Repository: UIHistories Project: UI Foundation Series - Bulletin 2 (1936) [PAGE 5]

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UNIVERSITY OF I L L I N O I S CONCERT BAND AUGMENTED BY T H E FIRST A N D SECOND REGIMENTAL BANDS FOR SPECIAL numbers. Formation is for special anniversary concert on the stage of the Auditorium, A. Austin Harding directing.

Best University Band in the World

T

H E University of Illinois Band is a nationally known institution and to the editor of this pamphlet, who was a member of the organization a little under fifty years ago, is a neverending source of wonder. Year after year it survives the losses due to graduation of its oldest and most valuable players, Director Harding always being able to bring forward reinforcements to take the place of those who Austin Harding have gone and to keep the quality and morale at an extremely high pitch. This sterling institution will soon be giving its 46th anniversary concert in the Auditorium on the campus and it seems clear to us that we can do no better than repeat portions of the story written by the late Edward Moore, for many years music critic of the Chicago Tribune, on the occasion of his visit to the campus to hear the 45th anniversary concert on March 5, 1935. "The University concert band gave its forty-fifth anniversary concert in the auditorium . . . . and with its notes still ringing in my ears, I believe it is the best amateur band I have ever heard in public. "To speak by the book, there are three bands in the university. T h e concert band, about one hundred and fifteen in number, is the top. Its members are the aristocrats, the brahmins of the university band world. Beneath them are two other organizations, slightly lower in caste but still deserving well of their alma mater, the first regimental and the second regimental bands. "Generally the concert band takes the spotlight on concert occasions, sometimes the other bands being called upon for volume or to add their effects in a case like the 1812 overture, the climax of tonight's program. W i t h something like three hundred and fifty musicians, and with the further help of the Director of the School of Music, Frederic B. Stiven, at the organ, there was a mass of tone whose momentum was enough to fairly lift one off one's seat. "That this striking and altogether in-

spiring and commendable organization of young musicians should exist is due to several causes. One is that the freshman and sophomore classes are subject to military training. If any young man prefers band playing to military tactics, he is permitted to prove that he is able. This might seem to indicate that some of the students become bandsmen in order to avoid the duties of drill. The concert tonight indicated that the men were playing because they liked to play. "Another reason for the band and its excellence is its conductor. This man is the veteran of the University's entire musical staff. H e is Albert Austin H a r d ing and he has been director of these bands for thirty years. Mr. H a r d i n g knows his job. H e is a strict drillmaster, but he is also an inspiring leader, and the men under his baton play as they would probably play for few others. "Another reason for the ability of the band is this strong library which Director H a r d i n g himself has put together in his years of unstinted service plus the entire musical library of that great bandmaster, the late John Philip Sousa, which is now the property of the organization. "The collection numbers something like three thousand compositions, his own and those of other composers, all scored for band. Tonight's program featured a Sousa work, an unpublished suite, T e o p l e W h o Live i n G l a s s Houses.'" Mr. Moore speaks of the high quality of Mr. Harding's concert programs with numbers like Tschaikowsky's "1812 Overture", a whole act from Wagner's "Siegfried," and "Dance of the Seven Veils" from Richard Strauss' "Salome." Concluding his story he says: "One comes from the University of Illinois with a high respect for its development of concert bands." While the University of Illinois Band performs an extremely important function in the yearly University program, that is, of providing stirring military music, a capella singing, brilliant pageantry for football games, and wonderful concert programs for various occasions throughout the year, its influence, particularly through the activity of its director, is extended far beyond the campus. It broadcasts a concert every Monday afternoon over the University radio station, W I L L . It cooperates with the Music Educators National Confer-

ence, the National H i g h School Band Association and the Illinois School Band Association in presenting clinics for bandmasters. In the words of Harold Bachman, a band leader of the first rank, "Professor H a r d i n g has done more than any other man to promote the band movement in America." Quoting from a tribute by Carl Stephens, Director of Alumni Relations: "The conductor feels that the band is essential to college life, and also believes that a band should be on a plane in keeping with the dignity of the University. It is, he says, the center of all college spirit. " T have attempted to bring the band to the same level as a symphony orchestra and to make it as pleasant to listen to indoors as a symphony orchestra/ "In the refining process he has been careful not to take away the characteristic popular appeal of the band brilliancy. H e does not believe that the band could or should ever replace the symphony orchestra. There is a place for both. "Through his untiring efforts Professor H a r d i n g has inspired many young musicians to greater efforts. Today many former Illini bandsmen are following the footsteps of their leader.* Seven Illini have gone directly to the former Sousa Band, while others are playing in the Marine Band, Minneapolis Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Chicago Civic, Chicago Theater and Paul Whiteman's Orchestras." Director A. A. Harding, '06, has been in charge of the band for thirty-one years. Mark H . Hindsley, Assistant Director, has done a thoroughly fine job as successor to Ray Dvorak, '22, who was assistant director for many years. Graham T. Overgard is Assistant Conductor. T o o much cannot be said of the University of Illinois Band as an advertising medium for the University and as a fine influence in developing the love of good music and the fine spirit of loyalty at the University of Illinois.

*To mention a few in university and college work: Glenn C. Bainum, '13 Northwestern University; Ray F. Dvorak, '22, University of Wisconsin; Robert B. Lyon, '29, University of Idaho; George C. Wilson, '31, Kansas State Teachers College; Lyle Downey, '23, Kansas State College; Henry E. Wamsley, ('13), Mississippi A. & M. College; Milburn E. Carey, '35, Phillips University; and Max Krone, '23, former director Arthur Jordan Conservatory of Music. Indianapolis. One hundred or more are in charge of high school, industrial and municipal bands.

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