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.

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.

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.

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.

U.S.M.C. Band Concert

I have been a bandsman since the 1940s, but up until last Friday, I had never seen or heard the United States Marine Band (The Presidents Own) I had studied the band and in particular, its role in the Civil War when Claudio S Graffula was the director and John Phillip Sousa’s father played trombone. I can recall a photo of the band during the Civil War, when John Phillip, then a lad of about 4 years stood beside his dad.

As I sat in the audience in Fond du Lac Wisconsin and listened to musical perfection, I could not help but wonder how the band in 1862 would stack up against this band in 2008. I am sure the 1862 band was far superior to the Regimental bands of the period, but against the 2008 band, I dont think they stand a chance.

With me at the concert was Dan Woolpert, who directed the 1st Brigade Band for over 2 decades. We were in awe of the musical talent we were witnessing. In particular the woodwinds caught our attention and I must say that when the piccolo section came out to play their refrain it sounded like 1 piccolo. On the Classical selections, the woodwinds were perfection.

All in all, it was an evening I will never forget. You could try and listen for a mistake or a cracked note in the French Horn solo, but there was none.

If you ever get a chance to hear the U.S. Marine Band, dont pass it up. It is band music at its very best.

Stoelzel or Bluhmel Who invented this valve system?

Although Stoelzels name is generally connected to this valve system, some think it was a joint effort of the two “craftsmen” Stoelzel and Bluhmel , working together as a team in Berlin in the first quarter of the 19th century.

Stoelzel was a Saxon and Bluhmel was a Schlesien. The exclusive patent rights to this valve system was ultimately given to or purchased by Stoelzel and to this day it bears his name. The interesting question is, why did the valve system not gain popularity in the German speaking principalities where it was invented, but accepted to a larger extent in Great Britain and France where it was applied as seen here on a Cornopean.

This instrument bears a British makers mark “an Irish harp” and was imported into the U.S. by John Howard Foote, probably before the Civil War. Interesting about this horn is the original tarred wooden case to make it waterproof, and the pigtail and straight crooks which pitch the instrument to ” Bb, Ab, FA, LA, and SOL”.  There is also a screw in Lyre and a bubble glass painting of the period, of a musician holding this horn. Notice that the “SOL” crook is in the upright position in the painting.

This horn was found in Fond du Lac Wisconsin at an estate sale in early 1970.

Abraham Lincoln and the Brodhead Brass Band

2009 will be a very special time in American history. It will be the bicentennial year of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. We know that Lincoln loved music, that he was a terrible dancer, and that he was fond of the ladies. We can picture the ungainly Lincoln on the dance floor, all arms and legs attempting a polka or waltz and the very tall Lincoln and the very short Mary Todd together on the dance floor.

Of all of the bands that Lincoln must have heard, only the 1st Brigade Band remains active today.  It existed before the Civil War as the Brodhead Brass Band and during Lincoln’s debates with Douglas, the small brass band from Brodhead, Wisconsin, traveled south across the Illinois border to play at the debates. The Brodhead band became the 3rd Wisconsin Infantry Band and then the 1st Brigade Band. Undoubtedly, Lincoln heard it play several times. We know that he heard it as the Brodhead Band at the debates with Douglas.

It may astound some people that the present day band actually has at least two horns that Lincoln heard play. One is an E flat alto that was used at the debates. The other is an OTS baritone used by the 1st Brigade Band during several troop reviews that Lincoln attended.

During the upcoming bicentennial celebration year of Lincoln’s birth, the band will undoubtedly be busy with concerts, balls, and historic presentations. Make plans now to engage the band for your Lincoln celebration in 2009. They have programs for all sorts of occasions. See their promotional film clip on this website and contact Dave Woolpert or Ed Pierce for more information.

Abraham Lincoln and the Brodhead Brass Band

2009 will be a very special time in American history. It will be the bicentennial year of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. We know that Lincoln loved music, that he was a terrible dancer, and that he was fond of the ladies. We can picture the ungainly Lincoln on the dance floor, all arms and legs attempting a polka or waltz and the very tall Lincoln and the very short Mary Todd together on the dance floor.

Of all of the bands that Lincoln must have heard, only the 1st Brigade Band remains active today. It existed before the Civil War as the Brodhead Brass Band and during Lincoln’s debates with Douglas, the small brass band from Brodhead, Wisconsin, traveled south across the Illinois border to play at the debates. The Brodhead band became the 3rd Wisconsin Infantry Band and then the 1st Brigade Band. Undoubtedly, Lincoln heard it play several times. We know that he heard it as the Brodhead Band at the debates with Douglas.

It may astound some people that the present day band actually has at least two horns that Lincoln heard play. One is an E flat alto that was used at the debates. The other is an OTS baritone used by the 1st Brigade Band during several troop reviews that Lincoln attended.

During the upcoming bicentennial celebration year of Lincoln’s birth, the band will undoubtedly be busy with concerts, balls, and historic presentations. Make plans now to engage the band for your Lincoln celebration in 2009. They have programs for all sorts of occasions. See their promotional film clip on this website and contact Dave Woolpert or Ed Pierce for more information.

Civil War Composers, who was the best? Who is your favorite?

This is a subject I always wanted to comment, so here goes.

My candidate for the best composer of music for Civil War bands is Claudio S Grafulla. For those out there who hav’nt heard his name, he composed “Washington Grays” I always theorized that his lady love was stolen away by an Eb cornet player and he found this way of retaliating. The music for an Eb cornet player on the march in Washington Grays is brutal. Add to that that the typical Civil Was band had only 1 or perhaps 2  Eb cornets and you can appreciate that when playing Washington Grays on the march, the Eb cornet player was a very busy guy!

I can remember as a H.S. bandsman in the 50s, when in a band competition, the judges always trotted out Washington Grays as a “sight reading” test, and it always evoked groans of pain from the cornet section.

Some non musician types think John Phillip Sousa composed during the Civil War. NOT TRUE! John Phillip was a lad of 4yrs at the time and can be seen on pictures of the U.S. Marine Band at the side of his father, who played Trombone.  John Phillip continued in the path started by Claudio S Grafulla.

Any other examples out there of Civil War Band composers?

Valved Trombones, their faded glory

 

I think the reasons we no longer see them is that they outlived their usefulness They came in many sizes and with different valve systems and at one time were very popular. I have my own theory on this subject and I actually played an Eb tenor valved trombone in the 1970s for a period of about 5 years. I acquired it in Kiel Wisconsin at an antique store. It was a refugee from an estate sale that did’nt sell and was consigned to languish away in an obscure corner of the shop. Mine came with its original coffin case, a lyre and original mouthpiece. There was also a crook to put it in the key of C. All things considered, it played rather well and research indicated that it belonged to a William Voss of Kiel Wisconsin. It has string action rotary valves that appear to have been made in New York or the New England states shortly after the Civil War.

Now, to my theory of why valved trombones are no longer used. I think they were used in lieu of slide trombones when the regimental bands were in vogue. They were much more durable than slide trombones and took the rough handling of a field band. Add to that the number of regimental bands that were mounted on horseback and required the musician to hold reins in one hand and play with the other, and you have the answer! European Bands still have bands mounted on horseback, and I would wager that some of them, especially British bands may occasionally still use a valved trombone rather than a Bb tenor horn.

Is there anybody out there that has another view of the valved trombones exit from todays brass bands?

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