Heritage of the March



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Alexander, Russell

Russell Alexander is believed by many to have been one of the finest march writers in America. His marches were frequently and widely played by the leading bands of early twentieth century and his best known Colossus of Columbia and The Southerner continue undiminished in popularity.

Alexander was born in Nevada City (now Nevada) Missouri on February 26, 1877. Little is known of the details of his life except that her spent much of his life under the big top. He was an excellent baritone player who was selected as young man to travel with the outstanding Barnum & Bailey Band on their five-year European tour, starting in 1897. Alexander arranged all the music used by the circus during this tour and those five years seem to have been the period of his greatest creative work as a composer.

After his return to America, Russell teamed up with his brothers, Newton and Woordruff, and James Brady to form an act called the Exposition Four. He continued with this act until his untimely death from tuberculosis at the age of thirty-eight in Liberty, New York on October 2, 1915.

Alford, Harold

Harold Alford was born in Blissfield, Michigan in 1883 and studied music at Dana’s Musical Institute in Warren, Ohio. He progressed from church organist to trouper to director of musical comedies and is best known for his professional arranging bureau in Chicago area. In the days of vaudeville, his pit orchestra music for Eva Taguay made him so famous that every act wanted their music scored b him. He also published many of his own works; some will fondly remember his edition to the Hungry Five books for German band.

Dr. Harding, Director of the University of Illinois Bands, commissioned him to so some of the first big football extravaganzas, such as My Hero and The World is Waiting for the Surprise. He is thus an important pioneer in this most flourishing area of school band development during the last 40 years. His two most popular marches are Glory of the Gridiron and of course Purple Carnival. He died on March 4, 1939 in Chicago.

Alford, Kenneth J.

Frederick Joseph Ricketts was born in London in 1881. At fifteen he enlisted in the Royal Irish Fusilier as a cornetist and eight years later entered the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall. He became organist and Assistant Director of Music there (1906-1908), after which he took up and appointment as bandmaster of the 2nd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, a historic regiment which bore among its proud titles the name of The Thin Red Line. The new bandmaster was asked by the CO to write a regimental march, and the young man dutifully complied – but under the pseudonym of Kenneth John Alford.

In 1928 came Ricketts’ commission as Director of Music for the Royal Marines at Deal, Kent and two years later he transferred as Lieutenant to the Plymouth Division where he remained until his retirement, a s Major in 1944 – a year and a few days before he died.

Throughout the career of Fred Ricketts, military bandleader of stature in his profession few will ever equal, the marches of Kenneth Alford continue to amaze the world. The Thin Red Line, The Vanished Army, Army of the Nile and Colonel Bogey; what stories they tell; what images they evoke! Who is to say that an agreement was not make between Ricketts and Alford, a symbiotic arrangement where by the one would continue in his role of bandmaster while his alter ego concentrated his fortunate genius on writing marches. Frederick J. Ricketts’ name has been on the very bottom of the list march composing competitions at Kneller Hall; Kenneth J. Alford name will live, like his marches, forever.

Allaire, Ulderic

Allaire, another native of Quebec Province, was born in East Pepperell. He received his early musical training at school, and from a brother who was a talented musician. Ulderic formed his own orchestra at the age of fourteen and gave numerous concerts broadcasted by the Montreal radio station. Founder and director of several musical organizations in the Victoriaville region, he composed much music. Although he never was associated with military music, he did write a few marches. Another product of his work was a book dealing with French Canadian songs.

Allier, Gabriel

Gabriel Allier was probably the foremost French march composer. His output of marches far exceeded that of any other French musician, and some of his works are truly masterpieces.

Allier was born in Lyon, in September 1863. his early music education was extensive, and he won the grand prize in piano at the Conservatory. His first appointment as musician in the French Army came when he was made ‘sous chef’ (assistant leader) of the band of the 37th Regiment in 1887. He later led several French Army bands, including the 48th Regiment at Laon, 74th Reg’t in Paris, 54th Regiment in Beauvais and finally the 4th Regiment in Grenoble. He attained this last band leadership in 1907, and stayed with it until 1919 when he retired from the Army.

He then became director of the orchestra at the famous Luna Park, in Paris and died there in January 1924.

The musical work most often associated with his name is the world famous march ‘Quand Medelon’, however he was not the composer of this fine march. The march was originally written by Camille Robert ‘sur les motifs de la chanson de Louis Bousquet, (which means ‘on motives of the song by Louis Bousquet’) and all that Allier had to do with it was to make the arrangements for band and fanfare.

Allier’s other well-known march is L’ENTENTE CORDIALE. The title is the name by which the French the French-British alliance was known during the early stages of the First World War. This march is played very frequently in England, and has been recorded by several British bands – it is the signature tune for the BBC Channel 2 Rugby Football League Floodlight Competition that takes place during the autumn in England.

Allen, Thomas S. (1876-1919)

Another of the New England Group of Musicians, Tom Allen was born in Natick, Mass on Dec. 16, 1876. At an early age he undertook study of the violin and apparently became a fine player. He was a member of various dance, theater and opera orchestra in the Boston area for many years.

An early venture into the business end of music in about 1905, was as business manager of the Edwin Bates musicians. After returning to playing at the Howard Theater in Boston he moved to Rochester, NY in 1911. He acted in capacities as booking agent, manager of musical shows and later as musical director of the Hastings Burlesque Shows.

The famous publication of the Jacobs Music Co. in Boston, the ‘Jacobs Band Journal’ over many years had a new Allen work printed in early every issue. His compositions which are known today are largely confined to rodeos and to some extent to circus music. Since much of his music was written as orchestral background for the silent movies of the day, it generally carried a flavor of excitement and his gallops were especially noteworthy. He did write in all music areas, but mostly marches and gallops. He died in Boston October 23, 1919.

Alonso, Francisco

Francisco Alonso was one of Spain’s most prolific composers. He wrote a large number of Zarzuelas (Light Operas or Operettas, filled with folk music of Spain and generally on a light humorous theme, with catchy tunes, and invariably at least one paso-doble in each). In 1887 Maetro Alonso was born in the Spanish province of Granada. He conducted in Madrid often at the Teatro de Zarzuela and composed steadily. Among the much played Zarzuelas he wrote are: La Calesera, La Linda Tapada, Las Leandras, and Luna de mile en el Cairo. He died in Madrid in 1948.

Althouse, Monroe

It is difficult to say whether the fame of Monroe Althouse derived more from his log leadership of the famous Ringgold Band, of Reading Pennsylvania or from the 60 odd marches he wrote.

The marches of Althouse are considered by many musicians and march connoisseurs to be consistently the finest street type ever composed. Composed to the marches of Sousa, Blankenburg, Teike, Hall Ricketts and the other greats, his marches are simple in structure. The drumming is especially important in an Althouse march and here the coast Guard proves capable of demonstrating this superbly well.

Monroe Althuse was born in 1853 in Centerport, Pennsylvania, a very small town near Reading. Somewhere he learned to play the violin and joined Albert Bowman’s orchestra, but soon found a trombone player was needed badly, so he took up that instrument. This led him into the Hampden Band and other musician organizations in Reading. By then, he had decided to make music his career so he, as so may other fine musicians of the time, left Reading and joined traveling bands, mostly circuses. Althouse played for several years with the Buffalo Bill circus.

In 1887 he returned to Reading and organized the Germania band. He also became Leader of the Academy of Music orchestra, which accompanied many notable visiting singers and stage shows when they came to town. He met Sousa in this manner for the first time. Just after the turn of the century Sousa visited Reading with a traveling musical show and Althouse made a life time friend.

While Munroe was doing all these musical things, in 1900 the Ringgold band much admired leader Joe Winters passed away and members of this famous group determined that the proper course was to merge with the Germania band and by doing so acquire the greatly desired services of Althouse as the new director of the combined band.

From then on, the Ringgold band took on a new luster and to this day rarely plays a concert without including at least one Althouse march. Monroe continued as director until his retirement in 1922. During his farewell concert with the band, one of the officers of the band came to the front of the stage and read a telegram from John Philip Sousa to his friend paying tribute to his genius. Naturally the last number Althouse conducted with the band was the Stars and Stripes Forever.

Montroe Althouse died in 1926 but his memory was revived as the sad time in 1922 when Sousa came to guest conduct the Ringgold band and after the rehearsal passed away during the night.

Antiguedad, Pablo Cambronero (1887-1963)

He was born in Madrid Spain on March 18, 1887. His father was not only a lawyer but also an author who wrote chronicles of Madrid.

Young Pablo attended a Jesuit elementary school in Madrid and from there enters the Music Conservatory of Madrid where he studied solfeggio, piano, harmony, composition and conducting. In 1908 he was awarded the Conservatory’s highest honours.

After successfully passing an examination he entered into the military band service in the Ejercito Espanoi in 1913, thus beginning an association that would span over forty years. Eventually he worked his way up to conductor of the military bands of several regiments, the first ones being those of Jaca (Huesca), Badajoz, and Ceuta. While at Ceuta he attained a rank of Lieutenant but was appointed Captain and conductor of the Wad-Ras regiment in Madrid in 1920. While there he organized an outstanding band consisting of 80 teachers; this band made many records for companies such as Columbia, Odeon, and RCA.

After the Spanish Civil War he was sent to Asturia, a province in northwestern Spain to lead the band of the regiment of Simancas. Later he returned to Madrid as the bandmaster of the Asturian regiment. Finally after 41 years in Spanish military service he retired with the rank of Lt. Colonel in 1954. The title of ‘Jefe dei Cuerpo de Musicos Mayores del Ejercito Espanoi’ (Commander of the Regiment of Great Musicians of the Spanish Army) was bestowed upon him.

Thereafter he became a professor of music at the Madrid conservatory and in 1960 was made a member of the board of directors of the Spanish Association of Composers. His fellow countrymen considered him a master of harmony and composition. He died in Madrid on November 13, 1963.

Apelles, William H.

William Apelles was one of the best known musicians in Rhode Island for many years. He was born in 1859 at West Point, New York, where his father was Bandmaster of the US Military Academy Band at the time.

He moved to Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1876 and joined DW Reeves American Band of providence, playing clarinet. He also acted as orchestra leader, when the America Band performed as an orchestra. After 22 years association with this organization, he moved down the road to Newport and led the band there for many years.

However, he returned to providence ad led theater orchestra there for many years. In 1906 The Old Pawtucket City band changed its name to Appelles Band, and he conducted it for 11 years until his retirement in 1917.

In March of 1919 Apelles died in Pawtucket. His marches strongly show the influence of Reeves, being of a very similair basic structure. He wrote over 40 of them ad those on this record, including the Reeves March will undoubtedly surprise many by the quality and musicality they exhibit. He is without doubt one of America’s Forgotten march composers and hardly deserves this fate.

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Bagley, Edwin and Erza

Without any question, the two best known American marches, throughout the world are Sousa’s Stars and Stripes Forever and Bagley’s National Emblem. Many bands have only thee two in their libraries. Certainly National Emblem is second only to Stars in the number of times recorded, both in the US and abroad. EE Bagley is another baritone trombone player who wrote marches. He was born in Craftsbury, Vermont in 1857 and died in Keene, New Hampshire in 1922. During his life he played with many bands and orchestras in the New England area, and spent his last years directing New Hampshire school bands. One march of his older brother Ezra M. Bagley is included on this record to show their contrasting styles. EM Bagley was a very famous cornetist who was born in 1853 in Albany, Vermont and died in 1886 in Liverpool, England. It appears that there was only the one march of the quality of National Emblem among the works of the two brothers, but for historical reasons the best of their marches are included on the Heritage series.

Bach, Christopher (1835-1927)

A bit of confusion surrounded sorting out the true identity of this man, most of whose marches give the composer’s name only as Chr. Bach. It appears that this German gentleman was known as both Christopher and Christian, with the latter name apparently being used more by friends and family. He was also referred to by the nickname of Christ, and it seems likely that his original German first name was Christopher which appears on his library of Congress card.

Christopher Bach was born on March 24, 1835 at Niederhone in the province of Hessel-Cassel, Germany. As the son of a famous musician, his musical education began at an early age under Kapellmeister Phil Muskat. His major instrument was to be the violin.

Christ Bach and his brother George arrived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in July of 1855 and became a part of the large German community there. Soon the Bach String Sextet was formed and Christopher spent a large amount of time arranging music for this group, especially opera selections.

Bach’s conducting career began in 1857 when he was called upon to furnish the orchestra for the city’s first theater. He imported many of the musicians for this group from Germany, attracting them with handsome salaries and thus established a first-rate orchestra. He expanded the orchestra and by 1860 was playing for the Turnverein Milwaukee, performing quality classical music to cater to patrons of taste and culture.

In 1864 Bach spent one year conducting the orchestra at the McVickers Theater in Chicago. Upon his return to Milwaukee he established the famous Turn Hall concerts on Sunday afternoon which for over 30 years were an institution in Milwaukee’s musical circles. These concerts had a large and loyal following and brought Christopher Bach great notoriety. Because of the pleasant social atmosphere at these concerts, they did much to foster appreciation of classical music among the general populace. The Bach orchestra seldom performed popular contemporary ‘light’ music., but rather mostly played the works of famous European composers. After his return from Chicago, Bach also assumed directorship of the orchestra of the Pabst Theater and later directed opera at the Stadt Theater. The height of Bach’s popularity was from about 1880 through the early 1900’s when he and his musicians were invited to perform in most of the major cities of the country.

He further involved himself in Milwaukee’s musical world by conducting the Gesangsection Freigemunde, Liederkranz and Turnverin Milwaukee choral groups. Bach’s orchestra played at the fests of the Northwestern Saegerbund and also performed at the National Saegnundfest in the New Orleans in 1890. Despite his busy conducting schedule he also found time to teach in the city’s old music academies. Among his more distinguished pupils was Henry H. Thiele, who was also to become a writer of marches.

Barnard, George Daniel

George D. Barnard was born October 14, 1858 in Jackson, Michigan. During his youth George by his own efforts learned to play well on many different musical instruments as many as he could lay his hands on.

When he became old enough he was able to obtain a position with the firm of Lyon and Healy, which required that he tour the country demonstrating to bands their publications on various instruments.

In Cincinnati where Barnard made his home he met and married Hortense Wiesmann. Together in their earlier married life, they led the life of troupers – always moving to places where George’s musical talents were in demand. From 1902to 1907 he directed French’s Military Band in Lincoln, Illinois. The fever of the copper mining boom in Calmet, Michigan took them to the shores of Lake Superior where one might say he reached the peak of his career as a bandmaster by playing with and directing the famous Calmet and Hecla Band. This famous band was much in demand and toured the Midwest and north. In 1913 Barnard left this organization to become the leader of a band in Ardmore, Oklahoma.

He inseparable brother-in-law, Leonard Wiesmann usually went along on George’s travels as a cornet player in his bands. Due to family ties and Hortense’s health, the Barnards returned in 1914 to Cincinnati where George arranged, composed and conducted. A final move to Maysville, Kentucky came in 1920 (less than 100 miles from Cincinnati) where Barnard took charge of the Kentucky Cardinals Boys Band. Under this leadership it was known as one of the finest bands in Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana. On one occasion a blue ribbon was wrapped around and around the band, to signify the blue grass of Kentucky – the Kentuckians own, their pride and joy.

The Barnards were comparatively wealthy; they had a big home built in Maysville and settled down to enjoy life. The home is said to have had a music room containing a big bass drum with a huge cardinal painted on its skin head. After retiring as director of the Kentucky Cardinals band, he continued for many yeas to give private lessons in this room.

Every summer during the middle 20s the Wiesmann family would come to visit, while George and Leonard hit the river boat circuit – playing from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. Besides composing and arranging, George during the off-seasons, founded and led the Maysville High School Band.

Barnard composed over 400 published works including marches, waltzes, solo and songs. It is for these that his name remains known to musicians. After the publication of one of his delightful waltzes Velvet of the Rose, Carl Fischer recognized Barnard as the finest living American writer of waltzes, an appellation that was seconded by Fillmore. Much of his wok was written for orchestra, not band.

His retiring personality and desire for quiet living resulted in his somewhat left out of the mainstream of the musical world. Professor Barnard as he was known in Maysville continued to work daily until a week before his death when he suffered a stroke. He died on January 19, 1933 at his home in Maysville at the age of 75.

Barnhouse, Charles L.

Charles L. Barnhouse was born in Grafton, West Virginia o March 20, 1865. He began learning the cornet on a borrowed instrument, an undertaking forbidden by his parents. This stubborn determination was characteristic of the boy and later of the man. By fortunes, Charley had written his first piece and at eighteen he was the director of the Grafton Cornet Band.

A nineteen year-old Charley Barnhouse went on the road with the Arthur Love Musical Comedy Company first as a cornet soloist then as the band director. A twenty-year old Charley passing through a town called Mt. Pleasant, Iowa sought and found work as machinist in the western Wheel and Scraper Works. He was, of course, director of the city band as well but most of his spare time was spent making by hand four sets of engraver’s tools with which, at the age of twenty-one, he established his music publishing company.

Four years later he moved to Burlington, Iowa, as director of the Boat Club Band and in 1891 made his final move to Osaloosa, Iowa where his publishing firm still flourishes today. Both a music publisher and director of the famous Iowa Brigade Band, Charley Barnhouse amassed thousands of friends throughout a world which would mourn his loss in 1929. And though his name seems destined, along with Oskaloosa, Iowa, to live forever as catchwords on the tongues of ach new generations of bandsmen, the marches he wrote, like the inspiring pages of his life, have too-long remained on the dusty shelves of time.

Bellstedt, Herman

A talented cornetist, bandmaster, composer, arranger and teacher, Herman Bellstedt was born in Bremen, Germany on February 21, 1858.

When he was about nine years old, his family moved to the United States and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was from his father who was a musician that he received his first musical instruction. On May 10, 1873 at the age of fifteen Bellstedt performed his first cornet solo in public. In 1874 he was engaged to play with the famous Cincinnati Reed Band, a position held for about five years. He was soloist with the Red Hussar Band at Manhattan Beach, Coney Island in 1879 at which time he began to write cornet solos. In 1883 he returned to the Cincinnati Reed Band and in 1889 joined Gilmore’s Band playing solos with this internationally known organization for several years, his fame increasing steadily.

The Bellstedt-Ballenger Band, with Bellstedt as both conductor and soloist was founded in 1892 and played various engagements throughout the country for some years. Bellestedt joined Sousa’s Band in 1904 sharing solo honors with Herbert Clarke and Walter Rogers; he left Sousa’s Band in 1906 to join the Innes Band as cornet soloist and assistant conductor and in 1909 he accepted the leadership of the Denver Municipal Band, a position he retained until 1912. In 1913 Bellstedt became professor of wind instruments at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.

A soloist with a distinctive style characterized by a very facile tongue and extensive range, Herman Bellstedt died at the home of his son in San Francisco, California on June 8, 1926.

Bellstedt is best known to musicians today for his superb cornet solo which, in the opinion of many players and soloists, are superior to those written by composers who achieved greater acclaim than did Bellstedt. He also composed in other media, including works for piano, violin, and orchestra. H. Bellstedt and H Bellstedt Jr. are the same person.

Bender, Lieutenant Charles

Lt Bender founder and first leader, assumed leadership of the Washington Navy Yard Band in 1919 and built it in strength and reputation to the point of adoption as the Official Representative Band of the United States Navy. Through his strong leadership, the Navy Band survived America’s greatest depression and earned a world wide stature through its tours and radio programs. He retired in 1942. Lt Bender was a charter member of the American Bandmaster Association.

Bennet, Charles William (1849-1926)

Charles William Bennet was born in Roxbury, Mass on March 19, 1849 and received his primary education in the Boston school system. His father William, a prominent Boston musician, died in 1855 while Charles was still quite young. Charles’ start in music came in singing alto as a boy in the Warren St. Chapel. Later he would become a popular Boston tenor, but his singing career ended prematurely in 1878 when he lost control of his voice due to repeated attacks of bronchitis. Instead he would develop a long association withy bands and the Navy.

On Oct. 29, 1863 at the young age of 14, Charles enlisted for duty in the Civil War as a bugler in Company D of the 56th Infantry Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers. While in the Army he became proficient on the cornet. After his discharge in July of 1865 he returned home and played in numerous Boston bands, and was married to Mary A Knights on May 3, 1869. In 1872 Bennet began an extended stay in the South, residing in several cities including Atlantic, Georgia. During some of this period he devoted time to studying harmony and composition, writing vocal, orchestral and band music. His compositions included marches, waltzes, novelties and numerous trombone and baritone solos. His compositions were popular in their day as Bennet seemed to understand the type of music the public enjoyed hearing. It was also during this southern sojourn that Bennet apparently developed a great proficiency on the baritone.

Upon returning to Boston Bennet enlisted in the Navy for a cruise as a bandsman in November of 1878. He played baritone on the Warship USS Richmond which was tendered to Ulysses G. Grant for a tour around the world. While back on shore duty in Boston from 1881-88 Bennet played baritone professionally for many bands, including work in the theatre. Finally in Feb 1888, he was appointed bandmaster of the US Receiving Ship Wabash at the Charleston Navy Yard. He remained in that position until April of 1908 when he was placed on the retired list after having accumulated more than 30 years of combined service. Bennet was called back into service on April 6, 1917 and at the age of 68 was given the nickname ‘Bold Soldier Boy’. His final retirement from the Navy came on May 24, 1919. Having the distinction of serving in three wars (Civil, Spanish-American and World War 1). Bennet was very active in veteran’s affairs.

After retirement Bennet made his home in Malden, Mass., where he soon became a familiar local figure. For patriotic observances, he made annual visits to the local schools in his uniform covered with various decorations. At his home he proudly displayed o visitors hundreds of letters and citations recognizing and complimenting him for his musicianship and work with bands.

In poor health for several years, Charles Bennet suffered a heart attack at his home on Dec 10, 1925 and was admitted to Soldier Home Hospital in Chelsea, Mass where he later passed away on May 24, 1926. He was survived by his wife Mary who died in January of 1929 and a grandson, Harold Bennet of New York City.

Berg, Per

Another of the fine Swedish march writers on the Heritage series, Per (Peter) berg was born in 1897 in the Swedish province of Dalecarlia. At 15 years of age he joined the 13thifnantry Regiment (The Royal Delregementet) of the Swedish Army. Later he studied clarinet and French Horn at the Royal College of Music while a member of the Royal Gota Life Guards Band in Stockholm. In 1928 he joined the Royal Navy band in Stockholm and played in it for two years when he became Bandmaster of the 20th Infantry Regiment (Royal Vasterbotten Reg’t) in Umea. After 11 years he moved to the 10th Regiment (Royal Sodemanland Reg’t) in Strangnas. In 1953 he retired from his band and in 1957 died in Strangnas. While in Umea and Strangnas as band conductor he also directed local orchestras. He was made a knight of the Vasa order in recognition of his many fine marches and his service to his country.

Bidgood, Harry

Harry Bidgood (1899?-1957) wrote fewer marches and was by profession the leader of a number of popular musical groups. He was musical director of the old Vocalion Record Company from 1926 to 1932 and recorded his own groups on Eclipse, ACO, REX and other labels. His best known group was called Prima Scala and his Accordion Band.

Bidgood, Thomas

Thomas Bidgood and his son Harry were both significant contributors to British band repertory. The Marches of both are included in an effort to clarify the inevitable confusion that often occurs in such cases.

The elder Bidgood was a student at the Duke of York’s Military School in Chelsea, London – now in Dover Kent. His very famous march Sons of the Brave is still used as the school march. He served as bandmaster of the 4th VB Essex Regiment, the 22nd Middlesex and conducted numerous other bands and orchestras in and around London. In all he wrote about a dozen marches.

Blankenburg, Hermann Ludwig

A music enthusiast from earliest childhood, Blankenburg had his first school orchestra when he was only 10 years old. Born the only son on November 14, 1876 in Thansbruck, Thuringen, he was expected to eventually manage his father’s farm; he begged for permission to attend a conservatory. The final compromise was a military music school, with the idea he should remain in the service for a period of twelve years and then later enter upon a respectable career in the civil service.

Blankenburg resigned from the military after two ears and for a time was employed as bassoonist by various orchestras. While in the Duisburg Orchestra, he composed his first march Deutschland Fursten which was old to Hawkes and Son of London where it was renamed Abschied der Gladiatoren. This became the march of the English Army and due to the great success of his initial endeavor. HL Blankenburg was much sought after by German publishers.

From this point, he devoted himself to composing and conducting and after several foreign tours he had earned the name King of the March. In all, Blankenburg composed well over a thousand marches during his long career, which ended with his death at Wesel on May 15, 1956, just midway in his 79th year.

Boccalari, Eduardo (1859-?)

He was born in Milan Italy on April 29, 1859. At a very early age he demonstrated unusual musical talent. He soon won a scholarship to the Royal Musical Conservatory in Milan where he studied composition and violin. He graduated with highest honors and immediately began composing and arranging.

In 1880 his first composition, an operetta entitled ‘Ll Mantello di Giuseppi’ was performed by the Tam Opera Co. at the Garabaldi Theatre of Padua. It was a great success. He followed this with a series of compositions and performances that was lauded by the leading newspapers and composers of the time. Boccalari was soon recognized as an authority in matters pertaining to operatic production.

Before long, his reputation was known throughout the world; he was made conductor of the Grand Italian Lyric Company of Teatro Colon, in Buenos Aires Argentina. Again he gave a long string of successful performances as a composer and director. His works also won several contests.

He came to new York City in 1904. He became an American citizen and bgan playing in various well-known orchestras. He also composed much music for band and orchestra. The June 1910 issue of The Metronome a monthly musical publication of the time contains a feature article on Boccalari which notes his thorough training, the merits of his music and his superb musicianship. It especially notes his OTALIAN RIFLEMAN MARCH, DANCE OF THE SERPENTS and FANTASIA DI CONCERTO.

Eduardo Boccalari did not choose to remain in America. In 1920 he gave up his American citizenship and returned to Italy where he spent the rest of his life.

The music of Boccalari is typical of that played by town bands during the early of the twentieth century. His IL BERSAGIERE (Italian Rifleman) is his best known march and is still performed today. The Fantasia di concerto is perhaps he best known work today. It is still popular with cornet and euphonium players. It was dedicated to John Perfetto the principal euphonium player of the Sousa Band for 21 years. He succeeded Simone Mantia. While it is not known if Mr. Perfettoever performed it, Fantasia di concerto has received many performances including several by the euphonium soloists of the big service bands in Washington DC. Pieces such as those on side 2 were very popular in the early 20th century, brief, easy to listen to with a nice melody. Today’s bands have gotten away from performing these charming vignettes of the composer’s art.

Boisvert, Dr. J. Norbert (? – 1947)

Born in Angeline, Rouville County, Quebec, Dr. Boisvert gained a degree in dentisty then decided on a musical career and went on to study music in the United States.

As a student at the Boston Conservatory, he took cornet lesson from TV Short and Signor Liberati. He played with many well known American bands and his compositions were a part of the repertory of most bands including Sousa.

He later became director of the Cercle Philharmonique de St. Jean, Quebec. He passed away in 1947.

Boos, Louis Frederick (1858-1935)

Louis F. Boos was born on Feb 13 1858 in Tiffin Ohio. His musical development was fostered by his father who was the choir teacher in a community church; by age 6Louis was playing the piano and the church pipe organ. He would develop into one of the premier cornetists of his time and also become a well known band leader, composer and music educator.

At age 16 Louis ran away from home and joined the PS Gilmore’s famous 22nd Infantry Regiment Band in New York where gained valuable musical experience. He quit the band after a short time because he could not realize his dream of taking over a solo cornet position from the famous Ben Bent or Matt Arbuckle; these skilled virtusos and seasoned veterans were much to stiff competition for the young Boos. His next job was with a traveling company which eventually brought him to Jackson Michigan. Boos was quite taken with the town and quit the repertory company to settle there. He was to make a musical name for himself in Jackson and would remain there for the next 50 years.

During the year he arrived in Jackson Boos took charge of and reorganized the Central City Band better known thereafter as Boos’s 1st Infantry Band. This band made the name of Jackson nationally famous during the ensuing half century. The Boos Band was highly successful in competitions.

Louis’s brother Edward was manager and assistant conductor of the band. Three Boos brothers were also accomplished musicians; Charles was a violinist in Grand Rapids Michigan; William directed the Miles Theatre Orchestra in Detroit and frank was a teacher and performer in Cleveland Ohio.

Louis also directed the Knights of Pythias Cornet Band and the Citizen Patriot Newpaper Boy Bnad in Jackson. He toured extensively as a cornet soloist and also with his duet partner, Mrs. Anne Berger Lynch. Between the two of the they won a very large number of competitions. Addie Barrett Boos who married Louis in 1884 also became a leading cornetist under the tutelage of her husband.

As a musical educator Boos taught cornet and violin in addition to band. Among his distinguished pupils were Hale Vandercook, V Adam Geiger and Frank Hoffman. Hoffman assumed the directorship of the Boos Bnad when Louis retired.

As a composer Boos was best known for his cornet solos with paino accompaniment; one of the best known of these published solos is The Charmer. He also was involved in the music publishing business printing his own work in addition to those of many of his leading contemporaries.

A hip injury forced his retirement from conducting in 1929; thereafter his only musical activity was improvising his own themes on the piano. Boos suffered a heart attack and died at his home on Jan 31 1935. He was survived by his second wife Mrs Nellie Geiger whom he had married in 1924 after his first died in 1903, a stepson and stepdaughter. He is buried in the Mt Everygreen cemetery in Jackson.

Borg, Oscar (1851-1930)

Conductor and composer Oscar Borg was born in June 1851 in Fredrikshald. At the age of 13 he became a pupil in the Brigade band; he was the third generation of his family to be a member of it.

With the help from Crown Prince, later King Oscar II, he began studies at the Musikaliska Akademiens Knoservatorium in Stockholm Sweden. He achieved first place in his class of 70. The King of Norway was so pleased at this fine result that he gave Borg a flute specially ordered from Paris. While in Stockholm Borg was first violinist of the opera orchestra however his military contract required him to return to Halden. He remained there for over 40 years as the Director of Music.

Upon his return home, he commenced his lifelong composing of music. He wrote many works for choir and orchestra. Among the most known are Gud signe Norge, Afteroster, Hav, Trubaduren and Leif Erickson. These fine works are sung all over Norway and by Norwegian choirs in the United States.

However it was a march composer that Oscar Borg is best known remembered. He is considered the foremost of all Norwegian march writers and his marches remain as standards for military parades and are played by all bands in Norway.

Borg retired on June 10 1918 as a First Lt after an active duty military career of more than 50 years. He continued his interest in music conducting and many choirs and orchestras in eastern Norway. His harvest of medals and other awards was very considerable. He died in December 1930 at age 79.

Boyer, Thornton Barner

Born in Phoneixville, Pennsylvania on October 19, 1858 TB Boyer received his early education at a military school in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania. He studied harmony, counterpoint and composition under Carl Heineman and in 1880 went to work for the JW Pepper Music Company of Philadelphia. For the next five years Boyer composed, arranged and complied music for the publishing firm.

After leaving Philadelphia in the mid-80s, Boyer moved first to Perrysburg, Ohio (where he married a local resident. Ella Bailey) and then to Keokuk, Iowa where at the age of 39 he became a member of the Iowa National Guard. He joined the famous Iowa State Band of Des Moines. Since the wages of a part-time musician were not sufficient to support his growing family, Boyer worked full time as a railway postal clerk.

TB Boyer composed, arranged and complied the music for a drama, Philadelphia which commemorated the 225th anniversary of the founding of that city by William Penn – the work was performed by a special band consisting of 100 musician selected from Pryor’s band, Sousa band and the Iowa State Band.

In his life Boyer composed hundreds of marches, waltzes and other miscellaneous composition. His composing career was fantastically long, as was Sousa’s. Indeed, both men composed for approximately the same number of years.

After serving for five years as conductor of the 6th Illinois regiment Band and for five years as conductor of the 50th Iowa Volunteers Infantry Regiment Band, Boyer moved to Santa Monica, California, where until his death he continued to write marches which achieved national popularity.

TB Boyer died on April 28, 1936 at the Veterans Hospital in Los Angeles, California and was buried in the Veterans Cemetery in Santa Monica. When his wife died one year later his remains were moved to Glendale, California where he and his wife were laid to rest in Forest memorial Parks Sanctuary of the Faith Mausoleum.

It is very possible that Boyer was the man who arranged the Grafulla marches published by Pepper in the 1880s – check back to the cover notes on Coast Guard Heritage volumes 35 and 36 to understand this statement.

Brendler, Commander Charles

Brendler was solo clarinetist wit the Navy Band since the beginning. In 1937 he was made Assistant Leader, and was appointed Leader in 1942. He led the band to new heights of respect during the ‘50s and retired in 1962 with 49 years of Naval service.

Brockenshire, James O.

The Story of James Brockenshire is one of the most interesting that has appeared on the Heritage of the March series so far. He was associated with the US Army for no less than 51 yeas, probably as long as any other musician, or for that matter, any soldier or officer.

The marches of Brockenshire are probably played more often in the US than those of any other British born march writer, including Ricketts (Alford). The tale begins in Cornwall, England in January 1865 where Brockenshire was born. At the age of six he was an organist in the local church there, but soon his family moved to America and settled in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, a small town very near to the city of Wilkes-Barre. Because of his great interest in music, he made it his business to learn to play every instrument.

At the age of 19 he left Plymouth and enlisted in the US Army. The unit he joined was the band of the Seventh Cavalry Regiment ‘Custer’s Cavalry’, stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas. He later married a girl from the neighboring town of Junction City, Kansas. After a few years as a musician in the band, he was appointed as its bandmaster and held this position until his retirement in 1915. Strenuous attempts have been made to find an arrangement he made for the band of the 7th’s famous song, Gary Owen, but they have been unsuccessful. However, his talents as a composer were considerable as this record will testify.

Due to a strange series of circumstances, his most famous composition has never been credited to him. In the early 1900’s he wrote a song-march and sold all rights to it to a publisher. One day a group of University of Maine students happened to visit the publisher in search of a tune that could be adopted as the University song. They came across this one, and it became world famous as The Maine Stein Song. He wrote it in honor of his mother and it is hoped that she did not become unduly distressed at the title that was eventually put on it, perhaps she never realized that her son wrote it. In any event, the famous singer, Rudy Vallee, following his graduation from University of Maine, organized a dance orchestra with which he sang. The Stein Song, was his theme song and became justly renowned along with his own fame. Those familiar with the Stein Song and most people over 40 surely are will if listening carefully to the melody in the trio of the march, General’s Chaffee’s, recognize the tune, or at least snatches of it. The composers given on the published versions of the Stein Song are actually the University of Maine students who wrote only the words for it.

During Brockenshire’s active service in the Army he was stationed in such wide ranging places as China, Cuba, The Phillippines, Hawaii, England and France. Only a short time after his retirement from active service duty, the US entered World War 1 and Brockenshire was called back into service, but this time as a civilian inspector of music and instruments, etc., which were being purchased in large quantities to equip the bands of the Army. His post at the Philadelphia Arsenal, and he remained on the job there, in charge of all Army musical purchases until he finally retired in 1936. His death, in Everett, Washington, followed two years later in December 1938.

Brooks, Ellis

Today a youth of fourteen attempted to enlist in the US Navy would be sent home immediately. However in 1862 during the Civil War, Ellis Brooks did just that and served three yeas until the conclusion of that conflict. Obviously he was a musician during that period; upon his return to civilian life, he immediately became first trombone player of Boston Marine Band. Ellis Brooks was born in Dunstable, Massachusetts in 1848and died in Quincy, Illinois in November 1920. In between those dates he established himself as one of America’s leading band directors. After traveling with various dramatic, minstrel and operatic shows around the country for several years he was offered the job of directing the music for the Haverly Minstrel Troup. Following a European tour by this group, during which he reputation grew larger, he returned to New York City in 1888 and formed Brooks’ New York Band with 100 players. This musical organization attained a reputation second only to that of Reeves and Sousa’s band.

It appearance in Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 was very successful leading to Brooks move to that city where he organized another band, this time the Chicago Second Regiment Band.

The last group he formed and led after his move to Quincy in 1918 was called the Illinois State Band (not to be confused with the Illinois State University, which did not even exit at that time). For several years starting in 1902 he was musical editor for the publishing firm of Lyon and Healy in Chicago. It is likely that Brooks was the man who contacted several fine composers and induced them to write marches for Lyon and Healy. To publish including such gems as RB Halls’ Officer of the Day, Canabas and Trinity Bells.

Brooke, Thomas Preston

Although the story of Preston Brooke is not familiar to the band world today, his name is immortalized in the titles of two marches by Roland Saitz Brooke’s Chicago Marine Band and Brooke’s Triumphal.

Brooke as born in Dubuque, Iowa in 1856. He studied music in Boston supporting himself by composing and playing trombone in various bands, including that of Patrick Gilmore. In 1893 he became conductor of the Chicago Marine Band, a concert band that played only on Sundays throughout the winter. Brooke’s skill as a conductor soon increased the popularity of the band. Under this direction, it toured the Midwest from Chicago to New Orleans. In 1902 the band made musical history by performing a concert of nothing by ragtime at the Cincinnati Zoo. This experiment proved so popular that TP subsequently devoted two concerts weekly to ragtime music.

Brooke’s philosophy as a conductor was similar to that of Sousa. He maintained ‘I am interested only in giving the public the music they enjoy and I am not interested in educating them’. It would be nice if more conductors felt that way in 1976.

As a composer too Brooke mirrored Sousa’s variety. His many marches were played by circus and military band because of their spirit and interest. He also wrote two comic operas and many concert works.

In 1903 Brooke inherited $800,000 from an uncle in London. With this money he established the Brooke Casino and Exposition Company to construct the Chicago Casino and Brooke’s Winter Garden in New Orleans as sites for his band performances. Unfortunately he was a better musician than business man. Both enterprises went bankrupt in 1907. Broken in spirit, Brooke spent the remainder of his life fighting one server illness after another and died in Chicago in 1921.

Brown, Nicholas C. (1870-1935)

Nicholas C Bruhn was born in Denmark on May 30 1870. He was the cousin and boyhood chum of another Danish composer who settle in America, J. Bodewalt Lampe. While Nick was still a young boy the Bruhn family followed the Lampes to the United States, but unlike Lampes they made their home in San Francisco. Nicholas anglicized name was Nick Brown and he should not be confused with the well known composer Nacio Herb Brown who wrote mainly in Hollywood during the later 20s and 30.

During the period 1896-1904 Nick directed the orchestras at the People’s Palace later known as the Olympic Music Hall and the Tivoli Theater, composed and got married. After the great earthquake destroyed his aforemention places of employment he spent the next 20 years on the national vaudeville circuit playing violin, organ and cornet with various musical groups. His daughter Mildred was raised in this atmosphere and became piano accompanist for many popular vaudeville singers. She also had the distinction of introducing the piano concert accordion known as the ‘flavilla’ to the American stage; it used a keyboard instead of buttons. Whenever the browns appeared on the New York stage they spent time with the cousins JB Lampes now of New Rochelle NY.

When the talkies replaced vaudeville Nick and his wife Caroline moved to Hollywood where became active in the field of music for the cinema until his final days. After living in America for about 60 years Nicholas Brown died of a heart attack on June 25, 1935 in Los Angels; his ashes were buried in Inglewood Cemetery. Although his marches are virtually unknown today, the long Beach Band and the US Coast Guard Band have performed Browns marches in concert within the last 20 years.

Buglione, Annibale

During the 19th century, Americans were of the opinion that in the cultural fields, European were further advanced than natives of the US. This conception even extended into military type music. There fore, as bands became an ever more important part of military life, it was natural to attempt to recruit as many foreign musicians to staff these bands as possible.

This is the rationale for the immigration of Annibale Buglione and many others like him, to the US. Very little is known of Buglione’s early years. He was born on January 22, 1848 in Sicily. In his youth he played violin with the orchestra of the La Sala Oepra House in Milano. He also was capable on the cornet and when the opportunity arose to come to the States as a musician, he took it. In 1881, with his wife Nicolette and his two year old son, Gofredo, he traveled by steerage to America.

For 30 years Buglione served in various Army bands throughout the country, but was stationed for the greater part of his career at Ft. Munroe, Virginia, where he was bandmaster o0f the 4th Coast Artillery Band. Retiring in 1911, he moved to Washington, where he lived until his death in January 1933. He died at Walter Reed Hospital and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Buglione, Godfrey

Many of the musicians-composers in the Heritage Series were professional military musicians, but the Bugliones have the distinction of being the only father-son US Army Bandmasters.

Godfrey, the only child of Annibale and Nicolette Buglione was born in Milano, Italai on July 27, 1879. In 1881 he came to the US with his father and mother. At an early age showed that he had inherited his father’s musical talents. Recognizing this, Annibale began serious teaching of his son and instruction on violin and cornet. When he had raised his playing abilities as high as his father’s teaching would permit, Freddy returned to Milano, where he attended the University to improve his musical knowledge as much as possible.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Godfrey enlisted in the US Army and began a career in military music. First he was sent to Atlanta, Georgia and later to Washington DC where he received training in military band organization. After this he led various bands in the Army. In 1917 at the entry of America in the first World War, he was in Tientsin, China, directing a band. Buglione was given a commission as 1st Lieutenant and ordered to take over the 15th Infantry band. After cessation of hostilities, he, for reasons unknown, failed to take an examination required to retain his commission and faced with a reduction in rank to Staff Sergeant, he chose to retire as a 1st Lieutenant.

Buglione then moved to Oakland, California with his wife Myrtle, and daughter Alba. With bands and military music deeply engrained in him by this time, he accepted the position of bandmaster of the 159th Regiment, California National Guard. He continued to compose and turned out a large amount of music, although little of it was published. His cornet playing must have improved at this time as he is reported to have practiced six hours a day.

Freddy chose to become very active in church and fraternal organizations and taught Sunday school in the Presbyterian Church. In 1930 he became a Master Mason, joining the Scottish Rite of Oakland #2 and was given the job of leading the orchestra and the Ahmes Temple Shrine Band.

Three years later, Freddy and his wife were divorced and he returned to Washington to live with his recent widowed mother. While there he played the Almas Temple Shrine Band. Godfrey Buglione died in November 1934 and like his father was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Buys, Peter

For the first time on the Heritage series, a composer born in Holland appears. Although Peter Buys was born in Amsterdam in 1881, he spent almost all of his adult life in the United States. His earliest musical instrument was violin, but he also studied clarinet. In 1897 he joined a ship orchestra on the Holland-America Line and became acquainted with America during its visits here. In 1903 he joined the Band at the US Military Academy at West point and became a US citizen. After 8 years at The Point he left to lead a band in Mount Union, Pennsylvania. From here, in 1914 he took over the Huntington, Pennsylvania Municipal Band. During his time he had become friendly with John Philip Sousa and played Eb clarinet in his band from 1912 to 1918. He continued his association with Sousa’s Band as an arranger until 1930. After he left Sousa, as a player, that great band conductor never used another Eb clarinet in his band saying “The instrument cannot be played in tune except by a great master, and there are no more Peter Buys.” In 1920, Buts moved to Hagerstown, Maryland, near the Pennsylvania border to direct the Municipal band there. He succeeded in making a nation wide reputation for this band. In 1959, he retired and died in 1964.

C

Casto, John

By many students, John Wheaton Casto was man ahead of his time. Outstanding in many fields, his various abilities found few boundaries. Educator, musician, literary and music critic, composer, world traveler and civic organizer were some of his specialties.

Born in Danville, Illinois o August 1, 1879, John Casto was educated at William Penn College and Heidelberg Univ.

His natural musical talent was reflected in the music he composed. Casto Italian heritage played a large part in his work, and a crowing glory was a decoration from Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy.

In 1905 Joh married Alpha Mahoney in Ingersol, Oklahoma. They moved to rock Island, Illinois, where for the next 30 years Casto was part of the school system of that city. He, at first taught social studies and later became school principal and finally superintendent of schools. Casto was known for his strong pioneering in vocational education – he had so many progressive ideas on this subject that the school board resisting change voted to dismiss him as superintendent.

While associated with schools, John Casto wrote the school song and on the side played in the Tri-City Symphony Orchestra. He is remembered as a fine piano player who could and would play any tune requested. He also loved to sit in the school band and play drums.

Even today people who knew him remark on the meticulous records he kept during his years as an administrator. After his dismissal from the school he was literary and music critic for two Illinois newspapers.

In 1942 he and his wife moved to California where a shortly she died. Casto later remarried and died himself on May 8, 1950.

Chambers, William Paris

William Paris Chambers was best known as an active cornet soloist and bandleader who performed widely throughout the United States, Europe and Africa. Herbert Clarke said of him “Mr. Chambers was one of the top men in his profession as a cornet soloist in the nineties, standing unique in his own particular style of playing.”

He was born November 1, 1854 in Newport, Pennsylvania. His family soon moved to Newville, Pennsylvania where at the age of eighteen, he became the leader of the Keystone Cornet Band. In 1879 he accepted leadership of the Capital City band of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where he was also very active in teaching a variety of instruments.

As a result of his spreading fame, Chambers was engaged to direct the Great Southern Band of Baltimore, Maryland, in 1892. It was while traveling with this band that he performed his then much published feat of playing a cornet solo on the summit of Pike Peak.

Among other compositions for band, Chambers should be remembered for his many fine marches of which Chicago Tribune is probably the best known. He died on November 1, 1913 at his home in Newville.

Chapi

No bios on album

Clark, Thomas (1854-1943)

Born in England in 1854, Tom Clark began his musical studies in the British Isles at an early age, eventually becoming proficient in musical theory, counterpoint and composing. He learned to play many of the wind instruments particularly the cornet and clarinet.

He moved to the United States while in his early twenties. Shortly after settling in America, Clark became a cornetist in Patrick Gilmore’s well-known 22nd Regiment Band. In 1894 Clark the Frederick Innes Band as its Cornet soloist.

A prolific composer of military band marches, Clark lived in the New York area where was employed for than twenty years as an arranger for the publisher G. Schirmer, until his retirement in 1939. Indeed his band arrangements of classical music that were published by Schirmer are considered by many musicians to be extremely fine, better than most others produced at the time.

Tom Clark, among whose friends was the distinguished Victor Herbert passed away at his home in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey, on September 29, 1943, following a brief illness. He was survived by his wife (Nora) and a daughter by a previous marriage (Mrs. Edith Eichler).

Clarke, Herbert Lincoln

Herbert L. Clarke, who was born in Woborn, Massachusetts, on September 12, 1867, is more famous today as a brilliant cornetist than as a composer of marches and cornet solos of which he wrote quite a few.

He was the youngest of four sons, only one of whom did not follow music as a career. The Clarke family moved several times during Herbert’s youth, the father, who was a organist at various churches, encouraging his sons to study some music instrument, but at no time did he want them to make music their profession. While he was living in Toronto, Canada, Herbert Clarke attended a concert given by the American Band of Providence, Rhode Island: DW Reeves, the well known march composer, was conductor. Clarke later wrote that “I was so moved by the concert soloist that I knew in time I too must play the cornet.” His determination resulted in his being accepted at the age of fourteen as a trumpet player in the Queen’s Own Rifles Regiment Band, although the age limit was eighteen, thus attesting to his proficiency as a player at a remarkable early age.

One of the greatest influences in Clarke’s life was the famous cornet soloist Walter Rogers, who eventually became a close friend. Clarke referred once to receiving some tips from Rogers, but he never actually took formal lessons from him or anyone else. In his twenty-fourth year, Clarke became a cornetist with Gilmore’s Band. In 1893 Clarke received a telegram from John Philip Sousa, offering him a contract to be his first chair cornetist and soloist, which he accepted. It was another famous soloist with the March King bands, Arthur Pryor, who was the first to encourage Clarke to write his own cornet solos. Following the encouragement (the Chicago Exposition) with Sousa’s Band, Clarke played with various groups, including the organized but short lived Gilmore Band, directed by Victor Herbert (Gilmore had died suddenly in 1892.) He then returned to Sousa’s Band, and except for short periods of time when Sousa’s orangization was not actively engaged during which time he taught many private pupils, performed as soloist with various musical ensembles and conducted several bands, he remained with Sousa until 1917 when he resigned. He had often told Sousa that he would retire at fifty, since he believed that cornet soloists begin to perform less effectively after that age – Sousa contented that he was playing better than ever, to which Clarke replied “Then I’ll while I’m ahead.”

After his retirement from Sousa’s Band, Clarke served as conductor of the Anglo-Canadian Concert Band, Huntsville, Ontario from 1918 tom 1923; he was director of the Municipal Band, Long Beach, California from 1923 to 1943. He died on January 31, 1945 on Los Angeles , California – his ashes were interred in the Congressional Cemetery, Washington, DC near the grave of John Philip Sousa.

It is reported that Clarke played over 7,000 programmed solos during his long and active career; he traveled 9,000 miles with the bands of Gilmore, Sousa, Innes, Herbert and others; he made thirty-fours of the United States and Canada, four European tours and one world tour.

A dedicated composer, author, conductor, cornetist and teacher, Clarke believed that cornet playing should not be a chore but rather a pleasure. An example of his skill with the cornet is the fact that he could play a chromatic scale in three octaves, four times through, in one breath! In a letter he wrote in 1921, he advised another musician not to change from cornet to trumpet: “The Later instrument is only a foreign fad!”

Cline, James DeForest

The titles of many marches composed by James DeForest Cline, who was born on January 27, 1885, reflect a strong patriotic flavour. In 1930, Cline received a Bachelor of Music from the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York and from the same institution he earned a Master of Music degree in 1937. He was given an honorary Doctor of Music in 1940 by the Colorado State College of Education, which is now the University of Northern Colorado. He was head of the Department of Music at the Cheney Normal School, Chaney, Washington from 1915 to 1922. and he was Chairman of the Division of Music at the Colorado State College of Education from 1923 to 1949.

He directed the Colorado State College Band from 1923 to 1950. In addition to composing, teaching and conducting band music, Cline was a member of various organizations including the Masonic Lodge, the Rotary Club and American Bandmaster Association; he was elected to the ABA in 1932 and was on its board of Director in 1940. His many spirited and melodic marches, some of which radiate the circus atmosphere, assure him a significant place in the history of American band music. Cline passed away at the age of sixty-even in Seattle, Washington in September 1952.

Creatore, Giuseppe

Giuseppe Creatore was one of the unforgettable Characters of American band music. Born in Italy in 1871, he came to the United States in 1900. A fine trombonist, he had played in various bands in Italy and also studied conducting. Shortly after arriving in America, her returned to Italy and recruited 60 men from Creatore’s Band. This was the first and prototype of many later Italian Band which toured the US prior to and following the First World War. The Creatore Band was renowned for its interpretation of Italian Opera selections, which Giuseppe conducted with his hair flying in Toscannini style. His band made many recordings. He lived in New York City, where he died in 1952. His little scherzo Electric is perhaps his best known composition.

Crosby, Harold Josiah

Harold J. Crosby was a composer whose fame merited full page advertisement in the leading band journals of the first two decades of this century. Most of his works were published during his lifetime. In spite of writing over 40 excellent marches, his name is all but unknown in the band world today, except for an occasional performance of several of his best known works.

He was born in Dexter, Maine on February 11, 1886 and studied at Bowdoin College, the University of Maine and the New England Conservatory of Music. In 1910 he came to Boston with a playing knowledge of trombone, baritone, piano and organ. He earned his living playing in the pit orchestra of the Globe and Columbia Theaters and in local bands. It was for these groups that he composed and arranged most of his music.

It is said that Crosby, RB Hall and Lee Sandford played together in a trio and composed marches in collaboration. Mr. Crosby guest-conducted four of his own marches in 1919 with the Sousa Band in Symphony Hall in Boston. He died in New York City on January 18, 1920.

D

Dalbey, Clarence W. (1858-1912)

A native of Iowa, Clarence Dalbey was born on April 23, 1859. He spent moist of his life in Des Moines with his wife Lottie and daughter Doris. From 1902 through 1904 he was director of the famous Iowa State Military Band, and became nationally known because of this. During his tenure a number of famous musicians played under his stick: Charley Barnhouse, Dick Platt, Thornton Boyer, among others.

Dalbey left a great number of marches and other works, published by his own firms, but his business history is strange to say the least. Here is list of what appears to be music published firms of his, and following them are the dates of publications by these various operations.

Dalbey and Roff, Kansas City, Missouri 1884, 1885

Dalbey and Roff, Council Buffs, Iowa, 1885, 1896, 1897

Dalbey Music Co, Chicago 1898

Dalbey Music Co, Frankfort, Indiana 1899

Dalbey Music Co. Des Moines, Iowa 1900-1902, 1904-1906, 1909

Berry, Dalbey – apparently this firm came into existence after Dalbey’s widow and daughter gave up the business. Its publications show no dates. What peculiar goings-on What caused this geographical hopping about? In any event, in 1909, apparently from the strain of managing all these assorted business and his composing and musical playing and directing activities, Dalbey suffered a mental collapse and was committed to the Iowa State Hospital in Clarinda where he eventually died on March 30, 1912. Prior to his passing and while he was a patient at the hospital, Major George Landers, a close friend and director of the 55th Infantry Band, Iowa National Guard, would bring his organization to the hospital for their summer programs and honor Dalbey by playing his compositions while the composer was in the audience. At Dalbey’s funeral the band appeared and played many of Dalbey’s favorites. After Clarence Dalbey’s death his wife Lottie managed the business until 1916 and his daughter until 1917.When if was dissolved and the Dalbey name disappeared.

Davenport, Arthur D. (11898-1973)

Arthur Davenport – a relatively unknown name as a march composer but an eminent and well-regarded musical director, he devoted his musical career to high school bands in various areas.

Davenport was born in Shickshinny, Pennsylvania, April2, 1898 to parents named Burton and Jane. When he was eight years old his father died and his mother sent him to Girard School for boys in Philadelphia. At this school he became interested in music and after graduation with honours he enrolled in the Dana Institute of Music in Warren, Ohio. He worked his way through that school and became an accomplished musician – good enough to tour with Sousa’s band in 1925, playing tuba.

However, before that, he taught in schools – Birmingham, Alabama and Indianapolis, Indiana among others In 1925 he was also married in Independence, Missouri. A year later he and his bride settled down in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, where he became head of the music department and bandmaster of the Aliquippa School system. He composed several marches of which about half were published and are on this record.

In 1945 Davenport was stricken with illness and forced to spend the remainder of his life in several veterans hospitals.

Arthur Davenport is often remembered in Pennsylvania music circles for his fine and unselfish work with young musicians of the state. Bert Meyers of the Allentown Band was one who knew and respected him.

Mr. Davenport died in Veteran’s Hospital, Leach Farm Road, Pittsburgh, PA on June 5, 1973.

De Celles, Maurice Duclos (1905-1979)

Mauricee was born at Trois-Rivieres Quebec. As usual he started his musical education early on, first playing the clarinet but later branching out to numerous other instruments. He later became a professor at the Quebec Conservatory of Music. Active in the field of bands for over forty-years he has composed many selections which are frequently played in Canada. He is well known as a former member of the Canadian Bandmasters Association.

Deluca, Joseph Orlando

Born in Rome, Italy on March 26, 1890 Joseph O. DeLuca began his musical career at the tender age of nine at which time he commenced music studies in Ripateatina, a province of Chieti. The young musician entered the Conservatory of Music in Perugia; he graduated when he was seventeen years old, having studied composing, conducting and other related area of music. He served as first trombonist in the orchestra of two grand opera companies and later became conductor of the Municipal Band of Ripateatina.

His fame as a conductor and soloist increased quickly and he served as guest conductor and soloist for many Italian bands, before leaving Italy to settle in the United States. He achieved great success as a brilliant euphonium soloist; he was soloist with Sousa’s Band for some years and also with other well known bands in America. His fame rests not only on his skill as a soloist; he was also a talented conductor – he was appointed professor of band and band director at the University of Arizona in 1928, a position he held until his death on October 22, 1935. He had been brought to the university for the specific purpose of building up its musical units, a task he achieved in exemplary fashion. He also directed the Tucson Symphony Orchestra for a number of seasons and one of his last recognitions came during the summer preceding his death when he requested to conduct the band of the California-International Exposition at San Diego, an engagement which lasted several months.

Although he served with distinction for many years as a conductor of bands and as a soloist, he was most famous as a composer. He composed more than 125 works; by far his best known composition is the melodic Beautiful Colorado, a magnificent work for solo euphonium. It was written presumably while he was soloist with Sousa’s Band; it was certainly performed frequently by DeLuca during his years with Sousa’s Band. One of the best and most popular euphonium solos ever composed, it has been performed by some of the world’s most talented euphonium soloists, including Arthur Lehman during his tenure with the United States Marine Band.

Beautiful Colorado wad also used as an alto saxophone solo by the renown Ken Douse, also of the US Marine Band, and by many other sax soloists. But DeLuca’s composing was not limited to the beautiful works he wrote for the euphonium; he wrote some bright and melodic marches, several of which concerned the University of Arizona.

DeLuca was superb soloist, conductor and composer. For these qualities alone he deserves recognition. In addition his selfless and loyal devotion to the University of Arizona Band reflect his greatness as a human being – a praiseworthy legacy.

Dematteo, Felice (1866-1929)

Felice DeMatteo, an honoured teacher, musician, band leader, arranger and composer, who delighted nobility and public alike with his musical talents at the turn of the century was born on April 7 1866 in Pizzo di Calbria, Italy.

Although his parents were not musical, they chose music as a career for their son and enrolled him as a student in the music academy at Padua. Following this training he entered the military eventually becoming an army bandmaster. His duties included directing, composing and arranging for service bands throughout Italy. Achieving prominence by winning contests against other brass bands in Naples, his band was given the honour of playing before the King of Italy. While in the army he married Julia Serpico of Naples and they made their home in Avellino.

After military discharge he continued with his musical career composing many marches, mazurkas and waltzes which were published in Italy by the firm of Archivio Musicale of Torino. During this time Felice was appointed to the position of director of music for the town of Dentecane pursued his hobby of hunting and fathered two sons.

During 1903 Felice brought his family to New York City where he soon established himself in the city’s musical circles as a band leader, teacher, composer and arranger. His music studio specialized in instrumental instruction that included piano, violin, guitar, mandolin, trumpet, trombone, clarinet and flute. A few years later Professor DeMatteo moved to Brooklyn expanding his school to two studios. In the same period he was appointed to the position of director of the Pietro Mascagni Band and conducted concerts throughout new York City, Westchester County, Upstate New York and New Jersey. Other bands that were under his direction included the Glasco Band of Upstate New York, the Verdi Band of Long Branch, New Jersey and the Dematteo Band of Westchester County. He also organized bands for the New York towns of Tuckahoe and East Chester and the Pennsylvania town of Shenandoah.

His works range from symphonic and military marches to waltzes and polkas. He was particulary noted for his carefully chosen titles many of which honour famous people and events.

DeMatteo was especially proficient with the trombone and piano. He used the piano for composing and Dante his son, who was a pianist and drummer in his right, remembers his father playing music on the piano for all the family to hear. Felice’s three sons all pursued musical careers.

During 1929 Felice was contracted to form a band in Bradford, PA. While on this assignment he developed kidney trouble and passed away on December 13, 1929. His body was returned to his home in Brooklyn and was buried in St. John’s Cemetary.

Domingo, Martin

Martin Domingo is another of the Spanish composers about whom little information can be found. All that is known is that he died in Madrid on July 16 1961. He was most certainly one of the finest of all Spanish writers of pasodobles as those played on this record will attest.

Dostal, Hermann (1874-1930)

Born on April 6, 1874 in Stelitz in Norhern Moravia, Dostal studied at the famous Prague Conservatory; his family was a very musical one with strong ties to Austrian band music. He entered military service as an apprentice musician with the 93rd Regiment, which was then stationed in Olomouc. While playing in the band of the 4th Bosnian-Hercegovac Regiment, he completed his musical studies at the conservatory in Vienna. Franz Lehar, one of the most famous bandmasters of the time (later to become world-famous as the composer of many charming operettas, including The Merry Widow) urged Dostal to join the band of the Hungarian 26th Regiment – which Dostal did, playing the harp! In 1902 he was appointed to succeed Lehar in Gyor, Hungary and he remained as conductor of this regiment’s band until 1911 when he became conductor of the band of Hungary’s 67th Regiment Band. During the last year of World War 1 he was leader of the 99th Regiment Band, providing the music for this historic ceremony

After the war, Dostal left the military service to direct several amateur bands and orchestras in and around Vienna, contributing much to maintain the best traditions of Austro-Hungarian band music.

Dostal composed many so-called miniature operettas, such as The Hidden Castle, A Divine Night and The Flying cavalry Captain. A few of his marches are still popular in Austria and are frequently performed at band concerts.

Hermann Dostal died on December 20, 1930 but his marches live on in the hearts of those who thrill to the distinctive style of fine Austrian marches.

Duble, Charles Edward

Charlie Duble wrote over 45 excellent marches for the circus, all of which were used by the leading tent shows of the first half of the twentieth century. His march Bravura which has achieved great popularity, has been attributed to a surprisingly generous list of composers, a list which seems to grow longer as the years pass. Two of the most difficult circus marches ever written were his Battle of the Winds and Wizard of the West are formidable when played in traditional manner.

Duble was born on September 13, 1884 in Jefferson, Indiana where he maintained a permanent home throughout his 23 years of traveling with eight of the best circus and shows. Among the famous companies with which he performed as a trombonist were the Barnum and Bailey, Hagenbeck-Wallace, Sells-Floto, Downey Brothers, and Sparks circuses. He also performed with the DeRue Brothers All Star Minstrels and Kibble’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin Company. In addition to being a march genius, Charles Duble was one of the most colourful characters to be found in the heyday of circus bands.

E

Eilenberg, Richard

Richard Eilenberg is another of the German march writers who composed a large quantity of musical works of all types. His ballet Die Rose von Schiras produced in Berlin in 1986 and several operates attest to his musical talents. He wrote dozens of Charateristics, Waltzes, Intermezzos, Idylls, Gavottes, in fact just about everything in the realm of light music. His marches total about 30, and some are considered real masterpieces. Eilenberg was born in Merseburg, Germany in 1848. Early in life he was a music director in Stettin, but later moved to Berlin where he spent most of his time composing. He died in 1927 in Berlin. His best known and most played work is Die Muhle im Schwarzwald (The Mill in the Black Forest) a very fine descriptive.

English, Walter P.

Walter P. English was born in Salt Lake City on March 20, 1867, and spent four years of his boyhood in Dallas, Texas. At seventeen, he began his career with a number of amateur bands on the west coast. He then covered the show circuit and saw much of America during the highly erratic life with numerous circus bands. I 1897 he was engaged to journey through Europe as a member of the Barnum & Bailey circus band for five-year tour. He took over leadership in the 1907 season, replacing the ailing Carl Clair. Later, he formed and directed the Sells-Floto Band, where he enjoyed close association with another write Karl King.

English, one of the finest tuba players to troupe with the circuses also played with the Frederick Innes Band in Denver in the off seasons. In addition to his prowess as a march writer, he was also recognized as one of the best band directors for both concert and circus programs. He died in the Denver City Hospital on June 4, 1916.

F

Farrar, Orion

The sons of a immigrant English shoemaker, Orion Farrar was born in 1866 in Indianapolis, Indiana. His first name which has been given as many other names, really was Orion, confirmed by his own writing in the records of the Masonic Lodge to which he belonged.

Within a year of his birth, the Farrar family settled in Warren, Ohio, the location of Dana’s Musical Institute, one of the country’s leading conservatories of the time. At the age of 19 Orion enrolled in Dana’s 4 year program, studying theory, composition and cornet. At his graduation he was presented with three diplomas, Farrar, for the next seven years stayed on with the Institute as a faculty member and their bandmaster.

Mrs. Neille Dehnbostle (Still living and connected with the biology dep’t of Youngstown State Univ) remembers Farrar as a teacher of brass instruments at the Institute and that he would greet her by whistling ‘4G’s and A and a G, which was part of his march ‘The DMI March’.

After resigning from his position at DMI in 1896 he organized the Indiana State Band and led it for two years. Returning then to Ohio. For two and a half years he directed the Ohio State Band (nothing to do with Ohio State Univ). The warren, Ohio city directory for 1899 lists Orion in this capacity living with his wife Sarah at the same address as his sister, Ora, and his father and mother Amanda.

During 1901 Orion and his wife moved to Youngstown where as bandmaster of the Youngstown Military Band he premiered many of his famous marches. This band was composed of 60 musicians and often imported nationally famous soloists to perform at its concerts.

In 1915 Farrar was conductor of the Lima, Ohio Municipal Band. He belonged to the Masons, Old Erie Lodge #3 where he was initiated in 1894 and remained active in the order until 1909 when he was expelled for non payment of dues.

At this point all documentation of Farrar’s life ceases. As noted above, it has been rumored that he moved to California, but if so, he was quickly swallowed up by the fog, as his presence there is not provable. This is the mystery – so far unsolved.

Faust, Carl (1825-1892)

During the second half of the 19th century Carl Faust was composer of great popularity around the world but especially in his homeland of Germany. Even today he is not forgotten; some of his works are broadcasted from time to time and a few of his marches are in standard repertoire of the German Army bands.

Carl Faust was born in Neisse on February 18 1825. Eleven years later he entered the Boys Military Institute at Annaburg where among other things he studied with Music Director Herring.

He progressed rapidly and soon reached the status of bandmaster, serving several regiments of the Prussian Army in that capacity. He was variously stationed in Luxembourg, Frankfurt am Oder and Breslau with three bands.

In 1865 he left the Army in order to embark on a career as a civilian bandmaster and composer. This period of his life proved to be an important one, as he soon began to exercise considerable musical influence in Silesia. From 1869 to 1880 he held the position of Municipal Director of Music in Waldenburg and he also directed the then-renowned Waldenburg Miners Band. With that group he made tours to Posen and Warsaw which fact considering the general conditions of German music at that time testifies to the musical qualities of both Faust and his bands. At the same time Faust was musically active in Breslau and Gorlitz and other cities. In addition to these engagements he was temporarily in charge of the Beuthen City Band. Some time in the 1880s he accepted an offer to conduct the orchestra at Bad Cudowa a fashionable spa in Silesian mountains. Carl Faust died there on September 12, 1892.

Ferlan, Armand CD, M mus, B mus, LRAM LGSM

From western Canada, having been born in St. Boniface, Manitoba, Armand moved to Montreal to attend the Quebec Conservatory of Music and culminating his studies there won first prize in Clarinet. Soon he enlisted in the Canadian Army and later was sent to Kneller Hall. When he completed that world famous course in band music directing he returned to Canada and was named Director of Music of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery Band in Winnipeg with the rank of Captain. After several years there he was transferred to the band of the Royal 22nd Regiment in Quebec. After retirement from that position he now teaches music at Laval University in Quebec City.

Fillmore, Henry

Among American march writers, the name Henry Fillmore stands alongside that of Karl L. King second only to JP Sousa. The prolific Fillmore composed and arranged under eight different names.

Two generations of American musicians cut their teeth on the four elementary Bennett Band Books, which sold well over a million copies. Not knowing that the popular Harold Bennett was actually Henry Fillmore. He used the pseudonym Al Hayes for pieces of the next grade of difficulty – typical town band of half a century ago and most of the pieces he wrote under the pseudonym Will Huff also fit into this category. His other pseudonyms were Harry Hartley, Gus Beans and Henrietta Moore.

Fillmore’s well known marches, in keeping with the tradition of this series or records, will not be represented on this or future albums. These include such standards as Americans We, Men of Ohio, His Honour, Man of the Hour and so forth. Fillmore is also known as the father of the trombone smear because of the original and wide acceptance of his Lassus Trombone and fourteen other compositions of that nature. He was an amazingly gifted composer and wrote music of many types, not least of which were numerous hymns and other religious pieces.

In all, Henry Fillmore penned over two hundred and fifty original compositions and over seven hundred and fifty arrangements. Many others are not accounted for. His output would have been much greater had not much of his energy been consumed in editing and arranging the music of other composers preparatory to publishing by his firm.

The Fillmore Brothers Co., of which he was president in later life, was founded in the early 1870’s by his father and two uncles and was originally a religious music publishing house.

The introduction of Henry Fillmore to the Heritage of the March collection was intentionally delayed, for two reasons. First, nearly all of his marches are still protected by copyright. Second, Bob Hoe preferred to wait until the Huff-Fillmore complication could be resolved. It was his desire to put both Huffs, so to speak on the same record.

Henry Fillmore was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on December 3rd, 1881, the oldest of five children of James Henry Fillmore Sr and Annie McKrell. He was educated in Cincinnati public schools and graduated from the Miami Military Institute in 1901.

He worked in his father’s publishing house until 1905 influencing his father to open a retail music store which was known for half a century as the Fillmore Music House. There were many stormy arguments between father and son, because Henry’s first love was band music and his father looked upon bands as being something evil. As a result of these differences, the publishing house issued very little band music in those days. By 1905 Henry could stand it no longer. He ran away from home, married Mabel Jones or Michigan and played trombone for a season with Lemon Brothers Circus band. He had twice before run off with circuses, but only for short periods.

After the circus tour, Henry and Mabel returned to Cincinnati where he played in numerous theater orchestras. His father agreed to give him more latitude in his writings, so he rejoined the business. The business then began to flourish, primarily because of Henry’s compositions and arrangements; the religious music became a sideline and was eventually dropped.

Henry first gained fame as a conductor in Cincinnati with the band of Syrian Temple AAONMS (Shrine) which he led to national prominence between 1921 and 1926. This band was reputed to be the finest fraternal band in America. In 1926 he resigned and organized a superb professional band, the Fillmore Band, which broadcast over WLW in Cincinnati and performed concerts in that area.

It was during this period that his dog, Mike, the radio hound was a sensation of the airwaves. He barked in perfect time to music, at predetermined intervals and several of Henry’s compositions were written expressly for Mike. The Fillmore Band programs created national wide attention and whenever he and Mike made personal appearances there were sellout crowds.

Because of a heart problem, Henry was forced to retire in 1938 and he moved to Miami, Florida to be in warmer climate. To his amazement, he regained his health. In his remaining years he became the most popular band figure in Florida’s history. He was widely known to high school and university students as Uncle Henry and in effect he happily adopted them all. He helped organize dozens of high school bands in Florida and greatly encouraged their growth. He was always available as guest conductor and never accepted any kind of fee. His joviality is legendary and if ever there has been a more entertaining band conductor this writer has not heard of him and during the years of World War II he was President of the prestigious American Bandmasters assn.

Fillmore passed away in Miami on December 7, 1956. The Fillmore Brothers music catalog had been acquired by the Carl Fischer Co. in 1951 and in his will Fillmore specified that his estate and all future royalties be turned over to the University of Miami Band. These monies paid for the construction of Fillmore Hall and those visiting the School of music may see his mementos in the Fillmore Museum.

It must be emphasized that the marches on Volume 45 are Fillmore’s first efforts and are not representative of his later, more polished marches which American bands perform so often today. Still, they are musically very sound and give a preview of the happiness which was to be seen in the Fillmore pieces to come.

Notice the neutral titles which were chosen to appease or at least not offend, his father or be out of character for a publisher of religious music. Vashti is one example; it was named after the Biblical character. Trooper Tribunal represents the break with his father when he left home and trouped with the circus.

Notice also that In Uniform was published by Coleman rather than the Fillmore Brothers. This came about because of the constant battle between Henry and his father over the merits and saleability of band music. Henry wanted to show Papa that his music was acceptable elsewhere, so he sent it to another publisher and proved his point. The title probably came about because of Henry’s association with the 1st Regiment Band of the Ohio National Guard, the band with which he made his first professional appearance as a trombonist.

Of particular interest also is Higham. This was Henry’s first published march and took its title from the Higham brand of musical instruments sold by the Fillmore Music House. Papa Fillmore was worried over the possible adverse effects of the name Fillmore appearing on band music and Henry thus made his first splash in the music using what he thought was fictitious name, Will Huff.

Friedemann, Carl Berthold

Carl Friedemann probably wrote more universally-played music than most of the other march writers featured in Heritage of March Series. His output included string quarters, overtures, Slavonic rhapsodies, symphonies and operettas along with a total of 140 military marches. He was born at Mucheln, Germany and studied piano, violin and other musical subjects in Halle, Leipiz and Erfurt, graduating from the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin in 1890. He was Kapellmeister of the 113th Infantry Regiment Band in Freiburg (1890-1912) where he was appointed Royal Director of Music in 1906.

Friedemann moved to Switzerland in 1912 and directed the municipal band, a 50 piece orchestra and male choir in Berne, also establishing his own publishing house. In 1917 he started his own school of music, and remained active for many years as a composer and adjudicator at National Music Festivals. His best known band work is the Kasier Fredrich Marsch.

Fucik, Juluis

Juluis Ernest Fucik was born on July 18, 1872 in Prague where he studied at the Conservatoire from 1885 to 1891 under among other the notable Anton Dvorak. He later served in the 49th Austro-Hungarian Regimental Band at Krems under JF Wagner (Under the Double Eagle) then returned to Prague to play bassoon in two local orchestras. In 1897 he began his career as a bandmaster with the 86th Regiment Band in Sarajevo and later to his country to lead the 92nd Regiment Band at Theresienstadt. He returned as a bandmaster in 1913 and settled in Berlin where he organized an orchestra and started his own music publishing firm, Tempo Verlag.

Fucik was prolific composer of more than 400 works including operas, operettas, chamber music, masses, songs and symphonic suite. Of his more 100 marches his Entry of the Gladiators, and Florentiner March are probably the best known and most recorded.

Fulton, James M.

James Fulton was born in 1873 in Washington, Pennsylvania and died on May 1, 1940 in Belmont Massachusetts. He was a child prodigy in the field of music; at the age of eight he studied violin and cornet and by the age of twelve was soloist in Washington, Pennsylvania, on the violin, cornet, euphonium and tuba. By the time he was sixteen years old, he was playing violin in a theater orchestra and subsequently became the leader. The next year he played I the twelve piece band of the Waite Dramatic Company and was soon place in charge of this ensemble; he retained his leadership of this group for twelve years. He then spent nine years at the Hotel Rudolf in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Following this engagement he founded the Fulton’s American Band in Watebury, Connecticut; it was here that he also formed a string quartet, conducted the local symphony orchestra and organized his own music publishing company. In 1914 he became leader of the Waltham watch Company Band in Boston, Massachusetts. A prominent band leader, composer, teacher and arranger of music for bands and orchestra, Fulton knew Victor Herbert well and arranged several of that famous composer’s works for band.

G

Gagnier, Guillaume (1890-1962)

He was a solo cornetist in his brother’s Grenadier Guards Band.

Gagnier, Jean Josaphat D. Mus (1884-1949)

Born in Montreal to a family of musicians JJ Gaganier studied under the masters Lavigne, Pelletier, Van Pook, Medard and Weterneir.

In 1910 he founded the Concordia Band, and in 1913 was appointed Musical Director of HM Grenadier Guards (Canadian) Band. At this time he was also a clarinetist in the amous Sohmer Park band, later becoming its director.

On many occasions he traveled to the US for clinics and to guest conduct. His services as a musical judge were also in much demand in both the US and Canada. In 1934 he earned a Doctor of Music degree at University of Montreal – his dissertation dealt with the simplification of orchestral music writing. From 1935 until his death he was musical director of the eastern network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

The Band of the Garde Republicaine in Paris, uses his arrangement of O Canada for its official performances. Gagnier was a member of the Canadian Bandmaster s Association, the Dominion College of Music and the Kiwanis Club.

Ganne, Louis

Gustave Louis Ganne was certainly one of the leading composers of light music in France during his time. Born April 5, 1862 at Buxieres les Mines, he spent most of his youth in the Brothers of St. Nicolas school where he was strongly attracted to music.

Brother Engelbert gave him his first lessons and later entrusted him to Theodore Dubois, who enrolled him at the Conservatory in Paris. While there, Ganne studied composition with Massenet and organ with Cesar Franck.

When 17 years old, Ganne wrote for his school a Happy Mass and the manuscript for this music is still closely guarded by the brothers of the school.

Very quickly after leaving the conservatory, Louis began to make a name for himself with his celebrated compositions – marches, waltzes, mazurkas and many other types of music. He is best remembered for his theatrical works, first, ballets and later, operettas. Among his ballets the best were Phryne and La Princesse au sabbat and operettas Les Saltimbanques, Hans le jouer de flute and Rhodope et Cocorico.

Ganne was also a highly competent and popular conductor, first in the theaters of Paris and later in Monte Carlo. In that city he established a series of orchestra presentations known as Les Concerts de Louis Ganne and they became extremely popular.

In 1901 Ganne was elected President of SACENM (societe des Auteurs, Compositeurs, et Editeurs de Musique). Later the French Government presented him with the Legion of Honor with extra orders.

All his life Louis Ganne was loved and admired by everyone who knew him for his character and prodigious talent. He died in Paris on July 13, 1923.

Gould, Morton

The name Morton Gould is well known to band fans around the world but very few of them are aware that he wrote the marches appearing on this record. These marches were originally written for orchestra for a series of radio programs sponsored by the US Government during World War II and were later transcribed for band. Mr. Gould is well known for his fine contributions to the repertoire of larger scale works for symphonic band. Familiar titles among such works are Jericho, Santa Fe Saga, Ballad for Band, Derivations for Clarinet and Band, Symphony #4 for Band (west Point) and American Salute which although originally written for orchestra has become probably his most popular piece for band.

Morton Gould was born on December 10 1913 in Richmond Hill NY. While young he attracted attention as a piano prodigy and for his composing and improvising abilities. Most of his musical studies were with Abby Whiteside in piano and Dr. Vincent Jones in composition.

By age 21 he was conducting and arranging a weekly series of radio programs. Many of his lighter works and orchestral settings such as Pavane, American Salute and Latin American Symphonette were originally introduced on these broadcasts.

As a recording artist, he has complied an extensive catalogue. His RCA RedSeal recording of Charles Ives with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra won the 1966 NARAS Grammy Award as the best classical recording of the year. He also complieda series of digital and direct-to-disc recordings with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1978 and has recorded a number of his works for symphonic band for Golden Crest Records.

He appears frequently as guest conductor and piano soloist with orchestras both here in the US and abroad. He has conducted all major orchestras in America. When not busy globetrotting he spends his time in Great Neck NY.

Grabel, Victor Jean (1886-1965)

Victor Grabel was born in Kaufman county, Texas in 1886. The first money he earned went to buy a cornet which he learned to play in Texas town bands. At age 8 he was a student leader of the Texas Christian University Band and it was while there that he first heard the Sousa Band and became a devoted admirer of John Philip Sousa.

After leaving Texas Christian he studied for four years at Dana Musical Institute in warren, Ohio. He then enlisted in the US Army and later became leader of the 3rd Regiment Band. Upon completion of hiss service, he directed various bands in the Midwest including the Richland Center, Wisc High School. During World War 1, he served in the Navy and on Sousa’s recommendation he was given the band aboard the USS Pennsylvania which carried President Wilson to Paris to the Peace conference at the end of the war.

Grabel spent much time around Chicago during the 1920s organizing bands, and conducting them. He was one of the founders of the American Bandmaster Association and was its first Secretary. He was editor of the band and orchestra department of Etude magazine from about 1930-1938.

During World War Ii years he served as temporary replacement band director at Stetson Univ in Florida for John Heney who was in the Navy. Afterwards his health failed and he spent most of his time at home and in various Veterans Hospitals.

He died in June 1965. He is well remembered among Sousa enthusiasts for the fact he acquired most of the First Sousa Band-Blakely music library’ which he donated to Stetson and which is part of the US Marine Corps Museum music section.

Grabel’s marches are quite a bit longer in duration than most of those composed by American. Part o this is due to his long and much repeated trios. He ‘wrote into his marches’ (that is he marked on the parts exactly) which instruments were to play the repeats of the trio strain. It is a very good assumption that he took his ‘cue’ in this regard from Sousa. The difference being that Sousa did NOT put such markings in the published sets of parts of his marches, but reserved to himself and his band the ‘Sousa interpretation’ which became famous. The trick of writing out all the parts, but then giving instructions that certain instruments were not to play was probably brought to its zenith by Sousa – who according to reports did not ALWAYS play any particular march in the same manner every time., but varied the ‘lay-out’ instruments to suit his mood, and that of his audience from time to time. He would give slight signals to his bandsmen DURING the performance as to who should play and who shouldn’t. (His players had to be really on the alert for these signals or would play at the wrong time or place).

This ‘having repeats played by different instruments’ is a fine practice and is usable not only in Sousa and Grabel marches but those written by almost anyone. The effect created is excellent and provides the audience with a more interesting listening experience.

Grafulla, Claudio

As it is true with so many other composers of Marches CS Grafulla is known throughout the world as the gifted composer of only one march, the brilliant Washington Grays (written in 1880). However, as is evident after listening to the present recording he wrote many spirited and diverse marches. All indications point to a revival of interest in the music of Grafulla, a splendid example of early Americana.

Grafulla was born in 1810 on the island of Minorca which is off the coast of Spain; he moved to the United States in 1838. It is thought that he may have made his way as a player in a band aboard a ship. But this is only conjecture. He soon became a member of the Lothiers brass band in New York, which was part of the famed Seventh Regiment. In 1860 he was requested to re-organize the band which he did and was then appointed its musical director; the newly formed band gave its first public concert on February 18, 1860 in New York and this was a great success. It was not long before Grafulla became known as a composer and arranger of military music; his success in this area and the growing fame of his Seventh Regiment Band caused his reputation to become recognized nationally. It is interesting to note that he served as the regiment’s bandmaster without salary for twenty-years! Forced to retire from active musical service because of age and sickness, Grafulla died in New York in December 1880 at the age of seventy.

While his name is Italian, his birthplace suggests strongly that like John Philip Sousa,he had Spanish blood. This Italian-Spanish composer’s long and successful association with the Seventh Regiment Band was noted particularly during the Civil War; at that time newspapers in Washington and New York frequently referred to the band’s skill and to the gifted musicianship of its conductor – many receptions, weddings and society balls featured appearance by Grafulla’s splendid band. A good part of the reason for this success was Grafulla’s talent as composer and arranger and many of his works were performed at these concerts. While best known during his life as an arranger, he was also a talented composer; he wrote many marches, waltzes, scottisches and gallops, in addition to his arrangements of national and operatic selections by such composers as Balfe, Von Suppe and Rossini. CS Grafulla was a quiet, unassuming man who never married. His whole life centered around music – and the results of this inspired devotion are documents on this recording.

Gungl, Joesph (1810-1889)

He was born on December 1 1810 in Zsambek Hungary. The son of a stocking weaver he began his career as a teacher in Ofen. He gained his first music instruction from Semann in Buda.

In 1828 he joined an Artillery Regiment in Pest. It was not until 1834 that he became a musician in the band of the 4th Artillery Regiment in Graz. He became band director and toured Munich, Augsburg, Wurzburg and Frankfurt with his sixteen piece band.

In 1838 Gustav Bock published Gungi’s first composition, Hungarian March. His association with Bock was to last a lifetime and a list of 436 compositions.

In 1842 he let the military to go to Berlin. A year later he established his own 36 piece band and made extensive tours including St. Petersburg and Pawlowsk Russia; and America.

On his return from America tour in 1848 Gungi was summoned to be Director of Music to the King of Prussia. In 1858 he again became attached to royalty as the Bandmaster to the Emperor of Austria and conductor of the 23rd Infantry Regiment in Brunn.

As politics changed in Central Europe Gungi left for Munich in 1864 where he established another band. With the band he toured Berlin, Copenhagen, Amsterdam and throughout Switzerland.

He then became an itinerant guest conductor in Berlin (1872) and in Warsaw, London, and Manchester. He lived in Munich from 1864 to 1876 when he moved to Frankfurt.

His significance altered as the years went by but earlier criticism placed him as second only to the Strauss Dynasty of Austria as a waltz and march composer; while others place him as an equal to Blise and Labitzky. He fame was widespread; his numerous marches, waltzes and gallops were common repertoire among bands and orchestras in America as well as Europe.

He died on February 1, 1889 in Weimar Germany.

H

Hall, Henry A. (1854-1920)

Henry A. Hall was born on January 29, 1854 in Lowell Massachuesetts. During the 1880’s he was assistant director of the famous band directed by Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore. In 1891 he founded the Old Guard Band of New York. He served as the conductor of several bands, including the First Naval Battalion Band of New York; the Second US Artillery Band at Fort Adams, Rhode Island; Hall’s Military Band of Chicago, Illinois and the National Soldier’s Home Band of Hampton, Virginia – he is best remembered for directorship of this band in Virginia.

Hall was accidentally killed on August 24, 1920 when he was hit by a truck in Cleveland, Ohio. At the time of his death, he was listed as a professor of music and was self-employed as a teacher in Chicago where he lived. Survived by his wife (Etta) a son Henry A Jr. of New York City) and a daughter (Hallie A of Chicago). Henry hall was buried in Highland Park Cemetery Cleveland, Ohio on August 27.

HA Hall had a busy and active musical career, although he composed relatively few marches.

Hall, Robert Brown (1858-1907)

RB Hall was known first as a cornet virtuoso, then as a bandmaster and finally as a composer of marches. He was born in Bowdoinham, Maine and soon moved to Richmond, Maine where he studied cornet under his father and with teachers in Lewiston and Bangor. He quickly earned a reputation throughout the state as a cornet soloist and was called to Bangor in 1883 to be the director of the leading band of the city, a post he held for eight years. Here he began composing marches in earnest and earned a wide reputation as a bandmaster as well as a soloist. In 1891 he accepted and invitation to conduct the Waterville band, which became known as the RB Hall Military Band.

Sixty-two of his marches were published some of which he sold outright for as little as five dollars. A few of his marches achieved great popularity such as Officer of the Day, New Colonial, 10th Regiment and Indepencia. His works have been performed so often in Great Britain that he commonly believed to have been and Englishman. Although Hall apparently traveled little outside his native state, he left a fine legacy of band traditions in Maine and richly deserves to have some of his more obscure works recorded for the public to hear and enjoy. He, most certainly, is an important contributor to the Heritage of the March.

Halley, Glenn (1887 - 1972)

Frank Glenn Halley was born in Jacinto, Calif, a small town about an hour north of Sacramento, on November 3, 1887. He was the eldest of three born to Presley and Mary Halley. He was named for Doc Glenn, owner of the ranch on which his father was foreman. Later his father bought the ranch and Glenn was given the job of operating the donkey engine snaking logs out of the woods for a lumber company. He cut several cords of wood to earn his first fiddle and as a small boy was called on at country dances to play.

He then learned cornet and after playing in some local band went on the road with a stock show that toured the US. On his return home he joined the Elks. During World War 1 he served in the Army band at Ft Lewis, Washington. After the war he played cornet for several seasons with the Ringling Bros. Circus band. In those days with the hour concert before the main show, plus a ‘wild west’ show afterwards, a brass player certainly needed a ‘cast iron lip’ which apparently Halley had. He was a good friend of Merle Evans although he never played under Merle’s baton after the Ringling and B&B shows were merged in 1919. Glenn’s cornet and violin were put to use in a number of orchestras on the west coast and in 1921 he met Jessie to whom he married in December of that year.

He traveled about the country playing in theaters for the silent movies and in the 1930s settled in Los Angles where he became an arranger composer and copyist for Paramount Studios. Later he worked for Columbia Pictures and after his retirement at age 65 did more composing especially of marches. These marches were often played by the Long Beach Band various band sin Los Angles and his own polka band. He loved fishing and golf and most particularly his family. At his death on Novemebr3 1972 (his 85th birthday) he left his widow Jessie, a son Wilbur and a daughter Margie plus grandchildren.

Hanssen, Johannes (1874-1967)

In 1903 the twenty-nine year old Johannes composed a march based on a bugle call of the Norwegian Army’s Valdres Battalion. The remaining 64 years of his life were musically speaking something of an anticlimax. As the composer himself said many years later ‘I never since in my long life have succeeded in writing something better than this, my first attempt as a composer.’ While not exactly an instant hit - it received only modest applause at its first performance in 1904 by the Band of the 2nd Brigade and was rejected altogether by the conductor of the National Theatre Orchestra - Valdres March was soon recognized as something more than just another march by both critics and the general public. Used as entr’acte music for the play The New Sheriff in 1908, the march had to be encored at every performance. And the boys in the street would whistle Valdres as a greeting to Hanssen when they recognized him. Hanssen began his professional career as a baritone player with the Oslo Military Band in 1900. He became conductor of the band in 1926 and held the position until retiring in 1934. Following his retirement from the band he played double bass in a number of orchestras including that of the National Theatre in Oslo.

He returned to the military band for one year as conductor in 1945 and then played double bass with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra from 1946 to 1949.

While Hanssen’s principal fame in Norway was due to the Valdres March, he also was well-known as an instructor of amateur bands, traveling the country widely in that activity. He died in 1967 in his 93rd year.

Hansen, Adolf (1852-1911)

Although virtually unknown outside his native Norway, he enjoyed a long and productive career as a professional musician and popular composer of marches, dances and theater music. Born in Oslo on October 4 1852 he began his professional career at the age of 15 in the Oslo Brigade Band where he played the baritone horn. During his years with this band he also played in two local theater orchestras and studied the violin. In 1885 he became Kapellmeister of the Kristiania Tivoli, a popular music hall in Oslo. In 1892 he was appointed conductor of the Bergen Brigade Band a position he held until his death in 1911. On November 1 1900 he was honoured in Bergen with a 30th Anniversary evening of his own compositions.

Both through his own career and that of his wife Nathelie he was well known in the theatrical world of Oslo and Bergen. Many of his waltzes, gallops and other dances were dedicated to actors and others connected with the theater. And a number of his nearly 50 marches are named for well-known Bergen restaurants! Although primarily a composer of marches and light music he also apparently attempted more serious works. Most of his 200 or more compositions are largely forgotten although two of his piano works remained popular for thirty or forty years after his death.

Heed, John C.

John C. Heed’s most popular and perhaps best march In Storm and Sunshine has long been associated with the circus world (as indeed have many of his works) but he seems to have had no other connection with the Big Top. He was born in Hackettstown, New Jersey on April 23, 1862 and suffered throughout his life from a nervous condition that shortened his active career as a cornet player soloist and bandmaster and contributed to his death in mid-life in 1908.

‘Johnny’ Heed became director of the George Herrick’s Band in Providence, Rhode Island at the age of seventeen. He later moved to Worcester, Massachusetts where he married one Mary A. Portal. After seven years, he and wife returned to new Jersey where he became the cornet soloist with the outstanding Voss First Regiment Band of Newark.

Heed’s nervous disorder soon forced him to retire and he devoted the last years of his life to the composition of marches. He won several competitions with such outstanding works as the Metronome, and Clipper marches and earned the title of The March Wizard through his more than 50 excellent marches. Will Bythe said of him “John Heed’s marches are a spirit to lift the weary feet of marching hosts, they fail not with fatigue and spur them on to victory”.

Herbert, Victor

The name of Victor Herbert is probably recognizable to more non-musical Americans than any other composer included in the Heritage series. His operettas and comic operas are well known and many tunes from them are heard regularly on radio and television.

What is this well known composer doing on the Heritage series? The answer is not known to everyone. He was, at one time in his life a Bandmaster. He started life in Dublin, Ireland in 1859. After gaining considerable experience and education as a cellist in Germany and Austria he came to America to be first cellist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 1886. He quickly became assistant conductor of that organization. In 1892 he succeeded Patrick Gilmore as Director of the famous 22nd New York National Guard. After six years at this job he went to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Among his outstanding accomplishments hw was one of the founders of the well known ASCAP (American Society of Authors, Composers, and Publishers0 which protected copyrights and collects royalties on behalf of its members. Herbert was close friend of Sousa 9see pages 87 and 88 in Paul Bierley’s Biography of Sousa.)

His death in 1924 removed from the musical scene in America one of its true greats.

Heusser, Hans (1892-1942)

Born in October 6, 1892 in Zurich, Switzerland, Hans Heusser received his musical education at the Zurich Conservatory of Music and the Schola Cantorum in Paris. He held positions in various theater orchestras in Switzerland throughout the first world war and in 1919 was appointed Director of Music at Balsthal where he also taught voice and played the organ. In 1922 he was appointed to the same position in Grenchen and in 1924 assumed leadership of the St. Gallen Municipal Band. Heusser lived in St. Gallen, directing the band, conducting various choral societies and playing organ in the Linsenbul Church until his death on October 27, 1942. His many compositions include works for band, orchestra and chorus.

Hildreth, Richard E. (1867-1941)

He was born in Middlesboro, Yorkshire England on August6 1867.At age 12 he immigrated to the United States with his parents who settled in the Boston area. As a youth Richard became proficient on a number of instruments and starting at the age of 18 he conducted many town band concerts around the Boston area.

Hildreth eventually settled in West Someville Mass and obtained employment with the Walter Jacobs Publishing Compnay in nearby Boston. This was the beginning of a forty year tenure during which Hildreth served as a head of Jacobs music department. During this period his numerous compositions and arrangements brought him considerable fame. He was especially popular as a composer of music for school bands. During the late 1930’s his works were used at all high school band contests in the New England Music Festival. He was also well known outside New England for example his work Gulls of Gaspe was used for the sight reading portion of a Western sectional high school band contest.

Some of his more popular band overtures are Chicot the clown, Mystic Knights, and carillon. His forest fantasy Sequoia was played several times by the Goldman Band and Sousa frequently programmed Hildreth’s works for concerts. There is considerable variety in the type of music he composed. His scores and instrumentations of pieces number greater than 6000 and include two operettas, many choruses and songs a cantata with string quartet and many large scale band, choral and orchestral works. He usually wrote his own lyrics.

He was also an active and popular bandmaster. During the depression era he often conducted the WPA Commonwealth Federal Band at the Parkman Bandstand on the Boston Common. These concerts were given at noon on weekdays and in the afternoon on Sunday and attracted audiences which were appreciative of Hildreth’s own compositions. Many of those presented were in manuscript. Among those that are well remembered from these concerts are the overtures Prince by Proxy and Season of Carnival, the novelties Soiree of the Spirits and Bats in the Belfry and a suite Spring Unfolds.

After the death of his wife he lived alone until failing health forced him to move into a local rest home. Nevertheless during the last years of his life at the rest home he turned out copious compositions. Shortly before his death he completed a book of arrangements and compositions entitled Picturesque for Band. On May 29 1941 he died as a result of prostate cancer and was cremated. His ashes were interred at the Mt Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge Mass.

Holmes, Guy

Guy Holmes was a musicians who really’ cover the territory’ as the saying goes. He was a professional performer on several instruments, teacher, arranger and a fine composer especially of marches.

Born in a place intimately connected with circus history, Baraboo, Wisconsin, on Feb. 14, 1873, Holmes naturally was involved with circus music a good part of this life. In the early years he worked at the Island Woolen Mills in Baraboo, as a weaver and later explained that the rhythm of the shuttles there inspired him in many of his compositions.

He studied theory and harmony with G. Mitchell (presumably the composer of Caesar’s triumphal March) and Captain WF Heath, Vandercook and Rosdon taught him cornet and Lattimer, saxophone. The famous Weldon gave him flute lessons.

After touring with various circus bands and playing in other touring shows and groups, he spent twenty years on the faculty of Vandercook School of Music.

The Circus World Museum in Baraboo has a most impressive display of Guy Holmes works, particularly those concerned with circuses. He is given this special consideration partly because he was a native of the town, and partly for his great contribution to the repertoire of circus bands.

A few months after Guy Holmes’ death on Feb 10, 1945, the Wisconsin bandmasters association played a memorial concert of his music. It was conducted by various bandmasters in Oshners Park in Baraboo.

Holzmann, Abraham (1874-1939)

It will a surprise to many lovers of band music to learn that the composer of Blaze Away(the title in German is Feuert Los!) was born in New York City in August 1874. He died in east Orange, New Jersey in January 1939.

Holzmann studied at the New York Concservatory of Music; he becamea member of ASCAP in 1923 and served as staff composer, arranger and manager of the band and orchestral departments of several music pubklishing firms including Leo Feist Inc. He later was advertising manager of the International Musician, the official publication of the International Federation of Musicians. He was a member of the Elks, Masons and Knight of Pythias all in New York.

In addition to his marches and rag-cake-walks, Holzmann composed numerous waltzes and other music. All were popular at the time they were written but largely forgotten today.

At the time of his death, he was survived by his widow a daughter and three half-brothers and four sisters.

Huff, Will (bio appeared on Volume 46)

The real Will Huff now stands up and takes his place among famous American march writers – recognition which has long been overdue.

William L. Huff was born on January 16th, 1875 in Massieville, Ohio, a small town five miles directly south of Chillicothe and fifty miles south of the state capital. His father was a photographer and in his early manhood Will, too, worked in this profession. For the remainder of his life he was an interior decorator, specializing in wallpaper hanging and painting. He was not a full time professional musician except for a brief period when he trouped with a circus band.

As a youth in Coalton. Ohio, Will played in his first band, being one of the founders of what the town folks called The Kid Band. He exhibited outstanding music talent, first on the alto horn and then on the cornet. Eventually, he established the reputation of being one of the finest cornetist in that part of the country.

A did Henry Fillmore, Will Huff played with an Ohio National Guard band while not actually being enrolled in the military. This came about during the Spanish-American War period of his life, when he lived in Ironton, Ohio. There, he performed with the 17th Regiment Band. It was here that he first tried his hand at composition, his first offering being a march dedicated to that band. He sent the manuscript to Rudolph Wurlitzer, a small music publisher in Cincinnati.

Patriotism was never at a more feverish pitch in American than during this war and the time was right for two marches named after military units. Wurlitzer published the 17th Regt. Band March plus his Battleship Maine March and the Canadian Club March in May 1899. He received a pitifully small sum for them - five dollars – but was pleased to be a published composer. Throughout his life he was known as a modest, unagressive man, and some felt that publishers usually took advantage of him.

During his middle years Huff traveled about quite a bit. Whenever he moved he organized and conducted bands. In addition he taught privately, because the bands were usually made up of rank amateurs. He did this not only in Ohio but also in several small towns in Kentucky, West Virginia and Illinois. After World War One, he settled down in Chillicothe, where he was appointed director of what was his finest band the Odd Fellows (IOOF) Band.

His return to Chillicothe, incidentally, was occasioned by an invitation to organize an employees band for the Mead Pulp & Paper Company. Here again he directed the band and gave individual instruction to each player. The band was fraught with problems, principally that of having the musicians employed on three different shifts. The folded after a few months and some of the better musicians joined Huff’s IOOF band.

Will Huff was a popular local figure in his twilight years and the bands he directed always drew sizeable crowds at Chillcothe’s Yoctangee Park. Each year he composed and dedicated a new march to one of the band’s sponsors.

Huff was slight of build and was not a strong man owing to a severe childhood illness, but in general he enjoyed good health. He was very pleasant, firm but otherwise not assertive and was much admired by those who played under this direction. Several of his children took up the music profession.

He composed very little during the last decade of his life. He was content to perform occasionally with various bands in Southern Ohio, making music with the many musician friends who thought so highly of him. He passed away quietly in Chillicothe on November 5th, 1942a t the age of sixty-seven.

A total of sixty-two marches and other short compositions have been accredited to Will Huff, but because of a number of unpublished marches which as not accounted for, the total number of his works might exceed ninety.

His career as a composer can roughly be separated into five period. In the first period from 1899 to 1908 he published with Wurlitzer. The next period beginning in 1908 and by far the most important was when he was associated with Fillmore. For reasons not fully understood he broke away from Fillmore and beginning in 1915 published with Will H. Smith of Dixon, Illinois. During the late 1920’s his pieces were printed by the Star Music Company of Eldred, Pennsylvania. Thereafter his music went unpublished.

The selections on Volume 45 represent all period of his compositions except for the final or unpublished period. Perhaps the most interesting of the marches heard there is Screamer no doubt alluding to his circus experience. Troupers Triumphal is also a circus march. This was possibly his last published march but it is not certain, because of those issued by Star at approximately the same time bear not dates.

It should be noted that Salute to the Stars and Stripes as performed here is the original edition of 1903, published by Wurlitzer, not a revised edition which Fillmore published in 1942 just before Huff’s death. The Fillmore edition was edited by Henry Fillmore and enjoyed popularity among band of the armed services.

Huffer, Fred (1879-1943)

Fred K. Huffer was born in Stewardson, Ill, January 1, 1879. His father was a musician and gave him his early lessons in music. In 1889 the family moved to Helena, Montana where the father was a violinist and orchestra conductor. At age 16 Fred joined the local band playing Ed alto. Later he moved to Chicago and from 1899 until 1901 played with various bands there.

In 1901 the Ringling Circus came to town and needed a baritone player, and Huffer got the job. After the Chicago engagement he went on the road with the Show and caught the ‘Circus fever’, with the result that for the next eight years he was continually on the road with one show or another. Along the way, however, he married Kate Jeronimus, but never had any children.

In 19109 he accepted an offer to lead the band of the Crane Co., a large plumping equipment manufacturer. Concurrently he advised and worked with a number of bands in the Chicago suburbs. In 1911 Huffer left Crane to organize his own band, which he titled Huffer and his band. This was quite successful for several years, but then he decided to settle down and devote himself to composing and conducting several bands around Chicago.

He entered the Masonic order in 1937 and led the band of the St. Barnard’s Commandery and was assistant director of the Medinah Shrine Band.

On August 28, 1943 after along illness Fred Huffer died and was buried in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Hughes, Arthur Wellesley

Arthur W. Hughes was born in Canada around 1870 in the Kingston area of Ontario. He separated from his family at an early age and spent many years in the United States as an itinerant circus musician on calliope and horn. He performed with the Might Haag and Downie and Wheeler Chorus in 1912, Hagenbeck Wallace in 1922, Sells-Floto Circus in 1923, and the Ringling Barnum Circus under Merle Evans in 1924, 25 and 26. He was also with the Robbins Brothers Circus in 1928 and 29 and the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show and the Walther L. Main Circus in 1930 and 31.

Hughes worked for the Waterloo Music Company as a composer and arranger between 1932 and 1935. By his own account, he wrote band music in the United States most of his life for many publishers under many different names. He returned to Kansas, which he considered home, when in his seventies and is reported to have died in the indigent ward of New York hospital around 1950 after a long illness.

Hughes, Harry H. (1891-1939)

Harry Hughes was bornin Kentucky, Nov 17, 1891. Although it is not known where and how he gained his musical education, Hughes became an excellent performer on trombone and also on xylophone, marimba, and calliope. (Incidentally, it is considered equally correct to pronounce this work as either ‘kal eye oh pee’ or ‘kal ee op’)

At age 22, Harry left home to become a trouper musician with the Traveling Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. The next year, 1914, he played trombone with the Sparkes Circus and in 1915 moved to the Hagenbaeck-Wallace circus. During those years he did much arranging and composing of music for the circus bands he played with.

Hughes circus marches are considered to be at least as difficult and perhaps more so, than those of any other writer of similar music. Truly they do require a virtuoso band to play them at the fast tempo desired.

Shortly after World War 1, Hughes tired of the tent show life and married. He and his new wife then settled in Atlanta, Georgia where he soon made a reputation as a fine musician.

He joined Local 148-462 of the American Federation of Musicians and began to play trombone on the city’s theater circuit. During the early 20’s he was in the pit orchestra for silent movies in all the famous Atlantic theaters. The great depression led him to playing with the WPA orchestra in Atlanta but he couldn’t resist the urge to return to circus life and in 1934 joined the Downie Bros circus band. Two years later, Merle Evans recruited him to play first trombone with the Ringling Show where he remained for the rest of his life. On June 5, 1939 while on the night train between shows near Pittsburgh, Penn, he died of a heart attack. His remains were returned to Georgia where he was buried in the National cemetery at Marietta.

Harry Hughes was remembered by his colleagues as a medium sized man of a happy disposition, but a bit moody at time, especially when things didn’t go too well with the number being played. He was one who demanded perfection from himself and from those playing with him. The story is told of the time when he was playing an orchestra pit job, and he made a mistake which so angered him he took the trombone from his lips and in a fit of temper banged it over his knee, thereby bending the slide so it would never again be playable. Ten minutes later h was back with a borrowed horn playing better than ever.

I

Iasilli, Geradrdo

Gerardo Iasilli was one of the outstanding musicians who emigrated from Italy to America in the early part of the century. He was born in 1880. His musical talent led to a scholarship at the famous Institute Musicale, in Avigliano, Italy. The Director of that school was the renowned Roberto Orlando and under his tutelage Iasilli studied arranging, conducting and composing as well as the saxophone. Gerardo also studied with Carmile DeNardis.

After graduation from the Institute he became a member of the famous band led by Silvio Mancini and soon was assistant conductor of it. In 1904 Iasilli came to America and joined Creatore’s Band. Again it was not long before he was assistant bandmaster. His virtuosity as a saxophonist was universally recognized and he played solos with the New York philharmonic Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra and other leading musical organizations.

In 1931 Iasilli formed his own band which made numerous records for Victor and Star. Unfortunately about this time professional bands began their decline. In 1934 he prevailed upon the City of New York to let him organize and conduct a band under the auspices of the Department of Parks. This band is still in existence.

Most of his published marches are included on this record but his name is best known to musicians for some of the fine arrangements he made for Carl Fischer and other publishers of works of other composers. Notable among them is the Farndole from Bizet’s second L’Arlesienne Suite. Iasilli died in 1969 in New York City.

J

Jaeggi, Stephan

Born in Fulenbach, Switzerland on May 28, 1903, Stephen Jaeggi was one of seven children. Although Stephen’s father and uncle were both musically inclined and had themselves composed several works for band, Stephan’s musical talents were encouraged by his family as a hobby only. Even though the boy had mastered the flute, trumpet, violin and piano and had demonstrated remarkable talent in the village band, he was firmly apprenticed as a mechanic after completing school.

With the successful performance of his first major composition Titanic in 1922, Stephan’s parents relented and the boy was sent to the Conservatory in Basel to study from 1922-1926. Even while attending the conservatory, Jaeggi had begun his successful career as a conductor. He led the Hagendorf-Rickenbach Band to several first prizes in contests and later conducted the Lagenback Watch Factory Band with equal success. His first major appointment, however, was as director of the Solothurn Municipal Band, which became one of the foremost musical organizations in the country winning the Bern Championship in 1930 under his direction.

In 1933 Cark Friedemann sought retirement as director of the Bern Municipal Band. In spite of Jaeggi’s youth, he was chosen over many other applicants and became the first Swiss born director of the band. Although Swiss bands had traditionally been modeled on German regimental bands, Jaeggi sought changes, promptly enlarging the clarinet section, introducing alto and bass clarinets and augmenting the ban’s size from 60 to 80 members. Jaeggi not only gave new character to Swiss bands, but through his many compositions and arrangements for band and orchestra, helped to create a music which was particularly Swiss in nature. In his own country, Jaeggi was often referred to as the Sousa of Switzerland. When Stephan Jaeggi died on July 9, 1957, Switzerland mourned the loss of one of their foremost musicians, composers and conductors.

Jessel, Leon (1871-1942)

This musician from Stetin was one of Germany’s leading composers during the first half of the century. But his name is not usually linked to marches.

Leon Jessel first enjoyed considerable success with his characteristics (that is a specialized type of composition that attempts to fit its title) such as Parade of the Tin Soldiers, The Rose’s Marriage Procession, The Changing of the Town Guards. Jessel who had been a musical director of operetta theaters in Bielefeld, Kiel, Stettin, Cheminitz, and Lubeck, premiered his first operetta The two Hussars in Berlin in 1914.

His last operetta The Golden Mill was staged in Olten, Switzerland in 1940. The most important and popular of his operettas dates back to 1917; in The Girl in the Black Forest he succeeded in capturing the atmosphere of one of Germany’s most beautiful areas in a bouquet of sparkling melodies.

Jessel did not compose military marches er se, and more of his appeared in the collection of Armeemarsche. His marches very much resemble those of Paul Lincke, Max Oscheit and some other composers of stage type music and are typical of the type that was most popular during the 1920’s in Germany.

He was born January 22, 1871 and died January 4, 1942. His name is properly pronounced Yassal.

Jewel, Fred

Fred Jewel’s compositions for band number in the hundred’s and have enjoyed immense popularity throughout the western world since the turn of the century. His music and his career mirror the growth in this country of the organized traveling show, from its adolescence to its roaring bigger-than-life adult form, the circus.

He was born on May 28, 1875, in Worthington, Indiana, his permanent home where he established his own publishing house in 1919. Jewell’s career as a bandmaster began with the ‘Gentry brothers Unusual Dog and Pony Show’ to which he dedicated his famous Gentry’s Triumphal march. He then directed the band for the Otto Floto Show which later became the Great-Sels-Floto Shows. Jewell is perhaps best known as the bandmaster of the famous Barnum and Bailey “Greatest Show on earth” during its 19109 and 1910 seasons, after playing baritone in the Al Sweet Band for Ringling Brothers the two seasons before

Full details of his life and activities are not known, except that he conducted numerous bands on the west coast and the Murat Temple Band in Indianapolis during the 1920’s.

Fred Jewell remains one of the leading and most talented writers of circus marches of all time. His best known and most often performed marches aside from Gentry’s Triumphal include The Screamer and Quality Plus which following the intent of this series, are not included on this recording.

K

Kiefer, William M

Born on July 22, 1872 in Washington, Indiana, William Kiefer came from a family who encouraged his early interest in music. Joseph Kiefer took special interest in the young boy giving him private lessons on the violin and cornet. By the age of ten, William was playing in the boy’s band organzied by his uncle and by fifteen he was writing his own musical compositions. His first known march Salute to Washington received its first reading by the Washington town band. His many compositions largely published by Barnhouse, included marches, gallops, waltzes, intermezzos and overtures. Although Keifer continued to compose music for the rest of his life and led the town band for twenty years, he did not choose music as his profession. After graduating from local schools and the Jasper Business College, he began his career as a public servant in the county recorder’s office, apposition which he held for twelve years. After an additional four years as city clerk, Kiefer retired from public service to try his hand at real estate, only to be elected Circuit Court Clerk in 1912. Shortly before his death he was appointed postmaster of Washington. An active member of several fraternal organizations and a devout member of the St. Mary’s Church, Kiefer was a respected community member. He died on July 14, 1920 survived by his wife Maude and his sons, William and John.

King, Karl L.

It is a close question whether the music of Karl King or that of Sousa has been more often played by American bands. Because circus bands generally do not use Sousa’s marches, but play Karl Kings constantly, there is real vaildy in that statement. Furthermore, Karl wrote much relatively easy music, which has been played by school band that could not handle Sousa’s difficult marches. In any event, there is little doubt that King is second only to Sousa as the most popular American march writer.

His biography is well documented, and need only be touched on, on this record. He was born in Paintersville, Ohio in 1891. He died in Fort Dodge, Iowa in 1971. His life encompassed little but music. His instrument was the baritone (euphonium) and he played it in many bands, particularly of various circuses. In 1920 he became Director of the Fort Dodge Municipal Band, and made it into one of the finest in the country. He remained as its leader until his death.

His works were not limited to marches, but his serenades, overtures, waltzes, gallops, and all the rest have been very popular. He was accorded honors by the dozen, including an honorary Doctorate, President, and later Life President of the American Bandmasters Association. Truly, Karl King represents the finest in American band music, and he is remembered with great affection by all who knew him.

Klohr, John NRH

Few of the details of Klohr’s are available to us, which lends credence to the statement above that march composers ‘are omitted in music dictionaries and other reference works, and their lives … are rapidly passing into oblivion.’ It is hoped that his inclusion in this series will forestall this relentless and unjust progression.

John H. Khohr was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on July 27, 1869 and died there on February 17, 1956. Between these dates he performed in various bands as a trombonist, wrote many marches and served as editor of the John Church Music Publishing firm.

By preference, when opportunity presented itself, Klohr was a vaudeville trombonist and many of his marches reflect this inclination. His famous ‘Billboard’ march has, as Frederick Fennell stated “probably brought on more entertainment than any other single piece in music history.”

Kmoch, Frantisek

Frantisek Kmoch was born at Zasmuky, about 10 miles from Kolin, Czechoslovakia, on August 1, 1848. His father was a tailor and an ardent folk musician who played clarinet. Frantisek began the study of violin at an early age, and made his first attempts at composition in his late teens. He entered the teacher’s college in Prague in 1868 and accepted his first teaching position at Suchol (near Kolin) in 1869. His teaching techniques in these early years were commended by his superiors. All during his teaching career he continued to perform with various musical ensembles, as well as to compose.

Kmoch was suspended from the teaching profession in late 1873. Official reasons for the suspension were his neglect of school duties and his performance at public dances. The suspected reason was his politically unacceptable affiliation with the national Sokol movement. His livelihood thereafter more and more centered around performing for dances.

He married Josefa Kahsova, daughter of a Kolin metalworker, and the couple had five daughters. He had a contract and a minimal salary with the Sokol movement as bandmaster in Kolin. This eventually led to his becoming municipal band director in Kolin, in which town he established his own music school. The school was officially recognized in 1882. As the years passed, Kmoch was offered positions as municipal band director by several cities, including Prague. He preferred to remain in Kolin, but toured to may cities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire with his Kolin Band. His touring even included a three month tour of Russia.

Kmoch’s total compositional output has unconfirmedly been set at 350 works. The largest and most important part consists of marches. As a reaction against the military marches of the Empire, he composed marches with their roots in Czech folk music; the intent was to stimulate nationalistic pride, and not necessarily to accompany marching feet. The inclusion of words in the trios – words intended to be sung – gave audiences the opportunity to participate in a great expression of self-esteem. Kmoch died in Kolin on April 30, 1912.

The Czech wind band has its foundations in Kmoch’s work. The truly Czech march was created by him. In recognition of the immense contribution of this dean of Czech band music, a three day festival is held each June in Kolin; participating bands from many nations individually and in combination pay tribute to the memory of the man who might be termed ‘father of the Czech wind band.’

Komzak, Karl

Karel Komzak II was born in Prague on November 8, 1850 and he died in Baden, near Vienna on April 23, 1905

He studied music, first with his father and then from 1861 to 1867 at the Prague Conservatory of Music. For a short time, he played the violin in his fathers orchestra and in 1871 he became bandmaster of the Seventh Infantry Regiment at Innsbruck in the Austrian Tyrol. In 1882 he was appointed bandmaster of the 84th Infantry Regiment inVienna; tens years later he retired to the spa town of Basden, about fifteen miles south of Vienna where he conducted the spa orchestra. In 1904 Komzak visited the United States conducting his Wiener Farben Orchestra with great success at the World Exhibition in St. Louis. On Easter Sunday in 1905 while boarding a moving train at the Baden Station he slipped and fell onto the track and was killed instantly.

Komzak introduced stringed instruments to Austrian military music, which the unfortunate result of making band sound more orchestra; during concerts. His compositions reached the opus number 306, this prolific output including 66 marches, 81 polkas, 21 waltzes, a folk-opera and other miscellaneous works. His many lovely waltzes of which the most famous is Bad’ner Madl’n (Girls of Baden) and his many stirring marches are still popular today in Austria and are performed frequently – for example, at the nightly open-air concerts given during the summer in Vienna’s beautiful Syadpark.

Kael Kmozak III, who was born in Innsbruck in 1878 and who died in Vienna in 1924 entered the legal profession because of his father’s active discouragement concerning a career in music. But after his father’s death, he formed his own orchestra and toured in Austria, Germany and England. It is believed that he wrote about 360 musical composition, but very few of these were published or have survived to the present day. The Austrian atmosphere and flavor evident in the highly distinctive and light-hearted music of such brilliant composers as Zieher, Lehar, and others is also a characteristic of Komzak.

Kral, Johann and Josef

Johann Nepomuk Kral was born Sepember 14, 1839 in Mainz in the Rhienland/Pflaz. His father Jan Kral came from Pizen in Bohemia, and was a Mainz municipal band director. Johann became bandmaster of Infantry Regiment Nr. 13, stationed in Budapest and Vienna, in 1866. From 1874 until 1881 he directed the 20th Infantry Regiment Band in Vienna and Olmutz. For a short while in 1882 he directed the 17th IR Band of Vienna, then moved to the 38th IR Band in the same city until 1885. For about a year, beginning in 1885, he conducted the Civil-Elite Band in a series of concerts in Vienna’s Folks-garden, From 1886 until 1889 he was bandmaster of the 24th Infantry Regiment in Vienna and Tulln, leaving in 1890 to direct the 23rd IR Band in Budapest. He died in Tulln, Northern Austria on January 1, 1896.

Josef Kral was born in Pilsen (Pizen) on May 14, 1860 and died at Stary Pizenac, a southwestern suburb of Pilsen on August 31, 1920. He studied theory, violin and piano at the Prague Conservatory and enlisted was a volunteer in the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1877. He was appointed bandmaster of the 69th IR in Budapest in the same year, a post which he occupied until his retirement in 1906. During 1894 he wrote marches for the Riding School in Vienna. His works, most which seem to be lost, include marches and dances. The relationship between the two Krals is not known for certain. However since the families of both originated in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, it is probable that they were cousins.

L

Labsky, Jaroslav (1875-1949)

He was born on November 27 1875 at Praskacka near Koniggratz. After completing grade school he attended the conservatory in Prague deciding to become a musician like his father, who was an organist and teacher. In 1896 he was drafted into the 18th (Bohemian) Infantry Regiment which was stationed at Theresienstadt. Upon termination of his years of compulsory service, Labsky applied for admission to this regiemtnal band and auditioned and accepted by Bandmaster Baudis. Next he transferred to the 99th Regiment in December 1906 but one year later Baudis recalled him to his old unit where he remained for another 5 years. Finally Labsky went to Vienna to join the famous 84th Regiment which was then directed by the renowned J. Lassletzberger.

Upon the iniative of bandmaster Kucera of the 51st Regiment, the Ministry of War established bands for the militia formations of the Germanic half of the Empire in July of 1908. Labksy joined the band of the 1st Landwehr Regiment in Dec 1908 as Conductor and Sergeant of Music.

In March 1914 he was appointed bandmaster of the 37th Regiment in Agram where he remained until 1918. The position of regimental bandmaster was by contract between the bandmaster and the regiment and the bandmaster held a civilian status with privileges corresponding to a company grade officer. When the Empire collapsed in 1918 Labsky moved to the newly created state of Czechoslovakia and joined the army as a NCO. He died in Prague on Oct 28 1949.

Lake, Mayhew Lester (1879-1955)

He was born on October 25, 1879 in Southville Mass and received his basic education in the public schools of Brockton. He then complted his musical studies of piano, harmony and theory and counterpoint at the New England Conservatory. By the remarkable age of 16 Lake was already a violinist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and at 21 he became conductor at Payret Theater in Havana Cuba which at that time was the largest theater in the Western Hemisphere. During the period 1896-1910 Lake conducted for many of the famous theatrical performers of the day such as Sophie Tucker, Al Jolson, Mae West and the Duncan Sisters. He then moved to New York and became the chief arranger for an impressive list of men including Victor Herbert, John Philip Sousa, Paul Whitman, george M. Chan, Edwin Franko Goldman, Percy Graingerr, Henry Hadley.

During WW2he served on the Secretary of War’s advisory board and helped choose selections played by the Army, Marine nad Navy Bands. After his election to ASCAP in 1924 he became Chief Consulting Editor for Carl Fischer a post he was to hold for 35 years.

The diversity of his compositions runs from marches and polkas to opera. His first popular success was The Evolution of Dixie. The piece was featured in several Hollywood movies. He also composed a large amount of music for silent films which was played by the theater pianist or orchestra as mood music. His hurries composed for 20th Century Fox Movietone News were very famous and are still often used today on many TV Westerns during chase scenes or other action sequences.

Lake was a nationally known musician who was praised not only by his fellow musicians but also by nationally prominent people such as Teddy and Eleanor Roosevelt and Mamie Eisenhower. Lake died at age 75 in Fort Lee New Jersey on March 23, 1955.

Lampe, Jens Bodewalt (1869-1929)

The work of Jens Bodewalt Lampe was very nearly essential to most of the finest bands in the United States during the early part of the 20th century. His music, both original compositions and arrangements, was featured by these bands in almost every concert.

The Lampe family was a strongly musical one, producing many musicians. JB (as he was often called) was born to Dorothea and Christian Lampe, in Ribe, Denmark in November 1869. His father was a cobbler by trade and although a short man physically, he played the largest instruments – tuba and bass violin - with the band of the famous Tivoli Theater in Copenhagen. In 1873, Christian Lampe, by now director of the band, accepted an offer from the Great Western Band of St. Paul, Minnesota to become its leader.

A few years later, Christian and his brother, settled in Minneapolis, were pioneering the establishment of that city’s famous Symphony Orchestra.

In the meanwhile, JB at the age of seven showed such potential as a violin player that he as considered a child prodigy. Carl Larchmund, a former pupil of Franz Liszt and proprietor of a music school, recognizing the young man’s ability, provided him with a 4 year scholarship for the study of violin and piano. In addition to these instruments JB played trombone and on may other instruments he could ‘fake’ well.

When JB was twelve years of age, he had to leave school to help out at home, as the Lampe family had grown large (ten children altogether) and poor. Yet, in spite of the money problems, music was never neglected. At the age of 16, he was playing first violin in the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. However, such a position did not appeal to Lampe and he soon gave it up and became a musical director at the St. Louis and Park, Hotels and at Lake Minnetonka during the summer season. He was also director of the Grand Opera House in Minneapolis until 1890, when he became conductor of the ‘Pearl of Pekin’ and the Corrine Opera Company, traveling to all parts of the United States.

Two years later he gave up traveling and moved to Buffalo NY where he directed music at the court Street Theater. It was here he met his wife, an actress and singer in the theater’s musical comedies and operatas. They were married in 1892, Josephine was 20 and he was 23. They had three children.

While in Buffalo, he organized Lampe;’s Grand concert band. This group did so well he left the theater and went on the road with it. In 1906, Jerome Remik, a large music publisher, offered Lampe a fine position – as editor and manager of the band and orchestra department of his firm. So, the Lampe family moved to New Rochelle, NY. During his daily train ride to New York City (about 235 miles) JB studied to improve his non-musical education.

The Lampe family life had a completely musical atmosphere. JB and his wife were organist and soloist at the first Church of Christ Scientist while daughter Petrea also sang and daughter Dorothy was substitute organist. Their son, Dell, became a well known orchestra leader and arranger, who was the only one of the children to earn a living from music.

The Lampe family gave many charitable benefit performances with JB playing violin accompaniments while his wife and daughters sang. Upon the death of his wife in 1918, Lampe put his violin down and never touched it again.

In 1921, Vincent Lopez engaged Lampe to teach him the fundamentals of arranging for use with his famous orchestra.

JB returned to Denmark to the place of his birth in 1928 and shortly after his return home, in 1929 he died in NY.

The amount of music composed by JB Bodewalt Lmape was considerable and the list of his arrangements was endless. His best known work is probably ‘Vision of Salome’ a very popular number with circus bands. He wrote so much and arranged so much that he used numerous pen-names, chief of which was Ribe Danmark, the name of his birthplace. He was a charter member of the ASCAP.

Latey. Keith Parmeter (1896- )

He was born in Omaha Nebraska on March 4 1896. As a boy he bought a slightly used cornet from a boyhood friend. After patching up several holes he found in it tubing he went to work and taught himself to play it. At the insistence of his father and sister he also studied piano. Later he also learned to play tenor sax, baritone sax, frnech horn and bass drum. Latey joined the local YMCA band and later played with the Mid west Concert Band.

His father died when he was in high school and thus instead of finishing his education he had to go to work to help support the family. Keith joined the Army and the director of the Mid West Concert Band a retired Army bandmaster himself, got Latey assigned to one of his old units, the 2nd Infantry Band which spent most of the Firt World War stationed in Homolulu. Sometime in 1918 after playing for a polo game in Kapiolani Park the 2nd Infantry was shipped to Camp Fremont California for 3 months or so, then to Camp Dodge Iowa where there were stationed until the end of the war.

After WW1 he moved to Colorado got married to Ella Carothers and directed several town bands. Subsequently the Latey’s moved to his home town of Omaha where he led the American Legion Band, Elks Band, Shrine Circus Band and a dance ban at the Deluxe Crystal Palace Ball Room. When the Depression hit he moved to Council Bluffs and taught music.

A year before Pearl Harbor he went to Louisana in the Federal Service and was among the first troops to be sent out to the British Isles. From Ireland and Scotland his band went with their division to Africa, where they fought against Rommel, the band exchanging their instruments for WW1 vintage rifles. A photograph of Latey’s band was featured in the July 27, 1942 issue of Life Magazine showing them giving a concert in an open field somewhere in the British Isles. The band also played several radio broadcasts from the Belfast BBC Station.

As a composer he wrote over 50 works for band. Most of these were published by Lavell of which he was president. When the manage of the firm died, the catalogue was sold to tempo Publications. Tempo in turn was destroyed by fire and the surviving stock was donated to the ABA Research Centre at the University of Maryland in College Park.

1981 was memorable year for him as September 26 was declared Keith Latey Day in Council Bluffs, Iowa and the celebration included a parade and reception in his honor. November 19 of that same year saw a concert presented by the Berham High School devoted to Latey and his music.

It is reliably estimated that between 3000 and 4000 musicians have played under his baton. When he and his wife retired to Perham they settled on Little Pine Lake where he became an avid fisherman.

Laurendeau, Louis-Philippe

The name of this Canadian appeared on a phenomenal amount of music, during the early part of this century. It seems as if he either composed or arranged a good third of the Carl Fischer catalogs of band and orchestra music during those years.

Laurendeau was born in 1881 in the town of St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, about 25 miles east of Montreal. His early life was spent in the study of music and since he was especially interested instrumental music, he gravitated to band and soon became a bandmaster. For several years he directed the band at the Saint-Jean (Quebec) Military School.

Thereafter he moved to the US where he became Musical editor of Carl Fischer, the large publisher. For many years he retained this position, even after moving back to Canada to live, about 1910. He married but had no children. When he returned to Canada after his years in the US he lived in the town of Longeuil, a suburb of Montreal. A year before his death in 1916 he moved across the river to Montreal itself where he died.

Apparently he was very highly thought of by his fellow musicians in the Montreal area, for he was made an honorary life member of local 406 of the American Federation of Musicians, Montreal Section and it is reported that a large number of musicians attended his funeral. His works were by no means restricted to marches, he wrote in practically every form, from overtures to polkas to gallops. The paucity of information about his life is rather surprising in view of his tremendous contribution to the literature of both band and orchestra. At various time he even became embarrassed at the amount of music with his name on it, either as composer or arranger and used several pen-names as among them Paul Laurent and M. Reeve.

Laurendeau , Louis-Philippe

Laurendeau was born in St-Hyacinthe, Quebec. The major portion of his musical work was done in the United States, where he worked for many years as musical editor of Carl Fischer, the large publishing firm in New York City. The diversity of his compositions is astounding, not only scores of marches, but practically every other form of work came from his pen. However, his name is very much better known to musicians (not only bandsmen, but orchestra players as well) for the phrase, arranged by Laurendeau, which appear under the composer’s name on hundreds of works published by Fischer and some other publishers as well. It is known that Laurendeau became embarrassed at the amount of music with his name on it and as a consequence he often used the pen names Paul Laurent and GH Reeves. He died in Montreal highly respected by all who knew him as one of the finest Canadian musicians of all time.

Lavigne, Ernest (1851-1909)

A cornet virtuoso, Ernest Lavigne is also considered a pioneer in orchestra music in Montreal. After studying for many years in Europe where he was a soloist with the Belgian Guards Band he returned to Canada where he founded a number of bands in Quebec City and Montreal. In the latter he organized the famous ‘City Band’ which gave free concerts starting in 1855 and four years later became a principal attraction at Sohmer Park.

Lehar, Franz

Franz Lehar, a well known and beloved Hungarian composer, was born in Komarom on April 30, 1870. He has achieved world-wide fame as a composer of more than thirty operettas, many of which achieved international popularity. The most famous of these Vienna-produced musicals was ‘The Merry Widow’ which was premiered in 1905. He also wrote other works for orchestra, including a symphonic poem ‘Fieber’.

It is not so well known that after studying at the Prague Conservatory, Lehar spent his early career as a conductor of military bands in Loxoncz, Pola, Trieste, Budapest and Vienna until 1899. It is believed the most of his marches were written during this period, before he turned to his intensive production of operettas. He died in Ishl on October 24, 1948.

Lehnhardt, GM von Julius

Julius Lehnhardt was one of the earliest of the outstanding German composers. His marches set a pattern which is evident in the later writings of men such as Blankenberg, Teike and von Blon, the very strong martial flavor that has become known as the German March Style.

Lehnhardt was born in Berlin in 1837. For some years he was a musician in the 2 Garde Regiment zu fuss (2nd Foot Guards Regiment) in Berlin. What instrument he played is not known. While serving in this band he composed his finest marches and they were often played by German Army bands.

Some time later he entered government service in the Auswartige Amt (Foreign Affairs office) as a Geheimer Hofrat (Secret Privy Councillor). It is evident that his education and abilities far exceeded those of a normal military musician for his position was a responsible one indeed.

Nothing is known about his later life or whether he continued to compose music after he left the Army, Julius Lehnhardt died in Berlin in 1913.

Lentini, Jack C. (1892-1972)

New to the Heritage of the March series is the music of Jack C. Lentini who was born in Priolo, Sicily on December 8, 1892. He learned to play the guitar and the mandolin with his mother’s oldest brother and his cousin before coming to the United States on March 12, 1906. Maestro Lentini, whose first job in America was that of a barber, was usually called JC, although his real name was Concetto Lentini. He studied clarinet and saxophone with George Lynch, a New England Conservatory graduate, after which he was conductor of the Savoy Band of New Haven, Connecticut and the St. George Band of Neriden, Connecticut.

In 1921 Lentini moved to New York City where he studied harmony, composition and instrumentation with Maestro Francesco Gallo and also Gerardo Iasilli.

Lentini composed his first march in 1927.

JC Lentini organized a concert band in 1930 in New Britain, Connecticut and devoted the rest of his long and productive life, a span of some forty-years, to conducting his band at concerts and various celebrations and to composing marches. An American citizen, Lentini once stated that he had never earned a formal university degree in music, but he smilingly added ‘Of course, my head is my degree.”

Widely known in musical circles for more than sixty years, Jack C. Lentini died on November 24, 1972 a long-time and well-liked resident of New Britain.

Liberati, Allesandro (1847-1927)

Allesandro Liberati although a stalwart of the old world tradition, was one of the greatest showmen in the history of American Bands. He was cornet virtuoso of great renown, an accomplished conductor of his own popular band, and the composer of many fine solos for the cornet and a substantial number of marches. His uniform was decorated with a multitude of medals honoring his cornet virtuosity and his magnetic personality never failed to touch the audience whether he was playing or conducting.

Signor Liberati was born in Frascati, Italy on August 24, 1847. His parents Carlo and Felicetta were both musically talented, his father was a well known bugle player who used the then popular keyed trumpet. Liberati began comprehensive music studies at an early age, taking up the cornet at age 12 and performing an aria from II Trovatore as his first public solo when he was 14. Liberati’s success was due to his natural gift as a musician with excellent training and experience and unremitting hard work throughout his career. He joined the Pal army in 1864 and served for two years as a cornetist in the First Cacciatori Band of Rome; in 1866 he was a bugler in the Garibaldi’s army and began to give instruction on the bugle.

News of Liberati’s career spread to America and Patrick S. Gilmore invited him to play as special soloist at the Peace Jubilee of 1872. Then in 1873 Lord Bufferin of Ottawa offered Liberati the directorship of Artillery Bands for all of Canada. After two years in that position, Liberati recognizing a much wider field for his talents, returned to America and applied for US citizenship in 1876.

During the period of 1877-1889 Liberati was in tremendous demand as asoloist across the nation. He was especially noted for his fantastic technical virtuosity in particular for his rapid tonguing and facility in playing octave jumps. Starting in 1877 he was soloist with Baldwin’s Boston Band of Boston for two seasons and then played at the opening of the famous Brighton Beach Hotel on Coney Island where he caused such a sensation that he was booked for two seasons. During the winter seasons of ’79 and ’80 he played first trumpet in the New York Philharmonic. Throughout this period Liberati was often engaged for foreign dignitaries visiting the US and was frequently decorated by them. He played for three Interstate Expositions in Chicago and also played solo engagements in New York’s Central Park and San Francisco’s Golden gate Park where he attracted such large crowds that the streetcar lines could not accommodate all the people. President Grover Cleveland head Liberati as soloist at the opening of the 7th Regiment Armory in New York City.

In 1889 Liberati organized his own band entirely from eastern musicians and began touring Canada and the US. From New york all the way to Portland, Oregan. Arthur Pryor was engaged as trombone soloist for aprt of this tour. Liberati’s bands was espically popular with Oregonist and played the summer seasons of 1891, ’92 and ’93 there. A prime example of Liberati’s public flamboyance was in the Grand Army of the Republic parade through Philadelphia in Sept, 1899. He was Grand Marshal of the parade and led his 112 piece band while perched atop a stallion, alternately playing and directing with his gold cornet. President McKinley and other dignitaries in the reviewing stand were entertained with the playing of variations of Liberati’s own Kansas City. Star

The Liberati Band continued to play in Canada and America for many years. As late as 1922 they were engaged in Tulsa, Okla, for several weeks. Occasionally Liberati, who had been playing with false teeth for a number of years, would pick up his cornet and play along. He recorded cylinders of many of his solo works and played solo cornet with his band for several of his compositions for the Edison Phonograph Co. He died in New York City on November 6, 1927.

Lincke, Paul

Paul Lincke is often referred to as The Father of German Musical Comedy. His compositions in this field have become world famous. He was born in 1866 in Berlin, son of the custodian of the town hall, who was an occasional musician himself. Lincke was first a violinist in the Rudolf Kleinnow town orchestra in Wittenberg and later a bassoonist. He learned piano by himself. In 1893 he became the conductor at the Apollo Theater, the largest music hall in Germany. He was brought to Paris as musical director for the world famous Folies Bergere in 1897, but two years later returned to Berlin and the Apollo theater. Many of his marches were composed (the same as some of Sousa’s best) for scenes in his musical comedies. A few, of which several are on this record, were written strictly as marches. Probably his best known and most played work is The Glowworm which he wrote as part of his Lysistraite. His publishing business Apollo Verlag was one of the largest in Germany and produced an endless stream of fine music Lincke died in 1946 in Clausthal-Zellerfield, Germany.

Lithgow, Alex

The son of a tinsmith, Alex Lithgow was born in Glasgow, Scotland in December of 1870. Six years later his family emigrated to Invercargill, New Zealand, where both he and his brother Tom were tutored in music. At 11, Alex was admitted to the Invergargill Garrison Band and after five years he had become the principal cornet soloist. By the time he was 20, Lithgow had been selected as the band’s leader.

In 1894 Alex Lithgow moved to Launceston, Tasmania to conduct the St. Joseph’s Band and in 1898 had founded the Launceston Orchestraal Society. In 1909 his brother then leader of the Invergargill band, wrote Alex requesting a new march for an approaching band concert. Because of the immediacy of the contest, Alex responded with a piece his publisher ahd rejected. For this occasion he named the march Invercargill and dedicated it to the citizens of that city as memento of the years he had spent there as boy.

Soon after the immediate and sweeping success of Invercargill Alex Lithgow came to be regarded as one of the world’s foremost composers. Unfortunately, many of his marches were not copyrighted and others were protected only within the British Empire. Further more of his compositions were lost forever when they were sent for printing in Germany just before the outbreak of World War 1. As a result, Lithgow was no as rich as he might have been. And could never afford to devote all his time to composition.

In his later years he worked as a printer on a newspaper by day, and composed most of the night. This strenuous existence finally took its toll and Lithgow became an invalid. Midway through 1929 the March King of the Antipodes died, leaving his widow a son and two daughters

He left as well a legacy of stirring music, perhaps our brief tracing of the epitaph of his life’s work will engrave it more firmly on the pages of music history

Lope, Santiago

Meastro Lope was born May 23, 1871 in a small village in the Province of Logrono in Spain. His father, a handkerchief weaver and his mother discovered Santiago’s natural talent for music at a very early time in his life. They enlisted Don Angel de Miguel, the Plaza organist to teach him basic music which Santiago learned as well as piano.

At the age joined the village band and played piccolo. While playing in that band he learned much about other instruments of the band as well. One day a military band appeared in the village and its director took note of young Lope. He advised his parents that Santiago had great talent and suggested further training. Lope was sent to Madrid to live with relatives who enrolled him in the Royal Conservatory of Music where he studied violin, harmony and composition. At the age of fifteen, he joined Madrid’s famous Apolo Theater Orchestra. In a short time he moved up to principal violinist with the concert orchestra of the Sociedad Artistico Musical. At twenty, he was conducting the Romeo Theater Orchestra and in that position premiered several Zarzuelas. Besides being well accepted as an accomplished violinist, conductor and composer, he was recognized as an authority on instrumentation. Many celebrated composers, among them Federico Chueca would seek him to orchestrate their composition.

Santiago went to Valencia in 1902 to direct and conduct at the Ruzofa theater. Soon he was busy organizing the famous Banda Municipal de Valencia. Several years later the renowned Banda Municipal de Madrid was formed, based on the instrumentation that Lope had established in Valencia. The Valencia Municipal Band held its premier performance on December 9, 1903. The program featured two of Lope’s compositions a paso doble Valencia and a march L ‘Entra de la Murta.

The newspapers of Valencia requested that Santiago compose a paso doble for a feature bullfight to be held at he Plaza de Toros de Valencia on June 29, 1905. Outdoing himself, he wrote not one but four paso dobles (all of which appear on this record) one for each featured matador. These were Gallilio for Fernado Gomez, Dauder for Augustin Dauder, Angelillo for Angel Gonzales and Vito for Manuel Perez (bullfighters often used nicknames).

Maestro Santiago Lope died on September 25, 1906 at he early age of 35. It is interesting to contemplate what great music he might have composed if he had been spared to an old age.

Losey, Frank H.

Frank H. Losey was born in Rochester, New York on March 18, 1872 ad died in Erie Pennsylvania on May 3, 1931. Although few details are known of his life, he appears to have traveled outside of New York and Pennsylvania. In addition to being a skilled performer on cornet and trombone, Losey was well known in band circles as a composer, educator and music editor. As a young man, he served as a brass instructor at the Mansfield Pennsylvania Conservatory of Music and conducted the Hanover Band. He joined Carl Fischer in 1902 as a music editor, and later worked in the same capacity for the Vandersloot Publishing Company. In 1914 he established his own Losey Military Band School in Erie Pennsylvania.

Throughout his life he composed over 300 works for band which were published by several of the leading music houses. These included sixty excellent marches (of which Gloria is the best known) which merit his inclusion in the Heritage of the March series as a significant American composer in this musical idiom.

Luna, Pablo

This famous Spanish composer Pablo Luna was born in Alhama de Aragon in 1880 and died in Madrid in 1942. Following the completion of his musical studies in Zaragoza, made possible by an award to him of a special scholarship. Luna became extremely active as both a composer and arranger. His fame as a composer began to grow with the production of his zarzuela Musetta in 1908; this fame was assured two years later when his Molinos de Viento (The Windmills) was produced. Shortly thereafter Pablo Luna was appointed to director of the Zarzuela Theater of Madrid and as its director he made many innovations which improved the standards of the Spanish lyric theater.

Luna created approximately 150 theatrical works, many of these still in popular repertoire in his native country. Las Calatravas was the final work he completed about one year before he died. Besides Molinos de Viento his most popular zarzuela, his other frequently performed theater works include Los Cadetes de la Reina, Benamor and El Nino Judio. Holding a position of supremacy in the field of Spanish light opera for more than 25 years, Pablo Luna created music which is filled with the atmosphere and melodies so characteristic of the best in Spanish music.

Lozzi, Michele F.

He was born in Lucito Compobasso Itkaly on October 24 1876. He began the study of music at eight years of age with his father who was a band director in Italy. Michele continued studies with his father and played the clarinet and saxophone in his fathers band until he was 18. He was then drafted into the Italian Army at Alessandia. During his years in the Army he studied harmony, composition and conducting with Maestro Asiola. After three years he returned to his native city and there organized and conducted a band. Lozzi toured a great party of Italy with theband and met outstanding success everywhere. In 1900 he married Adele Della Fazia of San Buono. Six years later he came to America with his wife and three children. Esther, Iris and Oscar who Lozzi himself started on the piano became a renonwn concert pianist composer and teacher during his young lifetime.

He moved to Providence RI in 1908 and settled in the Federal Hill section of the city known as Little Italy. While there he organized his own band of 50 musicians and performed in many cities throughout New England. He also directed bands in numerous concerts and some in movies theatres. Besides directing bands he was a clarinet and saxophone virtuoso. He played with Band of America and Reeves Band of Providence RI.

He also started the Modern School of Music and many of his students went on to distinguish themselves such as Al Conte with the Guy Lombardo’s band.

On January 21 1964 he died in his 87 year leaving two daughters and his wife in Providence RI.

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Maillet, Reynaldo (1890-1946)

Born in Montreal, Maillet studied music with Lavigne and Vandermeerschen. From 1920 to 1946 he was a member of the band of HM Grenadier Guards (Canadian) in Montreal as well as being a music arranger for the Canadian Broadcasting Corps.

Manente, Guiseppe (1867-1941)

Guiseppe Manente, born February 3, 1867, in Guglionesi di Campobasso, Italy made his debut as a solo contralto in the local church at the age of seven under the direction of his father, an educated and dedicated musician, whose early training and discipline developed the boy’s natural talent for music.

At thirteen Manente gave a solo trumpet concert at the Liceo Lanza in Foggia. Encouraged by his father and by his own musical success he then studied harmony with professor Carusi and was admitted to the Music Conservatory of San Pietro at Magella in Naples. There he studied trumpet with Domenico Gatti, Camillo de NArdis, Maestro O. Vesella and Cesare de Sanctus.

As a young soldier in 1889, Manente won a competition to become the capo-musica (head musician) of the Sixtieth Regiment in Novara.

At the Exposition in Turin in 1900, he organized a huge concert of eight hundred musicians divided into sixteen military band. His own regimental band, considered one of the finest in Italy, played during the Court dinner at the Royal Palace at the Inauguration of the Turin Exposition and was the only band to play concerts the great hall at the Exposition of 1902.

At one time Manente was head of the private band of the King Fuad of Egypt and finally in 1928 he became conductor of the Banda della Guardia di Finanza, one of the great bands of Italy, which still exists today. He had a long and illustrious career with this band whose reputation owes much to him. He died in 1941.

Guiseppe Manente was not only a great band director, but also a fine operatic director and arranger of other composers music. He conducted Il Trovatore during the 1904 season in Pescia. Leoncavallo praised his conducting of the Prologue to I Pagliacci and Mascagni admired his arrangement of that composers Iris.

Manente was also a very prolific composer himself with over 300 works of various types to his credit. His best known compositions are marches, ceremonial pieces and waltzes for the band. He wrote an operetta in three acts Il Paradiso dei Cigni and a fantasia in three tempos for band La Festa di Nozze which Wolf Ferrari praised as a truly original work. In 1902 Manente wrote a musical drama entitled Alla Regata. Today however the composer is remembered mainly for his marches, which are noted for their exquisitely beautiful melodies particularly in the trios. One, the Brigate Abruzzi won the Sonzogno Compeition of 1907.

Ironically, Manente’s marches are seldom played in Italy now and his music is better known and more frequently heard outside his own country.

Mantagazzi, Gian Battista

Gian Battista Mantagazzi was born October 23, 1889 in the southern corner of Tessin. He received his musical education in the conservatory of Genf, where he passed the examinationas a Masstro. He served as trumpter during World War 1 in the Tessinar Battalion Band, after which he studied at the Conservatory of Balogna specializing in band music. Before returning to Switzerland, Mantagazzi was Director of the Guiseppe Verdi School of Music and the conductor of the municipal band of Genua-Nervi. In 1924 he took over leadership of the municipal band in Shaffhausen, Switzerland and in 1928 won the coveted position of Director of Music in Zurich from among 120 applicants, a post re retained until his death in 1958.

In addition to numerous marches, he composed considerable music for festivals and films. The Italian and German influences are discernable in many of his composition. He was very well liked public figure and was the recipient of many personal honors throughout his long musical career.

Marquina, Pascual

Pascual Marquina was born in Calatayud, a province of Zaragoza, Spain in 1873. He first became involved in music as achild choral singer and later played piccolo in the local band. He was named director of the Bands de Daroca when only seventeen years old. After enlisting in the army he played in various orchestras in Barlona where he also studied harmony and composition with Mastros Martiniez, Sorolla, Varela and Bonet. He subsequently organized and directed several military bands.

In 1913 Marquina became director of the orchestra of Teatro de la Zaruela of idrid where he conducted the premier zarzuelas (Spanish light operas) of such famous composers as Chapi, Giminez and Breton. He composed and arranged numerous works for band, some of which have become world famous. In 1943 he was awarded highest honours by the Circulo de Bellas Artes de Midrid.

Miller, Hiram C. (1867-1941)

Hiram Carney Miller was born near Honey Brook, Pennsylvania in 1867; the family moved to Parksberg, not far from Philadelphia where Hiram lived for more than half a century. He learned the painting and paper-hanging trade as a youth but his real interest was in music; he joined the old Sadsburyville Band and later became its conductor. It was during the time he played in this band that he first stated composing band music; these first compositions played by this band were greeted with such enthusiasm that he decided to continue writing band music. After the band ceased to exist, Miller had a few of his compositions printed at his own expense and he gave these to other band leaders – as his music became more popular he started selling his compositions and at one time had a mailing list some 10,000 bands to which he supplied his original scores.

One of his first compositions Cupid’s Charms (a serenade) became so popular that it was played by bands throughout the world. It is estimated that Miller composed more than 300 pieces of music for band or orchestra during his busy and active life and many of these were patriotic or religious in nature.

A prominent citizen of Parksberg, Hiram Miller became a charter member of the Parksberg Presbyterian Church when it was organized there in 1906. He was the church’s first trustee and also the leader of its choir, positions that he retained for many years. He was also the secretary and treasurer of this church’s Sunday school. For many years he was a member of the Borough School Board.

Hiram Miller and his wife had five children; the entire family was musical – their family orchestra played frequently for the church and for civic activities in the community.

One of the greatest honors in Millers life was that one of his last marches (Growth of a Great Nation) was performed by the United States Marine Band over a nation-wide radio hook-up on June 19, 1941; at this time Miller was confined in the Chester County Hospital – the band notified him that they were playing this march especially for him. Eleven days later, Hiram Miller passed away.

It should be noted that Miller was entirely self-taught; this increases the significance of his success as a composer of band music.

Missud, Jean Marie

The marches and biography of Jean Missud make a very interesting addition to the Heritage of the March series. His life was some what different and his instrument, the clarinet, certainly different, from most of the composers previously used on the series.

Missud was born in Nice, France on April 25, 1852. He studied music from the earliest possible age, in his home town. During his youth an American naval vessel visited Nice and he was able to enlist as a musician in the ship’s bands. When his term was ended, he went ashore in Boston and searched for a musical opportunity. He found it with Brown’s Brigade Band, in which he played for several years.

Soon he became director of the famous Salem Cadet band, sometimes called the Second Corps of cadets Band. It actually was the official band of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston. Many memorable concerts were played by this outstanding organization, including a command performance for Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle in 1896.

Missud himself wrote a number of marches at least 40, and composed much in other forms as well. Possibly his best known work was Manana a Chilean dance. It is still often played in an arrangement made in 1942 by Paul Yoder. His earliest compositions were published by many firms in the Boston area, but in the early 1880’s he funded his own company in Salem, Massachusetts and it continued to publish his music and that of many others until Missud’s death in 1941.

Mitchell, Lieutenant Commander Anthony

Mitchell was leader of the Navy Band’s dance orchestra in 1940, solo clarinetist in 1945, Third Leader in 1956 and Assistant Leader in 1960. He was appointed Leader in 1962 and presided over enlargement and diversification of the band before his retirement on January1, 1969.

Myers, Francis A. (1875-1960)

He was born on March 15 1875 in Spring Grove Pennsylvania and was educated in the public school system there. He entered John Hopkins Medical School but left after three years to play clarinet in John Philip Sousa Band. Beyond his experience with Sousa he spent a total of 4 years as a clarinest in the official band of the St. Louis World’s Fair (1904) and with an orchestra on the SS Potsdam as the ship sailed between New York and Antwerp. Later he conducted his own band on the Chautauqua circuits.

In 1912 he settled in Utica NY where he taught music in various area high schools and directed numerous bands. At the outbreak of WW1 he enlisted in the Army and was assigned to several training centers where he organized and directed military bands. Upon his return to Utica he started the Myers Band School in 1922 where he taught performance on various band instruments. Connected with the school and established at the same time was the Myers Music House which published many of the more than 200 band compositions he wrote.

During the 1940s he was appointed a director and adjudicator for the All American Drum Corps and Band Association.

He was an active member of the Masons and the Shrine and died in Rome NY on September 6 1960.

Nowowiejski, Feliks (1877-1946)

He was born in Wartenburg Germany on February 7 1877. Little is known about his youth but he studied with some very famous musicians. In Berlin he studied with the famous composer Max Bruchat the Stern Conservatory and also attended the Royal Academy of Music there. Other instructors were Friedlander, Bellerman and Dessoir. He also attended the School of Church Music in Ragensburg and took some lessons from Antonin Dvorak in Prague. Although he served as a conscript with the 4th Grenadiers at Allenstein it could not be determined if he played in the Regimental band.

In 1903 he won the Paderewski Prize and the Meyerbeer scholarship and from 1902-1905 made study tours of Europe, Asia and Africa. After another stay in Berlin (1905-1909) as a teacher and choirmaster he returned to Krakow where he served as director of the Krakow Musical Society and conducted concerts in Warsaw. Finally he was appointed professor of church music and organ at the Conservatory of Posen where he remained from 1919 to 1926. In 1935 he was awarded the Polish State Music Prize.

The Deutsche Militar Musiker Zeitung refers to him as ‘march composer with a church music background’. He composed operas, ballets, choral music, two symphonies and many other works including several marches one of which was entered in a Hawkes contest. It is interesting to note that his association with marches evidently dates back to his Germna period’ only and may not be connected with the musical output of his Polish period. His marches are composed in the German style and bear German titles. Hence they differ substantially from the music of his later period. He died in Posen on January 23 1946.

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O’Neill, Charles Doc. Mus, B mus, LRAM LGSM

Of Irish descent, born in Glasgow, Scotland, Charles O’Neill became such a part of the musical scene in Quebec that he has often been thought to be of French descent, in spite of his name. O’Neill was a church organist in Scotland by the time he was twelve years old, but his favorite instrument was the cornet, and he was a leading cornetist in many bands during his youth. In 1910 he came to Canada and was quickly given the job of Bandmaster of the Royal Canadian Garrison Artillery Band. In 1922 this group was disbanded but concurrently the Royal 22nd Regiment was formed, and he was chosen as Director of Music of its band. He remained in this post becoming in time, Senior Director of Music of the Canadian Army until his retirement in 1937. Charles O’Neill composed numerous works for orchestras, concert bands, choral groups, solos for various instruments, etc. He was a founder of the American Bandmasters Association along with Sousa, Goldman, Meyers and al, the other band greats of the time. He later became President of the ABA.

Olivadoti, Joseph

Joseph Olivadoti was born on November 7, 1893 in the little village of Cortale, Italy. His family was a musical one, and he began his musical studies at the age of ten, first on French Horn, then saxophone, clarinet and finally the oboe, which later became his specialty.

He came to America in 1911, performing with the De Vito band in Atlantic City for three years. He then moved to Hibbing, Minnesota where he met his childhood sweetheart from Italy. After several years as a theater musician and a member of the Backman’s Million Dollar Band, he settled in Chicago as theater oboist and teacher at Vandercook College of Music.

In 1942 he enlisted and served for thirty-two months in the Navy, after which he moved to California to perform in the Long Beach Municipal Band and Philharmonic Orchestra until his retirement a few years ago.

Olivaditi is proud to be considered as American composer, and has been creating and arranging music most of his life. His hundred publications for band have been played extensively by school and professional bands. He still enjoys his greatest satisfaction from his musical compositions.

Orlando, Roberto

Finding biographical data of Roberto Orlando proved to be a very difficult task. The lives of Italian musicians were not documents nearly as well as those of other nationalities in Europe, however, persistent efforts over several years did produce a little. This small amount hardly does justice to this fine composer, however it is hopeless to look further.

Roberto Orlando was born in Termo, Italia in 1856 and died in Milano in 1924 or 1925. For most of his life he was the co-director of a school for musically talented children in Avigliano, in central Italy.

He did not ever play in a military band and most of his marches are the type known as ‘Marcia sinfonica’. Intended to be played in concerts, they are very nearly (as are so many Italian marches) ‘miniature symphonic works.’

While in Avigliano he conducted the school band and it received considerable acclaim.

It appears that one of his best students, Gerardo Iasilli, when he emigrated to the United States, brought with him (it is not known whether with, or without, the permission and agreement of Orlando) many of Orlando’s marches, doubtless in manuscript. Since there was very little publication of band music in Italy at that time, most of it existing solely in ‘manuscritto’ (and kept in the library of , and played, only the band of which its composer was a member) the publication of these marches by two New York Italian firms was probably the greatest exposure his music received.

Iasilli’s name appears on some of these editions as arranger.

What little biographical information is given was obtained from Orlando’s sole surviving child, some years ago. Nicholas has since died and even when provided the little information, was sick, and quite forgetful.

Best information is that Orlando never left Italy and devoted his life to music – teaching, conducting and composing.

Oscheit, Max

Max Oscheit was primarily an orchestra musician. He as the son a Prussian bandmaster and was born in Berlin in 1880. His major instrument was the violin. For many years he played first violin in orchestras in Berlin, but he also could play piano. March writing was not his major musical field, as he composed over 100 works of which marches were not even a quarter. His output tended toward light orchestra music, such as waltzes, intermezzos and various dance forms. Such of his marches as were published for band were invariably arranged for that medium by someone other than himself. The character of them would seem to indicate that they were written originally for small orchestras and piano. Many of them are surely of a most original type, not often heard among other march composers. He died in Berlin in February 1923.

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Pando, Guiseppe (1931- )

Guiseppe Pando was born on March 19, 1931 in Calabria, Italy. There he studied clarinet and accordion. He came to Montreal where he studied composition and orchestration. In 1952 he enlisted in the RCOC Band, and later was transferred to the Royal Canadian Artillery Band at St. Hubert, then the Stadacona Band at Halifax with rank of Master Warrant Officer, with which he currently serves.

In Addition to his marches, he composes all types of selections, ranging from accordion solos to large orchestra works as well as chamber music.

Panella, Frank

The name of Frank Panella is doubtless better known to musicians in school band and various other bands in both America and other countries than is the name of his brother Louis. This largely true because of his very popular march ‘On the Square’ which is played a great deal everywhere and one of the marches most used by the Household Cavalry of England (the Life Guards, and Blues and Royal). Major Jackson of the Life Guards was once asked “why do you use it so much?’ The answer “Well, it lies very well, is quite easy and seems to fit perfectly for playing on horseback.”

Frank Panella was born on January 14, 1878, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as was his brother Louis. Beginning his musical career at the age of seven with clarinet lessons given by his brother-in-law, Professor Mario S. Rocereto, Frank also received from his teacher some conducting lessons. During his teenage years he played in several Pittsburgh theaters. Later he conducted at band concerts in district parks, as well as teaching clarinet and conducting at Pitt University and Carnegie Tech College. He also directed for a time the Grand Army Band and the Westinghouse Company Band and served as assistant conductor of Rocereto’s Pittsburgh Band.

When Victor Herbert conducted in Pittsburgh, Frank played clarinet under this direction, He fund the Panella Music Company in his home town to publish his compositions. A member of Local 60 of the Musicians Union for more than 50 years, Panella was a member and also personnel manager of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He played clarinet with Arthur Pryor and Carl Eduarde and with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. During World War I he was associated wit the US Army School of Music.

The composer of more than 40 marches and arrangements for band, Frank Panella died at his home in Crafton , Penn on May 13, 1953 at the age of 75.

Panella, Louis

Louis Panella was born in Pittsburgh, Penn in 1881 and spent his whole life in that area. He was on staff of Carnegie Institute of Technology as an instructor in trumpet for a period of 26 years.

He was a composer of popular songs and marches, the number of which came to over 200 at the time of his death in 1940. He also performed with several Pittsburgh area orchestras including the Pittsburgh Symphony.

An interesting story is recorded concerning one of Louis Panella’s earliest successes in the field of composition. There was a contest being sponsored by Berton-Sun Telegraph committee. The Sun Telegraph is a Pittsburgh daily newspaper and the Berton Braley society was a musical organization.

The composition Just You was not regarded as much by Panella and he decided to discard it. His wife, however, persuaded him to submit it in the contest with the result that it won first prize of $100.

Louis Panella wrote most his marches in honor of people, places and organizations. During the First World War he wrote one for the American Red Cross and later ones for various colleges.

The last five years of his life brought Panella very bad eyes sight problems and his compositions were few. Inn order to get the few he wanted to write on paper he would dictate the notation to his brother Frank, who would put it in writing for him. Louis Panella died in his home in the Beechview section of Pittsburgh. He was 50 years of age.

Paquet, Joseph I. (1883-?)

Born in 1883 in St. Remi, Quebec he studied the cornet, violin and Clavichord. He was for many years a member of the Montreal Orchestra and one of the principal founding members of the Montreal Symphonic Orchestra. For 33 years he was a member of the band of the Grenadier Guards (Canadian) in Montreal and was director of the Garde Civile.

He was also the founding director of L’Harmonie Metroplitaine and for 25 years an arranger for the Canadian Broadcasting Corps. He composed more than 120 popular songs and 50 works for band and orchestra.

Pares, Gabriel

Gabriel Pares was the son of Philippe Pares, the solo clarinetist with the Garde Republicaine Band under Paulas. He studied cornet with Maury, harmony with Theodore Dubois, and composition with LeoDe Libes. After winning first prizes in cornet and harmony, he enlisted in the military service and was promoted rapidly, winning the leadership of the French Navy Band of Toulon at the age of twenty-three. In 1893 he was selected from among all French military bandmasters to direct the Garde Republicaine Band, where he remained until 1911. He led this famous band o numerous concert tours in foreign lands, including the St. Louis Exposition of 1904.

In addition to numerous marches, Pares composed extensively for band in other forms, and contributed many fine transcriptions of symphonic masterworks. He was decorated as an Officer of the Legion of Honor.

Lucien Cailliet, a student of Pares, arranged two marches on this record Le Grognard and Le Voltiguer for publication in America.

Pecsi-Prichystal, Joseph (1874-1958)

Joseph Prichystal was born on March 3, 1874 in the Moravian hamlet of Biskupitz. As a youth interested in music he was initially tutored by the local organist and later studied trombone and string bass with Leos Janacek in Bruno. Next he went to Vienna where he completed orchestral studies while staying with relatives. Since Prichystal had always been fascinated with band music, he volunteed for the army and joined the 2nd Regiment in Vienna in 1892. As a young NCO he next joined the Hungarian 61st Regiment under bandmaster Sommer in 1895. When his regiment left Vienna he transferred to the 3rd Tyolean Imperial Rifles in 1899 in order to remain in the capital. At this time the regimental bandmaster was Rudolf Achleitner, a composer of well known marches. Finally in 1901 Prichystal joined the Infantry Regiment Carl I, King of Rumania, No. 6, which was to remain his parent unit until the collapse of the Empire. Once again he served under the baton of Bandmaster Sommer and later under Dr. Czernin. He moved to Budapest with the regiment in 1905 and in the same year he was promoted to Regimental Drum Major. This was a position of considerable responsibility as, in reality, he acted as the assistant bandmaster; the assignment was always given the most capable NCO.

Finally the position of regimental bandmaster became vacant in 1907 and Prichystal was employed by the officers of the regiment in that capacity. At the time Budapest was the home garrison of seven regimental bands, and competition between them demanded performances of the highest quality. Thus Prichystal had ample opportunity to demonstrate his musical abilities; consequently, many compositions stem from this period. He also served as an adjudicator on the board which selected marches for the Landwehr (German militia), made friends with many famous composers of the period, including Lehar and Fucik. Among his own compositions Prichystal’s favourite was the symphonic poem The Danube Legend.

Shortly after World War 1, the regiment deployed to Neusatz while the reserve battalion and the band were stationed in Pecs. Prichystal became a Hungarian citizen there and adopted the name Pecsi . During the war he and his band were very active and staged many concerts, mainly featuring the music of Richard Wagner. At that time Wagner’s music was still partially banished from official programs in the Empire as a result of his activities during the 1848 uprisings in Germany. When the Empire collapsed the Serbians took Novy Sad and Pecsi returned to Budapest.

Pesci formed a mounted cavalry band during the Communist period I Hungary in 1919, but then Horthy drove out the Communists and established the Honved (national Hungarian Army). Richard Fricsay Sr. organized the band service of the Honved and bandmasters now held the rank of full officer rather than being employed by regimental officers as in the days of the Empire. Pesci served as staff Bandmaster, with the rank of Major of the 5th Regiment at Sopron until 1926 when he handed the position over to his son. After his retirement he was musically active as bandmaster and conductor of the State Railways Band and Orchestra respectively; he served in this position until 1954. He was also a fervent advocate of the Hungarian youth music movement. Pesci died on Nov. 27, 1958.

Peckham, Joseph (1849-1904)

Joseph Sanford Peckham , a native Aquidneck Islander, was born in Newport, RI on February 1849. Never venturing far from Newport and the nearby towns of Middleport and Portsmouth, he was educated in Newport Schools.

As a resident of the historical seacoast city, he became active in its community activities. A devout member of the Channigg memorial Church, he was for many years the choirmaster and a member of its male quartet. He was noted for his deep rich bass voice.

He served as a member of the Newport Naval Training Station Band from the time of its organization until he died, but his instrument is not known.

Peckham’s interests were all directed toward music and composing from which he made his livelihood. He composed much music, including quite a number of marches, many of which were titled for various military, fraternal and veteran’s organizations active at the time in Newport and the area.

On November 27, 1904 Peckham died at his home after suffering a seizure resulting from Bright’s disease. He was laid to rest at Island cemetery in the city he loved so well. At the time of his death, there was no account given of any survivors.

Pecking, Hermann (1879-1970)

Friedrich Gustav Picking was born in January 1879 in Ellrich, Germany. This place is located in East Germany. His father was a doctor and his parents were not musically inclined at all. At the age of 16 Picking entered a music school – Max Teinhard’s Musikscule in Hartz. His instrument was the trumpet.

In 1903 he moved to Sweden where thru some unexplained happenstance his name was changed to Pecking. He stayed in Sweden until 1909 playing in various orchestras all over the country. He then went to Denmark where he played in the Aarbus Theater Orchestra until the outbreak of World War 1.

As a German citizen he returned to Germany to fulfill his military obligation and did that as a military musician in Hamburg until 1918. Pecking then returned to Aarhus where he lived for many years and also became a Danish citizen. In about 1927 he moved to Copenhagen playing there in many orchestras until 19139 at the start of World War II. Since he was German born, it became impossible for him to obtain work as a musician and he was forced to accept any work available. After the war he continued composing and returned to some playing. Every year until he was 85 he played in the German Church in Copenhagen during the Easter services. He died in Copenhagen on Feb 11, 1970.

Piefke, Rudolf (1835-1900)

He was born on June 3 1836 at Zielenzig and enrolled in his brother’s band in Frankfurt in October 1852. In Oct 1860 he became the bandmaster with the newly formed infantry Regiment No. 48 at Kustrin, a post he held for some 40 years. He saw combat with his men in the wars of 1864, 1866 and 1870-71.

Like his older brother he was famous as an arranger and composer and likewise belonged to the group of bandmasters responsible for the rise and renown of Prussian band music. His marches and waltzes are mostly forgotten today., but some marches are still used by regiments in Sweden rather than in Germany. When he retired because of failing health he held the degree of Royal Conductor of Music. He died on November 24, 1900.

Platt, Dexter W.

Dexter ‘Dick’ Platt was born I Spring Green, Wisconsin, on Nov 18, 1862. Dick was educated in the Wisconsin public school system and graduated from Madison Univ. where he was prominent in musical activities.

The Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad was expanding at the time and established a town at the junction point of Sanborn, Iowa. The Platt family moved to this town in 1883, and started a dry goods business. GW Platt and Sons Company.

Upon the death of his father, Dick took over running the business but his heart was not in this line of work; he much preferred music. To satisfy this craving, he advertised in the Sanborn Pioneer for musicians, then organized and directed a local town band known as the Beach and Bowers Band.

Leaving the dry goods business in the hands of his mother and her hired help, DW Platt chose to become actively involved in music for the rest of his life. As one of the foremost trombone players of the time, Platt played under Thornton Boyer and Clarence Dalbey with the Iowa State Band and appeared at concerts with this famous organization a the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

Dick was also well known for his musical compositions – which naturally favored trombone. He also played and traveled with the Ringling Circus and was friendly with Russell Alexander, Walter English and Charlet Duble. He was on his third season with the Ringling Circus band when he was obliged to resign due to his failing health. After unsuccessfully seeking relief I Arizona and Colorado, he returned home in hopes that rest and change would bring back his good health.

On August 16, 1902 Dexter Platt died in his mother’s home in Sanborn, Iowa from pulmonary congestion.

Platt was an only son and never married. Upon his death royalties from his compositions were transferred to his mother until she passed away in 1905.

Popy, Francis

Born on July 1, 1874 I Lyon, France, Francis Popy dedicated himself to music as a young boy out of respect and admiration of his father who directed the orchestra in Lyon. At eighteen he joined a regiment in Paris where, due to an understanding superior, he was allowed to finish his musical education at the conservatory while fulfilling his military obligation. Although Popy was appointed sous-chef de musique (assistant band director) at a very young age, he neither liked nor enjoyed military life. Leaving his regiment, his band and his uniform behind he began his brilliant career as a professional conductor and composer.

On returning to Lyon, he succeeded Luigini as director of the Fanfare Lyonasie, not only maintaining the excellence his predecessor had established, but leading the Fanfare on to greater success. Under his direction, the group won the prize of the King of Italy at the International Music Contest at Turin in 1902, performing before the Italian Royal Family. In additional to directing the Fanfare and Celestins at Lyon, Popy developed a reputation as one of France’s finest composers with his ballets, waltzes, operettas, suites and marches. The Society of Authors, Composers and Music Editors credits Popy with over 300 compositions for band and orchestra.

Never spoiled by success, Popy was loved by those who knew him and found his greatest happiness and inspiration at home among his wife and children. His health was never robust and toward the end of his life, he traveled rarely to Paris, preferring to spend his summers at Belleville on the Saone and his writers at Grasse in the cottage he named Massenet in admiration for that great composer. Francis Popy died at Belleville in 1928.

Post, Charles E.

Another on the seemingly endless list of circus musicians who composed music, especially marches, Charley Post was born on August 30, 1879 in Tonawanda, New York.

He served as a bugler and scout during the Spanish-American War, and later joined the National Guard band, soon becoming its bandmaster.

In 1913 Post commenced his circus career joining the Frank Robbins Circus band as trombonist. Later that year he married Laura Hunter, a bartonist and one of the very few women to play in usually all-male circus traveling bands.

The Post family is known to have lived in Los Angeles, Fort Smith, Arkansas, Seattle, and probably many other locales. He was at one time involved in the production of comedy movies in the silent era.

In addition to his published marches there are a number at the Circus World Museum in manuscript. Charley was director of at least two circus band, Al G. Barnes-Sells-Floto Shows (a subsidiary of Ringling Bros) and Pollack Bros. Shrine Circus.

Post and his wife returned to her home of Birnamwood, Wisc. In 1969. He died in Wausau, Wisc Feb. 20, 1970.

Pryor, Arthur

Considering the fact that as recently as about 1940, the name of Arthur Pryor was almost as familiar to most Americans as was the name of John Philip Sousa. It is really a shocking commentary that the majority of Americans today – including many band musicians - have never heard his name! It is amusing to note that his once extremely popular The Whistler and His Dog has been the musical signature of a television program for children, but even here most youthful viewers as unaware of the title or composer of that theme! Trombone players who seriously study their instrument are aware of his name because of the many solos he wrote for that instrument.

The greatest trombone virtuoso who ever lived and one of America’s leading bandleaders, Arthur Pryor was born on September 22, 1870 in St. Joseph, Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Pryor had three sons, all of whom became famous in the musical world; Arthur, Sam Jr. and Walter. Sam became a prominent drummer playing in various theater orchestras and bands; Walter was a fine cornetist.

Beginning at the age of six, Arthur Pryor studied piano with Professor Plato in St. Joseph and he also practiced under the supervision of his father. Pryor made his first public appearance in 1881, aged eleven having added the valve trombone to the other instruments her played. It is reported that Pryor practiced the slide trombone for two years using only two positions! After that he not only found the other five positions but also added several of his own. It was often said that Pryor used more artificial positions in his prime playing days than any other trombone soloist – and this certainly had much to with the beautiful tones he produced; other trombone virtuosos were quick to admit that they could produce the beauty that Pryor did with his horn. Family friends observed that Pryor practiced about ten hours a day, with little time remaining for any other activities.

At the age of fifteen, Pryor began playing at county fairs with local bands in his part of the country. When he well-known conductor Alessandro Liberati hears The Boy Wonder from Missouri play his trombone he promptly engaged him to play solos with his band which was touring the western states.

Pryor declined the offer in Gilmore’s Band in 1890 and instead he accepted the position as leader of the Stanley Opera Company. It was interestingly a former member of Gilmore’s Band who while playing in Sousa’s Band in 1892 called Sousa’s attention to Pryor’s great skill as a trombone virtuoso. Invited to audition for Sousa, Pryor did so, the young man astounded the veteran musicians in Sousa’s band with his complete mastery of the trombone. In fact, Frank Holton, who was playing first-chair trombone, was so impressed with Pryor’s skill that he promptly offered to resign from the band, stating that he was no longer needed now that Sousa had Pryor! Believing that Pryor might not be as talented as he sounded at that audition, Sousa urged Holton to continue with the band, which he did and Pryor was permitted to play his first solo only after being with the band for six months. The selection he played, his own Love thoughts, was greeted with great enthusiasm. Sousa was convinced now, and in 1893 Pryor became first chair trombonist as well as Soloist; and two years later he was appointed assistant conductor – an experience which proved to be of great value when he served as conductor for many of the recording sessions of Sousa’s Band (Sousa conducted his band for only a few of the hundreds of recordings made.)

Arthur Pryor played with Sousa’s Band until 1903 during which time he made several European tours wit the band; he was decorated by both the Czar of Russia and King Edward of England. Pryor claimed to have played about 10,000 solos with Sousa’s Band. It was at the suggestion of Herbert L. Clarke the Sousa’s Band cornet soloist, that Pryor began composing trombone solos for himself and from this time on music flowed frequently from his talented pen.

When he died on June 17, 1942 Arthur Pryor had achieved international fame as a composer, arranger, soloist and conductor of his won band.

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Reeves, David Wallis

David Wallis Reeves was born in Owego, New York on February 14, 1838 and became a cornetist in a local traveling band at the age of fourteen. He was soon offered a position in a circus band led the celebrated E-flat bugler player Tom Canham. In 1860 he joined the Rumsey and Newcombe Minstrels and earned a good reputation as soloist on a tour throughout England and Europe. On his return to America in 1862, he became a featured soloist with the well known Dodworth Band in New York City. He was engaged as the leader of the American Band in Providence in 1856 which soon performed widely in New England and eastern Canada.

Reeves was a friend of Patrick Gilmore and was selected to take over his band upon Gilmore’s death in 1892. After two years and many distinguished appearances with the Gilmore Band, Reeves returned to his old post with the American Band of Providence.

‘Wallie’ Reeves is the earliest of the pioneer march composers featured on our Heritage of the March Series and truly deserves the tribute paid hi by John Philip Sousa, who called him “The father of band music in America.”

Richards, Joseph John

The life pattern of Johnny Richards is similar to that of many of his contemporaries in American band music. He grew up in the American Midwest, he was drawn to music and bands at an early age; he had a long career I circus music; he eventually left the circus to direct municipal bands and teach. He was like Jewell and King, not only talented musician, but also an excellent conductor and composer who received the admiration and respect of those who worked for and with him.

Born Joseph John Richards in Cwmavon, Wales, he moved to the United States with his family in the early 1880’s and grew up in Kansas. Richards was attracted to music at a young boy and was playing horn in the town band by the age of ten. He later mastered the cornet and in his teens began the long circus career which culminated I his six year direction of the famous Ringling Brother Circus Band. Between circus seasons, he studied at Kansas Teachers College and the American Conservatory in Chicago where he was awarded a gold medal for excellence in music theory in 1917.

After leaving the circus, Richards used his formal education and experience with bands in teaching public school music in Pittsburgh, Kansas, Rock Falls, Illinois and Sterling, Illinois. While teaching in Sterling and directing that town’s municipal band, he traveled thirty miles to Mt. Morris, Illinois to direct the Old Timers Band of the Kable Printing Company where he is still remembered as a gentleman and fine musician. He maintained this hectic schedule from 1941 through 1944.

In 1945 Richards was called to California to direct the renowned Long Beach Municipal Band. He held this position until he retired in 1950. An early member of the American bandmasters Association, Richards served as president of that organization in 1948.

Throughout his long and busy career, Richards found the time to contribute much marches and gallops to American band literature. Although much of his work reflected his circus background, he understood, as a teacher, the need for music suitable for school music programs. Much of his music was consequently and effective for young musicians.

Johnny Richards died in March 1956 at Long Beach. He was survived by his wife, two brothers, one sister, vital melodies and many honors.

Riguet, Leon (1858-?)

Professor, pianst, organist, orchestra and band director Leon Ringuet was born in Louisville in 1858.

He studied music at the University of St. Joseph in New Brunswick and from 1871 to 1879 studied piano with Letondale and organ with Pelletier.

He moved to St. Hyacinthe in 1880 to be the organist at the Cathedral, Director of the Choir and conductor of the Harmonie du Cercle Philharmonique. He composed a number of musical works.

Rochwell, Charles (1869-?)

The heritage biography researcher, Bill Baker, again has met a stone wall in his efforts to track down substantial information. Rockwell seems to have disappeared as did Farar.

The basic information available concerning Rockwell’s life comes from an advertising publication of the Barnhouse Music Co. This was sent out to its customers in about 1895 and predicted a great future for the then young man. In this article Charles Barnhouse writes “Mr. Rockwell increasing popularity led us to enter into negotiations whereby we assume exclusive control of his works and henceforth all of his productions will be published by this house.” From a study of the dates of the Barnhouse publications of Rockwell and those put out by other publishers, it would appear that there was something about Rockwell that made him difficult to work with, possibly he was an alcoholic. This might also account for his virtually complete disappearance from the musical scene in later years.

He was born in Uhrichville, Ohio in January 1869. By age eleven he was already studying music and continued under the tutoring of a retired German Army Bandmaster and later with Dr. Karl Merz of Wooster, Ohio.

The only piece of information found by Bill Baker was that Riockwell was married to Mabel Voorhees in Millerburg, Ohio in 1892. After that he vanishes except that the numerous publishers who issued his works were strung all over the US.

His composing was not confined to marches; he also wrote in all sorts of other forms – overtures, waltzes, instrumental solos, etc.

Rollinson, Thomas H.

Although none of his forebears were composers or even very musically inclined, Thomas H. Rollinson became an extremely popular and original composer – eighty years old, in fact, there were few bands in the United States that did not include at least one of his compositions in some of their corner program or parades. A capable performer on the cornet and also on the piano and organ, TH, as he was affectionately known called by his many friends, was born in Ware, Massachusetts, on January 4, 1844, about ten years after his parents came to America from England.

The Rollinson amily moved to Willimantic, Connecticut in 1853 where Thoams received his public school education. He entered the music department of the providence Conference Seminary in Rhode Island when he was 18 years old and later studied cornet, piano, organ, counterpoint, harmony, and composition at the Providence Conservatory of Music. Following his graduation from the Conservatory in 1865, Rollinson, educated himself in instrumentation.

TH Rollinson wrote his first composition for band in 1868, although it was not published until long after he had achieved fame as a composer. He organized his own band in Willimatic in 1872 ad in addition to serving as organist in several churches, taught bands throughout the state. He moved to Boston in 1882 and played solo cornet for one season with the famous Boston Cadet band conducted by Tom Baldwin. The next year he was appointed leader of the Waltham Watch Company Band, which earned a high reputation for both its parade and concert work under his leadership. This band was for a time attached to the first Cavalry Regiment of Massachusetts and Rollinson wrote three marches dedicated to different officer s of the regiment.

In 1887 Rollinson was employed by the Oliver Ditson Company as an arranger for the department of publications, a position he retained until the time of his death on June 23, 1928 at his home at Waltham, Massachusetts.

Rosenburg, George M. (1864-1936)

George M. Rosenburg was born in Dusseldorf, Germany, April 18, 1864. His earlier education in music was as a pupil of Herr Radecke, a well known pianist of the time in Germany.

In 1883, George Rosey – as he preferred to be called – came to the United States, became a citizen and settled in New York City. He soon became an employee of the Joseph Stern Music Publishing Co. in New York where he acted as an arranger and composer. One project for which he received much acclaim was the arranging for small orchestras of a number of foreign marches in what was known as the George Rosey March Folio. He also was employed by the Jerome Remick Music Co.

Around 1912 George established his own publishing business on the lower East side of New York where for the next 17 years he published his won compositions and those of many other musicians. Unfortunately during the Great Depression his firm went bankrupt and he was forced to return playing piano, mostly in the silent movie theaters.

In 1900 Rosey married Augusta Skolny and in 1903 they were blessed with a son, Milton. The father and son were very close, shared a love for classic music and attended many concerts together. They enjoyed greatly to play piano duets together.

Rosey was a member of the ASCAP from 1931 to the time of his death. A member of the Reformed Jewish faith, he is described as a quiet, unaggressive gentleman, short of stature with light blue penetrating eyes and was well regarded by all. His music was often considered to be in a class just below Sousa’s.

On February 19, 1936, George Rosey passed away in Mt Sinai Hospital, New York and was buried in Bayside Cemetery, Long Island.

Rosey

No Bio on record

Rosenkrans, George

George Rosenkrans was born on January 17, 1881, in Penfield a small mountain community in rural Pennsylvania. A quiet, unassuming man, Rosenkrans neither drank nor smoked, nor married and like his father before him, was devout Christian. In his later years Rosenkrans lived quietly in a tiny bungalow at the creek branch behind the Penfield Fireman’s Club, where he composed his marches, tone poems, overtures, waltzes and hymns on an old reed-pump organ. Except for occasional odd jobs at nearby factories, his contacts were with the Methodist Church where he played the organ and taught Sunday School for many years and with the musical community. He belonged to a mixed quartet and he often brought his compositions to nearby Grampain for the band to test.

Members of the Grampian Band remember Rosenkranz as a portly figure who carried his music in a large, black satchel. He would pass the music out to each musician personally with a few remarks on how he would like certain passages played, and then sit with his back to the band and listen. He said this enabled him to hear how the band sounded rather than see how the band looked. Rosenkrans died on August 18, 1955 a poor and forgotten man. Only fourteen persons attended his funeral.

Rydberg, Sam Hjalamar

Sam Rydberg was born in 1885 at Nykoping, Sweden a town 60 miles southwest of Stockholm and he spent his boyhood n Stockholm, Gothenberg and Sodertalje. In 1898 he entered the music school of the 10th Infantry Regiment at Sodertalje where he learned to play trumpet, E-flat cornet and cello. In 1906 he became a member of the band of the Royal Svea Engineers in Stockholm and studied at the Royal College of Music with Carl Lindhe and Ernst Ellberg. He was appointed Bandmaster as a Lieutenant of the Svea Engineers in 1931 and retired in 1935. He remained active of many years as music teacher at a public school, an arranger of music for the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation and as a musician in various orchestras. Rydberg’s compositions include a concert overture, novelties, dance and film music and about 70 military marches of great reputation.

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San Miguel-Urcelay, Mariano

Mariano San Miguel (the Urcelay is his mother’s family name and it was customary in Spain to give a man’s name in this fashion – San Miguel was his father’s name) was born in Onate in the province of Guipuzcoa in 1880.

He loved music all his life and aspired to be fine clarinet player. He studied this instrument until he was admitted to the National Conservatory in Madrid. At this great school he earned highest marks for clarinet and other subjects. In 1901 he tried out for the Banda de Guardia de Alabderos, the Spanish King’s Own band. He was accepted. In 1903 he became first clarinetist of the Alabaderos Band. He held this position until 1928 when he retired from the Alabaderos.

During his service in that great band, he was also first clarinetist of the Symphony Orchestra of the Royal Theater. In 1908 he founded the Society of Wind Instruments of Madrid. However, his greatest contribution to music (aside from his own compositions) came in 1906 when he founded the firm of Harmonia. This business was what in Spanish is called a ‘revista’, meaning a journal. The basic principal was the same as the followed by Chappell and Boosey & Hawkes in England and many publishers in America: to issue to its subscribers, once a month a new band edition. Sometimes the monthly journal was an arrangement of an opera selection (not always of Spanish composers) and then it might be a pasodoble written by San Miguel and then a selection from a Spanish Zarzuela or a concert work from another country. Sometimes Spanish marches of funeral marches were included. Much of the music published by Harmonia was San Miguel’s own arrangements of the music of others.

The firm is still in business, operated by Senora Ortueta, one of his two daughters. San Miguel died in October 1935. Many bands in the US subscribed to the Harmonia Revista Musical, including the US Navy Band. San Miguel surely must have been a fine musician and a very hard worker to have done all that he did and obviously he loved his instrument which is one at which the Spanish are masters.

Compositions of Mariano San Miguel

Before given the list of works of San Miguel, it must be noted that this is the most authentically ‘Spanish’ recording yet made on the Heritage of the March Series, because – since they recorded the pasdobles of Alonso and Lope on previous records, the Coat Guar band acquired a set of flugelhorns for use in their ‘jazz group and they used them on this record. A discerning listener can immediately hear the difference in the sound of the band as compared to previous records. Of course, trumpets were used when called for I the Spanish editions, but the main melody part is carried by the ‘fliscornos’ which is the Spanish name for ‘fluegelhorns’. Spanish bands as well as Italian and often French, DO NOT use cornets, preferring the considerable contrast between trumpets and flugelhorns, as evidenced on this record.

The previous records of Spanish music on the Heritage Series consisted entirely of pasodobles (two steps) which although played in march tempo, were really written for dancing and not marching. They are commonly played at bullfights and most people consider them to be Spanish marches although this is not strictly correct. This record as noted includes some works that are not pasodobles. A Spanish military band playing a march in the correct ‘parade style’ sounds far worse than a French band, with its name ‘batterie’ – there is so much bugling and loud drumming going on that the melody is almost impossible to hear.

Sanglear, Charles

The information available to write this biography, unfortunately, is practically non-existent. Sverre Braathen, the eminent circus historian, was on the track of some specific, when he unfortunately passed away on July 19, 1974 of a heart attack. Others have tried to find something but with very limited success. It is known only that he was a circus baritone-euphonium player during the early part of the century. He played in Great Wallace Shows, Ringling Bros, John Robinsons and Carl Hagenbeck Circuses from 1899 to 1907 or thereabouts. The publication dates of his known marches run from 1900 through 1915. He also published at least two waltzes, several dances and a caprice. No less than 11 publishers printed works of his, so he must have been considered a pretty fair composer. Based on the dates above, it would be reasonable to infer that he was born about 1875. There is absolutely nothing to indicate where he was born or when he died. Such information as given was found by Paul Luckey of the Circus World Museum of Baraboo, Wisconsin and Loren Geiger.

Schroader, Martin (1878-1954)

He was born in Hamburg Germany on September 26 1878. As a schoolboy he took lessons on the violin but as a military musician his instrument were the euphonium, tenorhorn and flugelhorn. After these school days were completed his musical training was furthered by attending a conservatory in Wismar. Then in 1898 he joined the band of the 76th Infantry Regiment stationed in Hamburg where he remained until 1910 eventually attaining the rank of sergeant.

After his stint as a military musician he worked as a postal operator and also began to work as an arranger for various publishers such Louis Oertel. He arranged a wide variety of music and was active in this regard until the 1940’s.

Among his arrangements for Oertel were a number of Hermann Blankenburg marches. These were sent to Oertel in outline form and needed much work to make them into suitable band editions.

He conducting activities included a special band of former military musicians which performed in Cuxhaven from 1922 to 1931 and a male chorus from 1948 to 1950 in Garstedt bei Hamburg.

He composed many popular marches dating from his time in the military through about 1940. He also composed a waltz and two songs. He died in Hamburg on December 1 1954.

Scouton, William H.

Little is known about the early years of this distinguished musician except that he was born in Monreville, Ohio, on October 3, 1853. The first listing of the Toledo, Ohio City Directory states that William H. Scouton was a musician residing at 429 Fifth Street in 1897. In 1900 he became the director of Stobel’s Band, a musical organization of the day well-known throughout the mid west. Newspaper accounts of that period accent the high quality and resultant popularity of this band. ‘Under the experienced leadership of conductor WH Scouton… Strobel’s 35 musicians found almost instant favor in the eyes of the public and assured a successful career for the band…From a musical standpoint, the phrasing and shades of expression were minutely executed… Stroble’s Band is eminently qualified to give concerts, having in its ranks some of the best musicians in the country.’ The band filled many and varied engagements for parades, concerts, balls (formal dances) weddings and funerals.

It was during his highly successful association with Stroble’s Band that he composed and had published a large number of peppy and popular marches. In 1905 he joined the Lyon and Healy Company, music publishers and manufactures of the finest harps made. This firm while no longer in publishing business, still operates a retail store concern in Chicago, Illinois. In 1907 while conductor of Stroble’s Band, Scouton began teaching music in Toldeo, Ohio which he continued to do for several years.

Will Scouton in addition to composing marches wrote quadrilles, schottisches, two-steps, overtures, redowas, waltzes, mazurkas and other works for piano. Orchestras and band. Most of his music, and there was a lot of it, was published between 1897 and 1902 – although some of it may have been written earlier, a remarkable brief span of time for such a prolific musical output. In addition to his talents as conductor and composer, Scouton was reportedly a cornetist who played in several circus bands.

WH Scouton died of bronchial pneumonia on May 18, 1049 at age 87 at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Hazel MacDonald, in Toledo, Ohio. He was buried in Maplegrove Cemetery., Findlay, Ohio.

Seitz, Roland Forrest

The composer of many beautiful and stirring marches, a number of which was among the most popular and most frequently performed marches today. Roland Forrest Seitz was born on June 4, 1867, on a farm in Shrewsbury Township, Pennsylvania. After completing his public school education in a one room schoolhouse, Seitz was apprenticed to learn the trade of his father, a printer. During his teenage years and for some time thereafter, he worked in the printing office of a local newspaper – but he devoted much of his spare time to the study of music and the development of the musical talent he evidenced at an early age. After playing flute in the family orchestra, he joined the Glen Rock Band, playing euphonium and later solo cornet.

Seitz entered Dana’s Musical Institute at Warren, Ohio, in 1894, completing the four-year course and earning a Bachelor’s degree. After his graduation from the institute, Seitz returned to Glen Rock where he became a full time teacher of all instruments except strings, he played in several bands and served as conductor of the Glen Rock Band. He traveled on concert tours and also composed and published music, founding his own music publishing business in the process. He married in 1902 and continued his active and varied musical career until declining health caused him to move to his daughter’s home at Union, New Jersey where he died on December 29, 1946.

The majority of Seitz’s compositions are marches, characterized by intricate instrumentation, stirring tempos and beautiful swinging marches.. It was his practice as the titles of many of his compositions indicate to write marches for special groups, persons or organizations. Of course, the most significant memorial to Seitz is the fact that his splendid marches are still played today by both professional bands and bands of less skilled musicians with a frequency that reflects their great popularity.

Seltzer, Frank

As with many other composers whose marches have been recorded in the Heritage of the March series, Frank Seltzer has fallen into the undeserved obscurity. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on December 21, 1863, Frank Seltzer was raised in the Soldiers Orphans School in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania. When he was twelve years old, he was playing tuba in that school’s band and le later became its conductor and E-flat cornet soloist. He returned to live with his mother when he was sixteen, entering the printing business as a lithographer. However, his love of and devotion to music continued and he became a professional musician, under the guidance of J. Fred Zimmerman.

Seltzer was highly regarded as a cornet soloist; in 1892 he played cornet in the band of Ellis Brooks and later that year he joined Sousa’s Band as first trumpet. He directed Pope’s Band in Hartford, Connecticut and in 1897 he became first trumpet with the First Regiment Band of Philadelphia. After joining the 69th Regiment band of New York in 1898 as cornetist he became cornetist for the old Columbia Phonograph Company. He played with the Edison Company Band (for which organization he did a lot of arranging) and later was manager of Harry Coleman’s music publishing house. Seltzer played trumpet with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and was also soloist with the Municipal Band of Philadelphia. He played in the reorganized Gilmore Band when Victor Herbert was its conductor. Seltzer was a member of the famous Conway Band, making several tours with this group, for which he did some arranging; in fact Conway played many of Seltzers band pieces at his concerts, thus assisting him in his career as a composer.

Although he achieved far greater fame as a performer than as a composer, his distinctive and attractive marches are certainly worthy of musical documentation as the selections on this recording indicate. Frank Seltzer died in 1924 I the city of his birth, Philadelphia.

Sherman, George Dallas

The town of Richmond, Vermont was the birth place of this excellent musician. August 24, 1844 was the day he was born to Hathaway and Relief Sherman. George Sherman lived in small towns around Burlington, Vermont before moving there in 1870. At age 14 he joined the Richmond Cornet Band and became its leader a year later. He left this band in 1864 to join the 9th Vermont Regiment in the Civil War during which he served as a musician. After a year’s service he returned home and shortly after, got married.

He then organized the very well known Sherman Military Band in Burlington and continued as its leader for almost 50 years. During this time the band was considered the finest musical group in the state and was known all over the eastern section of the country. George however is best remembered for his marches many of which were used by Sousa.

He left three children at the time of death of the four born to his marriage. Sherman was a 32nd degree Mason and also a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. On Nov 3, 1927 the 83 year old gentleman was struck by an automobile while on an errand to purchase a loaf of bread, and with hours had passed away of a fractured skull. His funeral was attended by GAR comrades and the Masonic ritual was held at his gravesite.

Siede, Ludwig

Ludwig Siede was born January 6, 1888, the son of a pianoforte manufacturer. He was actually almost self-educated in composition having had only tow years of instruction on the piano. He considered Paul Lincke his idol and Siede strove to compose in the same manner. At age 18 he wrote his first piece, the popular Chinesische Strabenserenade.

Siede’s marches are very much in the style of Lincke, Oscheit and other composers if stage music – they were not military type marches and he did not consider them as such – they were not the type popular during the 1920s in Germany.

He also wrote some ballet music, In Tull und Spitzen. His best known compositions are Leuchtkaterchen Stelldichein, Sefira – intermezzo and Fest im Suden.

In addition to his composing did much conducting or resort orchestras and was always busy during the summer season. Ludwig Siede died on March 12, 1956.

Silvedel, Herman

Historically, in Germany, marches were associated almost exclusively with the military. The majority of the countries most popular march composers served as bandmasters of army or navy units. Some civilian composers, such as Blankenburg, von Blon, and Teike, whose marches were military in form and feeling won status and acceptance because their music became part of the repertoire of the armed services’ bands, although few of their marches were officially adopted a regimental marches. This record, for the first time in the Heritage series, presents the music of a German composer who was working in a completely different field, entirely outside the area of military band music.

Herman Silwedel was born on March 19, 1877 at Hohenwalde near Landsberg/Warthe. No information is available about Silwedel’s youth, but it is possible that he played in a band while serving as a conscript in the army. At the tiemthere were numerous civilian bandsin Germany, all of which had need of music which they were capable of playing and working with. Silwedel saw the opportunity and in 1900 founded a publishing house of his own, the Landberger Musikvertag – to serve these organizations. In consequence his compositions became very popular and his reputation among the many civilian bands of the country, although his marches never became associated with the bands of the military, which were very much the leaders in the filed and the standard by which pother bands were judged. Nevertheless, when Hermann Silwedel died on May 10, 1936 at Landsberg/Warthe, he left behind a solid reputation and a flourishing publishing company to which he had contributed numerous marches and fine dances. His Overture Characteristique for example is still performed today. Silwedel’s music, its flavor and appeal is best described as poor man’s Blankenburg – similar in style and feeling to that of Blankenburg but simpler and easier to play.

Skaggs, William L. (1858-1935)

Will Skaggs was born in Monroe County Virginia on October 30, 1858. As early as age 8, Skaggs showed unusual musical interest and his parents recognizing this arranged that he be given vocal instruction. Meanwhile the family moved to the north-western part of West Virginia and will studied instrumental music for several years under Captain William Stacy at Flemington College near Clarksburg, West Virginia

In 1878 Skaggs began his professional career in St. Marys West Virginia by teaching vocal music and associating himself with every musical organization in that area. He also established his first band that year. For over 40 years he organized and taught band throughout West Virginia, Virginia Kentucky and North Carolina. He was musical director for 7 years at The Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. In 1931 he returned to St. Marys to become bandmaster of the high school band there in the town where he had started out 53 years earlier.

Skaggs is said to have written thousands of pieces of music, including hymns, overtures, waltzes, marches and other types but few were ever published. One of his first marches was inspired when he heard a circus band playing in Suffolk Virginia. He titled it De Alma’s International in honor of the De Alma circus troupers.

In 1888 William Skaggs married Jennie Flower, who was also musically gifted as a piano and voice teacher. They had one son, Roseman Lee who inherited his parents musicianship. He became the Bandmaster of the 314th Field Artillery Band with the 80th Division during World War 1, but he did not pursue a musical career after the war. He worked for the Quaker State Oil Company until his passing in 1951.

William Skaggs continued to teach local high school band until 1933 when his failing eyesight forces his retirement. He died on October 19, 1935 at his home and was buried in the Odd Fellows cemetery at St. Marys.

St. Clair, Floyd J.

Floyd J. St. Clair was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on February 4, 1871. When he was four, his parents moved to Braddock, Pennsylvania where he received his public school education. He was a musical child and began a serious study of music in his teenage years.

Before he was even 21, St. Clair became director of the Edgar Thompson Steel Works Band, which had been founded by Charles m. Schwab, general manger of the Thompson Steel Works. In 1893 St. Clair wrote The Iron King dedicated to Andrew Caregie who had donated uniforms and instruments to the band; in 1902 St. Clair composed the splendid march The Steel King dedicated to another good friend Mr. Schwab.

At the age of 21 St. Clair founded the Gounod Orchestra, which soon became famous throughout Pennsylvania and nearby states. He was manager and director of this group for ten years when he formed another orchestra which flourished until he left Pennsylvania.

St. Clair was very active in the world of music for many years, as composer, organist, cornetist, arranger. In addition to his sprightly marches, he also composed music for the pipe organ and for piano, orchestra and band. He was organist for the Calvary Presbyterian Church in Braddock for 16 years. He was also a music teacher of considerable fame. A prolific composer of excellent marches, St. Clair composed music that are especially characteristic of his lyrical tendencies. Floyd St. Clair died in Cleveland, Ohio on August 23, 1942.

Stanley

Stauffer, Commander Donald W.

Stauffer was selected as the fourth Leader of the United States Navy Band January 1, 1969. In line with traditions, he performed with the band from 1942 until his appointment to warrant Officer in 1956. He has since led two other bands in the Navy, in New York and Norfolk, acted as Head Academic Training Department at the Navy School of Music and has served as both Third and Second Leaders of the Band before his parent appointment. Before entering the he played tuba and double bass in the Rochester Philharmonic band Civic Orchestras under Jose Iturbi and Guy Frazier, after receiving the Bachelors and Masters degrees from Eastman School of Music. He ahs studied conducting under Messr. Van Hoesen, Harris and Dr. Howard Mitchell.

Stieberitz, Ernest

The splendid music of Ernst Stieberitz, who was born on May 31, 1877 in Kothen, in the German province of Anhalt, makes its first in the Heritage of the March Series on this recording. After he completed his schooling and received some musical instruction from a local teacher, he joined in 1896, the band of the 70th Infantry regiment in Saarbrucken and was soon transferred to the 128th Infantry Regiment in Danzig in 1899. He studied at the Hochschule fur Music in Berlin and in 1906 he was promoted to Musikmeister, after which he returned to his regiment. At the conclusion of World War 1, he founded the Police Band of the Free City of Daniz, this group achieved fame not only in Germany but also in nearby countries; its many broadcasts on radio (Stieberitz conducted his 500th radio concert in 1938)., its summer concerts at the famous resort Zoppet, and its many tours all contributed to the band’s increasing popularity and fame.

His appointment at State’s Music Director (Danzig was a city state) has been called the crowning glory of his restless artistic endeavors. His brilliant marches must cause him to be ranked as an important German composer of band music. His non-march compositions include such works as Tarantella, Irish Dances and dance with Torches.

His active and important work as a conductor and composer of band music (it is thought that he produced about 80 compositions) came to a sudden end on March 27, 1945, as a result of Russian bombing near Danzig – he was one of the many German casualties during the final, hectic and destructive days in World War 11. The fact, however that his marches are of a high quality and deserving of preservation and performance is clearly evident in the selection of his music heard on this recording.

Steinbeck, Heinrich

Heinrich Steinbeck was the youngest of eight children of a village teacher in the town of Godesdorf (near Hannover, Germany)Born May 2, 1884, he grew up receiving instruction from his father and an ex-bandmaster. At age 15, Steinbeck composed his first march.

In 1900 he left home to attend music school at Domit-Schwerin. He completed his studies there, where his instruments were cello and trombone. (Isn’t it absolutely remarkable how many of the fine writers played trombone or baritone –euphonium?)

After graduating from the Schwein school, he played in orchestras at fashionable spas in Norway and Finland. He retunred to Germany to fulfill his military obligation and then attended the conservatory of state in Wurzburg to learn to be a kapelimeister. At age of 25 then, he was offered this position at the Operetta Theater in Karlsruhe. This was exactly what he had been looking for to acquire the practice to be come a competent Kapellmeister. While in Karlsrhe he led both bands and orchestra in the area.

In 1912 the city of Arbon, Switzerland(on the shores of what English speaking people call Lake Constance, but the Swiss and Germans call Bodensee) was looking for a new bandmaster for its municipal band. Heinrich Steinbeck submitted his application and was selected out of 47 competitors. From that time on this beautiful city became Steinbeck’s home and he led the band there for 45 years. In those years he succeeded in shaping his municipal band into one of Switzerland’s leading musical organizations. He took the band on tour of Germany and France.

Steinbeck also was director of the local Orchesterverein (a symphony orchestra). His many concerts helped to spread his reputation and Steinbeck was therefore very much in demand as an adjudicator both in Switzerland and southern Germany. He died in Arhon July 20, 1967.

Stolc, Emil (1888-1940)

Emil Stolc was born October 28, 1888 at Chorusice(near Melnik) and died July 1, 1940 at Novy Vestec (near Stara Boleslav). He followed closely in the footsteps of his father who was a musician performing in the popular music area as well as teaching music. Though he attended the Prague Conservatory from 1903-1905, enrolled as a student in the organ department, he did not complete his studies there. From 1905 to 1908 he was a fluegelhorn player in the military band at Kutna Hora, and from 1908-1912 he was the bandmaster at Brandys nad Labem. In 1912 he began publishing his own compositions in Prague-Smichov where he was the bandmaster of the Sokol Band till 1918. From 1928 to 1933 he was bandmaster of the National Guard 1 in Prague. Deafness overcame him and age 45. It has been claimed that he wrote more than 1000 compositions, including marches, dances easy overtures and Czech popular songs.

Storm, Charles

For a change we have a cornetist as a composer. Charles Storm was born in Lexington, Kentucky in December 1877.

He began his career as a professional musicians at 17, and continued in music until his death at 88 in 1965. Storm played with circus bands in his youth, and then formed a concert band in Lexington, which he led, and with which he played cornet solos. The band also did some touring, nationally.

The list of his published compositions is not as long as that of many others, but the quality of his works certainly rtes very highly. The known published marches of Storm amount to only 10 but each is of considerable merit, and he also composed at least 4 waltzes and two trombone novelties that were published. It is highly probable that he also wrote much music for his own band and which was never published. He also is known to have done some arranging for various publishers. The information given was provided by his grand daughter Mrs. Sally Storm Piper.

Sweet, Albert G.

The name Al sweet is well known to circus fans as the peak of his career came when he led the Ringling Bros, band for six years from 1905 to 1911. Born in Dansville, New York July 7, 1876 Sweet was at first a self taught cornetist. He blew continually on his Eb cornet with the assistance of his father, violinst and his mother a pianist, so successfully that at 14 he was competent enough to join the Stowe Bros circus band. For several yeas he toured with various circuses most of which manage to go broke while he was with them.

Finally he found his way to New York City, where he met Paris Chambers, then one of the country’s leading cornetist. Chambers recognized greater talent and ambition, gave him free lessons.

Sweet played with band around the New York and also spent five years as musical director of the Edison Phonograph Co. In 1906 he was chosen to lead the Ringling band and stayed with it until he lost his desire to be on the road all the time. He then spent a few years in Colorado directing various bands there until, just before World War 1, he organized White Hussars. This was a group of nine players who also sand. It played the vaudeville and Chataqua circuits with great success, growing gradually into to a full concert-type band. Sweet’s last major engagement with his White Hussars was at the Chicago Century of Progress World Fair in 1933. After that he directed different band in the Chicago area until his death there on May 12, 1945.

T

Taylor, John Siebert

John Siebert Taylor was born in Leechburg, Pennsylvania September 15, 1869. He was the youngest of a family of seven, all of whom were exceptionally musical. His greatest ambition as a child was to play in a band and at a very early age he became a cymbal player in the band of his home town. Later he learned other instruments, and eventually became the solo cornet player of the band. He studied music at Oberlin College in Ohio and then went to Janesville, Wisconsin where he was a voice teacher from 1895 to 1919. He was invited to come east Lansing, Michigan in 1919 and organized a music Department at what was then Michigan Agricultural College. Today this is the famous Michigan State University. He acted as head of the Music Department and director of the band until 1928 when he retired from the University. Two years later he retired from Michigan State University one of the world’s finest baritone players. Leonard Falcone became Director of this band and made it into of the finest University Bands in the country.

Teike, Carl (1864-1922)

Carl Teike, one of Germany’s greatest march composers, was born the son of a smithy in the little Pomeranian town of Altdamm, Germany. He became proficient on several instruments under the tutelage of Paul Tottcher, and entered the 123rd Rifle Regiment in Ulm at the age of nineteen as a three year volunteer oboist. Teike decided to leave the military service at the age of twenty-five after a new bandmaster suggested that he throw his new unnamed march in the fire. Alte Kameraden later achieved world wide popularity, and is certainly one of the most widely performed marches of that period.

Discouraged by this rebuff, Teike left the army and became a policeman in Ulm. In 1895 he moved to the Royal Police in Potsdam. After a serious illness in 1903 he was discharged and took a position in the rural post office at Landsberg on the Warther, where he spent the remainder of his life and where he was interred in 1922.

Besides Alte Kameraden two other very well known marches are Graf Zepplin (The Conqueror) and In Treue Fest (Staunch and True). Carl Teike left a rich legacy of over one hundred excellent marches and is considered by many bandmasters to be one of the most talented marches of all time.

Texidor

No bio on record

Tremblay, Marc (1930-?)

Born in Quebec Sept 24, 1930, Marc Trembley joined the band of the 22nd in 1950. From the rank of Private, he has worked his way upward and is now a Master Warrant officer. He is, most of all, known for his function as ‘Drum Major’, but he is also an excellent arranger.

He studied the art of composition at Berklee University and also has completed the course for assistant bandmaster of the Canadian Forces in 1974. Since that time he has been official arranger for the band.

U

Urbach, Ernest (1872-1927)

Born at Burg in the Rhineland on March 19, 1872, Ernest Urbach may well have been influenced toward a musical career by his father, who was a famous pianist. The young man studied music in Berlin and then played flute in several symphony orchestras in that city.

Urbach gradually achieved an excellent reputation as composer and arranger of light music; he also composed some sparkling and melodic marches. Many of his arrangements remained in the active repertoire of various bands until recent years. In addition to his composing and arranging Urbach wrote a manual of piano etudes.

While much of his arranging was light music, Urbach also prepared arrangements for orchestras of music by classical composers, including Mozart, Beethoven, Grieg, Haydn and Ponchielli. The titles of some of these arrangements indicate that they could have been performed not only at concerts but also by salon orchestras at hotels, restaurants and so on; examples are In Mendelssohn’s Rose Garden and In Ponchielli’s Treasure House.

Ernest Urbach (a number of whose compositions were published under his nom de plume Ernest Rubach) like Lincke and Oscheit, was basically a theater music man, not a military musician. – it is thus worth noting that his marches are a type and atmosphere more reflective of the military type than the theater type. This shows that not all the great German marches were written by military men.

In the option of some of the greatest band musicians, including Art Lehamn (former euphonium soloist of the United States Marine Band), Urbach’s Per Aspera ad Astra ranks as one of the all time great marches.

Ernest Urbach died on June 8, 1927, in St. Blasien, a fashionable resort area in South Germany’s Black Forest.

Some years ago, the word ‘Watergate’ (which actually describes a portion of the Potomac River) when used by the members of any of the major service bands in Washington, meant one of the locations where these bands played their summer outdoor concerts.

Unrath, Carl Ludwig (1828-1908)

One of the most popular composers of military marches in the 19th century, Carl L. Unrath was born in Fuerstenfeld on June 1, 1828; both of his parents died when he was a child, and he was raised in an orphanage in Stuttgart.

Beofre he was fifteen years old, he enlisted as a band boy in the fith Wuettemberg Regiment, on March 8, 1843 in which band he played clarinet. In 1847 the 19 year old Unrath was accepted as a member of the band of the First Brigade; about a year later he was sent to study music at a conservatory. Unrath was not yet twenty-three years old when he was appointed bandmaster of the 14th Regiment, an unusual honor for such a young man at the time. He served with his regiment in Ulm for 29 years, participating in the wars of 1866 and 1870-1871.

Following his service in the filed of band music, he became a government employee with the Ministry of War, working as chancery clerk. He died in Stuttgart on October 18, 9108, having served under three Wurttemberg kings and three German emperors.

Unrath composed some dances and about 100 marches, the most famous one being Konig Karl which dates from 1868; this won the first prize in a march competition of all Wuettemberg bandmasters. However, it is interesting to note that Unrath himself considered Hohenzollern Ruhm to be his finest march.

Egig Fleck of Stuttgart wrote as ‘Staff Hoboist, Wuerttenberg Infantry Regiment 4’ – this presents a good opportunity to clarify a point that has been misunderstood by many musicians and researches for years; the German word ‘Hoboist’ in old usage meant any musician in the band; it did not refer specifically to oboe players.

V

Von Blon, Franz

Franz von Blon became a renown conductor and composer in symphonic and operatic circles, as well as establishing his reputation as a bandmaster and writer of outstanding marches.

He was born on July 16, 1861 in Berlin where he studied at the Stern Conservatorie and the Royal Academy of Music, and was tutored by Joachim, one of German’s greatest musicians. He became the chief violinist at Hamburg Strat-theater and in 1898 he founded and conducted the wind Orchestra of the Berlin Philharmonic. In addition in 1901 he became conductor of the Berliner Tonkunster Orchestras and in 1906 was guest conductor of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.

Von Blon took up composition at twenty-six and wrote prolifically in various media. He wrote several operettas: Subrosa (Lubeck 1887), Die Amazonen (Magdeburg 1903), Die Tolle Prinzess (Halle 1913) and a ballet In Afrika (Berlin 1899). Von Blon died on October 21, 1945 at his estate in Seilershof.

In the opinion of some musicians, his thirty marches are unexcelled in the literature, and his musical genius richly deserves wider recognition and preservation through our Heritage of the March.

VanderCook, Hale A.

A circus musician who achieved national fame as an instructor on the cornet and other brass instruments, HA VanderCook was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan (on what is now part of the University of Michigan campus), descended from Holland stock – his father was a musical Dutchman and indeed all his Dutch ancestors were musicians. VanderCook studied at an early age with Frank Holton (trumpet), Frank Goetz (harmony) and Louis Boos (violin). By the time he was fourteen he was playing cornet with many bands in the western Michigan area, and he began writing music when he was sixteen years old.

He joined the band of a new and small circus the JH La Pearl Show, as cornetist and six weeks later was appointed its conductor. in 1891, a position he retained until 1897 during which years the circus grew in size and accomplishment, as did its band. It as during this association with his band that he composed his famous march Bombardment.

After 1897, he settled in Chicago performing with theater groups and studying conducting and cornet with AF Weldon, the famous conductor and composer of band music.; the two developed a close friendship which lasted for many years. In 1909 VanderCook founded his famous VanderCook College of Music on the site of Weldon’s former studios. The purpose of the school was to train musicians as performers, directors, and teachers. After World War 1 the increasing interest in school bands and the need for special training for those who conducted these bands resulted in VanderCook’s adding a special course to meet these needs. Under VanderCook’s direction the school continued its important work, and in 1928 it was incorporated in the State of Illinois as non-profit teacher-training institution.

In 1941 Hale VanderCook retired from active participation in the school of music he had founded; he developed interests in farming, nature and animals – but his love for the circus music and his school remained constant until his death on October 16, 1949. His achievements as conductor, educator and composer are his lasting legacy to lovers of band music. Among his most famous marches are American Stride, Pageant of Columbia, SS Theodore Roosevelt and Pacific Fleet. He wrote about seventy published compositions and probably many more were not published.

Vezina, Joseph

Born in Quebec City, this largely self taught musician is considered to have been ‘Canada’s First Great Bandmaster’. He joined the military band of the 9th Battalion (Les Voltigeurs) in 1866 as its director and remained in this position until his retirement in 1898. In the following years it is known that he organized or directed at least 22 bands, including that of the Royal Garrison Artillery which was also known as the ‘B’ Battery Band when he directed it from 1899 to 1910. During this period he was active with many other groups, including La Societe Symphonique de Quebec, which he led for many years. A highlight if his career came on June 24, 1880 when he led a massed band including the musicians of the Les Voltiqeurs in a grand concert during which he presented the premier performance of his Mosaique. The composer of the tune O Canada, Calixa Lavallee was a friend of Vezina, and he had requested Joseph to include it in this stirring Potpourri of French Canadian Airs. O Canada later became the official National Anthem of Canada. Joseph Vezina composed many marches as well as waltzes, gallops, polkas, overtures, operettas, etc not only for bands, but for all manner of musical groups and choruses of 350 or more singers.

Villeneuve, Major Charles A. CD LRAM, ARCM

Another native of Quebec, Major Villeneuve was born in l’Ange-Gardien, near Quebec City. His musical education was first gained at the Quebec Conservatory where he started at an early age. He enlisted in the Band of the Royal 22nd Regiment as an Oboist, and after several years was chosen to go to the Royal Military School of Music – Kneller Hall – near London, England. On his return to Canada, he was appointed Director of Music of the Royal Canadian Ordnance Corps Band in Montreal. In 1968 when many bands of the Canadian Armed Forces were unified and reformed, the Royal Canadian Artillery Band was organized under his command and stationed in Montreal. As of August1, 1978 he was transferred to the Band of the Royal 22nd Regiment in Quebec, He is one of Canada’s senior Directors of Music.

Vollstedt, Robert (1854-1919)

He was born in Meidorf Germany on December 19 1854. Virtually nothing is known of his parents or his musical education. It can be assumed that he received the proper training at a music conservatory since he served as the principal clarinet with the Hamburg Opera House for most of his life.

Marches represent a minor portion of his output as a composer. He was basically a composer of light music such as waltzes, polkas and other dances. It appears that the majority of his work was published for piano. The German term for such a composer is Salonkomponist. His marches as intermediate between those and the heavier more martial type composed by men such as Carl Teike. He is best known for the composition waltz Jolly Fellows. In many cases he used the pen name of Robert Roberti.

He is a prime example of those composers who enjoyed national and even international renown during their lifetimes but soon thereafter fell into obscurity. He was quite popular in the US and died in Hamburg in later November 1919.

W

Wagnes, Eduard (1863-1936)

Born on March 18, 1863 Wagnes was influenced musically by his father, who was a musician and also a maker of brass instruments. At an early age, Eduard Wagnes entered a Stytrian school of music where he studied piano and also French horn. By 1863 he was earning money by performing on the French horn with the Graz Opera and Operetta orchestras. It was not long thereafter that he traveled with the orchestra of Eduard Strauss, brother of the waltz king, touring in Germany, the Netherlands and England. He completed his compulsory military duty from 1865 to 1888 with ‘the Belgians’ the 27th Regiment Band, of the Austro-Hungarian Army. When this regiment returned to Graz after having participated in the occupation of Bosnia, the band played a recently composed march by Wagnes, Die Bosniaken Kommen, one of the best and most popular of all Austrian marches.

Inn 1890, Wagnes was appointed bandmaster of the Imperial Royal Privileged and Uniformed Citizen Corps of Graz, a position he held for about five years. He became bandmaster of the 2nd Bosnian-Hercegovac Regiment in Banja Luka in 1895; this regiment was eventually sent to Graz and Wagnes remained with this unit until 1918.

Wagnes was one of the best known Austrain military bandmasters around the turn of the century. In addition he was a prolific composer; he wrote about 100 marches, many waltzes , some choral music, a church mass, and several operettas. Eduard Wagnes died on March 27, 1936. His spirited and popular marches are still an active part of the repertoire of many Austrian bands.

Wagner, Josef Franz

Josef Franz Wagner widely known as the Austrian March King was born in Vienna on March 20, 1856, the sons of a

doctor. As a young boy he had a brilliant soprano voice; he sang in the chorus of the Altlechenfelder-Kirche in Vienna and studied under its well known director Krumenecker.

As a youth Wagner studied at the famous monastery school of Seidenstetten in Lower Austria. After graduating from Seidenstetten, he studied harmony, composition and instrumentation with Johann Emrich Hasel. Thereafter Wagner entered the military and spent several years with the 23rd Regiment. He left to become, at age 22, bandmaster of the 47th Infantry Regiment in Trient. Wagner remained leader of this band for some 14 years and traveled with the band which followed the regiment itself throughout the country. At that time in Austria, regiments were regularly deployed from one part of the empire to another. For this reason many famous bandmaster served in many different cities during their careers. Those who wanted to stay in one city were forced to change regiments frequently.

Vienna, his home town and then as now the capital of Austria, strongly attracted Wagner. Thus, although in Graz his regimental band was considered among the foremost of the army, Wagner left the 47th Regiment in 1892 to join the 49th Regiment stationed in Vienna. There he was the successor to the famous bandmaster Ludwig Schlogel. Wagner was immensely popular in Vienna and wherever he appeared with the band he was applauded enthusiastically.

Finally in 1899, still a relatively young and ambitious man JF Wagner left the army altogether. He was encouraged by the example of the other ex-bandmasters, such as Czibulka and Lehar, who had achieved fame and success after leaving the army. So, after 21 years with army band throughout Austria, Wagner organized his own band-orchestra, which soon became popular in its own right. Several years later, on June 5, 1908 Wagner died at the early age of 52.

Josef Franz Wagner was a fashionable representative of Viennese musical life in his time. Some of his compositions were very much ‘a la mode du jour’ many are impressive for their melody, originality and elegance. He left well over 400 compositions. But it is for his marches the JF Wagner remains best known. Of them Unter Dem Doppeladler (Under the Double Eagle) is one of the most played marches all over the world.

Weldon, Alfred F. (1862-1914)

Alfred F. Weldon was born in Hartford Conn on June 14, 1862. His parents had migrated from England to this country in the 1850s. When he was 12, they moved to Chicago, Ill where Weldon completed his education. He studied cornet with Matthew Arbuckle and David Wallis Reeves.

In Chicago he joined the orchestra of the Columbia Theater and must have had rapid progress on the cornet and I the band world for at the age of 26 he took the Chicago Commandery Band to the St. Louis Conclave in 1888. This band made up of professional Chicago musicians was considered to be one of the first fine Commandery Bands organized in the Middle West.

Weldon became bandmaster of the Second Regiment Band of Chicago in 1890s and it became known as Weldon’s Band. He was also conductor of the First Brigade Band of Chicago to whom he dedicated one of his marches. First Brigade. In 1900 he took his band to New Orleans for a summer engagement. He also played occasionally at state fairs in the Middle West.

Weldon was one of the notable teachers of brass instruments I his area and it was considered a status symbol to have studied with him. He developed his famous Weldon Method of brass playing. He was a staff member of the old Chicago Music College and in later years he taught at the Siegel-Myers School of Music in Chicago – as well as compiling a corresponding course for the cornet at this school.

Many known well-known musicians studied with him including Bohurmir Kryl, Gardell Simsons, Jerry Cimera, Charles Randell and HA Vandercook.

In addition to his cornet solo compositions Weldon wrote a number of marches.

Mr. Jerry Cimera wrote the following reply to an inquiry regarding his former teacher: ‘he was a great cornet player, his tone the best. His vibrato made his tone beautiful and of course he was a great teacher.’

AF Weldon died at his home on Warren Street in Chicago on May 5, 1914 and was buried in the Forest Home cemetery, His funeral procession include a band of 100 playing his piece ‘His Last Word’ dirge.

Whiting, Lieutenant Colonel Chester E.

“Lieutenant Colonel Chester Earl Whiting, noted leader of the United States Army Field Band, is universally recognized as one of our nation’s most illustrious and beloved bandmasters.” Those admirable comments were written by the former Conductor of Bands at the University of Michigan, Dr. William D. Revelli. Words of praise ring throughout the globe for Chester E, Whiting because of his musical accomplishments.

Growing up near Boston, Whiting began his musical career at the age of thirteen. After attending the New England Conservatory of Music, he became the Director of Instrumental Music in the Malden, Mass public school system. Whiting joined the 110th Cavalry Band of the Massachusetts National Guard and assumed its leadership in 1924, a post he held for 16 years. Because this Cavalry Band played mounted, Whiting composed The March of The Horse Cavalry. At the outbreak of World War II, Whiting became leader of the 28th Yankee Division Band. Seeing only duty in the Pacific theater, where he composed The Americal Division March, Doughboy and Marine March and Caduceus March, all during combat. Whiting was appointed Commanding Officer of the newly formed Americal Division Band. He received the Bronze Star Medal and the Legion of Merit for his contribution to the morale of the troops of the Americal Division. During the concluding days of World War II, Whiting was ordered stateside by General Douglas MacArthur to form the 1st Combat Infantry band, which traveled throughout the United States selling war bonds. Its mission was so successful that the news media stated calling it The million Dollar Band. At the end of World War II, Whiting organized the United States Ground Forces Band, later to be redesigned as the world-renown Unites States Army Field Band which he commanded until 1960. It was during this period that Whiting demonstrated a flair for writing something other than exclusively music, authoring among several other literary efforts The Baton and the Pendulum. At a retirement ceremony held on the Office of the Secretary of the army, Whiting ended his Army career by receiving the Legion of Merit, First Oak Leaf Cluster. Before his retirement, Whting wrote the Minnesota State Fair March; and after his retirement The Schoolboards of America March. In 1964 Whiting received one of the most distinguished honors of his career when he was elected to the presidency of the American Bandmaster Association.

Widqvist, Viktor Magnus

Viktor Widqvist was born in Stockhom, Sweden in 1881 and began his career in military music when he enlisted at 17 in the band of the Royal Syea Engineers. He graduated from the Royal College of Music in 1908 wher ehe studied with such prominent Swedish musicians as Magnus Ahlberg, Sven Kjellstrom and Ernst Ellberg. During the period 1910-1922 he served as chief violinist in various orchestras and during the last four years of that period, as bandmaster of the Royal Boden Engineers. From 1922 to1925 Widqvist directed the band of the Royal Gota Engineers in Karlsborg where he was commissioned Lieutenant in 1927. He then returned to Stockholm where he performed for many years as violinist, tubist and conductor.

As a composer, Widqvist contributed a concert overture and numerous dances of which Dans pa Logen (Barn Dance) is still popular. The marches on this record represent a fair sampling of his fine contribution to the band literature of Sweden.

Willis, Alvin (1873-1918)

He was born in Berrien Springs Michigan on January 2 1873. As a boy he found his natural talents were in music. He was self taught and learned to play every instrument he could get his hands on. He was proficient on piano, violin, trombone and an excellent euphonium player. Newspapers later hailed him as one of the best euphonium players in the country.

When he was twenty he married Gertrude Graves and they moved to Elkhart Indiana where he worked for a short time for the CG Conn Musical Instrument Company. He then toured the country with the Ringling Bros Circus Band, the Haverly Minstrels and the Al G Fields Minstrels. Old photographs show him as a baritone player, a minstrel and chatauqua entertainer.

In 1911 he returned to Berrien Springs for the next eight years he made his living directing bands, playing Euphonium, tuning pianos, teaching, composing and publishing music. He also organized and directed bands in the Elkhart area played with the St Joseph Band and the Elbel’s Band.

He died on a rainy night when his car was struck by a train when crossing the tracks on December 18 1918. He died in hospital a few hours later. Attending his funeral was a massed band of one hundred musicians representing the bands that he directed. They played funeral hymns and two of he compositions.

Williams, Ernest S. (1882-1947)

Ernest Williams – a name to be conjectured with in many areas of music. He was not only a fine cornet-trumpet player, but an educator of special renown in the band field and an excellent composer was well.

Born in Winchester, Indiana in 1882, he served in the Spanish –American War as a young cornetist in the Indiana Volunteer Regiment Band. During his career as a cornet soloist, he played with most of the well known bands of his time – Sousa, Mace Gay, Stewart, Mollenhauer, Conway, Franko, Herbert, Goldman, and for six years as first trumpet of the Philadelphia Orchestra under Stokowski. Very obviously he was more than a competent player! He, incidentally, was married to another very fine and well-known cornetist “miss Kitty Rankin” who played with him all over the world.

Williams founded in 1922 a music school in Brooklyn, NY. The brochure of this school contained the following:

TO PROMOTE THE ART OF MUSIC

The idea of The Ernest Williams Band and Orchestra school is that it should be to America what the famous Kneller Hall is to Great Britain, namely, a school that gives a comprehensive training to instrumentalist, embracing the entire field of ensemble work, both theoretical and practical. This includes a complete course of musical study, emphasizing artistry as well as technical proficiency. Like Kneller Hall, it is an all year round institution with winter sessions in Brooklyn, NY, and summer sessions at Saugerties, NY,. The school equally stresses Band, Orchrestral and Choral training, including a thorough musical background, correct interpretation of all concert symphonic and operatic literature and gives that which is most essential – thorough and intensive routine. Professional contact is one of the features of The Ernest Williams Band and Orchestra School, which is only made possible through its distinguished faculty of renowned musicians.

This school achieved recognition comparable to that of the VanderCook school in Chicago, but unfortunately ceased operation with the death of its founder on Feb. 8, 1947.Saugerties NY the scene of the summer sessions of the school and the place of the death of Williams, is located on the Hudson River about 45 miles north of West point, in a setting of great beauty.

Probably the best known musical publication of Ernest Williams were his various works for cornet and trumpet students many of which are still in common use today.

Woods, Harvey J.

Harvey J. Woods was born in Bangor, Maine on January 16, 1874, received his musical education in Boston, Massachusetts; he was a graduate of the Boston Conservatory of Music. In 1909 he moved to Seattle, Washington where he founded the Woods Music Company. Initiated into the Nile Temple Shrine he organized in 1912 that organization’s band which he directed very successfully for some twenty years.

HJ Woods is a composer who is not very well known today, although he wrote some lively marches which in his life time achieved well deserved fame in America. He retired from his active and varied musical career just a few months before his death which was on August 29, 1933, in Seattle, Washington.

Y

Y Oropesa, Ledesma

Rafel Oropesa Clausin and Florencio Ledesma Estrada were two Spanish musicians who composed many very popular pasodobles and other music. Sometimes they worked together and (the Spanish word ‘Y’ means ‘and’) and sometimes separately. Information about them for biographic purposes has proven nearly impossible to find, however a little is known.

Oropesa died in Madrid in 1944 but his birth date and place are not known. Ledesma was born in Madrid in 1900 and died there in 1972. It is known that Oropesa spent time in Mexico but when and for how long remains a mystery.

Z

Zehle, Wilhelm

The name W. Zehle has been a source of much interest and guesswork among band fans for many years. Theories as to who and what he was have been discussed endlessly. The most logical appearing was that he was a German expatriate bandmaster in a British regiment early I the century. Another suggestion was that this might have been a pen-name for some other man.

Finally, Bob Jones of Norwich, England located the son of Zehle in Germany and obtained from him the following information.

Wilhelm Zehle was born Jan. 23, 1876 in Germany. He entered the school of music in Magdebug in 1895 and following that, became a military musicians in the Royal German Mobile 2nd Sea battalion. What instrument he played is not known.

In any event the band of which he was a member was ordered to China during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. Shortly before the band was to embark for this trip, the leader was taken ill, and Zehle was appointed in his place. A year later they returned to Germany.

In 1903 he left the military service and became a German civil servant in the Civil Port Authority Administration finance section, in Wilhelmshaven. After holding this position for 13 years he retired to Ahlorn near Oldenburg where he resided until his death in 1956.

During his service he entered a march in a competition sponsored by Hawkes of London and won with the composition known as Army and Marine – This title if put on by Zehle in Germany, probably meant to him Army and Navy as sin most countries the word Marine (Marian) means Navy not Marines. It is interesting question whether some of the other titles originated with Zehle or were put on by publisher in hopes that a British Sounding title would be salable in England.

It is most gratifying that finally, the biographical details of Zehle’s life have been found to provide march lovers with the background of the fine compositions by this excellent musician.

Ziehrer, Carl

One of the outstanding Austrian composers of light music, Carl Ziehrer was born in a suburb of Vienna in May 1843. His parents operated a hat makers shop there and his father did not like his son’s inclination to music. In his opinion a musician was a gypsy. However, aclose friend of the family influenced the senior Ziehrer to consent to Carl’s studying music, provided that he also learn something decent. It soon turned out that one really could make some money in the gypsy career field and on November 21, 1863 Carl conducted his first concert at the Diana Saal where the listeners very much liked the waltz he had entitled Wiener Tanzweisen. Eight years later in 1970 he became bandmaster of the 55th Regiment where he remained for three years. During that time his first operetta was performed with great success. In 1874 after he left the Army he founded the German Music and Theater Gazette which obviously was not a very successful enterprise as in 1875 he rejoined the Army, this time as bandmaster of the 76th Regiment.

Three years later he was again a civilian and assumed leadership of the old Strauss Orchestra. His real recognition came in 1878 when he his operetta Konig Jermone oder Immer Justig was premiered. Henceforth Ziehrer was considered one of Vienna’s leading composers. In 1885 he was offered the very prestigious appointment of bandmaster of the famous Hoch Deutschmeister (No.4) Regiment, the leading band of the Austrian Army. He took this position and held it for 8 years, all the while his popularity and fame increasing and the concerts he conducted were very popular with the Viennese people.

In 1893 he organized a band of civilian, dressed them I old Austrian Army uniforms, and came to the United States to play at the Chicago World’s Fair. Strangely enough, although he in theory was a bandmaster, with a n Austrian band, his musical group in America was that would today be called a string orchestra. Because his success at the Fair was so great, he dedicated to tour the country with his Band and did so, receiving acclamation wherever he appeared.

Unfortunately, his delayed return caused the loss of his position with the 4th Regiment, but he immediately started an orchestra of his own, which he toured all over Europe. During the war he lost almost all his money and died in 1922 a poor man. Ziehrer was a very prolific composer, 24 operettas came from his pen, over 600 assorted dance pieces, including many waltzes and a large number of marches. Many of his works are played in Austria today.

Zimmermann, Lieutenant Charles A.

Zimmermann, Leader of the United States Naval Academy Band at Annapolis, Maryland from 1887 to 1916, traditionally dedicated a march to each year’s graduating class of midshipmen. Anchors Aweigh was completed in November 1906 in collaboration with Midshipman Alfred H. Miles, who composed the original two stanzas for use at the Army-Navy that month. The original manuscript bear the title The Class of 1907 March but the published edition of 1907 appeared as Anchors Aweigh. It was again published in 1926 in a Navy Song book and soon after became universally known as the marching song of the United States Navy.

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