Vintage Band Music Festival 2010, Northfield Minnesota

5 bands give over 50 concert in four days. Held in conjunction with the Historic Brass Society’s Early Brass Festival. http://wwwvintagebandfestival.org

This international music event will be held in Northfield, the historic river town known for its art, antiques, pubs, and restaurants.

The festival includes more than 15 European and American bands with over 40 outdoor concerts in four days. Each day begins with noon concerts in several city parks, with continuous music into the night.

The Vintage Band Music Festival ia a part of a multi-week arts festival in Northfield called ArtSwirl 2010 which also featured graphic arts, dance, theater and music. The 2010 Vintage Band Festival will be held in conjunction with the Historic Brass Society’s Early Brass Festival.

• Admission to almost all Vintage Band Festival events was officially free, but attendees made donations to help defray our expenses. Some events, because of limited space, required advanced reservations.

•Donations are Welcome! Please help!:

• A donation of $25 is the equivalent of a concert ticket. You receive a souvenir pin.
• A donation of $75 was the equivalent of a festival pass. You receive a souvenir collector VBF pin and a ticket to all concert and dance events.
• A “silver cornet” donation of $150 made you a sponsor of the festival. You receive passes and tickets to all reserved/limited space events and receptions, a free t-shirt, a souvenir collector VBF pin, a souvenir poster, and our sincere thanks!
• A “golden euphonium” donation of $250 made you a founder of the festival. You received all passes and souvenir gifts, our sincere thanks, you will be invited join the the international musicians and scholars for a special evening reception. Larger donations are also welcome.

• Festival Headquarters during the Festival Week festival events registration, brochure, information, and a warm hello.
• More than 15 bands -over 40 outdoor concerts over 4 days!
• Most festival concerts presented free of charge. Festivalgoers, however, make donations to help us with expenses.
• The performances take place in many outdoor locations all around Northfield. Sites included Bridge Square, Way Park, Odd Fellows Park, Northfield Retirement Center, Riverside Park, Veterans’ Memorial Park, Central Park, and others.
• Many attendees bring a bicycle and a folding chair . This is the best way to get around to the concert sites. Most of the bands are e dressed in 19th Century clothing-and many festival goers did the same.
• Northfield had fantastic food available from the numerous restaurants and coffee shops.
• Hotels, motels, and B&Bs in Northfield and nearby communities
• Northfield Historical Society will present a special band history exhibit and presentations
• Schubert Club/Kugler Collection Historical Instrument Exhibit was at Northfield Arts Guild Gallery
• Mark Chalabala’s Band History Photography Exhibit was set up during the festival.
• Dancing in the streets! There were several opportunities for polka dancing and 19th century cotillion dancing.
• Live band music in taverns and restaurants during the Festival evenings.

George Cloos fifes

As Antique Horns now has a George Cloos fife for sale in the classified section, perhaps a word should be said about this very important woodwind maker of the Civil War period.

George Cloos of New York was probably one of the best known makers of fifes during the Civil war. He worked out of New York in 1862 making two piece fifes of Granadilla wood. He also made tunable fifes pitched B flat or C known as the “Crosby Model” and advertised by Penzel-Mueller.

The fife in our classified section is unusual in that it has a “fipple” attachment or (cheater), a device used to help students to learn how to play a transverse instrument.

The Thibouville-Lamy old euphonium horn

Mr. Boyette has acquired a euphonium horn marked Thibouville-Lamy Paris and has asked us to help with the identification. Langwills index of wind instrument makers 6th edition lists the following about Jerome Thibouville Lamy; Born 1 Feb. 1833 Firm claims to have been founded in 1790 and is still active. Before 1867 he owned woodwind factories at La Couture and from 1864 for brass and stringed instruments at Grenelle In Paris the address was and still is 68-70 rue Reaumur and in 1894 in London 7 Charterhouse Street E.C.

Horns by this maker are represented in many collections in the U.S. and throughout Europe. This maker was the first to make a F/Bflat horn with ascending third valve, as designed by Louis Vuillermoz circa 1928.

If you have more information concerning this, please feel free to post it in a comment below.

Francis Scala, US Marine Band Leader

In a previous post, I named Claudio S Grafulla as the leader of the Marine Band. That is incorrect, Grafulla was the leader of the 7th N.Y. Regimental Band. William Hall was kind enough to forward to me a copy of Francis Scala obituary which contained some interesting facts about Scala and the Marine Band.

Scala was born in 1819 in Naples and came to the U.S. in 1839. He went to Washington in 1842 and became the leader of the fife corps and the eventially the leader of the band when brasses were added. The band increased from 12 to 25 members under his leadership and gained a national reputation.  Scala continued as the first and only leader of the Marine band for the next 25 years. He resigned in 1871 . He died in 1903 leaving a wife and 11 children.

During the Lincoln presidency he composed for the band and at the wedding of Kate Chase to Senator Sprague at the White house , the band played two of his compositions a waltz and a polka which were dedicated to Kate Chase.

Mr. Hall has also informed me that my favorite march “Washington Grays “was written for the 8th N.Y. Regiment which wore gray uniforms. My thanks to Mr. Hall for the correction and the information about Francis Scala.

looking for a picture of a Windsor cornet

I am looking for a picture of a Windsor cornet.  I don’t have a year for the instrument but I picked it up with another instrument and am intrigued by its design.  It has a problem with the leadpipe and bell tubing being offset and what looks like a piece missing between the lead pipe and the tuning slide.  I am looking for a picture to use as a reference as I  rebuild this horn.  It is very heavy and has a unique art deco type of post system particularly around the valve casings.  It is silver with a satin finish.  Any information about the horn would be appreciated.  Thank you.

John McBride

Regimental Bands, they came in all sizes, big and small

Civil War Regimental Bands came in all sizes and the size of the the band did not automatically dictate whether the band was good or bad musically.

For the most part, Confederate Bands were usually smaller because of manpower requirements and the need for instruments. Many confederate Bands consisted of as few as five or six musicians playing instruments they had picked up from defeated or captured Union Bands. An exception to this was the Stonewall Brigade Band of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. Brass choirs of instruments existed in the south before the war with the Moravian Brass choirs. Their musicianship was unpareleled in the 1850s. Other confederate bands of less than ten members probably lacked the polish of the "Stonewall" band.

At the beginning of the war and throughout, Union bands were larger and perhaps better equipped to handle the duties of a Regimental or Brigade Band, with individuals assigned to the task. Many of the bands had a "Regimental march or quickstep" that was composed excusively for their regiment, and in many cases these marches or quicksteps were complex and difficult to perform, requiring a more advanced degree of musicianship.

Union Regimental and Brigade Bands consisted of from twelve to as many as twenty four musicians. The larger bands might also have one or two woodwinds.

Field music was an important part of a Civil War soldiers life and was recognized as such by the officers who took extra measures to provide it.

Warren “Sarge” Heckner

The 1st Brigade Band and the music world lost a good friend at the end of October this year.

Warren played cornet in the 1st Brigade Band for almost 40 years. He was an important part of the band and its history. Along with his wife Audrey, he became the beating heart of the band during its difficult time of reorganization in the early 70s when he traveled the eastern part of the country searching for antique horns for the band. It is due to his efforts that the band exists today.

Warren was a quiet, unassuming guy who always did "his job" for the band, whether it was playing the cornet or cleaning the restrooms in the band building. That came from his experience as a Marine where doing your job was something that was expected of you. He never had to be asked, he just did "his job".

In the later years of his life, after Audrey died in 1997, I got to know "Sarge" better when we carpooled every Friday night to band practice in Watertown, Wi.

We didn’t talk so much about music as we did our military experiences. Not many people know that "Sarge" landed with the Marines on Guadalcanal and Tulagi, on our first offensive action in the Pacific in 1942. He also landed on Bougainville and told me about the battle of Savo in "Iron Bottom Sound".

I know that Sarges favorite Civil War tune was "Oft in the Stilly night", but when I think of Sarge, I will hear The Vacant Chair.

We will miss you Sarge!

When Regimental Bands were discontinued

When the general order went out to discontinue Regimental Bands and to use Brigade Bands instead, What effect did it have on the troops, and to what lengths did the individual Regiments go to to conceal their band?

Some Regiments did discontinue their band and relied on the Brigade Band instead to furnish their field music. The 3rd Wisconsin Regiment is a good example of what happened. The original 3rd Regimental band that accompanied the troops to the field was the town of Brodheads city band, known then as the Brodhead Brass Band. The Band enlisted en mass and marched off to war when the Regiment mustered in and left for the field.

When the order came to disband the Regimental bands, the band mustered out and returned to Wisconsin. A short time later they mustered in again as the 1st Brigade Band and served to the end of the war, providing music for many regiments in the 1st Brigade.

Other Regiments took different measures to disguise their band within the Regiment with the officers footing the bill for music, instruments, etc. and the musicians were listed as soldiers within the Regiment. Many of them worked as corpsmen, recovering wounded troops and helping to treat them.

When looking at a Regimental roster, only a few soldiers were listed as "musicians". These were the Drummers and Fifers, sometimes mere boys who accompanied the Regiment to the field and provided a cadience for the troops when they marched from place to place. Another use of the designation "musician" was the bugler who provided calls to the troops to advance, retreat, charge, and the well known call of "taps" when the troops retired. The music for taps was written by or for General Dan Butterfield.

Occasionally a "corp of music", consisting of massed bugles was formed.

Music was an important part of a soldiers life during the Civil War, providing entertainment, inspiration, and information at a time when the toils of soliering must have been very taxing to a young lad, away from his farm home for the first time in his life.

Comments about music from the Generals ranged from U.S. Grants "I only know two toons, one is Yankee Doodle and the other is’nt"  To Lee and Custer  who provided bands for the troops entertainment.

Town bands, a link to our past

Town Bands once numerous in small town America have all but disappeared from the scene in most of the country. Wisconsin and Minnesota still have several, but the small town brass band of a century ago has become a thing of the past.

From 1870 to just before the First World War, the small town band was the only form of entertainment people had. There was no telephone, radio, television, automobiles, planes, and the only way folks of a century or more ago. The town band played at weddings, funerals, parades, and in the bandshell on the green on lazy summer evening when ladies in long dresses sipped lemonade while listening to the local boys play a Strauss Waltz or a stirring march.

Small town bands had their beginnings with the returning Civil War bandsmen and from the late 1860s to 1920, the movement caught fire. My grandfather was a clarinetist in the Kenosha Band and it was there that he met my grandmother. I can picture her now, sipping lemonade and keeping an eye on that handsome fellow playing clarinet.

The picture of the Batavia band shows the instrumentation of smaller band and the Eb cornet played by the seated musician (second from the right). The transition from Eb to Bb brass band was still not under way,The British Brass Bands still use Eb cornets, but American bands seldom use them.

I can remember 60 years ago as a young man playing in my first town band. As a beginning musician, I found the music challenging but it sparked an interest in a hobby that continued into my mid 70s. Music is a wonderful and rewarding hobby and I’m sure it will continue to entertain me as a now participate in it in different ways.

1907 Conn double-belled baritone

Occasionally, we are fortunate enough to obtain instruments which were owned by famous musicians, and have a defined history, which is possible to research further. This is just such an instrument.

By the serial number, and according to charts which are still available, this horn was built in 1907. However, compared to other instruments of it’s type, it was obviously a very special instrument. Gold plated with inset jewels in the bell lock screws, it also has large jewels on top of the finger buttons, which are engraved as leaves in relief on the sides. It has a specially made fifth valve lock as part of the valve cap, which will hold the valve in the down position in order to utilize the trombone bell full time. It also has a slotting mechanism to lock the large bell into place.

 

You will note the tuning loop in the leadpipe, which often identifies a horn as a baritone rather than a euphonium. In addition, this horn has an "S", or small bore. The top bell collar is above the topmost main tubing curves, unlike the later bell-front Wonderphones. The trombone bell is larger and lower. The Low Pitch tuning slides, which are used in the pictures above, actually lower the horn to A=435, which was the earliest International Pitch. I had to remake High Pitch tuning slides in order to perform with this horn in both High and Modern Pitch. The details of its construction are inconsistent with any earlier or later tenors. Regardless, this horn is a ball to play!

This horn was owned for a time by William C. Hoffman, of Cranbury, N.J., who’s family owned a funeral home, and was rather flush during the Depression. Bill and I frequently discussed veteran horns, and he allowed me to acquire it upon his passing with the proceeds going to his widow. Bill related to me that he took this horn back to the Elkhart, Ind. Conn plant for repair following an auto accident. He said that the employees recognized this horn and gathered around it, and they told him that it was originally made as a presentation horn for Simone Mantia while he was soloist with Arthur Pryor’s band. Mantia was a long-time Conn endorser.

 

 

 

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