The Humboldt Brass Band: An Early History And Critical Edition Of A Post-civil War Amateur Town Band And Its Part Books

This is a historical study of the hand written part books of the Humboldt, Kansas Brass Band. Critical editions of four selections provide insight into the history of the books as well as the musicians who created and used them. An additional sixteen performance editions of other selections in the part books are edited in a similar manner to the critical editions, but without commentary, and make the music more accessible to performers and future researchers. This study aims to contribute new knowledge about the early history of a specific town band and its repertoire flourishing immediately after the American Civil War, from approximately 1866 to 1878. This is a period of time from which little research about amateur American bands and their repertoire exists, and this study bridges two more heavily researched periods, the era of Civil War brass bands, 1860‐1865, and the rapid rise of professional and amateur bands in the Golden Age of bands, ca. 1880. Historical newspaper research turned up a wealth of anecdotal information about the Humboldt Band. As it turns out, the founding band leader, Richard Redfield, maintained close ties with the editor of the local newspaper, W.T. McElroy, who helped found the band ca. 1865‐66. This historical research conclusively places the manuscript part books in use by the Humboldt Band from 1866 to approximately 1878 under Redfield and a second leader, Silas Packard. Though drawing broad conclusions about amateur bands of the post‐Civil War era is beyond the scope of this study, this repertoire and the historical study presented here is a new tool for such research.U of I OnlyUIUC School of Music polic