The Yankee Brass
Band... And a History of
Brass Bands
In
the mid-1800s a brass band
was a celebration of civic pride. Every town had one; often
factories, companies, fire departments, and militia units also had a
brass band. Composed of professional or local amateur musicians, bands
featured instruments such as bugles, trombones, cornets, ophicleides,
cornopeans, helicons, and saxhorns. The brass band movement began
in New England and spread throughout the country. Brass band
journals and newsletters flourished, providing up-to-date information
on popular groups, the latest tunes, and advances in brass technology.
Saxhorns
(cornet-like instruments, which ranged in length from two to
six feet) were invented by Adolphe Sax before he invented the
saxophone. They all were shaped in the same fashion, but were
made larger and larger to produce lower and lower pitches. A
typical band would have E-flat and B-flat cornets, E-flat alto horns,
B-flat tenor horns, baritone horns and B-flat and E-flat bass horns all
with three or more valves and of a variety of sizes. Saxhorns and
over-the-shoulder models were favored by military or militia bands
marching at the head of large columns of troops as the sound could be
projected backwards making it easier to march to and helping to bolster
the troops’ spirits during long marches of the War years. Also in the
band could be included various keyed brass instruments notably keyed or
Kent bugles (imagine a bugle with keys like a clarinet) or ophicleides
(bassoon-like brass instruments with a brass mouthpiece and a
surprisingly mellow sound).
“The invention
of keys and valves meant that brass instruments could
play as many notes as woodwinds,” says music historian Dr. Robert
Eliason of Lyme, New Hampshire. “With this development,
instrumentation began to change from predominantly woodwinds and
strings to all brass instruments.” Brass bands reached the height
of their popularity shortly before the Civil War, then gradually
evolved into bands like that of John Philip Sousa, which included both
brass and woodwind instruments.
Northern New
England was the scene of this development not only by
having several bands and some outstanding soloists, but also by
producing many of the instruments these bands used.
Samuel Graves
and his brothers began making musical instruments in West
Fairlee, Vermont, during the 1820s. In 1830 they formed Graves
& Co. and occupied half of a four-story water-powered shop in
Winchester, New Hampshire. By the early 1840s, they had purchased
another floor of the building and were the largest supplier of woodwind
and brass instruments in the country.
Two brothers
from Lyme, New Hampshire, also made important
contributions to brass band music of the day. Keyed bugle soloist
D. C. Hall was the leader of the Boston Brass Band, one of the great
bands of the period, and the owner of an instrument-making business
that turned out large numbers of brass instruments. Rudolph Hall
traveled from coast to coast, often playing clarinet and cornet solos
on the same program. In the early 1860s he toured England,
performing in many cities and at the Queen’s Concert Rooms in
London. Both brothers often brought their bands to perform in
Lyme and at Dartmouth College events.
Twenty one years
ago, in a collaboration of David Briggs (owner of the
Hotel Coolidge in White River Junction, Vermont), Paul Maybery of St.
Paul, Minnesota, Mark Elrod of German-town, Maryland, and a small host
of brass players from around the country, the first “Yankee Brass Band”
performed in the Upper Valley of Vermont/New Hampshire. What these
people created was an historically accurate recreation of an American
Brass Band circa 1840–1870 performing music of the period in an
appropriate style and on original instruments.
Many of the
original pieces, some traced from copies of old band
programs, have been researched, restored, and arranged for the Yankee
Brass Band by Paul Maybery, noted musicologist and music historian.
Although from the Minnesota area, he has spent much time in New England
researching music. Not only are the largest collections of period music
located here in New England, but many local town bands still have this
music in their libraries. One of the best collections, located in the
Manchester (N.H.) Historic Association, is that of the Manchester
Cornet Band led by Walter Dignum. The Nevers Band of Concord (N.H.)
still uses its’ “ancestor’s” (the 2nd N.H. Regiment’s Band) music books.
Several members
of the Yankee Brass Band were involved in the
production of the PBS Civil War series. Maybery appeared as guest
conductor at the Ford’s Theatre Commemorative Concert on the
anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination. Many of the historic
instruments themselves from the collections of Yankee Brass musicians
appeared in the Civil War film Glory.
The musicians in
the Yankee Brass Band – like those of the bands of the
last century – come from all walks of life: engineers, doctors,
teachers, consultants, professional musicians, and a host of
others. They come from all around the United States to share a
common love and respect for the music of the early brass bands.
Many of them direct or perform with similar bands in their home towns.
The integrated
expertise of these musicians produces one of New
England’s most entertaining and informative musical events. The
Yankee Brass Band, with its collection of antique instruments and
authentic music scores, gives audiences an auditory living-history
experience they will long remember. The quicksteps and gallops,
polkas, mazurkas, schottisches and waltzes, and the many overtures and
medleys popular in the mid-19th century make up the program of the
typical brass band concert of yesterday and today.
For more information, contact:
Dennis G. Harrington, Friends of the
Yankee Brass, Inc.
22 W School Street, Oakland, ME 04963
207-465-9204
dgharrin@colby.edu