Musical band

“ 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 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 Salvation Army bands are in three different grades. The top-ranking ones are the various Headquarters Staff Bands, all well-trained, expert musicians. The Corps bands come second—there are many of them—more bands of this class than in any other [138] musical organization in the world except school bands. One night each week band rehearsal is held in each Corps hall and all the youngsters in the neighborhood gather there, welcome to listen and learn. Many Corps bands hold a summer camp, two weeks or more, for young musicians who are anxious to play in a band. ”

“ In our own country neither the Puritans nor the Quakers of New England’s early days would allow the use of musical instruments. But the German and Swedish colonists brought their music with them to this country.
The first band in New York City consisted of four sturdy Dutch citizens who played the trumpet, flute, violin and drum. They gave a free concert every Saturday afternoon at Bowling Green to crowds of one hundred or more people. This was in the 1630’s. A few years later seven younger, better-looking men made up a rival band. They played louder and became more popular. ”

“ Bandsmen always keep on at their regular schedule of musical business, even in wartime unless engaged in battle. Rehearsals are held in the morning, concerts on deck at noon for the crew, and concerts for the officers in the evening. The band plays at all ceremonies. It plays colors when the ship is lying in port, plays at Sunday morning church services on the ship and also for a Sunday evening concert. ”

“ He directs several bands in the Boston area, is a member of various musical organizations—among them, the U. S. Army-Navy Bandsmen’s Association and the 101st Engineers’ Band. He inspires the school boys with a genuine love of music and a real joy in playing. The Farm and Trades School Band has throughout its years, won many honors at the state and the New England school band contests and later, high ratings at the Competition Festivals.
The popularity of the band has constantly increased. ”

“ Revue and musical comedy require and often attain the pitch of technical accuracy which vaudeville sets as a standard, and these two forms draw heavily upon vaudeville for material and stars, whom they incorporate only in so far as the stars are not pure variety themselves. They are as much entitled to the jazz bands as any other stage, but to me a jazz band is not essentially variety, although it has a legitimate place there. ”

“ The German band.—In this charming little musical entertainment, three or four of the company can at the same time redeem their forfeits. An imaginary musical instrument is given to each one—they themselves must have no choice in the matter—and upon these instruments they must perform as best they can. ”

“ None who have ever handled a musical instrument before are allowed to become members of the band, lest the music should be too sweet and regular to comport with the general order of the parade. The uniform (or rather the multiform) of the company varies from year to year, owing to the regulation that each soldier shall consult his own taste,—provided that no two are to have the same taste in their equipments. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the navy cornet bands were discarded and were substituted by large musical machines that played operas, marches, quicksteps, waltzes and patriotic airs with wonderful accuracy, with a volume of sound surpassing the best efforts of efficient brass bands. In the army, the brass band always held its own. The men who composed the band could march and fight, while no automatic substitute could be made to do this. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A brass band will fill a whole street with glamour, and the normal person finds it quite impossible to be out of step with the rhythm of the march. Watch the way in which, as the Pied Piper of Hamelin drew the children after him, the band draws the elders to the window and the children to the street: the appeal is never in vain. Marching in time with the music tired feet forget their weariness, and new strength comes from the reserves of the greater self, liberated at the unspoken appeal of melody and rhythm. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Soon other companies were organized and followed suit in a rush to make instruments; organize bands and help the musicians to buy the instruments. The movement spread and in 1898 it is said that there were 1,000 industrial bands marching in the streets of the United States and playing popular music of the Spanish-American War days.
Workers of all nationalities and occasionally executives of the companies played in these business organizations over the country. One millionaire industrialist, Felix Dupont, played baritone with the Wilmington, Delaware Police Band. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ All America loves a band. Even in Washington, the National Capital, the most popular parade ground in the United States, crowds quickly jam the streets to the very curb, as a band leads a parade along the Avenue. For it is a marching band which makes the deepest appeal to the emotions of the human mind and heart. A lively march will bring smiles to the faces, sparkles to the eyes and a rhythmic step to the feet. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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!" ”

“ 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. ”