Bandmaster

“ A wise and sympathetic bandmaster — and most that I have known have been that—can lift a battalion out of depression, cheer its sickness, and steady and recall it to itself in times of almost unendurable strain. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Godfrey; the acknowledged efficiency of the band is in itself a proof of his talents as bandmaster, whilst the esteem and respect which he has earned from all ranks, during a period of upwards of fifty years’ service, sufficiently attest his worth as a man and a soldier.” He was succeeded by his son, Mr. F. Godfrey, who retained the bandmastership until 1880, when Mr. Thomas was appointed; the latter was replaced by Mr. Rogan in 1896. The band consisted, in 1888, of a Bandmaster, two Sergeants, two Corporals, and forty Musicians. ”

“ The music at the parade-service is provided by the band. The accompaniment of the instruments to the bandsmen's voices gives a martial tone that is appropriate to a soldiers' service. If the bandmaster happens to take an interest in church-music he can give a fine rendering of the chants and hymns. A great deal depends upon whether he is sympathetic and willing to carry out all the details. ”

“ THE TUITION OF YOUNG REGIMENTAL PIPERS By John Grant, Pipe Major
There is an establishment for the training of bandsmen at Kneller Hall, Twickenham, known as "The Royal Military School of Music," where regular soldiers are trained in a very efficient manner both in theory and practice, for brass bands. Each pupil remains for a considerable period, extending from one to three years, and not only do they become good performers on the various instruments, but they qualify for the rank of bandmaster in any regiment. ”

“ I’ve heard their ‘Bonnie Blue Flag’ and their stirrup toasts until I’m sick——”
“Billy!” said his sister quietly. And reseating herself and turning to the bandmaster, “Our neighbors differ with us,” she said, “and my brother cannot understand it. I have to remind him that if they were not brave men our army would have been victorious, and there would have been no more war after Bull Run.”17
The bandmaster assented thoughtfully. Once or twice his worn eyes swept the room—a room that made him homesick for his own. ”

“ A Father’s Common Sense Gives America a Great Bandmaster. KIPLING essayed to write verses at thirteen, and John Philip Sousa entered his apprenticeship in a military band at the age of twelve. The circumstances, which he related to me during a recent conversation, make it clear, however, that it was not exactly the realization of any youthful ambition. “When I was a youngster of twelve,” said the bandmaster, “I could play the violin fairly well. It was in this memorable year that a circus came to Washington, D. C., where I then lived, and remained for two days. ”

“ All the musicians stood up and the men who had crowded in to hear the music came to attention, but not one move toward lifting his baton would the bandmaster make until every one of his men had put on his coat and hat. They might play Strauss waltzes and even Wagnerian selections in their undershirts, but no note of the national hymn could be played until every man was in dress befitting the occasion. ”

“ PATRICK SARSFIELD GILMORE The Father of the Concert Band
Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore, America’s first great bandmaster, was born on Christmas Day, 1829, in the village of Ballygar, County Galway, Ireland. His parents hoped that he would go into the priesthood, but that idea did not appeal to Patrick. He loved music more than anything else in the world. Even when a very small boy he had a knack of making his own toys from wood, wire or whatever he could find. Always they were crude musical instruments, fifes, drums or fiddles from which he was able to blow, beat or scrape a bit of a tune. ”

“ But the bandmaster—symbol of the pompous pedagogue—in trying to soothe the outraged feelings of the courtiers, says, “Because, you see, Ladies and Gentlemen, and, above all, Your Imperial Majesty, with the real nightingale you never can tell what you will hear, but in the artificial nightingale everything is decided beforehand. ”

“ He increased his reputation during the Civil War, particularly by organizing a monster orchestra of massed bands for a festival at New Orleans in 1864; and at Boston in 1869 and 1872 he gave similar performances. He was enormously popular as a bandmaster, and composed or arranged a large variety of pieces for orchestra. ”

“ We find therefore no flute, oboes, or bassoons. It consisted of—
This regulation number has however on nearly all occasions been overstepped, and there are frequently bands of from seventy to ninety performers. The natural aptitude of some of the nationalities, notably Bohemia, Hungary and Austria proper, for instrumental music, has made the strengthening of the number of performers a comparatively easy matter to the bandmaster. ”

“ At the examinations I also asked the bandmasters certain questions regarding their position in their respective regiments, the attitude of their colonel toward music, their general treatment, and the hours allowed them for musical practice, and here I came on all kinds of conditions. Some of the commanding officers had no sympathy with music or with the bandsmen, and instead of making them practise their six hours a day, they were put to work as kitchen police and on other fatigue duties. ”

“ As bandmaster to the latter he was called to Wiesbaden in 1863, and in 70 became Kapellmeister of the Kur orchestra there, a post which he resigned from ill health in 1872. He still resides in Wiesbaden, and celebrated his silver anniversary on May 7, 79. [App. p.689 "Add date of death, Nov. 20, 1882."] His works, which have reached op. 130, consist of overtures, dance music, and pieces for solo violin, all distinguished for showy brilliant style and clever orchestration. Among the most popular are his Hofnungssterne waltz, Hurrah-Sturm galop, and Friedrich-Karl march. ”

“ On the following visit to Chaumont I proposed to General Pershing that we form a music-school at which fifty bandmasters could get the most intensive musical training and discipline for eight weeks, to be succeeded by a new batch of fifty, etc., and at the same time forty pupils each in oboe, bassoon, French horn, and flügelhorn could get a similar training of twelve weeks on their respective instruments. ”

“ Similar conditions prevail in almost every large city in the Union. Neither may the beneficent influence of our military bandmasters upon the masses be overlooked. Considering the conditions that have existed in the past, no one can censure them for catering to the demands of the public. Never-172-theless, they have little by little managed to interpolate numerous transcriptions from works of recognized merit. Such men as Gilmore, Sousa and Innes have done more for the cause of good music than is popularly supposed. ”

“ The British Bandsman and Orchestral Times, circulates among bandmasters and members of military, orchestral, and brass bands. It was established in September 1887, under the joint editorship of Mr. Waterson and Mr. Cope, the latter of whom is also proprietor and publisher. It appears monthly, with a musical supplement.
The Meister, the organ of the Wagner Society, made its first appearance on Feb. 13, 1888. It is issued quarterly by Redway, under the honorary editorship of Mr. Ashton Ellis and Mr. E. F. Jacques. Messrs. Dowdeswell, Shedlock, Glasenapp and Barry are among the contributors. ”

“ What is more thrilling than a fine brass band? There’s something about a band that sets hearts pounding and pulses racing.
Band music stirs all ages. Young and old pour into the streets to see and hear a band. Mothers with babies in their arms and wide-eyed youngsters clinging to their skirts, line the sidewalks. Small boys run to keep pace with the drummer, then with shoulders back and stomachs stuck out, they proudly march beside them. Old men lift heads high, women’s eyes are tear-filled as the band brings sad memories. ”

“ Troops will step faster and march for a longer time to the rhythm of a drum than to any other way of keeping time. What is more stirring than the heavy, measured boom-boom-boom of the bass drum, the rhythmic clatter of the snare drum and the great blasts of tone from the huge, wide-mouthed horns?
In the beginning American military band music mainly consisted of the shrill tones of the fife paced by the rattle of the snare drums with their vibrating snares. ”

“ The parliamentary concert is about to commence, and it is for the Premier as leader of the Government orchestra to keep his band together as best he may. This is no easy task. A single false note may mar the harmony of the whole performance; the failure of one solitary instrumentalist may cause the dismissal of the entire band. It is the conductor's duty to see that his orchestra plays in unison, or, if not in unison, at least in harmony. He must keep a watchful eye upon each individual, and quash the efforts of any one member to perform a solo upon his own peculiar trumpet. ”

“ The purchaser of the music, e.g., the father of the bride, the chairman of the events, etc., makes arrangements with a musician, or with a musician's booking agent, for an orchestra of a conductor and a given number of instrumentalists, or 'sidemen,' at a specified time and place. The musician in such cases assumes the role of 'leader' of the orchestra, obtains the 'sidemen' and attends to the bookkeeping and other details of the engagement. Usually the 'leader' performs with the orchestra, sometimes only conducting but often also playing an instrument. ”

“ When Commander Brendler took over the leadership [32] of the U. S. Navy Band he began to work on his theory that the band should play all types of music for all kinds of people. He increased the organization to one hundred members, and he also formed a number of different units within it. Most of these players are accomplished symphony orchestra performers and a dozen or more are recognized soloists. The Navy Band contains a complete symphony orchestra; a modern “swingphonette” which plays equally well light opera or the latest “bebop”; and small groups for dances or concert programs. ”

“ 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. ”

“ As I heard the deep bass of the old Drummer, rolling in a low, solemn undertone, a sudden shifting of the scene came to me. I was in a great auditorium filled with light, and packed with humanity rising tier on tier and stretching far back till lost in the maze of distances. A grand orchestra, banked before me, with swaying arms and earnest faces, played a wonderful harmony which rolled about me like the sea and whelmed me with its volume till I was almost swept away by the tide, then suddenly down under its sweep I found the low deep roll of the bass drum. ”

“ Of course, we must not cherish unbridled musical ambitions, because a full band means forty pieces, and on that establishment we should require even now a very large number of bandsmen. But I think it might be possible to provide drums and fifes for every battalion, full bands at depots, and a proportion of battalion bands at half or even one-third establishment. ”

“ While waiting a few seconds for listeners and players to settle themselves he rests his baton against his right shoulder, like a sword. Then the sharp rap. The Maestro closes his eyes. Another rap, sharper than the first. Oppressive, electrical silence. He lifts the baton as if saluting the orchestra. The concert begins.
As a rule the right hand gives the tempo and tracks down every smallest melody, wherever it may hide in the score. In passages for the strings, the baton indicates the type of bowing the conductor wants from the violins, violas or cellos. ”

“ They are generally attired in a more gaudy and expensive uniform than the privates in the ranks. The number of a band depends much upon the caprice of the commanding officer, and although the limit is prescribed by Government to a sergeant as master, and fourteen privates as musicians, yet the majority of regimental bands are composed of a band-master, a band-sergeant, a band-corporal, and frequently upwards of thirty privates as performers. The band invariably accompanies the regiment to church. ”

“ Consists of a body of musicians attached to each army regiment or battalion. The law provides for a band at the Military Academy at West Point. And for each artillery, cavalry, and infantry regiment a chief musician, who shall be instructor of music; and for each artillery and infantry regiment two principal musicians; each cavalry regiment to have one chief trumpeter. Musicians for regimental bands are enlisted as soldiers, and formed under the direction of the adjutant, but are not permanently detached from their companies, and are instructed in all the duties of a soldier. ”