Special 2024 Maine Tour Edition Friends of the Yankee Brass, Inc. Newsletter

Welcome to the 2024 tour edition of the Friends of the Yankee Brass newsletter. In this special edition we are pleased to share information about the band, the tour, and Yankee Brass organization.

As you will read in this newsletter, the Yankee Brass is dedicated to preserving and promoting the American brass band traditions that held a important and prominent place in the lives of people and communities in Maine and across America during the 19th century.

This, the 37th annual tour, is the result of a year long planning process with an effort to include brass band music and composers associated with Maine. The organization is also dedicated to providing information and resources with the intent of putting the bands and music of the time period in perspective and help audiences be informed listeners.

We look forward to performing for you, meeting you, and sharing our enjoyment of being a part of these time-honored traditions.

A Special Message from the Music Director

Dr. James Chesebrough

Attention music lovers, history buffs, and fans of the Yankee Brass Band. Greetings! The 37th tour of our very special ensemble runs July 23 – 27 all across the great state of Maine. This is your personal invitation to join us at our concerts. Historic brass music will be echoing from Corinna and Bangor-to Waterville, Bath and Bethel. The band’s performances, in period uniforms on original instruments, will present live concerts straight from the 19th-century.

At a time when the United States had less than a handful of symphony orchestras, there were more than 10,000 concert bands active across America. These bands served many functions, playing a significant role in community life. Just as the Yankee Brass does today, 19th century bandsmen enjoyed the delight of musical performance, but beyond the benefits to the performers, bands played a significant role in their communities. They supported local militia, rallied for local politicians, celebrated national holidays, and provided a background for the social life of the time. Since there were few orchestras, the band was the ensemble that brought European classical music to the American public.

This year’s Yankee Brass Band concerts do this and more. You will hear rousing marches, dance tunes, and parlor music. The program includes two works by a composer of some of the greatest and most exciting overtures of all time. Bands and bandmasters from Maine are well represented with recreated selections that were performed by local bands and their leader/composers. Some very fine soloists will be featured, and all of the players are masters on original, historic instruments. You do not want to miss this chance to hear and see a fine performance of a traditional brass band.

We hope you will join us as we travel to the time just before the War between the States through the rise of the professional bands of Gilmore and Sousa. It is a chance to experience the same enjoyment as audiences of the past have done for many, many years. And when you attend, please feel free to engage with the players. They love to talk about their instruments, the music, and local history.

See you then!

What’s on the Programme?

Dr. James Chesebrough

Part of the job of the music director is to select music that recreates an and accurate picture of the 19th -century American brass band’s musical heritage and traditions. Performances of this era included music from operas, symphonies, musical theater, folk tunes, ballads, and patriotic songs. The music was fun to play and entertained the audience. It often was connected to community bands and band leaders. This year’s programme was selected with these things in mind in order to replicate the actual sights and sounds that audiences would have enjoyed in days gone by.

Opera classics include the “Overture” to Tancredi and “The Anvil Chorus” from Il Trovatore by Italian composers Gioachino Rossini and Giuseppe Verdi. Unlike performances by Patrick Gilmore, who conducted the latter work in 1869 with 100 Boston Firemen pounding anvils in unison, we believe in quality over quantity. Our anvil soloist is a highly trained musician, and he owns his own anvil.

Maine’s 19th-century band tradition dates from before the Civil War. Chandler’s Band, originally called The Portland Band, was organized in 1833. It took its present name when Daniel Chandler became the leader in 1843. He developed the band into one of the finest performing groups of its kind, and it is believed to be the nation’s second oldest professional band in continuous service. To acknowledge this fine band, Yankee will perform Chandler’s Galop, composed in 1892 by Enos A. Blanchard, a member of Chandler’s Band. The lively Chandler’s Jig, attributed to Chandler himself, will finish the set.

Today’s native Mainers probably recognize “Penobscot” as the name of a town, a county, or a river, but in 1849 it was the title of a polka written by a Mr. Sportz and “Respectfully Dedicated to all the Ladies in the Single and United States. The Yankee Brass Serenade Band’s performance is also respectfully dedicated to the ladies in our audience.

German-born composer, Johann Carl Hermann Kotzschmar, arrived in Portland in 1849. Like many European trained musicians, he thrived in America. In 1856, before he became known as “Portland’s Musical Genius”, he composed the Leviathan Concert March. In 1858, the world’s largest ship, Leviathan (AKA The Great Eastern), was supposed to come to Portland on her maiden voyage.

Kotzschmar wrote this march in anticipation of the event, but the ship never came. In 2021, Yankee Band member and director of Portland’s Centennial Brass Band arranged for a new edition of this fine march. It is a great addition to this year’s Yankee Brass tour.

There is no way that Yankee would come to Maine and not perform the music of Robert Browne Hall, who was born in 1858 on Abagadasset Point in Bowdoinham, Maine. Since 1981, the last Saturday in June has been officially Robert Browne Hall Day in Maine. Yankee cornetist, Dennis Harrington, has the honor of portraying Mr. Hall. Famous during his lifetime as a composer and a fine cornetist, Hall served as conductor of bands in in Bangor, Waterville, and Albany, NY. He taught music at Colby College, the site of our Thursday concert, and returned to Waterville in 1902. Hall was an outstanding cornetist with a tremendous range. It is said that while marching in parades, he would play certain strains an octave higher than written. Even at a distance, one always knew when R. B. Hall’s band was approaching. Our audiences will get to hear some fine cornet soloists when Wayne Collier and Isabelle Lowe perform Hall’s Grand Fantasia “Bolero.” They will also get to experience R. B. Hall marches with performances of March G. M. B. composed for the Gardner, ME Military Band and Dunlap Commandery, for the Dunlap Commandery, Knights Templar of Bath, ME, the site of our Friday concert.

These are just some highlights of this year’s Yankee Band Tour. There is much more music from days gone by, and Yes! There will be Sousa.

Learning from the Past…

Education is an important core part of the Yankee Brass Band’s mission and goals. Scholarship and the application of the performance practices of the 19th century are essential to presenting authentic and informed performances.

Members of the organization have invested significant time in researching original brass band music and 19th century culture. Collections at the Library of Congress, United States service band libraries, museums, historical societies throughout the United States, and scholarly historical records have provided valuable information about the music and bands of the era.

Research on performance practices, instrument designs, instrument makers, and bands of the period has also provided valuable insights. Applying what we have learned allows audiences to experience a performance as people in the 19th century may have experienced.

And Sharing What We Have Learned

Bringing what we have learned to our audiences and people with an interest in the American Brass Band is essential to our mission. The sharing of insights is accomplished in many ways. First, is through our concerts. These performances use original instruments of the period and provide a first-hand opportunity to experience the unique quality of the early versions of modern instruments. During performances, our Music Director provides background commentary to create context to the music.

During the 2023 tour, the band presented a workshop on The American Amateur Brass Band at the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA) Summer Conference. At that presentation the attendees were given the opportunity to experience the combining of scholarship with music performance.

Educational materials are available on the Yankee Brass Band website and more are being added.

And, we always enjoy meeting with people at our performances to talk about the band, the instruments, and music. Please make sure to introduce yourself and join us in a conversation.

We want to thank the sponsors of the Yankee Brass Band 2024 Maine Tour: