Epilogue: The Continuing Saga of P.S. Gilmore-Father of the American Band
What would it take to compel the incomparable John Phillip Sousa to deviate from his usual custom of never writing music on Sunday? It happened once and it took no less than the untimely death of the peerless bandleader, P.S. Gilmore, on Saturday, September 24, 1892. By way of paying tribute to the man he called the “Father of the American Band,” the following day Sousa hastily arranged Gilmore’s own composition, Voice of a Departed Soul, for his new band. Just two days after Gilmore died in St. Louis, it was the very first piece played by the New Marine Band at their debut performance in New Jersey.
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.The Gilmore saga, very briefly, began in Ballygar, Ireland on Christmas Day, 1829. After emigrating to the United States in 1849, he settled in the Boston area, became well-known as a cornet soloist, and made his band the best in New England. Gilmore’s Band served in the Civil War before the bandleader became famous for his National (1869) and World’s (1872) Peace Jubilees in Boston. Spectacular festivals, the latter featured a 2,000-piece orchestra, 20,000-voice chorus and the “Waltz King,” Johann Strauss, Jr., as guest conductor. Gilmore moved to New York where he made Gilmore’s Band the finest in the country and rival to the best in the world. He toured throughout the United States bringing outstanding performances of quality music to all Americans. The depth of P.S. Gilmore’s contributions to American music, bands, and all of America is too great to recount in this article, but the story of Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore and Gilmore’s Band doesn’t end with his death.
While Gilmore’s Band was the most famous in the country, following the maestro’s death, there was an almost immediate desertion by nineteen of the band’s top players. They left for Sousa’s band, amid much acrimony. Among them were: Herbert L. Clarke and Albert Bode (cornet), Herman Conrad (tuba), Michael Raffayolo (euphonium), F. William Wadsworth (flute), August Stengler, Henry Koch, J. Lacalle and F. Urbani, (clarinet), Thomas Shannon (bass sax), Ernst Mueller (percussion), and the renown saxophonist, Eduard A. Lefebre. In P.S. Gilmore – The Authorized Biography of America’s First Superstar (see www.psgilmore.com), the relationship between Gilmore and his former tour manager, David Blakely is discussed in some depth. In short, after being fired by Gilmore, Blakely formed a corporation to create the New Marine Band in order to compete with Gilmore, and then he hired John Philip Sousa to lead it.
Since Gilmore “owned” his band, that ownership went to his widow Ellen (whom he called “Nellie”) and daughter Mary Louise (always called “Minnie” by her adoring father), but it was Assistant Conductor Charles W. Freudenvoll and key members of the band who valiantly attempted to keep the band together. Following the fateful St. Louis engagement, Freudenvoll, who knew how fine a financial line Gilmore walked, did not think the cachet of the Gilmore name would be sufficient to make a success of the national tour on which the band had embarked. So the leadership of the band was offered to old friend David W. Reeves.
While Gilmore’s Band was the most famous in the country, following the maestro’s death, there was an almost immediate desertion by nineteen of the band’s top players. They left for Sousa’s band, amid much acrimony. Among them were: Herbert L. Clarke and Albert Bode (cornet), Herman Conrad (tuba), Michael Raffayolo (euphonium), F. William Wadsworth (flute), August Stengler, Henry Koch, J. Lacalle and F. Urbani, (clarinet), Thomas Shannon (bass sax), Ernst Mueller (percussion), and the renown saxophonist, Eduard A. Lefebre. In P.S. Gilmore – The Authorized Biography of America’s First Superstar (see www.psgilmore.com), the relationship between Gilmore and his former tour manager, David Blakely is discussed in some depth. In short, after being fired by Gilmore, Blakely formed a corporation to create the New Marine Band in order to compete with Gilmore, and then he hired John Philip Sousa to lead it.
Since Gilmore “owned” his band, that ownership went to his widow Ellen (whom he called “Nellie”) and daughter Mary Louise (always called “Minnie” by her adoring father), but it was Assistant Conductor Charles W. Freudenvoll and key members of the band who valiantly attempted to keep the band together. Following the fateful St. Louis engagement, Freudenvoll, who knew how fine a financial line Gilmore walked, did not think the cachet of the Gilmore name would be sufficient to make a success of the national tour on which the band had embarked. So the leadership of the band was offered to old friend David W. Reeves.
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D.W. Reeves
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At the time he was directing the American Band of Providence, Rhode Island. Many of the bookings for shows originally made before Gilmore’s death were cancelled. Reeves’ reputation, although well known, was not enough to demand the fees required to pay the expenses of Gilmore’s Band. The band turned to Victor Herbert in 1894.
An Irishman who spent most of his young life in Germany, it was said that Victor Herbert “could talk for a week about a keg of Pilsener.” While known for his dramatic musical work, before he wrote his first opera, Herbert spent eight years at a variety of musical activities. He played his cello for Anton Seidl at New York’s Metropolitan Opera and was named assistant director to Theodore Thomas at the Philharmonic Society. But Herbert wanted fame and when the job of “leader of Gilmore’s Band” was offered, he shocked the musical establishment and took the job. He also liked the military-style uniform. The only difficulty Herbert found in transferring himself to band music was that he demanded of the clarinets the same agility possessed by violins.
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An Irishman who spent most of his young life in Germany, it was said that Victor Herbert “could talk for a week about a keg of Pilsener.” While known for his dramatic musical work, before he wrote his first opera, Herbert spent eight years at a variety of musical activities. He played his cello for Anton Seidl at New York’s Metropolitan Opera and was named assistant director to Theodore Thomas at the Philharmonic Society. But Herbert wanted fame and when the job of “leader of Gilmore’s Band” was offered, he shocked the musical establishment and took the job. He also liked the military-style uniform. The only difficulty Herbert found in transferring himself to band music was that he demanded of the clarinets the same agility possessed by violins.
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Victor Herbert
Herbert continued Gilmore’s tradition of providing entertainment for New York’s society. One of the most spectacular social events which featured Gilmore’s Band under the baton of Victor Herbert was the infamous Bradley-Martin affair at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel on February 10, 1897. With the country in a depression, Mr. and Mrs. Bradley-Martin, social climbers from Troy, New York, announced an extravaganza so lavish that it created a major scandal. While the cream of New York society vied for invitations, the newspapers and clergy denounced the Bradley-Martins for spending money frivolously at a time when it might be better used for charitable endeavors. The Bradley-Martins responded to this criticism by pointing out that their ball would "stimulate trade" by giving jobs to out-of-work seamstresses, hairdressers, florists, and other artisans.
The continued importance of Gilmore’s Band was further indicated by its engagement for the official ball in Washington which followed President McKinley’s inauguration, March 4, 1897. Near the end of Herbert’s tenure, the Band toured through the South and returned without sufficient funds to pay the men. Although he was not responsible for the finances of the band, Victor Herbert was immediately suspended by the Musician’s Union, leading to a major confrontation.
In June of the following year, Ernest Albert Couturier, a well-known cornet soloist who performed with Gilmore’s Band beginning in 1893, and led the band for a few weeks after Victor Herbert resigned in 1898, announced he had acquired the entire Gilmore’s Band library of 18,000 pieces through arrangements with Gilmore’s widow, Ellen. In 1905, Couturier, whose band performed at the St. Louis Exposition, established the P. S. Gilmore Band Library Publishing Company in St. Louis. The best music of the library was "rescored and condensed" and republished. In 1908, Carl Fischer purchased their entire library, thus terminating the company.
This was not, however, the end of Gilmore’s Band. From 1900 to 1904, Columbia Phonograph Company released over 150 titles with “Gilmore’s Band” on the label. There was even a Gilmore’s Band title released by Busy Bee of Chicago, (called Busy Bee because of the “Sweetness and Clearness of Tone”). There are no figures on the number of cylinders that were made, but the quantity of titles indicates the continuing popularity of Gilmore’s Band. While we do not know who led the band for these recordings, it was most likely Couturier, who owned the music and did not publish it until 1905.
1905 was also the year of the first “Gilmore Day” celebration in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The local musicians’ union assembled more than a dozen bands, closed the schools and businesses, and paid tribute to the great bandleader. Upon hearing of the efforts of organizer C.C. Donnelly, former principal flutist of Gilmore’s Band, Fred Lax, gave to him the conducting baton that was first given to Gilmore by the mayor of Boston for the World’s Peace Jubilee in 1872. It was again used by Gilmore in 1876 for the Fourth of July Centennial celebration at Philadelphia’s Independence Square.
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C.C. Donnelly
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.After a few years Lancaster’s Gilmore Day ceased, and the Baton was used several more times for special occasions or by celebrities like Arthur Pryor, until it was given to the National Federation of Music Clubs in 1983. It hangs in their national headquarters in Indianapolis. The 1912 Binghamton (NY) $300,000 Automobile Show announced that Gilmore’s Band would be performing.
Articles about Gilmore continued to be written for musical publications and in 1939 Frank Damon, editor of the Salem (MA) Evening Gazette, wrote a series of articles exploring various parts of Gilmore’s life. It was his intention to write the biography, but he passed away before completing the task.
Boston’s Schubert Theater saw the premier of the musical Mr. Strauss Goes to Boston, which opened in 1943, breaking records set by Carousel. Choreography was by George Balanchine. While the show was based on the World’s Peace Jubilee, there was no mention of Pat Gilmore. On September 6, 1945, it opened on Broadway at the New Century Theatre for 12 performances before being cancelled. In 1955, Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops released an album of Strauss waltzes under the title, Mr. Strauss Comes to Boston. Included was the Jubilee Waltz, which Strauss dedicated to Gilmore. The night that Fielder passed away, Morton Gould’s arrangement of Gilmore’s When Johnny Comes Marching Home was on the Boston Pops program.
In 1951 Marwood Darlington, who was on the staff of the Library of Congress, published the Gilmore story in a book called Irish Orpheus. For over fifty years it was the only full-length Gilmore biography. Another individual who contributed to the Gilmore legacy is Michael Cummings of Boston. Born in Gilmore’s hometown of Ballygar, County Galway, Cummings organized programs in Boston and Ireland in 1969, the anniversary of Gilmore’s first Peace Jubilee. J.C. Penney distributed a package of band music to every school in America in 1976 for the bicentennial. Included was an arrangement that Jonathan Elkus did of Gilmore’s Norwich Cadets Polka for the Goldman Band.
The 1992 centennial of Gilmore’s death was celebrated with special concerts in all fifty states in America, as well as several programs overseas. Jay Chattaway was commissioned to write the Salute to P.S. Gilmore, while The Instrumentalist, invoking his name and image, established the “P.S. Gilmore Award” to inspire young musicians. With support from many musical organizations, a new memorial was erected over Gilmore’s grave in Long Island City, New York, with a quote from the New York Times: “A musician of the people.”
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