Band Music from the Civil War Era
On September 27, 1974, the Music Division of the Library of Congress re-created a typical concert of brass band and vocal music from mid-nineteenth-century America. That concert has become the starting-point for Band Music from the Civil War Era, an online collection that brings together musical scores, recordings, photographs, and essays documenting an important but insufficiently explored part of the American musical past. The...
Contributor:
Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program - Library of Congress. Music Division
Related Resources
In American Memory Civil War Maps The Civil War Map collection of the Geography and Map Division consists of reconnaissance, sketch, coastal, and theater-of-war maps which depict troop activities and fortifications during the Civil War. Part of this selection contains maps by Major Jedediah Hotchkiss, a topographical engineer in the Confederate Army. Hotchkiss made detailed battle maps that were used by Generals Lee and...
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Rights and Access
The Library of Congress is providing access to these materials for educational and research purposes. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or other rights holders (such as holders of publicity and/or privacy rights) is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an...
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Articles and Essays
Articles and galleries detailing the American brass band movement, contemporary recordings of works, photos of civil war bands and instruments.
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A Concert for Brass Band, Voice, and Piano
Photo taken from the recording session for "Our Musical Past, Volume I" by Jon Newsom - in holder 28. Music Division On September 27, 1974, the Music Division of the Library of Congress recreated a typical concert of brass-band and vocal music from mid-nineteenth-century America. Recorded selections from that concert are presented here. These recordings are the result of several years of research by...
Date:1974
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About the Instruments Used in the Recordings
Set of over-the-shoulder saxhorns from the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, Division of Musical Instruments. More information The instrumentation of the New Hampshire band, with the standard federally authorized size of twenty-four men (the number may have varied in practice though not in principle) is basically that advocated by Allen Dodworth for a balanced ensemble of cornets and saxhorns, with the exception of the...
Date:1850
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Photo Gallery
Most of the photographs presented here are selected from the collections of the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. Some also appear in the online collection Selected Civil War Photographs. In those cases a link to the bibliographic record in that collection has been provided.
Date:1850
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Drum Corps
A sampling of photographs of civil war drum corps.
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In Formation
A sampling of photographs of civil war bands in formation.
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Portraits
A gallery sampling of portraits of civil war bands, band members, and instruments.
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The American Brass Band Movement
Band of the 10th Veteran Reserve Corps [Detail]. Washington, D.C., April, 1865. At center, fully visible, is a B-flat baritone. Partially visible: B-flat cornet (left), and E-flat tenor (right). Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction Number: LC-B8184-7865. Call Number: LOT 4190G. The early 1850s saw the brief flowering of a brilliant style of brass band music that constitutes an important but insufficiently explored part of...
Date:1850
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Band Instruments
The phenomenal rise of the brass band in mid-nineteenth-century America can be better understood if we trace its antecedents and some of the technical developments that produced the type of brasswind family from soprano to bass that was the staple of our bands in the Civil War era.
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Band Music
Detail of "Door Latch Quickstep," by George H. Goodwin, from the "Manchester Cornet Band Books" in the Music Division. Bibliographic Information | Page Image Viewer Audio Clip That there was a proliferation of brass bands with all the necessary hardware in mid-nineteenth-century America there is no doubt.32 But what of the hundreds of thousands of pages of music composed, arranged, published, or otherwise distributed...
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Brass Bands in the 1850s
"Central Park Music" (New York: H. B. Dodworth, 1863), Music Division. John Sullivan Dwight records in Dwight's Journal (see note 14) that in 1862 band concerts in Central Park were paid for to increase fare income by transporting out-of-town concertgoers. This lithograph shows the south end of the park in an opulent and festive series of vignettes that transports us back to a time...
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English Influence
Detail from reception of Brigadier General Corcoran by Mayor Opdyke and the citizens of New York at Castle Garden, August 22--Mayor Opdyke escorting the general to his carriage. (Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, September 6, 1862.). In England employers enthusiastically encouraged their factory workers to participate in music-making, which became highly competitive, probably with the thought that they would then be less likely to become...
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Essay Notes
1. The designation brass for the instruments in question is an accepted generic term for metal wind instruments played with a cup-shaped mouthpiece in which the vibrating lips of the player generate the sound. Needless to say, not all brasswinds are made of brass. Some pure metals, notably copper, as well as many alloys were used at various times.
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German, Irish, and Italian Influences
Band of the 8th New York State Militia [Detail]. Arlington, Va. June, 1861. Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction Number: LC-B8184-4545. Call Number: LOT 4190E. In American amateur brass bands the lines dividing social classes were not so sharply drawn as in British ones. Moreover, while Britons were expanding their empire abroad, they were not, as were their Anglo-American relatives, receiving foreigners at home. The...
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Post-Civil War Bands
Drum Corps of the 10th Veteran Reserve Corps [Detail], Washington, D.C., June 1865. Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction Number: LC-B8171-7688. Call Number: LOT 4190G. Bibliographic Information At the close of the war many of the Yankee bands went home, perhaps to regroup as "civic" bands, as brassy as ever (much to the annoyance of John Sullivan Dwight, who resumed his antibrass campaign with his...
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The Civil War Bands
Colored lithograph [Detail] from "Zouave Grand Parade March," Duett for Four Hands, composed by S.D.S. (Philadelphia: Lee & Walker, 1861). Music Division. The colorful uniform of the Zouaves d'Afrique was imitated by many regiments, Northern and Southern, at the outbreak of the Civil War. Only a few, however, such as the 114th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, could afford to maintain the expense of the uniforms...
