Alfred Reed's Russian Christmas Music has become a majestic mainstay of the concert band repertoire since its debut in 1944 — so popular, in fact, that it's programmed year-round, not just during the holidays.

"What I continue to like about the work is its agelessness," says composer Jack Stamp, whose Gavorkna Fanfare also has become a concert band staple. "It has seemingly stood the test of time, and that is a credit to Alfred Reed's craftsmanship as a composer."

As Russian Christmas Music marks its 80th anniversary, it's worth retelling how remarkable its world premiere was.

According to excellent program notes by the Foothill Symphonic Winds, one of many bands that plays the work regularly:

“Alfred Reed was a 23-year-old staff arranger for the 529th Army Air Corps Band when he was called upon to create what has become a masterpiece of the wind literature. It was in 1944, when optimism was running high with the successful invasion of France and Belgium by the Allied Forces. A holiday band concert was planned by the city of Denver to further promote Russian-American unity with premieres of new works from both countries. Roy Harris was placed in charge and planned the second movement of his Sixth Symphony (the Abraham Lincoln Symphony) to be the American work. The Russian work was to have been Prokofiev's March, op. 99, but Harris discovered that it had already been performed in the United States (by Reed's own organization). With just 16 days until the concert, Harris assigned Reed, already working for Harris as an aid, to compose a new Russian work for the concert. Scouring the corps' music library, Reed found an authentic 16th-century Russian Christmas Song "Carol of the Little Russian Children" to use for an introductory theme. Drawing on his investigations of Eastern Orthodox liturgical music for other thematic ideas, he completed the score of Russian Christmas Music in 11 days; copyists took another two days to prepare parts for rehearsal. The music was first performed on Dec. 12, 1944, on a nationwide NBC broadcast. A concert performance was given in Denver two days later.”

Running about 15 minutes, Russian Christmas Music is divided into four sections: "Children's Carol," "Antiphonal Chant," "Village Song" and the closing "Cathedral Chorus."

"It was a while until I realized that he used actual Russian tunes in the piece, however obscure," Stamp said. "It really is a one-movement symphony, and to think it was written in the 1940s. To me, it is in many ways, the Pines of the Appian Way for band."

Like Ottorino Respighi's popular work (part of his larger Pines of Rome) and orchestrations of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Russian Christmas Music plays with various themes as it slowly and steadily builds to a thunderous climax.

"All of the resources of the modern, integrated symphonic band are drawn upon to create an almost overwhelming sound picture of tone color, power and sonority," according to the notes in the score.

"My first experience with the piece was as a trombone player," said Jerry Luckhardt, the associate director of bands at the University of Minnesota and a noted guest conductor and band clinician. "The ending was like — you live for those moments!"

The popularity of Russian Christmas Music has spread beyond the concert stage, too. The work has become indelibly identified with the Crossmen drum and bugle corps, which has performed the work in five of its field shows over its 47-year history and made the work its signature tune. Many other corps have performed the work, too, including heavyweights such as Drum Corps International's Carolina Crown, the Cavaliers and Santa Clara Vanguard, and Drum Corps Associates' Reading Buccaneers.

It's clear that Russian Christmas Music remains as vital to the band repertoire today as it was hoped to be when it debuted 79 years ago.

"It's a wonderful work to program and a joy to conduct," Luckhardt said, adding: "It has to be an ending piece. What do you program after that work?"

More resources

Wind Band Literature: Russian Christmas Music, by Andy Pease

Wikipedia: Russian Christmas Music

Recommended recording (listen using the player above): Horns for the Holidays — Dallas Wind Symphony, conducted by Jerry Junkin (Reference Recordings)

When March King John Philip Sousa brought his famous 75-member band to Minneapolis in August 1929 to help celebrate the grand opening of the Foshay Tower — his last performances in Minnesota — he was no stranger to the state.

He might not have appeared at all but for the persuasive powers of a former Minnesota secretary of state.

David Blakely, who held that public office between 1867 and 1868, persuaded Sousa 25 years later to resign his longtime job leading the U.S. Marine Band and start his own touring ensemble.

Blakely also had owned the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the Minneapolis Tribune and later became a music impresario. He conveniently became the first manager of the new band in 1892 until he died suddenly four years later in New York.

From 1893 until his own death in 1932, Sousa and his musicians played 115 dates in Minnesota, sometimes up to four concerts a day. They performed from Albert Lea to Winona, Hibbing to Stillwater, Crookston to Rochester, as well as in the state's three biggest cities: Minneapolis, St. Paul and Duluth. They played in armories and opera houses, theaters and auditoriums, and during a week in September 1927, they performed 20 concerts at the Minnesota State Fair.

In his later years, Sousa also composed two marches with curiously troubled links to Minnesota.

His Minnesota March endures as a University of Minnesota fight song (not to be confused with the "Minnesota Rouser"). But its first performance in 1927 struck a sour note because Sousa wanted to debut the piece at the State Fair, while University President Lotus D. Coffman preferred the university campus — especially because a U of M delegation had broached the idea to Sousa a year earlier.

According to the University of Minnesota Band Alumni Society, Coffman declined to take part in the presentation of Sousa's march manuscript at the fair. But on Sept. 3, 1927, the fair's president accepted the manuscript instead, and the Sousa band debuted the piece before the grandstand audience. The campus premiere came nearly two months later on Oct. 26, when it was played by the University Band in the Armory. Words added by Michael Jalma, director of the band, are still sung today.

The other Sousa march with a Minnesota connection is the Foshay Tower Washington Memorial March, written in 1929. An editor's note with the printed version in 1988 says, "Rather than starting a fresh piece on short notice during a busy summer season, Sousa took a recently commissioned (but not yet delivered) march, Daughters of Texas, and changed the title to Foshay Tower Washington Memorial, later writing a new march for the Texas commission."

Later, the Foshay march became a footnote in a Minnesota business scandal and was forbidden by Sousa to be played for half a century. The reason was money.

Wilbur Foshay, the tower's namesake, had written a $20,000 check for the band's performances, but the check bounced when the stock market crashed shortly after the building opened in 1929. Foshay, whose fortune had come from utility investments, suffered financial disaster, compounded by subsequent convictions for mail fraud. After two jury trials, he spent three years in Leavenworth Prison.

Another tragic consequence was that a woman who served on the first trial jury had worked for the stenography pool in Foshay's company, and her husband had been a Foshay business associate. But she had not disclosed those connections and became the lone holdout juror favoring Foshay's acquittal. After her Foshay connections were disclosed, but before she could be jailed for perjury, her body and those of her husband and two sons were found in a car to which a hose had been attached from the exhaust pipe to the passenger compartment.

Sousa, seeking to distance himself from the Foshay scandal, locked away his march manuscript. Not until 1988, when Minneapolis investors paid the debt, did Sousa's estate allow the piece to be played again in public. A manuscript, along with Sousa photos and other memorabilia, are on display in the 30th-floor museum of the Foshay Tower.

Sousa's name also endures in Minnesota thanks to the John Philip Sousa Memorial Band, based in Edina. Formed in 1970 by a group of graduating seniors from Edina High School, it plays not only Sousa works but a variety of ragtime, novelty and "crowd-pleasing stuff," said its founder, Scott Crosbie.

That fits Sousa's own formula. His programs usually included virtuoso vocal and instrumental soloists and a mix of popular and classical music, including works by Dvořáak, Elgar, Grieg, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Saint-Saëns, Wagner and others. A staple was Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever," and he often had the band play local and topical favorites, as well as midprogram encores.

His six Foshay programs in 1929 featured singers plus soloists playing cornet, saxophone and xylophone. The playlists included music by Rossini, Verdi, Strauss, Gounod and Grainger, as well as many of Sousa's own works, including his new University of Illinois March.

Crosbie said the Foshay march features a distinctive and repetitive military-style break-strain or "dogfight" that signals a change in the style and flow of the piece.

While best known for his marches, Sousa also composed operettas, overtures, orchestral fantasies and songs. In addition, he wrote novels and was an enthusiastic and acclaimed trap shooter.

Ironically, his compositions remain in the public ear partly because of recordings, which Sousa despised. But his work and his legend remain a keystone of American music history.

Dan Wascoe is a retired Star Tribune reporter and columnist. He is a volunteer bell player at Minneapolis City Hall and performs with vocalist Baibi Vegners as Nuance/a duo.

Related links

Fourth of July: 4-hour, patriotic classical playlist
Special program: Let Freedom Sing

Looking for a patriotic soundtrack for your July Fourth celebration? We've programmed a 4-hour playlist of classical and Americana music to go with whatever you're doing on Independence Day. Cooking out? Hitting the lake? Just staying indoors? Our expertly chosen selections go with every activity.

Just click the player above to help you and yours wish America a musical happy birthday!

Playlist

0:00:00 The Star-Spangled Banner
John Stafford Smith
Boston Pops Orchestra; Tanglewood Festival Chorus; Keith Lockhart

0:02:05
West Side Story Suite: America
Leonard Bernstein
Philip Jones Brass Ensemble

0:04:48
The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass: Gloria
Carol Barnett
VocalEssence; Philip Brunelle

0:07:40
1B
Edgar Meyer
Yo-Yo Ma; Mark O'Connor; Edgar Meyer

0:11:38
The Entertainer
Scott Joplin
William Albright

0:15:41
The Liberty Bell
John Philip Sousa
Eastman Wind Ensemble; Frederick Fennell

0:19:06
Pops Hoedown
Medley
Boston Pops Orchestra; Arthur Fiedler

0:25:35
Rodeo: Hoe-Down
Aaron Copland
London Symphony Orchestra; Aaron Copland

0:29:04
Columbia (Caprice Americain)
Louis Moreau Gottschalk
Philip Martin

0:34:55
Porgy and Bess: Summertime
George Gershwin
Orchestra of St. Luke's; Andre Previn; Kathleen Battle

0:37:30
Ashokan Farewell
Jay Ungar
Nashville Chamber Orchestra; Paul Gambill

0:42:35
String Quartet No. 12 'American': 4th Movement
Antonin Dvorak
Cleveland Quartet

0:47:34
Candide: Overture
Leonard Bernstein
London Symphony Orchestra; Leonard Bernstein

0:52:01
Suite: Allegro
Randall Thompson
Peter Christ; David Atkins; Alan de Veritch

0:53:25
America the Beautiful
Samuel Ward/Katherine Bates
National Philharmonic Orchestra; Charles Gerhardt; Leontyne Price

0:56:58
Variations on America
Charles Ives
New York Philharmonic; Kurt Masur

1:03:49
New Medley Overture
James Hewitt
Sinfonia Finlandia Jyvaskyla; Patrick Gallois

1:16:09
Yankee Doodle Rondo
Benjamin Carr
Noel Lester

1:18:28
God Bless America
Irving Berlin
Cincinnati Pops Orchestra; Michael May Festival Chorus; Erich Kunzel

1:20:30
Symphony No.2 'Romantic': Finale
Howard Hanson
Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz

1:27:36
Sunburst
Andrew York
Jason Vieaux

1:31:52
Over the Rainbow
Harold Arlen
Joyce DiDonato; Antonia Pappano

1:36:47
Attaboy
Edgar Meyer/Chris Thile/Stuart Duncan
Yo-Yo Ma; Stuart Duncan; Chris Thile; Edgar Meyer

1:42:28
Symphony No. 3 'The Camp Meeting': Children's Day
Seattle Symphony
Ludovic Morlot

1:49:14
Concerto for Clarinet: 2nd Movement
William Bolcom
Lancaster Festival Orchestra; Gary Sheldon; Richard Stoltzman

1:56:50
Rhapsody in Blue
George Gershwin
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra; Andre Previn

2:10:35
American Salute (When Johnny Comes Marching Home)
Morton Gould
Cincinnati Pops Orchestra; Erich Kunzel

2:14:52
Fanfare for the Common Man
Aaron Copland
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; Leonard Slatkin

2:17:55
Folk Suite No. 4
William Grant Still
Sierra Winds

2:22:55
This Is My Country
Raye/Jacobs
Mormon Tabernacle Choir

2:26:46
Bright Blue Music
Michael Torke
Baltimore Symphony Orhcestra; David Zinman

2:35:50
F.C.'s Jig
Mark O'Connor
Mark O'Connor; Yo-Yo Ma; Edgar Meyer

2:39:04
Bugler's Holiday
Leroy Anderson
Philharmonia Orchestra; Charles Groves

2:41:30
Medley of Songs
George M. Cohan
Cincinnati Pops Orchestra; Erich Kunzel

2:45:48
Grand Canyon Suite: On the Trail
Ferde Grofe
Seattle Symphony; Gerard Schwarz

2:53:05
Sound the Bells!
John Williams
Recording Arts Orchestra; John Williams

2:55:51
Suite: Gaio
Randall Thompson
Peter Christ; David Atkins; Alan de Veritch

2:57:54
Adagio for Strings
Samuel Barber
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; David Zinman

3:06:35
Old American Songs
Aaron Copland
English Chamber Orchestra; Carl Davis; Marilyn Horne

3:18:51
Symphony No.1 'Afro-American': 3rd Movement
William Grant Still
Chicago Sinfonietta; Paul Freeman

3:22:08
Washington Post March
John Philip Sousa
Boston Pops Orchestra; John Williams

3:24:43
Piano Concerto: 3rd Movement
George Gershwin
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; Simon Rattle; Peter Donahue

3:31:25
West Side Story: Medley
Leonard Bernstein
Boston Pops Orchestra; Arthur Fiedler

3:40:15
Festival Overture
Dudley Buck
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; Leonard Slatkin

3:46:24
American Beauty Rag
Joseph Lamb
Richard Dowling

3:50:31
Oh Susanna
Stephen Foster
VocalEssence Ensemble Singers; Philip Brunelle; Charles Kemper; Clint Hoover; Bobby Stanton; Joan Griffith; Silvester Vicic; Dave Hagedorn; Greg Hippen

3:52:35
The Stars and Stripes Forever
John Philip Sousa
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; Leonard Slatkin

The U.S. Air Force Band and its official choir, the Singing Sergeants, enthralled a packed Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis on April 11 with a patriotic concert that paid tribute not only to the United States but to Minnesota, too. YourClassical MPR was there to record it.

The concert featured several works to celebrate America’s heritage, including the majestic national anthem and “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” the reverent “My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord” and “God Bless America,” and the flag-waving John Philip Sousa classic “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”

But the program also skewed closer to the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

A highlight for the Minnesota audience was March of 10,000 Lakes, which was composed by the band’s arranger, Master Sgt. Tadd Russo, as “a musical token of appreciation for hosting us.” The three-minute march features at least 20 musical quotes hidden within it, including the fight songs of several Minnesota universities, theme music from the movie Fargo and the TV show The Golden Girls, and songs by Minnesota artists such as Prince, Bob Dylan and the Andrews Sisters. In a further delight for the local crowd, the piece was guest-conducted by Emily Threinen, director of bands at the University of Minnesota.

The university’s School of Music, which hosted a workshop earlier that day with the U.S. Air Force Band, also figured in the concert. Student musicians subbed in for some Air Force regulars on Kenneth Alford’s Colonel Bogey, which was made famous by the 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai. The audience even got in on the music-making with the band inviting everyone to whistle along during the march’s familiar refrain.

Showstoppers included Ernesto Lecuona’s Malagueña, which featured the soloistic virtuosity of the band’s trombone section, and a 25-minute tribute by the band and Singing Sergeants to the music of Elton John, Paul Simon and Billy Joel.

Listen now to the concert using the player above. The audio preserves all of the program’s music, but spoken segments between numbers have been edited out.

Program

U.S. Air Force Band
Singing Sergeants *
Col. Don Schofield and Capt. David Regner, conductors
Emily Threinen, guest conductor **
Senior Master Sgt. Matthew Nudell, Technical Sgt. James Layfield, Technical Sgt. David González Jr. and Senior Master Sgt. Jay Heltzer, trombone ***
Guest musicians from the University of Minnesota ****

Francis Scott Key/John Stafford Smith: “The Star-Spangled Banner” *

Leonard Bernstein (arr. Walter Beeler): Overture to Candide

Master Sgt. Tadd Russo: March of 10,000 Lakes **

Ernesto Lecuona (arr. Jerry Ascione): Malagueña ***

Spiritual (arr. Moses Hogan): “My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord” *

Dmitri Shostakovich (arr. R. Mark Rogers): Finale from Symphony No. 5

Julia Ward Howe/William Steffe (arr. Chief Master Sgt. Floyd Werle): “Battle Hymn of the Republic” *

Kenneth Alford: Colonel Bogey ****

arr. Senior Master Sgt. Robert Thurston: Three of the Best, a salute to the music of Elton John, Paul Simon and Billy Joel *

Irving Berlin (arr. Chief Master Sgt. Michael Davis): “God Bless America” *

Chief Master Sgt. Floyd Werle (arr. Master Sgt. John Romano): Armed Forces Medley *

John Philip Sousa: The Stars and Stripes Forever

The Minnesota State Band, only 40 years younger than the state of Minnesota, will honor the 166th anniversary of statehood with a free concert on May 11 at the Minnesota History Center.

The band, an all-volunteer ensemble of up to 55 players that’s led by conductor Keith Liuzzi, is the only remaining state band in the country. Although it has toured internationally over the past few decades, its primary mission is “providing high quality music to the residents of Minnesota.”

“One of my jobs is to create programs of music that will inspire and entertain our audiences and that the band members enjoy playing,” Liuzzi said.

To that end, the concert — with the theme of "History, Pageantry, Variety" — will include the winner of the band’s sponsored competition, Glen Newton’s Flag and Seal. The work commemorates the recent adoption of the new Minnesota emblems.

Other selections on the program include Claudio Grafulla’s Washington Grays (first performed by the band more than 100 years ago), Philip Sparke’s Jubilee Overture, Julie Giroux’s One Life Beautiful, and classics by John Phillip Sousa, Camille Saint-Saëns and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The band will follow up the anniversary concert with a Memorial Day concert at Como Park Pavilion on May 27. Summer concerts include performances in Northfield (July 27), Shakopee (Aug. 1) and back to Como Park on Aug. 7 and 14. A holiday concert will be performed Dec. 13 in Maple Grove.

School is back in session, and maybe your student joined the band. You might be thinking 76 Trombones or Stars and Stripes Forever — but let’s go beyond those warhorses and learn about these great works for concert band.

First Suite (Gustav Holst, 1909): Considered one of the foundational masterworks of the concert band repertoire, this piece, which grew out of the military tradition, convinced other composers that important music could be written specifically for band. Holst orchestrated the piece with “ad lib” parts so that bands of any size could play it. Here’s the great bandmaster Frederick Fennell conducting:

Lincolnshire Posy (Percy Grainger, 1937): This work comprises six movements adapted from the British folk songs Grainger so loved; he described each as “a kind of musical portrait of the singer who sang its underlying melody.” The work had its premiere in Milwaukee, played by bands made up of workers from the Pabst and Blatz breweries. A toast!

Divertimento for Band (Vincent Persichetti, 1950): While composing this piece in a remote log cabin, Persichetti had a revelation: “I soon realized strings weren’t going to enter, and my Divertimento began to take shape. … When composers think of the band as a huge, supple ensemble of winds and percussion, the obnoxious fat will drain off and creative ideas will flourish.” His creative idea was to set up a clash between woodwinds and brass, the timpani “arguing” with them, as in this “Prologue”:

Symphony for Band (Paul Hindemith, 1951): Written at the behest of Lt. Col. Hugh Curry, leader of the U.S. Army Band, this complex work was the only piece Hindemith wrote expressly for band. He employed his trademark dissonance and used contrapuntal techniques to highlight individual wind sections, a challenge for even the most accomplished ensembles.

Slava! A Political Overture (Leonard Bernstein, 1977): Bounding out of the gate in the style of a madcap Broadway overture, Bernstein’s tribute to cellist Mstislav (“Slava”) Rostropovich (and his dog!) is playful and almost vaudevillian. Although he wrote it for full orchestra, it is often adapted for wind ensemble. And the “political” part? Bernstein recycled themes from his less-than-successful musical 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, a wicked putdown of Washington goings-on.

Blue Shades (Frank Ticheli, 1996): It’s not literally a blues piece, Ticheli said, pointing out that “there is not a single 12-bar blues progression to be found,” but he acknowledges its debt to the genre. This jazzy work integrates many hallmarks of the Big Band era: Listen for echoes of Benny Goodman’s clarinet and the wailing brass train-whistle effects.

Bells for Stokowski (Michael Daugherty, 2001): The third movement of Daugherty’s symphony Philadelphia Stories, this piece is a tribute to legendary conductor Leopold Stokowski. Daugherty said, “I imagine Stokowski in Philadelphia visiting the Liberty Bell at sunrise, and listening to all the bells of the city resonate.” To honor Stokowski’s legacy of musical interpretation, Daugherty offers a brief snippet of Bach and his own Bach-style theme.

Ballet for Band (Cindy McTee, 2004): Adapted from her symphony Ballet for Orchestra, McTee’s work emerged out of an awareness that “the impulse to compose often begins as a rhythmic stirring and leads to a physical response … quite literally dancing.” This movement, “Waltz: Light Fantastic,” was inspired by another dance, Ravel’s La Valse.

Kingfishers Catch Fire (John Mackey, 2007): Based on an 1877 poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins, Mackey’s two movements represent a shy bird emerging from its nest, then soaring into the sunlight. Here’s the lively second movement. (Can you hear the reference to Stravinsky’s The Firebird in the final moments?)

Moth (Viet Cuong, 2013): Imagining the final moments of a moth drawn toward a flame, Cuong created an undulating tapestry with a restless momentum that ends with the inevitable final bang. Cuong said he sought inspiration from “the dualities between light and dark, beautiful and grotesque, reality and fantasy and the ultimate decision to sacrifice sensibility for grace.”

Of Our New Day Begun (Omar Thomas, 2015): Written in response to the 2015 attack on Mother Emmanuel Church in South Carolina, the piece is anchored by John and James Johnson’s anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” That melody, somber rather than stirring, wends through winds and brass, with tolling bells and timpani serving as a heartbeat. Thomas adds clapping, stomping and a hint of tambourine to honor Black church music traditions.

Everything Beautiful (Samuel Hazo, 2015): A requiem for band conductor and educator Charles Campbell Jr., this three-movement piece stemmed from grief: “I immediately went to my piano and began to play. … The notes matched my feelings so perfectly,” Hazo said. The result lives up to its name, delivering both sorrow and hope (with references to Stevie Nicks, Percy Grainger and William Shakespeare).

Brass Ceiling: The Journey of General Ann Dunwoody (Laura Karpman, 2018): Emmy-winning composer Karpman wrote this piece for the U.S. Army Field Band in tribute to America’s first female four-star general. Trace its martial beginnings to gentle winds and harp back to a stirring brass finale, complete with mallets hitting artillery shells.

Associate music directors Jennifer Allen and Robin Gehl contributed to this story.

The concert band is a familiar part of many Americans' educational experience. Whether you played in the band, had friends who played, or simply knew of all the kids who headed to the far corner of the school at 10th period, you have probably heard of band and maybe some of its instruments.

But while you might know famous composers' names from throughout classical music history, you might be less familiar with band composers. Here are just a few of the important names in band history.

John Philip Sousa is, for many, the primary encounter with concert bands in the wild. He has been called the March King because he contributed more than 100 marches to the band literature. His The Stars and Stripes Forever is an American classic, and he was a powerful force in creating a concert band culture in the United States through the Marine Band and his touring band. As his music would suggest, Sousa was a fun-loving, patriotic guy. His band also played as a volunteer baseball team, challenging all of the local teams on their tours.

It should be noted that depending on when you participated in band, certain composers' names will stand out as favorites. This list aims to include voices who have impacted or are impacting the tradition of composition for band, and is not to be read as a list of the "top 10" composers. Art is subjective, after all! There are countless composers not mentioned here whose works are educational and longtime favorites for bands worldwide, including popular names in the field such as John Barnes Chance, Alfred Reed, Ron Nelson and Robert W. Smith.

What this list also highlights is an incredible need for diversity in published composers.

Percy Grainger (1882-1961)

This man was truly devoted to the wind band. An Australian by birth, Grainger was instrumental in revitalizing a worldwide interest in British folk music. He's famous for having hiked around Great Britain with an early recording device strapped to his back. He would walk into pubs, buy the locals a round of drinks and ask them to sing a song. He recorded these informal performances and then transcribed them directly onto sheet music, with all of the rhythmic bumps or off-key harmonies that were captured. The resulting collection of folk tunes became the band standard Lincolnshire Posy. His other notable works include Children's March: Over the Hills and Far Away and Colonial Song (aka Australian Up-Country Tune).

Alex Shapiro (1962- )

Alex Shapiro is a seriously accomplished composer whose band works often include electronic audio tracks as a layer of sound otherwise unachievable for an acoustic ensemble. She was trained at Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music under Ursula Mamlok and John Corigliano, but left the East Coast to score a documentary in California. There, while composing for other films, her passion for activism took off, and she served on the board and as vice president of the Southern California ACLU and as president of the board of directors of the American Composers Forum. She composes for a variety of instrumentations and ensembles, and is passionate about achieving greater composer diversity in the band world.

Karel Husa (1921-2016)

Husa's breadth of work covers everything from ballet to chamber music to vocal and orchestral works, and he won the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for his String Quartet No. 3. But his most famous work was for concert band. Music for Prague 1968 was written after the Czech-born composer listened to a BBC Radio broadcast as the Soviet Union crushed the Prague Spring movement. Husa had since emigrated to the United States, but as he listened to the report of the event, he was deeply moved. Much of his work was influenced by other modern Czech composers, and Prague was only his second work for band, so he decided he would write it the same way he would compose for an orchestra. That decision was revolutionary, and the composer's embrace of the band as an ensemble that could achieve great professional musicality was as important in the 1960s as it is today.

Joseph Schwantner (1943- )

Between Husa and Schwantner, concert band writing became a serious artistic force in the late 20th century. Schwantner's … and the mountains rising nowhere revitalized the possibilities of band tonality and texture. He applied progressive motivic development, aleatoric writing effects and massive use of the percussion section (46 different instruments!) to create a standard for advanced ensembles. His other works for concert band are also highly regarded and include From a Dark Millennium, In evening's stillness … and Luminosity.

Julius Fucik (1872-1916)

Known as the "Bohemian Sousa," Fucik wrote extensively for concert band, which at the time meant a lot of military marches. He was a Czech composer and studied under Antonin Dvorak before becoming the conductor of several regimental bands and later his personal ensemble. In addition to hundreds of marches, he wrote polkas and waltzes. He combined styles, too, as heard in his famous Florentiner March. His other well-known piece is the Entry of the Gladiators, which became synonymous with circus clowns.

David Maslanka (1943-2017)

Maslanka was one of the biggest names in American composition — especially for band. His love of Bach contributed to a sound that is distinctly his own, with massive brass power chords and wild woodwind flurries, as well as simply mournful, poignant solo lines showing up in nearly all of his work. He wrote 10 symphonies, eight of which were for concert band, and more than 40 other pieces for concert band, as well as chamber, orchestral and solo works. Some of his most notable pieces include Mother Earth, Give Us This Day, Symphony No. 4 and countless others. His piece Angel of Mercy earned him an honorary doctorate from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn.

Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987)

The works of Persichetti, who has 14 classics in the band repertoire to his name, are often a band student's first introduction to contemporary classical music. As a composition professor at Juilliard, he taught Philip Glass, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Einojuhani Rautavaara and other contemporary composers. He first explored the styles of Bela Bartok, Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland before developing his own voice. His Divertimento, Symphony No. 6 and A Lincoln Address are among his most notable works.

Julie Giroux (1961- )

Giroux is an incredibly well-rounded powerhouse composer. Her first work was published when she was only 9, and she hasn't stopped since. An established band composer even in college, she moved to Los Angeles and within three hours was hired by Bill Conti to orchestra his score for the TV miniseries North and South. When she won her first of three Emmys, she was the first woman and youngest person to win the award. She has more than 100 film, video game and TV credits. But for the concert hall, she has composed more works for band than any other instrumentation. She is a highly sought-after guest clinician and advocate for school bands.

Gustav Holst (1874-1934)

Holst's First and Second Suites are staples in the band repertoire. His British background is an audible influence in his work, and he was a part of England's folk-song revival, which influenced a great deal of band music. A trombonist, pianist, music educator and composer, he was a believer in music for the people. Additionally, his is some of the best writing for the euphonium, a typically band-only instrument that he also employed in his most famous orchestral work, The Planets. His daughter, Imogen Holst (1907-1984), became a strong conductor, educator and composer, too, and advocated for her father's work.

Frank Ticheli (1958- )

It is hard to find a band student within the past 20 years who made it through the experience without playing something by Ticheli. His works are influential to young musicians because he treats the young band like a serious musical force. His music pushes students to work on blend, intonation and phrasing in a way that many composers disregard as impossible. His arrangements of American folk songs in concert settings are especially popular in schools. His notable works include Shenandoah, Blue Shades, Cajun Folk Songs,, Vesuvius and Angels in the Architecture.

Bonus: Frederick Fennell (1914-2004)

We would be remiss not to mention the Eastman Wind Ensemble's founder and inventor of the modern wind ensemble. Fennell decided to decrease the concert band's size for a clearer and more controlled sound, reducing each instrument's numbers to its orchestral size (one performer per part) while retaining the full band scoring. To promote the new group, he sent out a call for scores, to which Vincent Persichetti, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Percy Grainger quickly responded. Like his Tanglewood classmate Leonard Bernstein, Fennell is responsible for producing many recordings that have been used as the standard for decades, including a now-legendary series for Mercury Living Presence. He was a sought-after guest conductor for the world's finest bands, including the Dallas Winds, and was the founding director of the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, which is generally regarded to be the best band in the world.

Honorable Mention: Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)

Finally, an honorable mention goes to Paul Hindemith. He composed two cornerstone pieces of the band repertoire were composed by Hindemith: his Symphony in B-flat and his Symphonic Metamorphosis, which was an arrangement of his orchestral work based on the music of Carl Maria von Weber.

Ella Harpstead is a former classical intern for American Public Media and Minnesota Public Radio who is majoring in music composition at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. She's also the pep band director and a leader of Musika Nova, and has served as euphonium section leader in the St. Olaf Band and as a director of the school's Valhalla Band.

From military to minstrel, and big band to jazz, Black band leaders have helped shape the urban soundscapes in America throughout our history. Here are four worth checking out.

'Castles in Europe' — James Reese Europe

During World War I, James Reese Europe obtained a commission in the New York Army National Guard to organize the 369th Infantry Regiment into the famous Harlem Hellfighters band that toured alongside the French Army.

'The Governor's Own March' — Alton A. Adams

Alton A. Adams is remembered primarily as the first Black band leader in the U.S. Navy. The military branch has rediscovered his music, which was performed by the bands of John Philip Sousa and Edwin Franko Goldman.

'The Grave of the Slave' — Francis Johnson, words by Sarah Forten

Francis Johnson was the first African American to have his music published as sheet music. While visiting England, he played for Queen Victoria, who presented him with a silver bugle.

'Gulf Coast Blues' — W.C Handy

"Many minstrel men joined army bands, and the army bands in turn gave the minstrels better musicians," W.C. Handy said. "Everything was on the upgrade, musically speaking."

Editor’s note: Congratulations to band director Michael Serber, who recently retired from the Robbinsdale City Band after more than 50 years with the ensemble, including 31 as its leader. To celebrate, here’s a look at the storied band from our archives, including a 360 video of a performance in St. Paul.

Originally published June 28, 2018

Although the city of Robbinsdale no longer has its own high school, residents' pride for living there kindles a kind of school spirit. People who grow up there move away, and often enough realize what special childhoods they had, and move back once they have their own families. The pull they feel toward this city just northwest of Minneapolis is difficult to put into words, but it's something about how residents old and new respect traditions while welcoming the future.

Top among the city's traditions is the Robbinsdale City Band, which has been around for 112 years and is among the longest-playing community bands in the state. With a concert band, a jazz band and a marching band, the group covers all sorts of musical styles. It keeps up a busy summer concert schedule, playing all over the Twin Cities, from the Minneapolis Aquatennial Torchlight Parade to concerts in Robbinsdale city parks.

Over the years, the band has given thousands of musicians a chance to share a love for music. It has played through world wars and an unending series of changes. Like the city itself, it has managed to hold onto a timeless community strength while adapting to the times.

360 video: Robbinsdale City Band

The Robbinsdale City Band performs at Como Lakeside Pavilion in summer 2018 in St. Paul in this 360 video. The band's director, Michael Serber, leads audience members in a march around the floor, while guest conductor George Runyan takes the podium for Sousa's King Cotton.

'A personal thing'

One Thursday evening in May, Robbinsdale City Hall filled with music stands. City Council seats empty, band members took out dog-eared music binders, warmed up and greeted one another. Their repertoire varied: band staple Battle Hymn of the Republic gave way to a Tarantella dance piece. At the city's recent 125th anniversary celebration, they played locally inspired Mill City Sketches and a medley from Frozen, a nod to the crisp air passing from Crystal Lake through the new band shelter.

The group has evolved from a competitive marching band (to the point where they would drive to downtown Minneapolis to measure the streets before parades) to a more casual entertainment unit. The marching band has replaced its traditional uniforms with bowling shirts and khaki pants and added popular songs to its book. With no official auditions, adults of all ages and skill levels can join, and members range from their 20s to their 80s. Some have played professionally; many are revisiting an instrument they played in school after years when work, family and other commitments took them away from it.

Band director Michael Serber said he balances pushing the musicians to work hard and being understanding that they are not professional performers.

"It's important to have fun, and a big part of fun is doing the very best that you can because then you feel satisfied with yourself and you feel good about the group," he said.

As band members age, some reach a point where they can't physically perform as they used to. Arthritis might prevent them from moving their fingers well, or Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia might hold them back. Serber said he is always understanding about that and tells people it's OK to put the instrument down.

As rehearsal finishes up, he gives the members a chance to share stories about their lives — like becoming grandparents or getting a new job.

"It's a personal thing with us," he said. "It's not just coming and playing. It's being a part of each other's lives."

The coffee and donuts present after each rehearsal attest to that.

Serber grew up across the street from previous band director Robert Mendenhall and his family and had wanted to join the band for years. He got his chance at 13, playing trumpet, bass drum and even carrying a real rifle in the color guard. He went on to study music education and work as a school band director outstate. He ultimately came back, and back to the band. While his full-time career is no longer in conducting, he calls making music "the other love of my life" and has directed the Robbinsdale City Band since 1991.

One band member is an engineering manager. There are house cleaners, homemakers, dentists and doctors. They might not otherwise know each other, but years in the band have made them close friends. For piccolo player Mary Hovden, it's a chance to share her joy of playing with friends and the community. Plus it's relaxing.

"You can have a long stressful day, but you come and play music and you just feel better," she said.

Hovden is one of a handful of members who got involved with the band as teenagers and have played with it for more than 30 years. She met her husband, tuba player John Roll, when auditioning for the marching band in high school. Their rehearsals, parades and concerts extended into dates and after six years, they married. They scheduled their wedding on the same day as the Syttende Mai parade, marching in the morning and going home to get cleaned up before heading to Central Lutheran Church right across the street from where the parade ended. (Roll suggested they just go directly, but Hovden did not take him up on that idea.)

Now, their daughter Kari Roll is the concert band's youngest member. The 24-year-old percussionist teaches ninth-grade science and enjoys not having to be the adult when she plays with the band.

"We, all the way through schooling, encourage students to participate in tons of different stuff," she said. "But then once you get to adulthood it's kind of expected that you have the job and you do nothing else. And I think that's what's great about the community band. You get to still be that rounded person."

Searching for space

The band's longevity has been shadowed by financial pressures that arts organizations in and out of Robbinsdale face. The group was fully funded by Robbinsdale residential taxes for many years, which covered the stipend for the director and equipment upkeep. But in 2004, the state made steep cuts to Local Government Aid, leaving cities scrambling to meet their budgets. City funding for the band has declined since then, and most of its funds now come from community member donations and some appearance fees.

Another issue has been finding rehearsal space. Since 1969, the band has moved seven times. Its initial home was in the city's old fire and police station. When that was converted to a transit center, it began moving among different school buildings. The members found out late last summer that the building they were playing in was reopening as a school and that they would be without a rehearsal space come fall. They rushed to find space, canceling rehearsals and performances until the city reached out and let them use the City Council chambers.

The space is well-lit with surprisingly good acoustics, but the band lacks storage space and has to schedule around planning commission meetings. So far, the band has not paid rent anywhere, but the spaces it historically could have turned to now require steep rental or security fees.

The band does not charge a membership fee, which similar groups require to cover rent. Serber has fought against this, even though some members feel strongly that they should pay.

"I don't think that the people in the band should have to pay to be in the band and help contribute to the community like that," he said. "I think they're giving enough of their time and their talents and their energies that they shouldn't also have to contribute money."

Likewise, he said he thinks Robbinsdale residents support the band enough through their taxes and prefers not to raise money by selling them things as some school groups do.

Although money is the biggest challenge the band faces now, Serber said, it has been resourceful in response. He tries to keep costs as low as possible by arranging, rather than buying, music and by avoiding equipment repairs.

Carrying the baton

Robbinsdale Mayor Regan Murphy said he grew up riding his bike alongside the band as it practiced marching through the streets. Like many of the city's charms, he said, he didn't realize how unique the experience was until he had grown up and moved away.

Upon coming back, he wanted to get involved in the community and eventually ran for mayor, pledging to donate his first-year salary to a city improvement Robbinsdale otherwise could not afford. He was elected, and the funds went to building the city's first park pavilion at Lakeview Terrace Park. The structure provides an outdoor performance space for the band and a central gathering spot for residents.

Robbinsdale, which boomed after the war years, is in a new period of growth and change. Once again, it's blooming with young families. It is becoming more racially and age-diverse while continuing to be home for older generations. Murphy said both old and new residents are supporting traditions in a way that is true to the people who live in and represent the city now.

That being said, not everyone in Robbinsdale knows about the band. With more options vying for people's free time, gone are the days when the whole town followed it. Likewise, students have more outlets now, and high school has become less of a feeder for new members. Murphy said finding ways to share its story could help the band connect with newer Robbinsdale residents who could become players, audience members or even donors.

"Once people understand who they are, what they are and what they mean to us as a city, I think people would donate," the mayor said. "People step up for those things. It's pretty remarkable around here that people will chip in what they can because they value things like that."

Kari Roll, the band's youngest member, said she is planning to make a Facebook page to help spread the word about concerts and joining the group. It would help them reach people who don't realize community bands are a big phenomenon in Minnesota. (There are about 50 of them in the Twin Cities alone. Serber said he credits that to adults in Minnesota loving and supporting the arts.)

"People need that in their lives to help give their lives meaning," Serber said. "Our world certainly is uncertain nowadays, and who knows what's going to happen? But I feel good in being part of a group that gives comfort to people, that gives satisfaction, that gives entertainment to people and helps them feel good."

The musicians of the Robbinsdale City Band, like the community as a whole, carry on traditions that nod to the past without being stuck in it. Although nothing is certain, just as they have for decades, they will play on.

The Robbinsdale City Band plays a variety of concerts throughout the summer and occasionally other times of the year. Find out more on its website.

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Editor’s note: Drum and bugle corps are back this summer for the first time in more than two years because of the pandemic. Anoka-based River City Rhythm’s field show is making its only Minnesota appearance on Thursday, Aug. 5, in Rochester at March On! Also appearing will be the Colt Cadets and Colts of Dubuque, Iowa; the Cavaliers of Rosemont, Illinois; and the Blue Stars of La Crosse, Wisconsin. After the field shows, Twin Cities rapper Nur-D will join RCR for a genre-mixing performance. Until then, enjoy these performances from RCR’s 2019 show, Breaking the News, when the corps’ horns visited Minnesota Public Radio for a special recording session for our weekly Regional Spotlight.

Imagine the sound — 14 trumpets, 10 mellophones, 14 baritones and eight tubas! The horns of the Twin Cities-based River City Rhythm drum and bugle corps, along with director Bo Hoover and drum major Katherine Stone, join Steve Staruch for a big, bold and brassy experience.

The performers of River City Rhythm, who also include percussionists and color guard members, are in the midst of summer competitions and are at the top of their musical game.

Now, get ready for a Regional Spotlight special event, recorded live at Central Presbyterian Church in downtown St. Paul. The RCR horns play two numbers from their 2019 field show, Breaking the News — the title tune and the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" — as well as the corps' song, the hymn "The Water Is Wide."

River City Rhythm also has granted permission for listeners to download an MP3 of the latter.

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The holiday season is filled with music from a variety of places and for many ensembles, including concert band. There are many popular arrangements, such as Leroy Anderson's Bugler's Holiday and Sleigh Ride, but few written specifically for band. Here are five fun holiday works written specifically for wind ensemble to help you celebrate the season.

1. Fantasy on a Bell Carol — Edward J. Madden

Based on Carol of the Bells, by Ukrainian composer Mykola Leontovych, this work is inspired by the same folk chant, "Shchedryk."

2. Christmas March — Edwin Franko Goldman

Familiar favorites such as "The First Noel," "Jingle Bells" and "Adeste Fideles" fill this march with echoes of season's greetings.

3. Russian Christmas Music — Alfred Reed

Commissioned for a concert whose aim was to improve U.S.-Soviet relations, this work for symphonic band has become a favorite for bands during the holiday season, as well as year-round. (Find out more about Russian Christmas Music.)

4. Rhapsody for Hanukkah — Stephen Bulla

Bulla used his skill as an arranger for "The President's Own" U.S. Marine Band to create a festive piece, composed of seven Hanukkah tunes, to celebrate the Jewish holiday.

5. Stars and Strips for Christmas — John Philip Sousa and Robert E. Foster

Foster blended the fast tempo of Sousa with a variety of Christmas favorites to create a piece sure to win over the patriotic crowd.

It's not a swift read. But the 600 pages of Milestones and Memories of the St. Olaf Band, 1891-2018 ($25; By All Means Graphics and Printing, Northfield, Minn.) offer a rich bounty of musical nostalgia.

It took a tag team of two authors three years to complete.

"It's hard to read [quickly], because it makes you stop and remember," said Timothy Mahr, band director at the Northfield college since 1994.

Pictures of former band members, titles of band pieces, tales of performance tours around the world — all unlock memories that can turn allegro readers into adagio browsers.

Band alumni have told Mahr that the book has inspired them to search online for music they played years ago and to reconnect with bandmates they hadn't seen since their college days.

That's gratifying to authors Susan M. Hvistendahl and Jeffrey M. Sauve, whom Mahr recruited for the project in 2016.

Hvistendahl played alto clarinet at St. Olaf and traveled with the band in the 1960s, but she hasn't moistened a clarinet reed for decades. After majoring in Spanish, she began writing 119 columns about nuggets of Northfield history.

Sauve, St. Olaf's archivist, plays no instrument and hadn't even heard the band perform before agreeing to help write its history. But he had authored hundreds of short historical articles and monographs, some with catchy titles such as "Mama Wants Hat Pins."

The pair knew of each other's writings and agreed in 2016 to divvy up the work needed to cover the band's 127 years of music-making. Mahr said that Sauve's archival expertise "tied in with Susan's sense for Northfield history."

But why a book about the band?

St. Olaf already was well-known for its choral program, led by directors such as F. Melius Christianson, and had burnished that reputation with overseas tours and nationally televised Christmas concerts. The choir already had its own 700-page history book. But Mahr decided that the band's 125th anniversary, including its debut at New York's Carnegie Hall, justified a volume of its own.

Hvistendahl and Sauve quickly realized their task would be no easy etude. The band is not a stable institution. Its membership turns over every few years; directors come and go. So they decided on a chronological division of labor that fit their skills.

Sauve used his archival expertise to cover the first 66 years, starting with a cornet ensemble in 1891. Digging through documents and photos, diaries and letters, his goal was to find and write "the true story" of the band's beginnings. That meant correcting inconsistencies and inaccuracies as well as uncovering intriguing personnel dynamics at the college.

Hvistendahl picked up the research thread with 1957, when Miles (Mity) Johnson became the band's director, beginning an era of growth and ambitious performance tours. She interviewed hundreds of people with connections to the band and tediously transcribed each taped conversation.

As they delved into the 127-year parade of band directors, soloists and guest conductors (including the legendary Frederick Fennell), both writers stayed alert for humorous nuggets. One involved a story of how the band received its first instruments from Northfield's Carleton College, when that school's band was discontinued. Legend had it that some folks feared prolonged blowing horns might disfigure the handsome facial features of Carleton band members. Oles, it seemed, were less apprehensive.

The co-authors, who both live in Northfield, exchanged frequent e-mails — perhaps 20 a week — and read each other's drafts. They also sent completed chapters to their editor, Ann Sahly, who had played clarinet and bass clarinet under Mahr's direction at St. Olaf and with the Minnesota Symphonic Winds. Mahr knew that she had been an English major and that Hvistendahl and Sauve would need an editor.

"We were all passionate" about the project, Sahly said, but they grew surprised by how "it grew and grew… I felt coldhearted about making cuts." She remembers asking Hvistendahl and Sauve "at least once" whether they wanted their book to appeal to a general audience or mainly to band aficionados. She concluded that much of the detail about program notes and composers could be helpful to other musicians, including future St. Olaf band directors.

The authors did agree not to use footnotes so that readers could more easily "get caught up in the story," Sauve said. Instead, there are 56 pages of endnotes identifying sources and references.

Sahly said that as the writers' drafts came in, she recognized several themes. One was the band's discipline through the decades: "I was inspired, reassured, impressed by the band's ingenuity in coping with the challenges imposed by wars and the Great Depression." Not to mention outbreaks of smallpox and mumps.

Another theme, she said, was "the amazing power of music … to bring people together."

Take the stories emerging from the band's trips to destinations including Germany, Denmark, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. An early tour, in 1906, took the 48 musicians to Norway, where one of its first directors, F. Melius Christiansen, was born. Band members returned with accounts of seasickness, rousing Norwegian welcomes, their exhibition of American baseball, and a grueling performance schedule of 100 concerts in 69 venues. (Six years later, Christiansen founded the St. Olaf Choir.)

During a 2004 trip to Mexico, band members conducted music clinics, lived with local residents and distributed donated instruments. Between performances, they absorbed memorable doses of Mexican history and culture.

The co-authors also convey the band's eagerness to champion new music. Among the commissioned composers: David Maslanka and Minnesota's Stephen Paulus, Libby Larsen and Mary Ellen Childs. Mahr also has added his own compositions to the band's playlists.

An unexpected benefit of the project came in spring 2018, while work on the book was well underway. Sauve took his son, Bailey, to a St. Olaf Band concert and was relieved when the 14-year-old gave it a thumbs up.

"He could see (and hear, of course) the merit of telling the story of the band's proud and respected history."

Since the book's publication in December, the authors have moved from writing, rewriting and editing to readings and signings of their 500 published copies. Hvistendahl likes the idea that their book has become part of the band's story.

"We are proud to be part of the St. Olaf music tradition," she said.

One inevitable limitation on history books is the Sousa-like march of time: This year's impact of COVID-19 on the band came too late for inclusion in Hvistendahl's and Sauve's work. If there were an addendum, Mahr said, it could deal with the challenge of playing during a pandemic — installing covers on the bells of brass instruments, wearing masks with flaps to insert mouthpieces, rehearsing with only one-fourth of the band at a time. Not to mention canceling concerts.

The deadly influenza pandemic of 1918 and its effect on St. Olaf then offer a source of reflection, he said.

"That helps me deal with all of this," he said. "We can get through it. We'll make it all right."

Sauve added, "I guess the history covering the next 125 years will start off with a bang of a story!"

U.S. military bands have a long tradition of providing music for many kinds of occasions: parades, concerts, commemorations and national celebrations.

This special program, To Honor and Inspire, explores the history of bands from different branches of military services and the wide variety of music they play, from Sousa marches to opera extracts. Prepare to be inspired by the stunning sound of military band music!

Playlist

Host: Andrea Blain

GOULD: American Salute. U.S. Marine Band (USMB 28)
COPLAND: Variations on a Shaker Melody. U.S. Army Field Band (USAFB 1)
GOULD: Dixie. U.S. Marine Band (USMB 28)
MASCAGNI: 'Regina Coeli' from Cavalleria Rusticana. U.S. Marine Band (USMB 16)
SOUSA: Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. USAF Heritage Band (Klavier 11139)
von SUPPE: Overture to the Light Cavalry. U.S. Marine Band (USMB 9)
SOUSA: Hail to the Spirit of Liberty March. U.S. Coast Guard Band (Altissimo 2152)
HOLST: Moorside March. U.S. Marine Band (USMB 15)
BACH: My Spirit Be Joyful. USAF Band of the Golden West (Bayside Bravura 1)
SOUSA: The Stars and Stripes Forever. USAF Heritage Band (Klavier 11139)
Various, arr. KNOX: Armed Forces Medley. U.S. Marine Band (Altissimo 2152)

Editor's note: This article has been reprinted with permission from Douglas Yeo's blog, The Last Trombone. Yeo is a respected trombonist who played with the Boston Symphony Orchestra/Boston Pops for 27 years and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra before that. In 2019, he was appointed to the faculty of Wheaton College (Illinois) as Lecturer of Trombone. He also has served on the faculties of Arizona State University and the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Read his original blog post for important background information and context, and visit his website to find out more about him and his musical resources.

Author's note: This article contains offensive material of a historical nature that is presented in an effort to inform the trombone community of a regrettable vestige of racism that continues to be a part of the trombone's concert repertoire since it first came to light more than 100 years ago. It is my hope that this article will lead trombonists around the world to make important, needed changes in the repertoire we choose for our recitals, and rid our concerts of music that is rooted in racial stereotyping and racist portrayals of African Americans.

In 1908, American composer Henry Fillmore (1881-1956) composed Miss Trombone for solo trombone and piano; it was published by his family's company, Fillmore Music House of Cincinnati. Miss Trombone was a novelty piece in ragtime style, and it featured slide glissandos, or what were also referred to at the time as “trombone smears.” The glissando is a signature feature of the trombone and Miss Trombone capitalized on the technique. By 1919, trombone glissandos were known by a new name: jazzes; the technique was called jazzing. Around that time, three method books were published that taught trombone players how to add jazzing to their playing of popular music. These books were Mayhew L. Lake's The Wizard Trombone Jazzer (Carl Fischer, 1919), Henry Fillmore's Jazz Trombonist (Fillmore Music House, 1919), and Fortunato Sordillo's Art of Jazzing for the Trombone (Oliver Ditson, 1920).

Miss Trombone was so successful that Fillmore followed it with more trombone solos in the same style, all with glissandos that ripped up and down the horn. The pieces had names that tied them together. Miss Trombone was followed by Teddy Trombone, and 13 others were added, and by 1929, the series was complete with the publication of Ham Trombone. Together, they were marketed as a set, The Trombone Family.

Trombone players have been playing these pieces for more than 100 years. The most popular member of Fillmore’s Trombone Family has always been Lassus Trombone. It's a piece that has appeared on countless trombone solo recitals, and trombone ensemble, band and orchestra concerts. YouTube features 8,000 recordings of the piece.

But there is an uncomfortable truth about Henry Fillmore’s The Trombone Family. It was born and marketed in a crucible of racial stereotyping, minstrelsy, racism, and Jim Crow. It is time to put these pieces to rest, to bury them, to remove them from our concert programs, and do better when selecting music in the future. For those who are unaware of the racist background of Fillmore's signature works, or who may respond by saying, "It's not such a big deal," here is the story. It matters.

The trombone glissando first appeared in classical music in Alexander Glazanov’s symphonic fantasy, The Sea, a work for orchestra that was composed in 1889. In time, it found its way into other classical works including Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius (1899) and Arnold Schoenberg’s Pelleas und Melisande (1902). For an excellent discussion of the trombone glissando in both classical and popular idioms, I refer readers to Trevor Herbert’s excellent article, “Trombone Glissando: A Case Study in Continuity and Change in Brass Instrument Performance Idioms” (Historic Brass Society Journal, Vol. 22, 2010, 1-18). The trombone glissando came into popular music by the turn of the century. Arthur Pryor recorded Trombone Sneeze: A Humoresque Cakewalk by Chris Sorensen Jr. with John Philip Sousa’s band in 1902 (Victor 1223); the piece is full of trombone smears. Have a listen:

It was not long before the trombone glissando began to be strongly associated with music that was a part of minstrel shows. These were entertainments that featured caricatures of African Americans, with both white performers in blackface and black performers made up to look like white performers in blackface. The shows were mostly presented for the benefit of white audiences, and the caricature of black culture that the shows embodied was a product of white, racist thought that saw African Americans as bumbling and unintelligent. Music that reinforced these stereotypes was a a part of the Jim Crow era and it proved to be very popular among many whites. Arthur Pryor’s song (yes, THAT Arthur Pryor, the most famous trombone player in all history), A Coon Band Contest or The Tune That Won the Ham for That Coon Band, was published in 1899 and recorded by his band in 1906. It’s a typical example of the genre of music that used racial stereotyping as a marketing tool. The cover of A Coon Band Contest (see below) featured a caricature of a bulging-eyed African American trombonist with several stereotypical depictions of other blacks who were listening to and conducting the trombonist (including a large lipped conductor and a suspender clad man emptying the trombone’s water key onto another person who protects him/herself with an umbrella). The publisher of the song, The Bell Music Co., probably thought the cover was cute. It wasn’t. Racism is never cute.

Into this environment of demeaning portrayals of African Americans walked Henry Fillmore. By the time Miss Trombone was published in 1908, the cakewalk had given way to ragtime which was beginning to morph to what was first referred to as “jass” and then jazz. There was no reason that Fillmore’s Trombone Family had to caricature an African American family except for one simple fact: placing Miss Trombone and her family members into the environment of minstrelsy and racial stereotyping sold music to whites and their audiences.

All of the pieces in Fillmore’s Trombone Family featured trombone smears and they were given subtitles to frame them in the context of his fictional black family, what he called a “cullu’d fambly.” A look at all of the titles takes us into uncomfortable territory.

Miss Trombone (1908): A Slippery Rag

Teddy Trombone (1911): A Brother to Miss Trombone

Lassus Trombone (1915): De Cullud Valet to Miss Trombone

Pahson [Parson] Trombone (1916): Lassus Trombone’s ‘Ole Man

Sally Trombone (1917): Pahson Trombone’s Eldest Gal – Some Crow!

Slim Trombone (1917): Sally Trombone’s City Cousin – the Jazzin’ One Step Kid

Mose Trombone (1919): He’s Slim Trombone’s Buddy

Shoutin’ Liza Trombone (1920): Mose Trombone’s Ah-finity

Hot Trombone (1921): He’s Jes a Fren’ ob Shoutin’ Liza Trombone

Bones Trombone (1922): He’s Jes as Warm as Hot Trombone

Dusty Trombone (1923): He’s de Next Door Neighbor to Bones Trombone

Bull Trombone (1924): A Cullud Toreador

Lucky Trombone (1926): He’s de Thirteenth Member uv de Fambly

Boss Trombone (1929): He’s de Head Man

Ham Trombone (1929): A Cullud Bahbaque

Many of the subtitles are given in a caricatured African American dialect, something that, when done by whites, has always been racist. Lassus’ name is a thinly veiled code for a stereotypical black name — Rastus — that was often employed in racist jokes, coon songs, and minstrel shows. It’s worth noting that Shoutin’ Liza Trombone was originally titled Hallelujah Trombone. But Fillmore’s father, James Henry Fillmore Sr. (1849-1936), a prolific composer of hymns and a publisher of hymnals, disapproved of the piece’s appropriation of the opening measures of Georg Frideric Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah. In deference to his father, Henry Fillmore changed the piece’s title. Unfortunately, Henry’s father didn’t disapprove of his son’s racist portrayals in The Trombone Family — the pieces were all published during his lifetime. Offending Handel was off limits. But offending African Americans? It was par for the course.

Fillmore’s marketing of The Trombone Family with its stereotyping of blacks would be offensive enough. But it is for his advertising campaign for the music that Fillmore reserved his most outrageous insults.

The first ad reproduced below appeared in February 1919 in The Musical Messenger, “a monthly band and orchestra journal” published by Fillmore Music House. [Ed.: The ad is not reproduced in this republication, but it can be viewed — with a warning about its racially offensive content — here, as displayed in the original blog post.] The second one was published in Jacobs Orchestra Monthly in September 1918. These racist ads were at the heart of Fillmore’s advertising for The Trombone Family. The cartoon of Slim Trombone in the Jacobs Orchestra Monthly ad is taken directly from advertising by Harvey’s Greater Minstrels for its trombonist, Slim Jim Austin. There can be no doubt that Fillmore’s Slim Trombone was given its title to capitalize on the popularity of Austin on the minstrel show circuit. And the image of the floppy shoed trombone player in blackface in the ad from The Musical Messenger appeared on the cover of the sheet music for each of the pieces. The language of the ads needs no explanation. It is disgusting stuff.

Had enough? Yet in the face of all of this, some may protest. “But Fillmore was just a product of his time. Minstrelsy and blackface were socially acceptable and he was just playing to the market.” This kind of apology just won’t do. It is revisionist history, a fiction promulgated by white “scholars” and others who try to make a distinction between “good minstrelsy” and “bad minstrelsy,” between “good blackface” and “bad blackface.” The truth of the matter is that there never was good minstrelsy or good blackface. It has always been offensive. Always. And the use of the “n-word” by whites was always offensive. Always. It was offensive in the nineteenth century, it was offensive in the twentieth century, and it is offensive today. Minstrelsy did not originate in or reflect the true black experience and true black cultural practices. It was a racist caricature of black life that was based in racial ridicule. It was always offensive, it was always racist, and it was always wrong. Henry Fillmore’s The Trombone Family promoted the racial stereotypes promulgated by the minstrel show era, promoted white domination of blacks, and reinforced harmful, hurtful stereotypes that are still, regrettably, with us today.

So, what to do about Lassus Trombone?

In his message to Congress on Dec. 1, 1862, Abraham Lincoln said, “Fellow citizens, we cannot erase history.” That is true. History is history; it happened; we can’t change it. When we view history, we need clear eyes. And clear eyes lead me to only one conclusion: It is time to bury Henry Fillmore’s Lassus Trombone and The Trombone Family. They were born of racism and a racist culture. They padded the pockets of the Fillmore Music House and, later, Carl Fischer Co. which took over the copyright from The Trombone Family, and in recent years, since the works went out of copyright, a host of publishers around the world. Fillmore’s racist portrayals of African Americans sold. Racism was good business.

It is time for this to stop.

First, we need to inform our trombone community about the story behind these pieces that have been such a part of the fabric of the trombone’s performance history of the last 100 years. For instance, several years ago, I was invited to be guest artist at a major American university, to give a masterclass, solo with the university’s trombone choir, and conduct a massed trombone choir of high school and college students. The school’s trombone professor — a very good friend of mine — and I engaged in a conversation about what piece I might choose to conduct. He said he had a really nice arrangement of Lassus Trombone for trombone ensemble that he had used on many occasions; he thought it might be a good closer for the concert. I told him I would not conduct Lassus Trombone, and I shared with him the story behind the piece that I have laid out in this article. He was horrified; he didn’t know. He had no idea of the racist roots of Lassus Trombone. And he was so grateful that I told him. Lassus Trombone quickly disappeared from his trombone choir’s library. I conducted Simon Wills’ Tinguely’s Fountain instead.

Second, it is time for us to bury Lassus Trombone and the other members of Fillmore’s Trombone Family. We don’t need them. We don’t need to play music that is rooted in racism and racial stereotypes. We don’t need to play music that makes fun of any person. There are other pieces in the trombone glissando “jazzing” tradition that would make for a fine substitute for Lassus Trombone on a recital program. Why not try Mayhew L. Lake’s Slidus Trombonus? Composed in 1915 — the same year Lassus Trombone was written — it was written for Gardell Simons. He was the celebrated soloist with Patrick Conway’s Band who also played principal trombone with the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1915-1930, and the piece was recorded by Conway’s band in 1916. (Listen to Conway’s recording.) And I have scanned my copy of Slidus Trombonus (which is in the public domain) and made it available for free on my website. You can download the trombone and piano music to Lake’s humorous piece.

“We cannot escape history.” But we can learn from it. We must learn from it. For over 100 years, trombone players have been complicit in continuing and fostering harmful racial stereotypes by performing Henry Fillmore’s Lassus Trombone and other pieces from The Trombone Family. We can do better. We must do better. And we will do better.

This is not a matter of political correctness or of censorship. This is a matter of righting a wrong and doing the right thing.

And here is something else. There is someone else who is doing the right thing with this. I began writing this article yesterday, June 27, 2020. I woke up very early this morning and went right to my computer to complete it. Between proofreading sessions, I went to look at my email “in” box and found a message from my friend, Gordon Cherry, founder and owner of Cherry Classics, one of the largest publishers of music for brass instruments in the world. Gordon is the retired principal trombonist of the Vancouver Symphony and his Cherry Classics catalog is very deep and wide. Gordon and I are in contact about various issues from time to time and he had something important he wanted to share with me. Gordon said that he had come to the realization — a realization that had been hiding in plain sight but that he just didn’t put all together until last week — that he was profiting by selling two arrangements of Lassus Trombone. Gordon told me that he plans to remove those arrangements from his catalog — something he will do tonight — and send a message to his email list of 6000 subscribers to tell them why he is removing this piece that has its origin in racial stereotyping. Gordon wanted to let me know about his thinking about this and he wanted to know what I thought about it. We just finished a FaceTime call where we both marveled that the two of us, friends separated by 2,000 miles, were thinking about the same issue in the very same way at the very same time, and that both of us had decided to do something about it. I applaud Gordon Cherry for his action on this and I encourage you to look in on the Cherry Classics website in the coming days when he will be posting a message about Lassus Trombone. Thank you, Gordon, for doing the right thing. He has set a model for all publishers. Sometimes doing the right thing is more important than making another dollar. This is one of those times.

If you'd like to join me in removing Lassus Trombone and The Trombone Family from today's trombone repertoire conversations, please feel free to share this article on social media and other types of platforms. Let's get the message out. Ending racial stereotypes matters. Thank you for doing your part in this.

Joy Riggs learned early about Harold Hill. Third grade, to be precise.

Hill was (and remains) the charismatic con artist in Meredith Willson's famous The Music Man. It was the first stage musical that Riggs ever saw.

In the show, Hill is a fictional itinerant salesman who energetically entices small communities such as River City, Iowa, to create boys' bands, then separates residents from their savings, ostensibly to buy instruments and uniforms before he skips town. Willson's story became a Tony-winning Broadway musical in 1957, 10 years before Riggs was born. As she grew up, The Music Man became a staple of theatrical repertoire, a popular movie and part of her internal hard drive.

Not until she turned 39, however, did she realize that G. Oliver Riggs, her paternal great-grandfather, had been a real-life music man. She learned he had played cornet on horseback in the Montana Cowboy Band, started a firemen's band in Omaha, created and directed about two dozen boys' bands in Minnesota and other Midwestern states, drummed up enthusiasm for band music, sold musical instruments, and raised money for uniforms and, not incidentally, his own salary.

Unlike Harold Hill, Riggs' great-grandpa was no charlatan. He earned a reputation as a stern disciplinarian who insisted his band members, young or old, practice earnestly every day and strive for perfection. It was said he would poke and rap unprepared band members with his baton. She learned that he publicly chided town officials and parents who criticized his methods and opposed renewing his contract. She also learned that in 1946, at 75, he died while trying to create one more band — on the Red Lake Indian reservation in northern Minnesota.

"I wanted to like him," she said, and she grew excited by hints that G. Oliver (he spurned "George") once played in the band of March King John Philip Sousa. The famous composer and bandleader often brought his musicians to Minnesota, and although Riggs has failed to confirm her family connection, that did not stop her from spending 13 years researching, writing and editing a book about her great-grandfather's music-man life.

The result: Crackerjack Bands and Hometown Boosters, published July by Minneapolis-based Nodin Press.

Riggs' work is more than a vanity biography of G. Oliver and other relatives she never met. It also highlights the importance of bands in towns such as Crookston, Bemidji and St. Cloud in the first half of the 20th century. Riggs also describes their frequent quests for financial support, from membership fees, contributions and ticket sales to local band taxes. And she recounts rivalries that prompted towns to compete for up-and-coming band directors.

Riggs sets her story in the broad context of world wars, Prohibition and the Great Depression. In alternating chapters, she describes personal obstacles she overcame to complete the project, as well as the intriguing people and quirky stories she encountered along the way.

Take the bizarre tale of Junior, a 300-pound bear whose principal residence was St. Paul's Como Zoo. In the summer of 1931, the president of St. Paul's chapter of the National Junior Chamber of Commerce transported Junior by train to Des Moines, where G. Oliver's St. Cloud band was to perform at the chamber's national convention. Junior reportedly tore up a mattress in the hotel room where he stayed with his handler and later frightened hotel maids when he broke loose in the hotel's corridors.

Riggs describes in great detail the playlists that G. Oliver's bands performed, as well as the colors and ornamentation of their uniforms.

"Some of the music back then was so cool," she said.

Sousa, G. Oliver and others programmed everything from marches to arias to keep various segments of listeners coming back. And sometimes there were novelty tunes such as the Squeegee Polka, performed in the Crookston Grand Opera House in 1889 to commemorate the recent invention of the window-cleaning tool.

Riggs' writing routine was hardly rigid. With three growing children at home, available writing time was erratic: "Every day was different." Significant parts of the book were written during retreats at a lodge in Wisconsin. But she also did a lot of writing "in my head" while performing such tasks as walking her dog. After her daughter graduated from high school in 2014, Riggs resolved to complete the book before some of her sources — notably elderly music students of G. Oliver — died.

Over time, her creative rhythms changed. As a self-described night owl, she used to write more after dark. By the end of the project, she preferred writing in the morning, reserving editing for afternoons. And rather than holing up in some quiet, tucked-away space, she found that "it's nice to have people around you," so she often took her laptop computer to Goodbye, Blue Monday, a coffee shop in Northfield, where she and her husband, Steve Lawler, live down the hill from St. Olaf College.

Despite decades of experience as a journalist and blog writer, she said the book put special strains on her family life. Vacations often included heavy doses of research in libraries, newspaper offices and even Civil War battlefields where her great-great-grandfather had fought.

She also worked closely with her father, William Johnson Riggs, a longtime trumpet player, and was touched by his praise when he read the finished project.

At 52, she's not sure whether she wants to tackle another book. But there are hints that her music skills could rekindle after years of being overshadowed by writing and domestic chores.

Growing up, Riggs played piano well enough to perform in concert with other young pianists in Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota. These days, the piano in her Northfield dining room mostly sits quiet, but she hopes someday to play an Anton Diabelli duet with her son — as she did with her dad.

As for wielding a baton like her forebears (her grandfather also was a band director), she says, "I've never even thought about doing it."

But she did perform last summer in the annual Vikingland band festival in Alexandria. As a student there, she had played French horn with Jefferson High School's marching band, concert band and pep band and continued those activities at Iowa's Drake University.

In June in Alexandria,"I used one of the school's marching horns," she said, and was delighted that the marching routine "totally came back" to her during the parade. However, since leaving Alexandria, they'd changed the school song, and that posed a musical challenge.

How challenging? Riggs was candid: "Let's say that G. Oliver would not have been pleased."

Dan Wascoe is a retired Star Tribune reporter/columnist and MPR contributor. As a pianist he has performed for the past 12 years with vocalist Baibi Vegners as Nuance/a duo. Since 2004, he also has been a volunteer player of the bells in Minneapolis City Hall.

One of the strangest experiences of my life took place when I was a junior in high school. I needed to have my wisdom teeth removed, and as I lay in the surgeon's chair, the nurses made light conversation while they prepped everything. I was wearing my high school marching band shirt, and as I was hooked up to the laughing gas, an assistant asked what instrument I played.

"Oh, no. This is going to take some explaining," I thought.

I told them that I played the euphonium. Unsurprisingly, they had no idea what that was. So, while I slowly breathed in nitrous oxide, I attempted to fit in as many descriptions as possible: "It's like a baby tuba. It sounds like a trombone. But it's mellow like a French horn!" Needless to say, I passed out before I could make them understand.

I should have just said I played the trumpet.

So what is it?

The name "euphonium" is derived from the ancient Greek word euphōnos, which means "sweet sounding." Developed in the 19th century, it is the same shape as a tuba, but smaller, with less coiled brass tubing.

It is a conical bore instrument, which means that the brass tube is like a slowly expanding funnel, with the narrowest point at the mouthpiece and the widest point at the bell. This cone-shaped tube causes the euphonium's sound to be mellower than the straight-tubed, cylindrical-bored trombone, although they play in the same range.

The euphonium's traditional home is the British brass band. These brass ensembles were often made up of blue-collar men, and factories organized their own bands as family-friendly working-class entertainment. Union brass bands would compete against each other for bragging rights, and no group could even think to show up without a star euphonium player. When the euphonium wasn't dazzling center stage with blazing chromatic runs and acrobatic leaps, it was singing out a countermelody, duetting with the trumpet. As families emigrated to the United States and formed new mining towns or joined new factories, the brass bands followed.

In these close-knit working communities, everyone knew what a euphonium was. So how did we get to the point where even fellow musicians aren't sure what it is?

To understand why the euphonium hasn't gained greater recognition, one must look to the orchestra, the "establishment" in the musical world. The orchestra has traditionally excluded two "band" instruments from its ranks: the saxophone and the euphonium.

Interestingly enough, these instruments both have Adolphe Sax to thank for their invention.*

Some scholars argue that these instruments are too young, as they were invented after Mozart, Haydn, Bach and Beethoven composed the pillars of orchestral music, so they missed the opportunity to become traditional instruments in an ensemble resistant to change. Others argue that they sounded too similar to instruments already in the ensemble and that orchestras, always at the mercy of their benefactors, couldn't make a good case for hiring the newcomers.

Additionally, composers needed actually to write the instruments into their scores, and the trend just didn't catch on. As a result, relatively few orchestral works include saxophone or euphonium.

It certainly does not help that the euphonium has siblings that look and sound similar. One might call the baritone its fraternal twin. They are hard to tell apart, but the baritone is a cylindrical-bore instrument, giving it a brighter tone, closer to the trombone. Its bell also is taller, and the brass tube that curls up to make the horn is narrower. On paper, they play the same notes, and composers (and even band directors) use the names interchangeably.

From there, the euphonium's siblings include the Wagner tuba, the tenor/alto horn, saxhorn, and the double-belled euphonium of The Music Man fame. With so many variations appearing in the 19th century, one can understand why perhaps it was difficult to keep up and to choose a standard.

The euphonium today

The euphonium has found a permanent home in the concert band. There, its role is usually to provide harmony, often as the leader of the tenor line. The euphonium also is a common solo instrument. Its mellow tone makes the euphonium a good team player, and band composers find lots of places to incorporate the sort of inoffensive brass sound with woodwind sections.

Even with this prominent role in the band, the euphonium is relatively unknown because many people, even fellow musicians, do not actually have a great understanding of concert bands. And it's not their fault — concert bands have never been held in the same esteem as the orchestra, which many people think of as the prime example of "high art."

The concert band, like the euphonium, is simply less steeped in centuries of tradition and prestige, and is instead concerned with the joy of music making for every person. The result is a robust U.S. educational band system, but few professional opportunities. U.S. armed-forces bands make up the majority of professional (paid) wind ensembles, and euphoniums often join for life, because of and contributing to the scarcity of seats.

"When I was a sophomore doing my undergrad at Eastman, Brian Bowman retired, and there it was: the first open seat in years," says Arthur Haecker, the trombone and euphonium professor at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. "Of course I auditioned, but guys wait forever for one of these auditions."

Once again, it has been years since a seat opened, and many people, like Haecker, are simply at the unfortunate mercy of timing.

Haecker proceeded to earn his master's and doctorate degrees in trombone performance, and has played orchestral trombone professionally. The switch to trombone is not uncommon for a euphonium player. If euphonium students want to continue in performance studies, it is a good idea to expand their skills to another instrument — often trombone or tuba. There, they might audition for orchestra seats or find more gig opportunities.

However, some euphonium players decide to go out on their own to establish a solo career. There are concertos in both orchestra and band repertoire for the euphonium. As a soloist, players can commission works from composers to premiere and add to the repertoire. They might teach young students or travel to give clinics and promote the instrument.

The combination of a robust high school band system and limited professional bands results in a large number of amateur bands at all levels. Many of today's adult euphonium players play in these bands, on a volunteer basis, simply for the joy of continued music making. It is in many ways the continued spirit of those British factory brass bands.

Today, the euphonium and the concert band have a symbiotic relationship. When one grows in popularity, so does the other. If one struggles to find success, they will both be in trouble. But for now, young euphonium players across the world should feel confident that they have an artistic home.

* Scholars are divided on whether to credit Sax with the development of the euphonium. He invented the piston-valved saxhorns, which were popular in regimental brass bands. Ferdinand Sommer invented the euphonion, which used the piston valve invention and which some scholars credit as the first real euphonium.

Ella Harpstead is a former classical intern for American Public Media and Minnesota Public Radio who is majoring in music composition at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. She's also the pep band director and a leader of Musika Nova, and has served as euphonium section leader in the St. Olaf Band and as a director of the school's Valhalla Band.

The concert band is an ensemble that goes by many names: wind ensemble, wind symphony, wind band, wind orchestra, symphonic band — or just plain "band." It's a collection of woodwind, brass and percussion instruments that is best known to the general public for patriotic marches, but it also is an ensemble that more composers are turning to for their next big work.

So what exactly is a concert band? Here are some answers for those new to the genre (and check out the Concert Band stream).

Q: What is the difference between an orchestra and a concert band?

A: The most obvious difference between the ensembles is the instruments that call the ensemble home. Violins, violas, cellos and basses make up the majority of an orchestra, while a concert band is made up of woodwind, brass and percussion instruments. The orchestra also contains a wind section, but it is much smaller than that in a concert band. Basically, the concert band does not contain stringed instruments, except the occasional string bass or harp.

Additionally, these ensembles traditionally play different styles of music. When you think of concert band music, you might think of marches, like John Philip Sousa's classic The Stars and Stripes Forever, or other patriotic tunes. This is the music that kickstarted the American band tradition. And while you might associate bands with outdoor concerts and orchestras with fancy concert halls, many bands around the world play "classical" music and contemporary compositions written for them that draw large audiences, especially at colleges and universities. You can hear many of these pieces on the Concert Band stream.

Q: How did concert bands start?

A: Concert bands represent the coming together of two types of smaller ensembles: the brass bands that accompanied military regiments and the wind section of an orchestra.

Brass bands have roots all over the world, from Turkey to Wales. Groups of instrumentalists joined "bands" of armed forces and then came to be known as "bands" of musicians. Brass instruments were loud, and the sound carried a long way. They played marches to keep time on long foot journeys and created a boisterous noise to intimidate enemies before they were even in view.

On the lighter side, some composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn realized that the wind section of the orchestra had a unique sound and virtuosic ability. They occasionally wrote just for that section of the orchestra to give string players a break.

As military bands became more ceremonial than practical, they were able to expand to include woodwinds and play sit-down concerts for public audiences. This inspired a shift in repertoire. Now, along with marches, bands played transcriptions or arrangements of orchestral classics. Some composers heard the collection of wind and percussion and jumped at the opportunity to compose for the medium. Now there were serious new works composed specifically for band.

Bands became an ensemble of and for the people. While orchestral concerts were, historically, primarily for upper-class members of society, bands welcomed all audiences. They became a staple of American education. That inspired the great band conductor Frederick Fennell, who came to be known as the "godfather" of the medium, to create the first standard wind ensemble at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. It brought down section sizes to the fewest numbers possible for a clean, controlled sound capable of playing extremely advanced music.

Today, school and community bands make up most band participation. There are few professional opportunities outside of the military, so lots of players simply continue for the fun of it with community bands.

Q: So bands are the ones that march, right?

A: Yes, and no. A concert band's purpose is right in its name: to give concerts. A marching band's purpose is also in its name: to march. The marching band and the brass band have similar origins in the military, and the marching band has remained the moving counterpart to the concert ensemble throughout band history. Drum and bugle corps include only percussion and brass. In the United States, drum and bugle corps increased greatly in popularity during the Civil War, when nearly every regiment had its own band. After the war, these bands stuck around as a way to socialize and heal, and many of America's first community bands were made up of Civil War veterans. Most marching bands, however, often include both brass and woodwinds with a large percussion section.

Many U.S. high schools have a marching band that performs at sporting events and in parades. The Drum Corps International marching arts organization is made up of high school- and college aged-students who march competitively every summer in drum and bugle corps as they tour the country. Fun fact for sports lovers: The DCI World Championships are held on the home field of the NFL's Indianapolis Colts.

Marching bands might play arrangements of familiar pop songs, or they might play programmatic, newly composed works specifically for their shows. Their "concert" involves visually stunning, intricate movements across a football field, often accompanied by flags and other props.

Q: Are there any especially famous concert bands?

A: Absolutely! In the United States, the premiere wind ensemble is the "President's Own" U.S. Marine Band. Based in Washington, D.C., this 221-year-old band is the oldest professional music organization in the country, and it was famously led by Sousa. While its ties to great American marches are obviously quite strong, the Marine Band frequently commissions new works. Each branch of the U.S. military has its own band, and they are all top ensembles.

In the private sector, the Dallas Winds is considered to be one of the greatest concert bands in the world. Directed by Jerry Junkin, it has been led by some of the greatest names in band history, including recordings with Fennell. The Dallas Winds has released many recordings of standard band repertoire and new works on the Reference Recordings label. Japan's Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra — whose first conductor, again, was Fennell — also is considered among the finest concert bands.

Fennell's original claim to fame, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, remains one of the best student ensembles in the world. Other outstanding college ensembles include the Cincinnati Wind Symphony and North Texas Wind Symphony, which released hallmark recordings under the direction of Eugene Corporon as part of a band project with the Klavier label. But many major universities, conservatories and even small liberal-arts colleges are producing incredible music.

In fact, educational wind ensembles are leaders in commissioning and premiering new music, which fuels the development of concert band as a respected music-making form of music making. This welcoming atmosphere of new musical ideas is not unique to bands, but it is certainly more common than with orchestras, where centuries of history and tradition make new ideas slightly riskier.

Ella Harpstead is a former classical intern for American Public Media and Minnesota Public Radio who is majoring in music composition at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. She's also the pep band director and a leader of Musika Nova, and has served as euphonium section leader in the St. Olaf Band and as a director of the school's Valhalla Band.

The need for a new library of original band music of artistic and imaginative merit became and still is the objective of all musicians who believe in the unlimited scoring potentials of the wind-percussion ensemble. The time has come to discard the old idea that a concert band is an orchestra without strings relegated to the performance of utilitarian, inferior music.
— Joseph Wagner, 1970

Because of the orchestra's long history, many people compare what they feel is the "new" ensemble, the concert band, to the well-established orchestra. The concert band does in fact have a long history, so it's unfair to treat the orchestra as a sort of musical standard-bearer.

But for comparison's sake, what exactly makes the concert band different from the orchestra?

The main difference is the absence of stringed instruments in the band. If you're familiar with the wind section of an orchestra, you'll notice that the wind ensemble is basically an expanded version of that section, with a few additions.

Many people feel that the concert band resembles a large pipe organ. It's a comparison that works well. Think about it: Each instrument in the concert band (excluding percussion) requires air to be blown through it to create sound, in the same way that an organ blows air through its pipes. There are breathy, high-pitched sounds, as well as rumbling, feel-it-in-your-chest, low sounds. Concert bands can control these sounds with incredible accuracy, as though an organist was simply pressing on a handful of keys and 70 musicians responded to the command.

Let's go through the instruments of a concert band.

Woodwinds

Flutes: The flute section is made up of four to 14 players, split between two parts. The piccolo is used in the concert band, both as a solo instrument and as part of the flute section, often highlighting the top of the range. This army of shiny silver contributes to the upper woodwind sound, and can play softly and lyrically, or with striking confidence and heat.

Oboes: While the oboe in the orchestra is often used as a feature or soloed instrument, the oboes in a band contribute to the entire woodwind texture as team players. (Don't worry — they still get to solo!) The section is small, usually only two or three players, with one player on the English horn, whose darker tone bridges the gap from oboe to bassoon.

Clarinets: Clarinets are the engine of the concert band's woodwind section. Often split among three parts, there might be up to 16 players. They have a wide range, from low, reedy textures to shrieking high notes. The standard B-flat clarinets in the concert band are often joined by the higher E-flat clarinet, a couple of bass clarinets, and the contrabass and contralto clarinets. Altogether, that can total 21 players. With so many registers, the clarinets mirror the strings in the orchestra.

Bassoons: The bassoon family grows in the concert band, with two to four players making up the section. Sometimes, a piece calls for the contrabassoon, which can play even lower than the average string bass.

Saxophones: Here's something you won't usually see in an orchestra. The saxophone family usually includes four altos, a tenor sax or two, and a baritone saxophone. The soprano saxophone is occasionally used as a solo instrument, making for a fully voiced saxophone choir. These instruments bridge the gap between the brass and woodwind sections. Outside of the concert band setting, you'll often see saxophones used in jazz, and sometimes those jazz elements find their way into concert band writing. Additionally, some orchestral composers do write for the saxophone: Maurice Ravel's orchestration of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet's "Dance of the Knights," and Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sixth Symphony.

Brass

Trumpets: The trumpet section expands greatly in the band compared with the orchestra, doubling or tripling in size. Trumpet sections in a concert band might also include cornet parts. The cornet is a "conical bore" instrument, which means that the brass tube basically gets wider and wider as it curls into the cornet shape. This results in a rounder, mellower tone than the trumpet, which is a straight tube until it widens at the bell. Sometimes a composer will write for the high-pitched piccolo trumpet, or the flugelhorn, another conical bore instrument with a lower range.

Horns: Just like in the orchestra, the horns in a band often play some of the most epic brass lines. The horn is also a conical bore instrument, which is why they have such a warm tone. Confused about why we often call them "French" horns? Check out this article.

Trombones: Again, there's not a lot of difference between orchestral and concert band trombone sections, except in number. The trombone section will include several trombones divided among two to three parts, plus a bass trombone.

Euphonium: Here's one you might not have heard of. The euphonium plays in the same range as the trombone, but with the mellow timbrel quality of the flugelhorn or tuba. (Thanks, conical bore!) Usually, two to four players make up the euphonium section. As a valved instrument, the euphonium has similar agility to the trumpet. Its home was traditionally the European brass band, but the euphonium has been used in a few orchestral pieces, such as Gustav Holst's The Planets, Richard Strauss' Don Quixote and Ein Heldenleben, and Gustav Mahler's Seventh Symphony. It also pops up as a "tenor tuba" in "Bydlo" from Ravel's orchestration of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Concert band composers have embraced the euphonium as a prominent solo instrument, because it can sound dramatic and somber as well as flashy and bright.

Tubas: The tuba section of a concert band might be made up two to four tubas, whose bass part holds up the entire ensemble. Because of its size, marching bands often use the wrap-around Sousaphone, invented by the March King, John Phillip Sousa, himself.

Percussion and more

Percussion: These players are the acrobats of the wind ensemble. If you ever find yourself at a band concert, watch the members of the percussion section. They're often running from cymbals to xylophone to snare and back again, within a matter of measures. Percussion is almost always used in the concert band setting, either to provide rhythm like in a traditional march, or, in modern compositions, to provide a soundscape that no other instrument could achieve. Mallet instruments such as the vibraphone and marimba have become incredibly important to band composers, who also include the piano among these voices.

String bass: Oh, look, a stringed instrument! Many concert bands have included the string bass, which might double the tuba part or have its own part — often providing the more delicate pizzicato accents when a tuba might not be able to achieve the same soft dynamic.

Harp: Wait, another stringed instrument? Yes! Concert bands often also include a harp, which might provide arpeggios or delicate articulation. The two stringed instruments in the concert band, the bass and the harp, are often used in a percussive fashion by plucking the strings.

In addition to these major instrument categories, composers have gotten creative about adding other instruments, including guitar, featured string or voice, or electronics. The band world has been incredibly welcoming of new music, and composers have realized that it's an awesome playground for sound experiments and serious musical performances.

Ella Harpstead is a former classical intern for American Public Media and Minnesota Public Radio who is majoring in music composition at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. She's also the pep band director and a leader of Musika Nova, and has served as euphonium section leader in the St. Olaf Band and as a director of the school's Valhalla Band.

Hot-button topic: Is it the French horn, or is it just the horn?

My experience when explaining my college degree program to non-musicians usually ends in them staring at me, looking confused.

Non-musicians wrinkle their foreheads and say, "Oh, really, you study horn performance? What kind of horn do you play? English horn? French horn? Trumpet? Trombone?"

Caroline Lemen, adjunct professor of horn at the University of Minnesota School of Music, recalled a memorable exchange she had with an ensemble library staff member years ago. A staff member sent out a notice for all horn-playing students to contact Lemen with their questions regarding the University of Minnesota's ensemble placement auditions.

Lemen had to email the staff member back, saying, "I don't know what you put in your email to students auditioning for ensembles, but I am getting all kinds of emails from students, not just horn students, about audition repertoire. Some young players think that horn means any wind instrument, so I am getting requests from trumpet, trombone, tuba and even clarinet students! Could you send another one out, specifically saying that only horn, or better yet, French horn, students contact me? I don't want all these students to be confused."

The term French horn is often misconceived, with Americans today understanding the orchestral horn as being a French horn — one term, with no indication that the word "French" is an adjective describing "horn."

Andrew Pelletier, past president of the International Horn Society, says that it's the world against the United States on this one; every other country solely refers to the instrument as the horn. Which is why, for clarity's sake, the society declared in 1971 that horn be recognized as the formal name for the instrument in the English language.

But, why do so many Americans still call it the French horn?

From my experiences as a horn player, the instrument is referred to as the French horn throughout primary and secondary education; musicians usually don't recognize it solely as the horn until their late college years and beyond.

"I was in middle school when I joined the International Horn Society," says Ellen Dinwiddie Smith, who plays horn with the Minnesota Orchestra and is an adjunct professor of horn at the University of Minnesota. "This is when I found out that the horn is not French! This information wasn't a big deal to me at the time. It wasn't until many years later when I became a professional and began to play the natural horn that the name horn took on a more historical meaning to me. I began to think about how to get others to understand this rich history."

There are many theories that argue why the French horn moniker came about in the United States and survived.

British horn players, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, played French-made horns. This varied from other European horn players, who preferred German-made horns. British players, playing on their French horns, were proud to label their horns as such and wanted to set themselves apart from other European horn-playing.

With the growth and popularity of jazz in 20th-century America, any instruments that could be blown into were called horns, including clarinet, trumpet, trombone and saxophone. Classical horn players often kept the name French horn to distinguish their instrument easily from the jazz world.

Some people say it was called the French horn by the British to distinguish it from the angelic horn (which later became known as the English horn).

Others say there's a theory that the horn came across the English Channel from France, and therefore it was deemed to be French.

History and development of the horn

The horn can be traced back to 16th-century hunting horns, which were used by hunters in France and Germany. Hunting horns were large round hoops of tubing that the hunter could put his arm through and carry on his shoulder to blow through while riding. They were not heard in a performance setting until they began appearing in opera scores in Europe during the mid-to-late 16th century. The use of hunting horns was limited but was intended to create sounds reminiscent of the hunt.

From its original hunting horn state, the horn advanced into the natural horn (hand horn) in the 17th century. The natural horn was a metal (brass) musical instrument with a large flared bell, developed by the Germans for orchestral use. It was differentiated by its lack of valves; horn players were only able to produce pitches in the harmonic series and used their air speed and lip embouchure to change pitches.

By the time the 18th century rolled around, Germans had introduced moveable slides, called crooks, which came in various lengths and altered the key of the horn. Small pitch variances could be created using hand stopping, which meant completely stopping (plugging) the sound of the horn in the bell with the player's hand.

By the 19th century, pistons and valves (instead of crooks) were used, giving birth to the modern single horn. The new valved design enabled easier transitions between notes without having to alter the instrument's timbre or configuration, and allowed performers to maintain a smooth, uninterrupted sound. The advancement of pistons and valves made the horn a completely chromatic instrument, giving horn players the facility to create a wider range of pitches and develop a more complex, harmonic sound.

The double horn arrived by the late 19th century and was invented to address some of the acoustical challenges of the single horn. Upper pitches were difficult to perform accurately due to the close proximity of overtones. The double horn added a second, higher register horn (commonly a B-flat horn) to the original F horn, which allowed for higher passages to be played with greater ease and accuracy.

Even though the term French horn is widely used in the United States, its modern design was manufactured by German horn makers. Horns today are modeled after their design, and therefore are not French in any way.

Pelletier says, "I think we can all agree that 'horn' is correct, and far simpler!"

With the Fourth of July celebration, you're likely to hear lots of music by American composer and band conductor John Philip Sousa wherever you go. But how much do you really know about the famous March King? Find out in this trivia quiz from Classical MPR and American Public Media!

Take Highway 52 out of South St. Paul, follow it for 90 minutes, and you reach the small city of Chatfield, Minn., population 2,779.

At the bottom end of Main Street, in a quiet residential setting, sits a low-slung concrete bunker of a building, wedged into a gentle incline leading down to the Root River.

This inconspicuous location is, in fact, the home of the Chatfield Music Lending Library, the largest collection of brass band music available for hire in the world.

"Most universities and some bands have their own libraries of music," explains Theresa Hayden, secretary of the Chatfield Library. "But as a member of the public, you can't borrow it. We're the only place in the world where if you need the E-flat cornet part for a Sousa march, we can lend you the music."

The Chatfield Music Lending Library came into existence almost by accident. Back in 1969, Jim Perkins, a local lawyer and brass band enthusiast, decided that the town's band should be re-formed, after a period of inactivity that had lasted decades.

There was one difficulty: The new Chatfield Brass Band had no music to play from, and no money with which to hire it. Fortunately, Perkins was "this guy who just didn't take no for an answer," says the band's current director, Carmen Narveson.

"Jim knew a lot of musicians and composers, and he put out the word that the new Chatfield band needed music," she adds. "And it started coming in from band directors all over, and just snowballed into huge amounts of music."

Eventually, the quantity of paper became too much to store at his home, so Perkins donated a piece of land he owned to create a building where the burgeoning collection could be stored permanently.

That is where the 46,000 pieces of music currently in the Chatfield library's catalog are located, in serried rows of metal filing cabinets. An additional 40,000 to 50,000 pieces of music in cardboard boxes await cataloging, a task that probably will take many years to finish.

Access to this unrivaled treasure trove of band music has been revolutionized in recent years by the advent of the internet and the digitization of the Chatfield Library's holdings.

"This place would not be here today in the way it is without that," says the library's manager, Jerel Nielsen.

Slow, surface-mail correspondence has been replaced by flick-of-a-mouse email communication; searching for pieces is done online, not by plowing through dusty piles of sheet music; and Google searches can identify pieces of music that customers sometimes remember only partly, or hum over the phone to staff at the library.

"We open Monday to Wednesday; we can't afford to open five days," Nielsen explains. "The internet allows a patron to browse the catalog on our website Thursday through Sunday, and order their music at their convenience. That's had a huge impact. We sent music last year to 50 states, and to 17 countries outside America. This is the hub."

The size of the library has put the Chatfield Brass Band in a unique and enviable position as it approaches its 50th-anniversary season of summer bandstand concerts, Hayden says.

"A lot of small bands only have a handful of pieces that they can do, whereas we pretty much do new stuff every year from what we have here in the library — with no hire charges."

Narveson, the director, agrees that the umbilical link between band and library is highly consequential.

"There's such an amazing amount of music here that we seldom repeat pieces that we play," she says.

"And when other band directors come here to look for music, they don't want to leave. Some will drive up from Missouri or Texas, and they'll stay for two or three days, maybe a week. And all they'll do is climb the ladders, open the drawer, and look for music. They"re just in paradise."

Most of the music held at the Chatfield Library is what Hayden calls "traditional American music" for brass or concert band, and some of it is extremely rare or unobtainable from other sources.

Marches, polkas, galops, Broadway melodies, cakewalks, circus tunes, silent film music — a broad slice of American cultural history is here, protected against the erosion of time and passing fashions.

Protected for the time being, that is: The Chatfield Music Lending Library runs on a financial shoestring of small grants, loan fees and donations, plus as many volunteer hours as it can muster.

Its existence can be precarious, but Hayden is quietly optimistic about the library's future.

"Financially, we are a lot better off than we were 10 years ago, mainly because of a few very generous donations. That has made a huge difference," she says.

And where the core business of lending music is concerned, Nielsen sees a significant expansion in the library's activities: "We're lending to more schools, more universities, more international connections, more connections in this country, coast to coast. Our range is broadening out."

And the satisfaction never dims of unearthing music that the library's many customers have long since given up on finding.

"That is the whole point of what we do," Nielsen says. "We have music here that to the world is gone. But we find it for our customers, and it's back in their lives."