The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-08-22
A TALK WITH INNES.

UST for one Sunday let us get away
from the theatre, out into the open
with the blue sky over our heads and
the breeze stirring through the trees
above us, and the thoughts of drama
and melodrama and comedy drowned in
a flood of harmony floating to our ears.
The band that beWitches us into for
getting our troubles, that gives US
William Tell" and THE Alabama
Tickle" and "The Star-Spangled Ban
ner"-don't you think it is worth while
to neglect for a day and spend our time
with the music makers2
To begin at the beginning, perhaps
we should bark back to Homer and his
harp. or perhaps even to Pau and his
pipes that filled the sylvan forest with
mystical, mesmeric melody And
thence we should come down to those
HOmer-like MINISTRIES who lugged their
Tyres along the turnpikes of merrie
England and bonnie Scotland charming
our ancestors of some umpty centuries
ago with their tuneful drumming and
legends set to song.
But Homer and the minstrels are be-
side the point. It might be interesting
TO trace the development Of the mod
eTn brass band down from the DAYS
NAAtiA 4 All BlpEL uut dS IllC lily LllD-
logical lutte player is not at hand to
give US any definite information, doubt
less much more interest will be found
in chat with Frederick Neil Innes,
Americas premier bandmaster, now
welding his baton at SaltaiT.
Fifty years ago. which may sound
prehistoric to some of you. even though
it is not as far back as Homer, the fife
and drum possessed sufficient of mu-
sizes magic to stir the breast with pa
triOtic fervOr. The blast of the bugler
in front of the town hall meant the
quick gathering of a GREATNESS, excited
crowd, whose musical education was
confined to the strains of cold Dan
Tucker and "The Fishers Hornpipe."
played at the village dances on the I'D
ole and the melOdeOn. Then came the
town band, with its pom pommfng"
of simple airs. Not so very long ago
that either
Days of Ragtime.
And then we can hop to a more re-
cent time-say a dozen years ago
when the great musical organiza-
tons of the country were so limited in
number you could count then on one
hand and still have a finger or two to
spare. Those were the days of rag
time and popular music. When
Johnny and Mary wandered hand i'm
hand through the park or lolled beneath
a shady tree gazing into each others
loving eyes, the strains of Whose Lit
tie Girl Are YOu?" and THE Georgia
Camp Meeting" 6Oated from the band
shell in accompaniment to the beating
of their hearts
But today Ferdinand and Genevieve
pay as much attention to the music of
the band y they do to the music OF
Cuc|, and Ferdinand's pledges of I'M
dying affection sound weak and uucon-
Vincing unless ACCOMPANIED by Wag-
merriam symphony or Liszt rhapsody. BY
all of which I merely wish to imply that
the public taste for the better class of
music has increased so materially i'm
the past decade that the popular" vnu-
sic of today is the masterpieces of the
greatest composers.
And as for bands? Well. when fl
come 10 picking the really great bands
II IS perhaps still pOssible-and for
this [ have the authority of Frederick
lines himself himself-to count them
on the fingers of one hand. But of the
near-great bands there are dozens.
while so pronounced has become the
public demand for band music that
there are today more than 1900 brass
bands in the United States.
THE public wants band music TODAY
as 1t never did before" Mr.. lines told
me in the course Of a conversation lust
at the close Of one of his concerts at