. Sullivan

My original research started in December 2000. Using historical method and interviews with 79 women military musicians–most octogenarians–I discovered that there were eight U.S. women’s military bands and four drum and bugle corps serving during the war era. All ensembles were conducted by women, six of whom were music teachers before the war. Band members brought a variety of music experience and expertise with them into the military: music degrees, music teaching, professional dance band experience, and school, town, and industry band membership. Most women started their instrumental performing in school bands, and supplemented this instruction with private lessons. Women also remembered participating in other school instrumental activities prior to the war, such as rhythm bands, national band contests, solo and ensemble contests, and college bands. In addition to U.S. women’s military bands, Canada and England utilized women’s bands to serve their female troops. This World War II research led me to find more women’s bands that existed long before and after the war: the Women’s Air Force Band, the 14th Army Band, the Hormel Girls Drum and Bugle Corps, and nineteenth and twentieth century women’s town, military, immigrant, and suffrage bands. This important scholarly pursuit helps fill gaps in instrumental music history and music education by documenting women’s roles as instrumental musicians, music teachers, and conductors for a century in America (1870-1976).

During W.W. II the United States government created women’s reserve units and recruited women to “free a man to fight.” Each military branch enlisted women into separate units from the men and assigned these units catchy acronyms: the Coast Guard SPARS (Semper Paratus, Always Ready), the Army WAAC/WAC (Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps/Women’s Army Corps), the Navy WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service), and the Marine Corps WR (Women’s Reserve). Women enlisted from all parts of the country and held a variety of jobs, one of which was being a member of a military band.

All branches of the service had women’s bands. The first activated was in 1942 at the WAAC Training Center in Fort Des Moines, Iowa. The following year all other military branches started bands, while the WAAC–later named WAC–added four more to training centers around the country. The WAVES were the only branch of the service that did not have full-time duty status for its women’s military band. At the close of W.W. II, all bands were deactivated except the 400th WAC ASF Band which was renamed the 14th WAC Band in 1947, and lasted through 1976. The following year men were accepted into the band, the name was changed to the 14th Army Band, and a man was assigned as conductor. In addition, the WAC had the only female black band in the history of the United States military, the 404th, located at Fort Des Moines.

Band membership ranged from 28 to 48 players, with a mix of musical backgrounds from high school to college conservatory graduates, music teachers, and professional dance band experience. Women jumped at the opportunity to perform in a military band since performance opportunities for women were rare. Some women reported that they turned down the chance to become officers to be in a band.

All of the ensembles had an assortment of patriotic duties that called for a variety of music. It was essential for each unit to perform concerts, march in reviews and parades, and perform at service clubs with a dance band. In addition, several of the groups had a Dixieland band, a drum and bugle corps, small chamber ensembles, instrumental soloists, vocal soloists, and choral ensembles. While touring the nation, these women helped raise millions of dollars in bonds for the war effort.

Another March Perspective
By Jack Kopstein

Recently I set to work to research an entire parcel of known marches of every type and style. I want to point out that I approached this subject from a different perspective. Often the measures employed with reference to marches are numerous performances on recordings. This method, although the most popular, does not always ring true in a live situation, nor does it cover some good modern marches. Although I have not explored regimental marches, I would believe that the British Grenadiers is no doubt a popular universal march. I took a sampling of world marches from various sources including band and symphony concerts. Thus I was provided with a compelling rationale of what can be considered to be a great march.

There is something very special about the march. Real great marches played by bands and orchestras around the world, often offer a challenge for the musicians. Audiences love the melodic and rhythmic nature of the marches. It is summed up in two words: ‘toe tapping.’ The truly great marches written by expert march composers found their way into the concert repertoire and became the substance of performance and parades. The exciting sounds of the march were mostly the work of a group of unknown and nondescript writers who loved March writing. Naturally we know there were exceptions, names that became synonymous with the march such as Sousa and Alford. But for the most part, outside the intimate band circle, names like J. J. Richards, A W Hughes, Karl L King, and Fred Jewell were unknown. Also the European march writers Carl Teike and the great Herman Blankenburg remain in obscurity by anyone other than band musicians. The March music of the Strauss family became the substance of both small and large orchestras and bands. As a testament to marches, the Radetsky march is played on numerous occasions, yet their music was tuneful, harmonically correct and the melodies linger in the minds of audiences around the world. The wonders of the circus are brought to mind with ‘Barnum and Baileys Favorite’ and Julius Fucik’s ‘Entry of the Gladiators.’ Military precision is exemplified in ‘Colonel Bogey’ and ‘Action Front’.

We experience the excitement of the street parade with the marches ‘Military Escort’, ‘E Pluribus Unum’. We are made to feel pride with ‘Stars and Stripes Forever’ and to stand tall with ‘Invercargill’. The late Norman Smith wrote his book “March Music Notes” as a dedication to the hundreds of masterful marches written in the last two centuries. One of the most interesting facets of Smith’s book is a section in which several marches were selected as being the most popular based on input from world contributors.

There is a march for every occasion. Marches for concerts, those that mark the Yuletide season, and marches to celebrate national holidays. There are marches written by Gustav Holst to examine the consciousness of a people because they are folk songs.

For band musicians there is an indescribable attraction to the music of the march. The sound and action bring us to the edge of our chairs: we are carried away on the momentum of flute and clarinet spirals, flashing trumpets, rhythmic undulations of trombones, thundering footsteps of tubas and crashing torrents of percussion. Much of the music of the 20th century has fallen into disfavor, but like a shining beacon the march remains a symbol for many of us in the world who do walk to the beat of our own drum.

Next month we begin a series called The Story of the March

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.”

Community Music from the Golden Heart of Alaska
CONCERT BANDS IN THE LAST FRONTIER

Contributed by Jack Kopstein
Edited by Krista Slinkard

Today’s Fairbanks Community Band is part of a long tradition in Fairbanks history. Fairbanks bands have existed almost continuously from the near the beginning of the 20th century, but names and dates are subject to dispute; it all depends on whose memory you consult. Despite changing names, conductors, and even type of music played, the bands of Fairbanks’ past inspired the Fairbanks Community Band to be what it is today.

The band that is known today has a heritage of many different beginnings as the years went by. Earliest records document a town brass band in 1905 with nine members directed by Charles Westley. According to a concert brochure dated in the 1950s, a 10-piece Cowboy Band was organized in 1909. Then, in 1914, William Gobracht, a very tough instructor with a heavy German accent according to Chuck Grey, organized and directed a band of 18 members. In 1920, V.F. Jake Jacobs took over leadership of the band until 1945. The band was in a hiatus until 1948 when it was taken over by Kenneth Lauritzen, who invited William Gobracht, who by this time was likely in his 80’s, back to conduct some of the rehearsals and a concert or two. Two years later in 1950, Eva Myhre took over as conductor of the community band, which finally had to disband in 1952 due to the Korean War.

In 1956 Tom Brady started the University Civic band comprising university students and community members, but no one remembers for just how long this particular phase of the band’s past stuck around. From 1959 through 1961, Bob Boko ran a community Band with Jack O’Connor. In 1961 Jack left the state and Bob Boko took over the reins of the Lathrop High School Band Program. His departure marked the end of the community band program in Fairbanks until the fall of 1994 when George Wiese, Band Director of West Valley High School, and Donald Hildie, Band Director of Lathrop High School, saw a need for a community band. They approached Tracy Gibbons, who was the director of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Wind Ensemble, to see if he would have the time to conduct a community band as well. When he agreed to conduct, the three of them went to an attorney to draw up a set of by-laws for the band and to apply for non-profit status.

In 1997, Gibbons left the University of Alaska, vacating his position as conductor, and the Board of Directors asked then-retired band director Boko if he would reprise his role from the early 1960s and take over the job as conductor. When Boko retired from the band in the spring of 2004, the Board called on Hildie, the now retired Lathrop High band director, to assume his position. Hildie agreed and took the job of conductor/music director for the community band in the fall of 2004.

After a two-year run as conductor, Don retired from the band after a farewell concert on October 22, 2006 and the baton passed to Ann Musco, a faculty member in the UAF Music Department and conductor of the UAF Wind Symphony. Ann was the director of music and conductor of the concert band until the summer of 2007, when she passed the baton on to Roger Ridenour.

The following summer, Roger, expecting to be transferred out of state, resigned as director and was replaced by Wendy Ward, a music teacher in the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District. At the present time, Wendy is still director of the Concert Band, and is an active member of the Jazz Band, where she plays alto saxophone.

The Fairbanks Community Band is a non-profit organization for the presentation and support of rehearsals and concerts. Their members are adult musicians who want to continue performing as a lifelong avocation and to support the musical development of members of the local community. Participants are all volunteers and come from a wide variety of roles within the community. Most of the members received their early training in public school music programs, and some continued to study music through college or in the military. A number of members are active or retired music teachers looking for a creative outlet to play their instruments as well as lead their school groups in music education

The concert band (sometimes called a wind symphony or symphonic band) includes about 55 people who play woodwinds, brass, and percussion instruments. Their performances are drawn from the full range of the concert repertoire from marches to symphonies to popular compositions both old and new. The group meets from September through May and plays four concerts each year in a local auditorium at the Park Arts Center. The band does not charge admission for public concerts. Donations are welcome. Both bands present concerts, either separately, together, or with other groups. In the off-season, the band splits into smaller versions including a concert band and a jazz band.

The Concert Band is active from May through July, mostly playing concerts outdoors. The outdoor repertoire features music more suitable for that environment than the indoor performance repertoire, but may include some of the same pieces. Outdoor performances are informal. Audiences often move about during concerts. Kids, pets, and families are especially welcomed as are picnic lunches or snacks.

The Jazz Band is structured as a traditional Big Band. This is a group of about 16 performers, typically including 5 saxophones, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones, piano, bass, and drums. A vocalist or a guitar may be added to the basic group. The Big Band is modeled after the popular bands of the jazz and swing eras, many of which continue today. The history of big band music is rich and diverse. The music includes many forms of dance music and several varieties of jazz. The band often features vocal or instrumental solos by band members or guest artists.

Both bands play for community events and in support of non-profit organizations and are also available for hire for private events and special occasions. The Bands play occasional concerts and appear with other local performance groups, and they occasionally join with the Concert Band for a combined concert. Fees for performances are used to expand our libraries and to purchase and maintain our performance equipment.

During the summer, the bands play several outdoor concerts including the Wednesday evening concerts program at Golden Heart Plaza in downtown Fairbanks. They are a regular participant in the annual Golden Days Parade, the midnight sun festival, community walks and other celebrations. One or both groups usually play at the fair in August.

In addition to the concert schedule, the Concert Band provides music for graduation ceremonies of the Adult Learning Programs of Alaska, and other small schools which cannot provide their own music. We are proud to provide this community service to enhance the experience of students completing their high school education.

Because of their high involvement with the local community, and because we happen to think Alaska is pretty cool, we are proud to present the Fairbanks Community Band from Fairbanks, Alaska, as the Altissimo! Community Band Spotlight for the Month of May 2010.

For more information on this band, please visit their website here.

If you know of a band or are in a band you’d like to see featured in our Spotlight, please email Krista at krista@militarymusic.com.

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.”