Notes of Interest

Johannes Hanssen

Born 1874 Ullensaker, Norway
Died 1967 Oslo, Norway

Valdres March

Valdres March is a charming and inspiring masterpiece in miniature. In 1904, Hanssen completed the march, which he began in 1901. He played in the band that premiered the work in an Oslo outdoor concert. Only two people applauded, and they were his best friends. Subsequently he sold the work to a publisher for the equivalent of about five dollars. Today the march is internationally popular.

The title was taken from the Valdres region- about half-way between Oslo and Bergen and one of the most beautiful places on earth. The first three measures of the march contain the Valdres Battalion's signature fanfare, which is based on an ancient melody for the lur (a straight wooden trumpet). The second theme is an old tune for Hardanger-fiddle. In the Trio Hanssen uses a drone bass- a characteristic trait of Norwegian music- beneath a simple tune based on the pentatonic scale.

Johannes Hanssen was one of Norway's most active and influential bandmasters, composers, and teachers during the first half of the twentieth century. As a young boy, he played in a military band in Oslo. He was bandmaster of the Oslo Military Band from 1926 to 1934 and from 1945 to 1946, his career there having been interrupted by the Second World War. He played double bass with the National Theatre, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, and other orchestras. He taught conducting and music theory for several years and wrote music texts for a correspondence school.

During his long career, he composed many works and received many honors. His most famous works for band include Valdres March, The Olympic Fanfare (1952), and Humoreske. Incredibly, the majority of his band compositions remain in manuscript with the Oslo Military Staff Band.

Eric Coates

Born August 27, 1886 Hucknall, Nottingham, England

Died 1957 Chichester, England

The Dam Busters March

During World War II the British assigned a special RAF unit to blow up Ruhr power dams. The unit soon became known as the “Dam Busters.” In 1955, a movie starring Michael Redgrave was produced about the successful and daring operations of the Dam Busters. Coates wrote the highly successful score, including The Dam Busters March, for the movie.

Early in life, Coates studied the violin. Later he studied viola and composition on scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. His early works were so successful that, at the age of 32, he gave up his career as a professional violist and devoted the remainder of his life to composing and conducting his own music.

Coates’ works are typically light classics, representative of British music from the first half of this century. In 1957, Coates’ last year of life, he became President of the British Light Music Association. His greatest fame came from Knightsbridge from his London Suite.

Meredith Willson

Born May 18, 1902 Mason City, Iowa
Died June 15, 1984 Santa Monica, California

Seventy Six Trombones

The Music Man, one of the most popular musicals ever written, clearly established new comer Meredith Willson as one of the most impressive talents in the musical theater. It opened, after eight years of writing, on December 19, 1957 at New York's Majestic Theater and ran for 1375 performances. It was honored by many awards, national tours, being made into a film, and by the fact that most of Willson's songs in it became widely known. Most musicals are fortunate if they have one or two popular songs.

Of all the tunes in the musical, Seventy Six Trombones is probably the most popular and enduring. Leroy Anderson's arrangement embellishes the original with snippets of other well-known tunes.

Meredith Willson was rightfully nicknamed "The Music Man", not just because of his well-known musical, but because of his many other contributions as well.

As a child, he played drum in the local Salvation Army Band. Later he learned to play flute and piccolo, which he played with the Sousa Band for two years (his brother was in the Sousa Band at the same time). He also played in the New York Philharmonic. In 1929 he became music director for a radio station in San Francisco, and in 1932 for the entire western division of NBC Radio. During World War II he was in charge of the Armed Forces Radio Service. He gained fame not just for his musical endeavors, but also as a personality on such shows as The Maxwell House Coffee Time and Burns and Allen.

His many honors include three honorary doctorates, New York Drama Critics Circle award, Goldman award from the American Bandmasters Association, and the National Big Brother Award from President Kennedy. His best known works are The Music Man, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and Here's Love. He also wrote two symphonies, a symphonic poem, a suite for orchestra, works for chorus, a number of songs, and scores for two movies. He also wrote several books.

Johann Strauss, Sr.

Born March 14, 1804 Vienna, Austria
Died September 25, 1849 Vienna

Radetzky March

Strauss composed the light and charming Radetzky March under a commission from Field Marshall Lieutenant Peter Zanini who was organizing a "victory festival" in recognition of the exploits of the Austrian Army in Italy. Field Marshall Johann Joseph Count Radetzky de Radetz was commander of the army and the namesake of the march.

An unusual aspect of this march is that the trio modulates up a fifth instead of the traditional fourth. An explanation for this was found in the diary of one of Strauss' friends, Philipp Fahrbach. On the afternoon of the day on which the commissioned work was to be premiered in the evening, Strauss still had not began work on it. At the insistence, and with the assistance, of his friend Fahrbach, he finally began work on the march. Using two popular melodies of the day (Mein Kind, Mein Kind, ich bin dir gut, and an anonymous waltz melody), he hastily wrote the score and copied out the parts. The first performance, conducted by the composer on August 31, 1848, met with only modest success. In discussing with Fahrbach how to improve the march, Strauss decided to slow down the tempo and to lower the key of the first section from E Major to D Major, while leaving the trio in the original key, thus producing the march's departure from tradition.

Johann Strauss Sr. was the son of an innkeeper who wanted his son to become a bookbinder. However he learned music at an early age, mostly self-taught, and joined a dance orchestra as a violinist while a teen. He earned quite a reputation and played for such dignitaries as Chopin and Wagner.

Johann Strauss Sr. is known as the " First Waltz King" because he was the co-inventor (along with Josef Lanner) of the Viennese waltz and because he wrote 152 waltzes, some of which are still played today.

He was the patriarch of the highly acclaimed Austrian musical family which includes the most famous "Waltz King", his son Johann Jr. Johann Jr. created such famous waltzes asTales from the Vienna Woods and Blue Danube.

It is ironic that the First Waltz King should best be remembered for a march, Radetzky March, and that this march is far better known than the man in whose honor it was written.

Eric Ball, 1903-1989

Without a doubt, Eric Ball is the father of the Brass Band. Born on October the 31st, 1903, he was given music and harmony lessons from a private teacher who was also the local church organist. After World War I he went on to study the organ at Staines and Dartford Churches, writing for mobile organs and voices. However, from a background with strong Salvation Army ties, Eric was drawn to the sound of the brass band from an early age.

As well as a supreme master in writing melodies built on simple melodic blocks he uses innovative harmonies and careful orchestration to create different timbres and sounds within the brass band. Most importantly, he has shown that it is possible to become a successful composer by exclusively composing for brass bands.

Sir Hugh Roberton, choirmaster, conductor and composer.

Born in Glasgow, Hugh Roberton first came to prominence as conductor of the Toynbee House Choir. Following an internal dispute in 1906 he founded the Glasgow Orpheus Choir, choosing the name himself. Roberton was very much the driving force behind the Orpheus Choir, taking it to great heights nationally and internationally. As well as conducting he composed original music such as All in the April Evening, and produced new arrangements for traditional songs.

A hard task-master when required, Roberton insisted on the highest standards for the Orpheus Choir and singers had to undergo annual tests before being readmitted. He inspired fierce loyalty in the choir members, so much so that when Roberton was forced by ill-health to retire in 1951 they agreed unanimously to disband. Some members subsequently formed the Glasgow Phoenix Choir.

Roberton was also politically active. A committed socialist, he was banned from the BBC in 1941 because of his pacifist views. In 1931 he accepted a knighthood with some reluctance, regarding it as recognition for the Orpheus Choir.

Elgar Howarth

Elgar Howarth was born into a brass band family, becoming principal cornet of the Barton Hall Works Band when he was 14 years old. His father, the band's conductor, was his only teacher until, at the age of 17, he took trumpet lessons from Cecil Kidd at the Royal Manchester College of Music, by which time he had won the Alexander Owen Memorial Scholarship and written his first piece for brass band.

After studying at Manchester University he became a professional trumpeter, first with the Royal Opera House Orchestra at Covent Garden and later with various London orchestras and ensembles, most notably the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, theLondon Sinfonietta and the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. It was with the London Sinfonietta that he made his conducting début in 1969, and he has conducted them regularly ever since. His career since 1975 has been international, conducting opera and concerts in most European countries as well as appearing regularly with the leading British orchestras and opera companies.

When, in 1972, he was invited to become Music Adviser to the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, he accepted on the understanding that the band would engage wholeheartedly in new, modern scores - often commissions of the most uncompromising virtuosity.

In March 1997 Howarth was recognised for his achievements in the field of Opera and was the recipient of an Olivier Award, with particular reference to his work on Henze's 'Prince of Homburg' and Zimmerman 'Die Soldaten'.

Wearing his other hat, as W. Hogarth Lear, Howarth himself wrote a series of light pieces which proved popular with television audiences through the Granada Band of the Year Contest.

Arthur Sullivan 1842 - 1900

W. S. Gilbert once described Arthur Sullivan as "incomparably the greatest English musician of the age." Besides contributing witty operatic parodies and a string of effervescent melodies to the Savoy operas, he wrote, amongst other works, cantatas, oratorios, concert overtures, incidental music to plays, numerous songs and a grand opera. He was the conductor of the Leeds Festival for almost twenty years, a friend of Royalty and a keen follower of the turf. He was knighted in 1883.

Sullivan composed The Lost Chord whilst watching at his brother Fred's bedside during his last illness. The manuscript is dated 13 January 1877 and Fred Sullivan died five days later.

The success of the song was immediate and stupendous. The song became particularly associated with Mrs. Ronalds who often sang it at society functions, and none other than the Prince of Wales was said to have remarked that he would travel the length of his future kingdom to hear her sing it.

Sullivan later commented: "I have composed much music since then, but have never written a second Lost Chord and Dame Clara Butt, many years later, would opine: "What we need now is more songs like The Lost Chord. There is something of the grandeur of Beethoven in it."