News and a newspaper, but why would a “Brass Band Broadcast” column start with front page pictures of the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Washington Post, and Chicago Tribune (among others)? What connection could these newspapers and the newsboy cartoon possibly have to the Brass Band? Since any good newspaper report should cover five basic points— who, what, where, why, and how—let us get to it! While this terrible pandemic has restricted countless activities (band concerts and festive parades, too), the Brass Band still has stories to share, including some anecdotal musings on newspapers and music.

So…newspapers and music? In times of instant information by radio, television, and internet, are newspapers still real? Relevant? True, the demand for and sales of newspapers have sharply dwindled. Many newspapers have long since ceased publication, and those remaining often struggle for survival. In years past, though, newspapers—daily and weekly—flourished in keen competition with each other for eager readership.

Boston, for example, had numerous newspapers—beyond just the familiar Globe, Herald, and Post—and all crowded together on Washington Street and Summer Street to form “Newspaper Row,” an aptly named newspaper production epicenter. Similar bustling rows surfaced in New York City, Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., beckoning inquiring readers to congregate and communicate. Newspaper rows signaled newsworthy tales…and sales. Newsworthy soon meant music-worthy: Any respected newspaper had one or more musical pieces to its dedicated credit. Herein lies the Brass Band connection….

At this point, however, I wish to acknowledge Professor George C. Foreman, a recently retired University of Georgia musicologist who has devoted thirty-some years to researching several hundred newspaper marches. In my quest to learn more, Professor Foreman generously offered his time, engaging me in extended telephone discussion to discuss his work. I could not have completed this column without Professor Foreman’s invaluable assistance. While Noble Dick Fink had kindly gifted me a compelling CD of select newspaper marches some time ago, I was previously unaware just how many newspaper marches had been written.

Unquestionably, the most famous newspaper march is “Washington Post” by Noble John Philip Sousa. A perennial Brass Band favorite, “Washington Post” was first performed by the U.S. Marine Band—with Sousa conducting—on June 15, 1889, before an audience of some 25,000 people. Sousa penned the piece—at the Washington Post’s request—for an essay contest awards ceremony to be held on the grounds of the Smithsonian. Sousa’s masterpiece gradually acquired its initial widespread fame due to its two-step danceability. While the two-step has since lost some of its once-boosting popularity, the “Washington Post” as a newspaper march remains one of Sousa’s best and most frequently performed compositions.

Earlier in 1886, Sousa also wrote “The Gladiator,” a newspaper march that he dedicated to Bro. Charles B. Towle, a journalist who worked for the Boston Traveler and introduced Sousa to the Commandery (or Knights Templar). Some have suggested that Sousa’s perception of Bro. Towle as a kind of gladiator who wielded the pen rather than the sword inspired “The Gladiator” title, while others have hypothesized that “The Gladiator” simply referenced a piece that Towle published in the Boston Traveler. Whatever the title’s origin, “The Gladiator” became enormously successful, selling over one million copies.

Not to be outdone by its Washington Post rival, the Washington Times—founded in 1894 by Indiana brass instrument manufacturer Charles G. Conn— boasted two marches: the first was composed in 1896 by Frederick Neil Innes, a trombone virtuoso and successor to the great American band leader Patrick Gilmore. A later “Washington Times” march was written in 1902 by George M. White. Like Sousa’s “Washington Post,” White’s “Washington Times” proved a favorite two-step.
While certainly not the first of the newspaper marches, Sousa’s “Washington Post” somewhat inexplicably catalyzed a virtual explosion of marches, polkas, two-steps, waltzes, galops, and schottisches dedicated to newspapers and news organizations across the country from the 1890s to the 1920s and beyond. These pieces found favor not only with bands and pianists but also with theater and mandolin orchestras.

A list of these compositions would certainly include “Chicago Tribune,” a march composed by Bro. William Paris Chambers in 1892 and dedicated to the newspaper of the same name. While a well-known conductor leading bands in Pennsylvania and Maryland, Bro. Chambers was also a cornet virtuoso, notably demonstrating his cornet command by skillfully performing a solo at 14,115 feet on the summit of Pike’s Peak in the Colorado Rockies. Chambers’ “Chicago Tribune” remains one of our most challenging marches, but well worth the effort.

So, what about the Boston newspapers? Well, Boston proudly touts its share of dedicated newspaper marches and other compositions, the most recent being “The Boston Globe March” by Lucien Thayer in 1959, which was performed by the Boston Pops at Symphony Hall with Arthur Fiedler conducting. Moreover, from about 1887 to 1896, several composers, including Lawrence Burkman and Eduard Holst, penned “Boston Globe” marches. Alexandre Mirault even dedicated a polka to the newspaper.
Three composers wrote marches dedicated to the Boston Herald from 1883 to 1899, and the Boston Post boasted a march and two-step written in 1894 by E.C. Cary. Because of its usefulness as two-step dance music, “Cary’s Triumphal Boston Post March” was called a companion to Sousa’s “Washington Post.” In addition, George Lowell Tracy, a prominent conductor who wrote piano scores for Gilbert and Sullivan, also wrote a “Boston Post” march and two-step in 1893 and a “Boston Traveler” march in 1896.

Marches and two-steps became immensely popular near the beginning of the 20th century with the proliferation of concert bands, home pianos, Victrolas, and other “talking machines,” so many composers were eager to meet the new public demand for these compositions. With the concomitant abundance of newspapers, publishing newspaper marches for both bands and pianos became very profitable. Music publishing giants such as Carl Fischer in New York, the John Church Company in Cincinnati, the Oliver Ditson Company in Boston, and Harry Coleman, Sousa’s original publisher in Philadelphia, scored huge profits on these compositions, often with composers reaping minimal rewards. However, Sousa himself eventually became a millionaire. Many smaller publishers cashed in as well, with numerous composers later publishing their own works.

In an article appearing in the September 1997 edition of Mechanical Music Digest that similarly cited Foreman’s exhaustive research on newspaper marches, author Joyce Brite noted that, when marches were named for newspapers, their composers stood a very good chance for free publicity, especially in days when newspapers proved instrumental to societal status. Unsurprisingly, a veritable newspaper march craze soon swept the country, and several well-known composers (including some Masonic brethren) accepted the challenge. Bro. Robert Browne Hall dedicated two marches to Maine newspapers: “The (Waterville) Sentinel” in 1892 and “The Richmond Bee” in 1895. Bro. Orion Reed Farrar (a distant relative of mine) composed “The Telegram” in 1900 and “The Vindicator” March in 1897 while Bro. Charles Lloyd Barnhouse wrote the still popular “The Messenger March” in 1894.

Now “The Messenger” may or may not have a true newspaper connection. Still, the title somehow suggests the dissemination of news, and Bro. Barnhouse did compose “Music and Mirth,” which was dedicated to a rather obscure newspaper by that very name in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The possibility thus remains.
Curiously, Noble Henry Fillmore wrote “The Circus Bee” march in 1908 for an imaginary circus newspaper after John Khlor had written “The Billboard” march in 1901 for a show business newspaper. Likewise, James M. Fulton, who led the Waltham Watch Company Band (as well as others) and wrote many fine marches, composed several marches dedicated to journalism. These included “The Associated Press March” (1897), “The Reporter” (1898), “The Journalist” (1901), and “The Waterbury Republican” (1905). Other newspapers including the Kansas City Star, New York Ledger, New York Times, Lexington (Kentucky) Herald, Philadelphia Record, and several Pittsburgh-based publications also had their own special march compositions.

While this list of composers and their newspaper marches could be continued, for brevity’s sake this column has touched on just a few examples of these compositions from the “golden age” of American band music. Several of the referenced works reside in the Brass Band’s own library archives…just waiting to be treasured and performed once again. We look forward (just like the other Uniform Units) to the time when we can resume making music together, harmony being the strength and support of all institutions, more especially this of ours.

“WE PLAY SO CHILDREN CAN PLAY AS WELL.”