Band (music)

“ The influence of band music on the fighting man’s morale has been recognized since historians began to write. A band, especially a military band, may inspire courage, a wish to fight or a will to win. It beats the rhythm for marching feet and gives a tune for whistling. ”

“ I had never before heard a military band, and I gazed with wonder at the immense display of musicians, headed by a splendid-looking man, arrayed in gold lace, and swinging a huge gold-headed stick, as tall as himself, which he dexterously manipulated in time with the music. ”

“ When the wind and muscle of the performers give out, the music does not cease. As the last strain of one band dies on the air, a second band, just as good, continues the programme, so that there is no break in the feast of sounds. ”

“ Since that long-ago day when Joshua commanded his seven high priests—probably the first seven-piece [12] wind band—to blow their rams’-horn trumpets as they marched seven times around the walled city of Jericho, countless marches have been played. And the walls still “come tumbling down” in hearts that thrill to band music.
Down through the ages the band, in its development, has sounded the call to arms and played the hymns of peace. In years gone by the music of the band led the townsfolk to the village green. Today the concert bands draw thousands of people to the public parks. ”

“ The small boy deaf to any other musical appeal, races down the street at the first blare of a band. In some measure we are all children to the last, and so it is that the music of the band sets our hearts and feet to beating out its gallant measures. Moreover such music produces definite measurable effects on the body, and it is well known that men march further and with less fatigue to the music of a band than they can without it. ”

“ The shrill, noisy brass bands of early days have been supplanted by fine symphonic bands. Master instrument makers have invented a variety of new band instruments capable of producing many novel and artistic effects. Gifted musicians are composing and arranging music especially suited to these various instruments. The band has proved its worth and earned its right to the large place which it now occupies in our American way of life. A band is a necessary part of every community. ”

“ Ta—rah—ra—rah, the trumpets go telling the boys to come,
And always and all the time, bang goes the drum.
Look at their lovely leather legs! The big brass things they blow!
I don't care where I walk or who I meet,
I'm following the band away to where the musics grow,
I'm hitting my boots heavy on the street.
For I must find the music man that lets them play so loud,
And find the funny place where soldiers go
To fill their trumpets with the noise they blow among the crowd—
It's not a tea and pastry shop I know. ”

“ On the evenings when the band plays he may be seen promenading about with becoming gravity as if he enjoyed the music. He is very fond of being taken notice of, and having his head, and the soft pouch under his long bill, stroked. ”

“ In one corner of the room is the band, consisting of a woman, richly dressed, and painted, with a hair-rudder standing out from behind her head in startling proportions, playing on a three-stringed guitar, a pock-marked scoundrel of the male sex playing on a two-stringed fiddle, which he holds between his feet, and another who beats the infernal tom-tom with sticks, making discord- of what might otherwise be considered an apology for music. ”

“ The young men form themselves into bands to the number of twenty to thirty, called the reed band—reeds from six to eight feet in length with holes similar to the flute, but held upright in front of each musician—forming a circle like our military bands, and perform tunes. The women and children walk round on the outside singing and clapping hands in time to the music. This performance generally begins about sundown, and is kept up for several hours. ”

“ Bands are able to perform in outdoor concerts, football games, parades and on many varied occasions. They stand or march when they play, inspiring action. Informal, outdoor band concerts will always remain great popular attractions for few concert halls are large enough to accommodate all the people who want to [179] hear live band music. Besides, outdoor band concerts are free. ”

“ Edwin Franko Goldman. “They are manifestations of a popular musical culture which finds in them an expression of something not provided by any other type of concert organization. Most important, they are a form of local, or regional, or national organization fulfilling a genuine community need and serving a genuine community interest....
“The band has introduced many people to music—both listeners and performers. A band plays for the masses with mixed tastes. It is close to the people, bringing many into firsthand contact with live music.” ”

“ They need no bands of music, no drum-corps nor fifers. The whole procession, indeed, is itself a band of music, a grand army of singers and players on instruments. They sing many tunes; each uniform has a tune of its own, but, unlike what [94] happens in military and masonic parades, there is never any jangling, no matter how near together the different bands may be marching. ”

“ Most boys who have begun their music study with the band make it a hobby in later life, and many choose it as their lifetime profession. Composers, arrangers and music publishers have come from this Farm and Trades School Band, while many other former players have become valued members of symphony orchestras, opera and theater orchestras and nationally-famous concert bands. ”

“ Then, all of a sudden, reddening, the band leader rapped his music stand with his baton, next gave the signal, and the band crashed forth into the exultant strains of:
"See! The Conquering Hero comes!" ”

“ And if you happen to hear a brass band filling the air with march music, don’t get scared and bolt like a stampeding broncho, for that will be the new band they’ve organized in town coming up to serenade you. ”

“ The trees are all ablaze with light; half a dozen bands of music are in full blast, and "all the world is gay." It is truly "a midsummer night's dream." I was especially attracted to a concert garden where the band, a very large one, was composed of women. To be sure there were half a dozen men sprinkled among the performers, but they seemed to have subordinate parts—only blowing away at the wind instruments—while all the stringed instruments were played by delicate female hands. It was quite pretty to see how deftly they held the violins, and what sweet music they wrung from the strings. ”

“ Here the band is stationed, which is sufficiently good and sufficiently full to produce a very delightful effect: it must indeed be very villanous music which, listened to while the cool breeze of a summer's evening refreshes the spirit, should not be agreeable. ”

“ The native band of music is a curiosity, as it is quite unlike anything you ever saw. The king has a band after the European style, with a French leader, and with instruments imported from London or Paris. [Pg 210] It plays very well, and can render some of the popular pieces that we are familiar with just as well as any ordinary band in New York or London. ”

“ The bands number from forty to eighty performers each, and in large cities there is no evening without music, alternating with different parks, but on Sunday they are all on duty, and with the band comes the social feature of the people. ”

“ Then you have music, harmony, the highest, fullest, finest! Educate your men to form a band, you shame dexterous trickery and imitation sounds. Then for the difference of real instruments from clever shams! ”

“ I therefore urged that the commanding officers be impressed with the fact that the primary object of the band is not to fight, but to cheer the fighters, and the better their music, the greater its beneficial effects upon the spirit of the soldiers, and that therefore all bandsmen should be compelled to devote at least five or six hours every day to the practice of their instruments and to rehearsals, and that other duties should be made subsidiary to their musical work and should not be of a character to unfit them for a proper performance on their respective instruments. ”

“ The United States is today’s greatest musical nation, and bands have played a great part in developing and spreading the love and understanding of music among young and old in this country. A band is a strong music educational force; a school or college band has the widest opportunity in the world to personally convey music to the people. ”

“ I make no doubt yer new band now's a competenter band,
And plays their music more by note than what they play by hand,
And stylisher and grander tunes; but somehow—anyway,
I want to hear the old band play.
Sich tunes as "John Brown's Body" and "Sweet Alice," don't you know;
And "The Camels is A-comin'," and "John Anderson, my Jo";
And a dozent others of 'em—"Number Nine" and "Number 'Leven"
Was favo-rites that fairly made a feller dream o' Heaven. ”

“ A military band performs on Sundays, adding life and spirit to the surroundings. The wholesome influence of these out-of-door concerts upon the masses of the people is doubtless fully realized by the government. A love of music is natural to all classes here. Groups of half-clothed men and women, bareheaded and barefooted, always take places modestly in some corner and quietly listen during the performance of the bands, never speaking while the music lasts. ”

“ The boys form in classes, march to their places, to their meals, to bed, down in the morning, &c., to music; the consequence of which is that every movement is made in one-half of the time it formerly occupied, and with one-tenth part of the noise. Another advantage is the great practice it gives to the band, which now plays nineteen times a day, without the least injurious effect to the health of the performers, as they are engaged but for a minute or two each time. ”

“ The performers sit down to their work instead of standing up, and they do not sit on chairs, but on the floor. The only band of the kind I have yet seen consisted of five performers, all women—one of them having a sort of guitar, another a violin, another a drum played with the fingers of one hand, another with a row of bamboo sticks that were struck with a small hammer, and the last of the five had a row of metal cups that were played like the bamboo sticks. There is a good deal of variety to the music in some ways, and very little in others ”

“ Amos cried, delighted. “Though I don’t know how you found it out, to be sure.”
“Now, Amos,” the Journeying Man put in, “it’s only fair that you should give us your poem about a band.”
Amos turned red. “My poem about a band!” he echoed. “I don’t know any poem about a band.”
“One—two—three,” chimed an old grandfather clock on the stairs; and all at once the little boy, much to his astonishment, began to recite. This is what he recited:—
[Pg 76]
“A band is such a brave, bright thing,
With tassels tossed, and burnished brass,
And music quick and fluttering—
I love to see one pass. ”

“ When the band stops playing, however, there is no question as to the appreciation of the music, for from hundreds of throats comes the cry, ‘Carry On!’
“There is small wonder, though, that these boys have developed into such a well-balanced band, for when one meets the ‘Chief,’ as he is familiarly known among his fellow officers, the reason is easily explained. With a natural talent for music, the ‘Chief’ combines years of training as bandmaster and leader. ”

“ It may be remarked here that, though the dancing horses at the circuses appear to keep time with the music of the band, it is really, in most cases, the band that accommodates its music to the movements of the horse. ”

“ In composition the band is not far removed from the orchestra, except that woodwind instruments, such as flutes and clarinets, take the place of strings, but the result is that the band in its own field of music more particularly stimulates activities of the body where the symphony orchestra makes a stronger appeal to mental activity. ”

“ Human folk need some form of self-expression and music is an ideal mode for an individual to give vent to his feelings and voice his desires. Often the mousiest, quietest little man in town joins the band and insists upon playing the tuba or pounding the largest drum. ”

“ About ten men and women stood in two lines in the centre of the room, as a vocal band of music, while all the others, two and two, women first and men following, promenaded round, with a short quick step, to the tune chaunted in the centre. ”

“ While the United States Army Band was the only major service music organization to tour the combat area during World War II, it must be pointed out that such an experience and its unceasing companion, mental, physical, and spiritual discomforts seem glamorous to the men only in retrospect. ”

“ He may not make speeches, or write influential articles, but he can beat the rhythm or blow the loud “oompas” that set the pace for the whole band.
As America’s population increased, almost every village and town had a band. Their concerts in the public square became regular features. These village bands have done much for the advancement of music in our country. They have given more pleasure and delight to a greater number of people than any other agency. These bands have helped the love of music to find its way into the lives and hearts of the American people. ”