There’s Something About a Band
What is more thrilling than a fine brass band? There’s something about a band that sets hearts pounding and pulses racing.
Band music stirs all ages. Young and old pour into the streets to see and hear a band. Mothers with babies in their arms and wide-eyed youngsters clinging to their skirts, line the sidewalks. Small boys run to keep pace with the drummer, then with shoulders back and stomachs stuck out, they proudly march beside them. Old men lift heads high, women’s eyes are tear-filled as the band brings sad memories.
All America loves a band. Even in Washington, the National Capital, the most popular parade ground in the United States, crowds quickly jam the streets to the very curb, as a band leads a parade along the Avenue. For it is a marching band which makes the deepest appeal to the emotions of the human mind and heart. A lively march will bring smiles to the faces, sparkles to the eyes and a rhythmic step to the feet.
Since that long-ago day when Joshua commanded his seven high priests—probably the first seven-piece wind band—to blow their rams’-horn trumpets as they marched seven times around the walled city of Jericho, countless marches have been played. And the walls still “come tumbling down” in hearts that thrill to band music.
Down through the ages the band, in its development, has sounded the call to arms and played the hymns of peace. In years gone by the music of the band led the townsfolk to the village green. Today the concert bands draw thousands of people to the public parks.
In our own country neither the Puritans nor the Quakers of New England’s early days would allow the use of musical instruments. But the German and Swedish colonists brought their music with them to this country.
The first band in New York City consisted of four sturdy Dutch citizens who played the trumpet, flute, violin and drum. They gave a free concert every Saturday afternoon at Bowling Green to crowds of one hundred or more people. This was in the 1630’s. A few years later seven younger, better-looking men made up a rival band. They played louder and became more popular.
Many small bands were organized in Boston during the next few years. Several little German bands came to this country and stopped in Boston. Some played on streets and were called Gutter Bands. Others were excellent musicians and one of their flute players became the flutist in the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
In 1773 Mr. Josiah Flagg formed a band of fifty or more men and gave concerts in Faneuil Hall. This was the first band of any size in America. Other bands were soon organized in Boston: The Green Dragon, and the Boston Brigade Band were very well known.