The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-09-30

can be said Of Innes, the great band
master who is to play at the exposition
with his band during the last weeks of
of the big show. His invasion Of the
orchestral field with a band Of brass
and reed Instruments, strengthened
only by the pass violins has been a
matter Of wonderment. When 1t was
first proposed musicians said the idea
was impracticable. The chief reason
was that the delicate waves of melody,
which string orchestras produce, is es-
sential to the artistic rendition of or
chestral music. This was the stum-
bling block in lines way, but by re-
peated experiments he managed to get
combination of certain reeds in con-
nection with his saxaphones and bass
violins that he could perfectly meet
the requirements. Through his ability
as a drill master and as the result of
tedious, patient toll, he realized his
ambition and became the head of a
wind instrument band hat vas thor
oughly orchestral in tone.
1t was a coveted place for the band to
occupy. 1t made the organization dis
tinctive. 1t could not be called a mill
tary band, neither was it an orchestra.
1T occupied a place between the two,
capable of doing the work of a military
band and capable of doing the work
of the orchestra.
TROMBONE SOLOS.
The restless desire of lines to do
something new has been the making
of him. All middle aged people can re-
member when the trombone vas not
used as a solo instrument and now it
Is as commonly used as the cornet, and
is, perhaps, more popular. 1t was
Innes who discovered the latent sweet
ness and musical power of the from
bone and it was he who first demon
strated it. When he was only IA
yea Of age he was the trombonist of
her majesty's first life guards Of the
British army, attention having been
attracted to him by his remarkable
playing Of that instrument. When
IT years old he vas known as the
greatest trombonist of Europe, and
when Gilmore brought him into this
country two years later he had no
rival, that is, no other trombonist, at
that time. had attempted to use
this unwieldy instrument for solo work
and for many years Innes was the only
trombone player in this country of any
account.
Innes played everything that the
Kings of the cornet played and with
equal expression and technique. He
was a continuous sensation with Gill
more for four years and after leaving
him he made a tour of the world. He
had little money-nothing but a repu-
tation and the trombone to pay his
way, yet he crossed the Atlantic, played
for months in Paris, London, Berlin,
Vienna and st. Petersburg and afte,
returning to this country played all the
way to the Pacific coast and returning
from there, organized the band which
he now owns.
BEST IN THE KINGDOM.
When Innes was a lad in England, he
used to follow the gorgeously uni
formed cavalry band known as that Of
her majesty's First Life Guards, and
1t seemed to his young mind that the
soldier with the trombone was the head
and front Of the monarchy and the sole
producer of the welded mass Of sounds
given out by fifty brass instruments.
He induced his father to buy him a
trombone and was laughed at for his
first attempts to play popular airs and
passionate bits on an instrument that
was made only for precautionary eff
feet. But the boy, in his persistent
ignorance Of that fact, blew on, n at
II he was himself the first trombonist
in the band Of her majesty's First Life
Guards and already known as the best
trombonist in Europe.
Observation has established a uni
versal idea that an eccentric n
solemn manner are concomitants to
musical genius. Innes skaters that
view. On the stage, with baton in
hand, his face has the expression Of a
man who thinks Of nothing this side
OF the clouds. In the hotel lobby or
around the banquet board he looks and
acts and talks as If he never gave a
thought to music.
He is unlike musicians in general.
He does not look a bit eccentric and he
is not. His hair is cut in regular style
and his clothes are like those Of any
sensible man. His manner is SO easy
and affable that on railroad trains,
where he is usually the life Of the
party, he has been eyed with suspicion