The American Brass Band Movement

Andrew Janes
Wind Band Literature, Spring 2017

Band of 10th
Veteran Reserve
Corps,
Washington,
D.C., April, 1865
 The American Brass Band Movement
The roots of the American band movement are found in
the musical traditions of Western Europe.

This band tradition was carried to the New World and

found a renewed life in the United States.

Military bands were also formed in Philadelphia and

Boston by the turn of the 19th century, and the US
Marine Band was formed in 1799.
 Brass Bands in the 1850s
By the 1850s music in America was becoming big business.

Boston music journalist John Sullivan Dwight, together with

numerous colleagues, was promoting, guiding, and frequently
condemning popular music fashions in the course of reporting
and polemicizing on the brass band movement in America
before, during, and after the Civil War.

During the 1840s and 1850s many town bands had attached
themselves to the local militia, wearing their uniforms and
participating in annual or semi-annual musters.
 English Influence
In England employers encouraged their factory workers to
participate in music-making, which became highly
competitive, sometimes even physically so.

There is evidence that the best amateur English bands

equaled or even surpassed the outstanding British
professional military bands of the time.

It should be emphasized, however, that these professional

bands were not all brass, a predominant role being played by
woodwinds.
 German, Irish, and Italian Influences
American all-brass band coexisted with some bands whose makeup
was influenced by European immigrants with musical training.

As early as 1852, the fashionable New York Seventh Regiment Band

introduced woodwinds.
Col. Emmons Clark: In January, 1852, the engagement of
Adkins's Washington Brass Band with the Seventh Regiment
expired, and was not renewed. As there was no band in the city
entirely satisfactory to the Regiment, it was proposed to
organize a new military band. . . . Fortunately, the very best
material for the purpose was to be found among the
professional musicians of the German Musical society.
 German Influence
Friedrich Wilhelm Wieprecht.
Knigliche Preussische Armee Mrsche: full scores of his
instrumentations "fr die jetzige Stimmenbesetzung" ("for the
present-day instrumentation).
Scored for the following: 42 men served Weiprechts instrumentation.

Woodwind and brass basses: High woodwinds:

2 bassoons ("Fagotts")
contrabassoon ("Contrafagott. Tritonikon.
Sarrusophone")
bass tubas ("Bombardon. Helikon. Saxhorn Basso et
Contrabasso")
Brasses:
4 trumpets in E-flat ("Trompeten")
2 tenor trombones ("Zug-Posaunen im Tenor")
2 bass trombones ("Zug-Posaunen im Bass")
Clarinets, including the highest woodwinds:
piccolo clarinet in A-flat ("kleine Clarinette")
2 E-flat clarinets ("Mittel-Clarinetten")
4 clarinets in B-flat ("Grosse Clarinetten")
piccolo in D-flat
2 oboes
The basic saxhorn-Flgelhorn group, plus the French
horns, and less the bass and high sopranos:
2 sopranos in B-flat ("Hoch Flgelhrner. Saxhrner
Soprano")
2 altos in E-flat ("Alt Flgelhrner. Saxhrner Alto")
2 Waldhorns in E-flat ("Waldhrner; french horns)
2 tenor horns in B-flat ("Bass Flgelhrner. Saxhrner
Tenore")
baritone ("Bariton-Tuba. Euphoneon. Saxhorn
Baritone")
Percussion:
drums and cymbals ("Militair Trommel. Grosse
Trommel mit Becken")
 Italian Influence
Francis Scala
His conception of instrumentation was
a traditional one, maintained in Italy
throughout the 19th century.

Woodwinds: Brass & Percussion

Eb flute (piccolo)
Clarinet solo (Eb, Scala)
E-flat clarinets (2 divisi)
1st clarinet ripieno (2
divisi)
2ndclarinet (2 divisi)
3rd clarinet (2 divisi)
Eb cornets (2 divisi)
Cornopeans in Bb (2 divisi)
French horns in F (2 divisi)
Ebor corno solo
Ebor cornos (2 divisi)
Baritone
Tuba
Trumpets in F (2 divisi)
Trombones (3 divisi)
Small drum and bass drum
 Irish Influence
Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore

One of the initial virtuosos of the

valved-bugle.

Made some of the most important

contributions to the concert band in
America before John Philip Sousa by
eventually developing an
instrumentation that enabled a large
wind ensemble to produce effects
comparable to a full orchestra at a time
when American orchestras of high quality
were scarce.
 Band Instruments
Importance of open-air music under
royal patronage.

1810 when a Dubliner named Joseph

Halliday introduces keyed bugle.

In America the chromatic horns had

gained at least an equal footing with
Keyed bugle, 1841, the woodwinds as principal
Charles-Joseph Sax.
Cylindro-conoidal bore instruments as far as bands were Tenor Ophicleide, ca.
concerned by 1835 182565, C. Sax
 Band Instruments
1840s: Frenchman Adolphe Sax,
inventor of the familiar
saxophone, was one of several
makers who developed a family
of chromatic valved bugles,
eventually called saxhorns

The homogeneous quality of

the saxhorn-type band and its
carrying power in the outdoors
were significant advantages
over its predecessors.
 Band Instruments
Of course, not everyone greeted this development with
enthusiasm.

At the risk of being considered old fashioned I have protested

against the summary banishment of many of these instruments. I
have contended that all change is not improvement. These
instruments, differing in the principle of their construction, had a
different quality of tone, and therein is the strength of my plea.
Band instruments of today are much better made and easier to
learn, but from the E-flat cornet to the E-flat bass they are all
constructed on the same principle, and have therefore the same
kind of tone, only deeper, of course, as they descend.
 Band Instruments
https://www.youtub
e.com/watch?v=y6
QpdhM5tAM

Jeff Stockham,
historical music
consultant on
Spielberg's film
Lincoln. He
demonstrates a
range of
instruments from
Over the shoulder instruments from a Lyon & Healy catalog, c. 1870.
fife, over-the- "In selecting the instruments, attention should be paid to the use intended;
shoulder cornets, if for military purposes only, those with bells behind, over the shoulder, are
alto horn to drums. preferable, as they throw all the tone to those who are marching to it, but
for any other purpose are not so good. These were first introduced by the
Dodworth family in the year 1838. (Allen Dodworth)
 Band Music
Little longevity, paper

The first song written for

the war, The First Gun is
Fired, was first published
and distributed three
days after the Battle of
Fort Sumter. George F.
Root, who wrote it, is said
to have produced the
most songs of anyone
about the war, over thirty
in total.

Detail of Captain Finchs Quickstep cornet part (score)

 Band Music Cornopean,
in Bb

1844: Elias Howes First Part of the

Musician's Companion.
Contained "new and popular pieces
in 6 and 8 parts, for a brass band,
viz.: Eb bugle, Bb bugle, Bb post
horn, Bb cornopean, tenor
trombone, bass trombone, first
orphecleide [sic], second
orphecleide, &c.

1846:, E. K. Eaton published Twelve

Pieces of Harmony for Military Brass
Bands.
Instrumentation larger than Howes:
calling for Eb bugle, 2 Bb bugles, 1
cornopeon [sic] or post horn, 2 Eb
trumpets, 2 French horns, 2 alto
ophecleides [sic], 3 trombones, 2
bass ophecleides, and side drums.
Circular Trumpet, or Valved Posthorn (with crooks)
Elias Howe, First Part of the Musician's Companion
 Band Music
By 1849, Allen Dodworth was instructing readers of the New York music journal
Message Bird on the formation of brass bands.

He writes: What in our opinion, would make the best arrangement for a Band
of ten, would be as follows: Two Eb Trebles, Two Bb Altos, Two Eb Tenores,
One Bb Baritone, One A[b] or Bb Bass, Two Eb Contra Bass. If more are
required, add two Trumpets; then two Post-horns; then two Trombones;
Drums, Cymbals, &c. Many different kinds of instruments are used to take the
parts here mentioned, but most of the Bands of the present day give
preference to what is called the Saxhorn, which is made in all the different
keys mentioned above.

In 1853 Firth, Pond and Company of New York began the publication of its Brass
Band Journal, probably the first American publication of saxhorn pieces.
 The Civil War Bands The Drummer Boys War
At the start of the Civil War there were few military bands.

The music provided by bands during the war did much to help the cause.

When hostilities broke out in April 1861, both sides were busy organizing
volunteer units, and the militia bands were in such demand that many
commanding officers paid large sums of money to procure a good one for
their regiment. Many bands enlisted as a complete unit.

A musicians recollections, as printed in the Boston Transcript, (Aug. 9,

1890): inducements were held out to quicken the enlistment of
recruits by publicly announcing that a famous band would be attached
to some particular regiment.
 The Civil War Bands
Within a few months of the start of the war, Congress
authorized the creation of Regimental bands for the Regular
Army. This led to the formation of hundreds of bands and
the enlistment of thousands of musicians whose duties
were solely to provide music for the Army.

This was followed by a Union army regulation of July 1861

requiring every infantry, artillery, or cavalry company to
have 2 musicians and for there to be a 24-man band for
every regiment. (Artillery/Cavalry: bugle & drummer;
infantry: fifer & drummer.)

The July 1861 requirement was ignored as the war

progressed and more bodies were needed as
combatants. Duties were eventually expanded
to battlefield chores such as stretcher-bearers and
assisting in medical operations like amputations.
 The Civil War Bands
The music played an
important part in the
daily lives of soldiers.

Civil War band music

may be divided broadly
into three categories:
martial (marches,
quicksteps, patriotic
airs), dance (polkas,
waltzes, schottisches,
gallops), and popular
(sentimental ballads,
operatic airs).
"Home Sweet Home. Tune written by Englishman Henry Bishop (1786-
1855), who "in his day enjoyed a commanding reputation as the guardian of
the best traditions of English song. New text was provided by American John
Howard Payne (1791-1852). The music originally appeared in the opera Clari
(The Maid of Milan), produced May 8, 1823, in London.
 The Civil War Bands
There were fewer Confederate bands because musicians were not
quite as plentiful in the South and good instruments were
expensive and very difficult to obtain.

Congress permanently abolished all regimental bands on July 17,

1862, with the Federal Government experiencing substantial
financial difficulties brought on by the war and realizing it could no
longer support so many bands on the Regimental level,

Some of the bands were reformed into Brigade bands and the
quality of music improved. Other regiments had their musicians re-
enlist as combatants and then assigning the men to musical duties.
 Battle of the Bands
The night before the Battle of Stones River, bands from both sides dueled with separate
songs, until both sides started playing Home! Sweet Home!, at which time soldiers on both
sides started singing together as one.

During the winter of 1862-1863, Union and Confederate armies were camped near each
other at Fredericksburg, Virginia, separated only by the expanse of the Rappahannock River.
One cold afternoon, a band in the Union camp struck up some patriotic tunes to cheer the
men. They were answered from across the river by a Confederate band. The Union band
played another tune followed by the Confederates who also did their best to play the same
song. Back and forth the musical duel went well into the evening hours. Soldiers in both
armies listened to the musical battle and would cheer for their own bands. The duel finally
ended when both bands struck up the tune of "Home, Sweet Home". It was then that the
men of both sides who were so far from their homes, cheered as one.

In a third instance, in the spring of 1863, the opposing armies were on the opposite sides of
the Rappahannock River in Virginia, when the different sides played their patriotic tunes, and
at taps one side played Home! Sweet Home!, and the other joined in, creating "cheers" from
both sides that echoed throughout the hilly countryside.
 A Lasting Legacy
The American Brass Band kick-started the development of the wind
band/ensemble by providing a platform (the military) for the
ensemble to take hold and subsequently flourish in the hands of
able composers and a receptive audience.

Historical prevalence of brass is reflected in how composers write

music with an intentional or unintentional American character.

Orchestra: Aaron Coplands Lincoln Portrait

Wind Band: Sousas Marches; Jerry Biliks American Civil War
Fantasy; Joseph Willcox Jenkinss American Overture for
band; Clare Grundmans set American Folk Rhapsodies
 Bibliography
https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-war-band-music/articles-and-essays/the-
american-brass-band-movement/
http://www.jvmusic.net/brass-bands-of-the-civil-war/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6QpdhM5tAM
http://www.civilwarpoetry.org/music/bands.html
https://www.civilwaracademy.com/brass-band.html
http://www.americancivilwar.com/Civil_War_Music/civil_war_music.html
https://hazen.carnegiescience.edu/music/history-brass-instruments
Kelley, Bruce (2004). "An Overview of Music of the Civil War Era" Bugle
Resounding. University of Missouri Press. ISBN 0-8131-2375-5.
Branham, Robert J. (2002). Sweet Freedom's Song: "My Country 'tis of Thee" and
Democracy in America. Oxford University Press US. ISBN 0-19-513741-8.
http://blackdiamondbrass.org/tpthist/trpthist.htm
http://www.mfa.org/node/9485
http://music.allpurposeguru.com/2013/11/civil-war-regimental-bands-banned-
and-disbanded/