Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - Banks of the Boneyard (Charles Kiler) [PAGE 85]

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TALE FIVE

Historical S\etch of the University Band

FTER a disaster on the football field, when our light-weight, fine-looking team, composed entirely of University students, has been pushed around, sat upon, and thrown out of bounds by a team of big bruisers, we all find solace in the thought that "anyway, we have the best college band in the world/' Our band can play marches, overtures, and selections from the operas, and can provide entertainment de luxe with great music and unusual marching, all of which removes the sting of defeat when we get beaten, and adds greatly to our joy when we win. To get at the earliest history of the band as well as student life at the beginning of our University, I wrote to Mr. E. N. Porterfield, the oldest living graduate, and a member of the first class, '72. Here is a paragraph of his answer: "Yes, we had a band, in which I played E flat alto, and later I played the tuba. The University furnished silver instruments for the band. Many of the horns went over the shoulder, and they were made that way for drilling purposes. At that time all men students had to drill, and I joined the band to get out of so much drilling. The band had a good German teacher, but I have forgotten his name. My roommate, Henry Robbins, was the leader of the band. He taught me how to write and transpose music. I played in the band the last two years I attended the University, and during that time we learned forty pieces of music, and we could play for all occasions. Since Mr. Porterfield's last two years in the University were '70-yi and '71-72, this statement of his takes us back to his junior year for the first year of an organized band. Henry M. Dunlap '75 told me that at the beginning of the University there was a fife and drum corps which played the tunes used in the Civil War to help the brigade in marching. Since this fits into the picture of the earliest days, we can believe there has been a band of some kind from the very beginning, and that a brass band was organized in the school year of '70^71. In that year I. W. Colberg, of Urbana, gave lessons to the band members each week, and it is recorded

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