Band Music History

A blog of the Heritage Brass Band of Texas

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The song alternately known as the “Navy Hymn,” “For Those in Peril on the Sea” or “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” dates back to 1860. During the 19th century, h…

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El Degüello / El Dagüello

What music should be associated with the Alamo? There are at least two pieces that are known as El Degüello (alternatively spelled El Dagüello or simply the “Americanized” Deguello). Th…

What Music Was Played at the Alamo in 1836?

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Frank W. Meacham

Frank White Meacham was born in Buffalo, New York in 1856 to John Horace Meacham and Mary Emma Page Meacham. He was the middle child of at least five siblings. In the 1865 census, John Horace&#8217…

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Antony August Sousa (1868-1918) – He went by the nickname “Tony” and was known as an athlete, composer, author, poet and newspaperman among his other talents. At the time of his d…

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Josef Franz Wagner

Wagner was the composer of a well known march called “Under the Double Eagle” in 1893. It has been so often performed by United States bands over the years that it could easily be mista…

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Robert Browne Hall

Most often known simply as R. B. Hall, this composer lived most of his life in Maine. He was born in 1858 and died in 1907. He was born in Bowdoinham, ME to Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel W. Hall. Robert t…

R. B. Hall - Maine’s March King

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Polka (Brass) Bands in Texas

Image credit: @UTSA_Libraries This is a nice article about Texas’ Round Top Brass Band that includes some history of the genre in America.

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Roland F. Seitz

Roland Forrest Seitz was born in 1867 in Pennsylvania to William and Magdalena Zeigler Seitz. His paternal grandparents had come to America from Germany just over 100 years earlier. Roland was the …

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Charles Edward Duble was a trombonist and composer born on September 13, 1884 in Jeffersonville, Indiana. During his performing career of over twenty years, he played with a number of circus, vaude…

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Classical composer Franz Schubert lived from 1797 to 1828. During his lifetime, Schubert composed many works including seven complete symphonies. His eighth symphony was begun in 1822, but not fini…

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Dr. Archibald Clyde Roller

A. Clyde Roller (1914-2005) was a music professor, conductor and clinician. His primary personal instrument was oboe. Dr. Roller was a well known and requested clinician in the southwest, while he …

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Lincoln Farewell and Composer George F. Root

The work “Farewell Father, Friend and Guardian” was composed as a tribute to the late President Abraham Lincoln who was assassinated on Good Friday, April 9, 1865. The musical work &#82…

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The Clarksburg Telegram of Clarksburg, West Virginia in its issue of February 11, 1898 carried an article regarding requests that had been handed in at concerts of the Sousa Band. On one occasion, …

Sousa Band’s Humorous Audience Requests (1898)

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Joseph Shearin’s excellent article published in Windjammers Unlimited, Inc. – Circus Music Historical Society about the history of circus music.

History of Circus Music

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Better known by the pseudonym of Kenneth J. Alford, Frederick Joseph “Joe” Ricketts was born in 1881 in England. His father was a coal merchant in London. Ricketts had studied organ and…

Kenneth J. Alford, penname of Frederick J. Ricketts, composer of “Colonel Bogey March”

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An overview of marching bands made up of African Americans from the 18th to the 20th century: As early as 1738, free mulatos, blacks, and Native Americans residing in Virginia were required to serv…

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by Larry Johnson When the Civil War broke out, all the elements necessary to provide Regimental Bands were in place. When recruiters raised a regiment, all they had to do was go into an area and mu…