University Band Celebrates 40th Anniversary

Today at the Stadium the Harvard University Band will celebrate its 40th anniversary with a gigantic musical reunion, a highlight of its happy, humorous, and impressive history. Many of the men who will play in the almost 400-piece reunion band are those who have been responsible for establishing the Band's unique position in the University community and its fame throughout the country. Although beset by war years, financial worries, rival school's cheering sections, and the Dean's Office, the group has always in its 40 years managed to entertain its audiences and have a good time doing it.

Midway through the football season of 1919 a group of musicians decided that the music previously provided at the games by the University Banjo and Mandolin Clubs needed some pep. The founder of the first Harvard Band was Frederick L. Reynolds '20, who will be marching this afternoon. With Reynolds directing, the Band shared playing time with the Banjo and Manolin Clubs in its first appearance, October 2, 1919. That season the group occupied Section 35 in the Stadium, the same position it has had ever since.

The Band's characteristic financial troubles started early, and tea dances were sponsored in the early years for extra revenue. The organization never, however, was subsidized or controlled by the University. The Band constantly increased its size each year until there were about 80 men marching in 1927. Even then, improvisation was necessary. For instance, at one game violins had to be borrowed to play the missing clarinet parts in the football songs. Two of the members that year were Leroy Anderson '29, renowned composer, and Malcolm Holmes '28. From 1942 until his untimely death in 1953, Mal Holmes was the Band's director and the prime mover in its rise to the top among college bands. The spirit and musical competence that he instilled into the Band remains today.

With almost 100 members marching in 1930 it was first possible to attempt the now familiar formations. With the spelling of H-A-R-V-A-R-D and V-E-R-I-T-A-S on the gridiron that year, the Band started its practice of weekly half-time shows. Among the first clarinetists in that group was G. Wright Briggs '31, who has directed the Band since 1953. Anderson, though an alumnus in the thirties, continued to work with the Band by directing and arranging.

Anderson Produces Medleys

For the 1932 Dartmouth game, he prepared the first of his famous college medleys. The next week Anderson, pleased with the success of the medley, presented another for the Army game. He took a tune from Gershwin's "Of Thee I Sing," added some well-known melodies from Ivy League songs, and produced "Wintergreen for President." This number, the nearest thing to a Band theme song, is repeatedly requested by audiences.

One of the Band's biggest shows was in the Tercentary Celebration in 1936, in its first attempt to branch out beyond playing at sports events. On a beautiful starlit night the musicians sailed down the Charles past cheering crowds and played Anderson's "Tercentenaria."

Through the forties, then the fifties, the Band expanded at a fast rate, cutting records, touring the country, giving campus concerts, but always supporting the football teams. Since the Band's creation, its main function has been to play at football games. Its members are faithful and enthusiastic followers, and the coaches, players, and fans appreciate it. The Harvard Athletic Association, the Varsity Club, and coaches of many sports have expressed on occasion words of praise for the Band's support.

After his first year as varsity football coach, John Yovicsin said, "The Band is closer to the team than any other group. The Band's enthusiasm has been great for the coaches as well as the players."

Playing at unusual times and place is the Band's favorite trick--and a trademark. The musicians once got out of bed at dawn to give the cross-country team, bound for a championship meet, a musical sendoff at South Station. At another time they showed up in the lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria and then marched through the streets of New York playing Christmas carols.

A fond memory of many alumni who will be at the field today is the near riot at Yale in 1953. En route to Columbia the Band stopped off to entertain at Harkness Commons at 2:30 a.m. As students booed and threw various objects and foodstuffs, New Haven police arrested the whole Band for parading without a license and breach of peace. Also arrested was an off-duty policeman who enjoyed the music enough to step up and direct the Band in "Yo Ho!--the Good Ship Harvard." Bail was posted and the group was once again on its way to New York City. Of course the material trademark of the Harvard University Band is the huge bass drum the largest playable drum in the world--which is six feet in diameter and two feet in depth. The original drum, received in 1928, gave its last beat in January, 1955. In March a funeral service was conducted for the relic, launching a "Dimes for the Drum" campaign to buy a replacement. The new drum, the present one, made its debut at the University of Massachusetts game of that year.

Because of its sentimental value to the Band and because it signifies Harvard's pride in its Band, the drum is always a target for students from rival colleges. It is kept securely in the Band room, especially when certain teams come to town, but on the field, it's open to attack.

Hanoverians Charge Drum

Dartmouth students always try to get at least a piece of the big drum, and when it returned from repairs in the Midwest in 1957 they especially wanted it. As the members of the Harvard Band faced the home stands and played "Let Me Call You Sweetheart," some Dartmouth fraternity pledges attacked the drum guards. The musicians turned around, were insulted to see the big drum being threatened, and ran to defend it. A half-time jam ensued with about 500 students throwing body-blocks and punches, but the musicians finally beat off their attackers with their instruments.

Before the next Dartmouth-Harvard game the usually, happy-go-lucky, play-for-anybody Band plunged itself into controversy by announcing that it would not salute the Dartmouth team with the usual medley because of "the interruption to our medley last year." After word of this cold shoulder, adverse response from both Dartmouth and Harvard alumni was so great that the Band reversed its field and decided to play for the visitors.

The show turned out to be a fine one, as the Band did one of its cleverest formations--a bottle pouring into a cocktail glass the word "Hic."

Although many feel that the Band should march on, play the music for which it is so popular, then march off, the Band continues to present half-time shows, forming objects and words. The drillmaster is the man who must each week dream up formations to please the crowd. All presentations are approved by the athletic department in advance, but the Band always tries to include as much on the risque side as possible.

A Boston sportwriter once said that the Band's word formations at Fenway Park looked like a "lino-typist's nightmare," but the Band usually seems to put on an orderly presentation for the football crowds. A sign of progress was seen in 1957 when it had grown enough through the years to be able to spell Y-O-V-I-C-S-I-N, even with dotting the I's

First and foremost the Harvard Band is music. It can delight a Sym phony Hall audience or make the home stands rise with cheers to the strains of "Harvardiana." No band plays music quite as well. Whether it's the right choice of medleys, the special balance of the brasses, or something quite technical doesn't really matter. The Harvard Band has that something which makes the fight songs enthusiastic, the marches sharp, and the show tunes lively.

Its members wander out on the concert stage, may say a few words to each other, sometimes hiss when the student conductor takes the baton, and generally have a good time as they play. This informality and independence is typical of the organization.

The 150 or 175 marching members of the gridiron Band bring a touch of the quality and brilliance of the concert stage to the football stadium. The songs are always apt to the occasion: "Where, Oh Where Has My Little Doggie Gone?" as Yale nears defeat; "There's Something About a Soldier" as Army rolls over Harvard; "Ten Little Indians" as Dartmouth takes the field; or "Yankee Doodle" as New York meets Boston at Fenway Park.

Band Fosters Music Groups

The Band also has many extra-curricular facets within it. Not only are are people with varied talents needed to run such an organization, but the Band fosters certain musical groups among its members. In addition to a chamber music group, to be started this fall, there is the Hungry Five, which plays German beer music "for parties, picnics, parades, weddings, wakes, grape-crushings, or keg-tappings."

A fine old institution is "Schneider's Band," a motley crew that plays at various girls colleges or wherever a beer keg is found. There actually was a Professor Schneider at Harvard, Band members will tell you, and Johann Wolfgang Schneider's Silver Cornet Band was "perpetrated in 1807." The present band is the descendant of that group.

The Harvard University Band has had an impressive and colorful history. T. Carter Hagaman '60, energetic and ambitious manager of the Band, says that the future promises to be just as exciting. The Band members, like Hagaman, seem to realize its novel responsibility to the University and to the music public. Because of this responsibility, many, including some in the Band, would like to eliminate the Band's joie de vivre and its occasional use of off-color humor. Others argue that the atmosphere of fun and humor in the Harvard Band gives it its inimitable character.

Generally, the Band members are a conscientious lot. They are certainly loyal and enthusiastic towards Harvard. Probably, as Hagaman contends, the independent Band has the same aims that University Hall would have if it controlled the Band.

The Band has its troubles, make no doubt about it. Section 35 is too small; the Dean's Office has its complaints; there aren't enough tubas to go around; and chronic financial troubles curtail more ambitious projects. Each year the Band swears it can never finish the football season, but it unfailingly does.

You can get odds that whatever the score, the Harvard Band wins. The New Yorker, usually not given to hyperbole, has called it "the best in the businss." Harvard men are willing to buy that. The Band always wins, and it has been piling up the score for 40 years.

Fireman Plays with Band

Many people who see the Band at the football games or concerts wonder about "the gray-haired man who plays trumpet." He is Paul A. Touchette, a member of the Cambridge Fire Department; he is not only a bonefiede member of the Band but also its only honorary lifetime concert master. In the forties Cambridge firemen occasionally played with the Harvard Band, but only Touchette has remained.

The Lieutenant in the Fire Department, although a graduate of no college, marches at all football games and participates in all Band functions. Years ago Touchette's son was a mascot for the Band and one of the protectors of the big bass drum. Now Paul E. Touchette '60 is an undergraduate member of the Harvard University Band