“Captain Holz? I’m sorry sir, he just left with the band. They’re
giving a half-hour concert on the steps of the Sub-Treasury building
down in Wall Street. Helen Jepson of the Metropolitan Opera is going
to sing with them today. You might call the Captain here in about
three-quarters of an hour.” And the man at the information desk in
the large lobby of the headquarters of the New York Salvation Army,
smilingly turned to the next in the waiting line.
Even as the telephone conversation began the tall, young Captain had
been climbing into a crowded auto that had been waiting at the curb in
front of the huge Centennial Memorial Temple.
Captain Holz is indeed a busy man. As the Territorial Music Secretary,
of the Eastern division of the Salvation Army, he is directly
responsible for all the music activities in eleven eastern states.
This means that Captain Holz supervises 266 Salvation Army bands as
well as small instrumental groups and vocal choruses and glee clubs.
He also directs the New York Temple chorus of more than 100 voices.
In addition, the Captain is Deputy Bandmaster of the famous New York
Headquarters Staff Band, conductor of its fine male chorus and also of
the Brass Octette.
Captain Holz is thoroughly accustomed to the life of a soldier in this
“militant religious” order. He is a fourth generation Salvationist,
born in the Salvation Army, when his father Brigadier Ernest Holz was
in charge of the Salvation Army Corps in Pittston, Pennsylvania.
A move to the Southwest sent Richard to high school in Oklahoma City.
There, following his bent, at the age of sixteen, he was conductor
of the Salvation Army band. He attended the University of Oklahoma,
majoring in music education. Young Mr. Holz came to New York in
1935, worked in the Public Relations Department at the Territorial
Headquarters and at the same time continued his college studies at the
New York University. In 1937, he entered the Salvation Army Training
College in New York, received his Commission and was appointed a Corps
officer in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Captain Richard Holz and Lieutenant Ruby Walker were married at the
Centennial Memorial Temple in New York on January 7, 1941. Commissioner
Richard E. Holz, the grandfather of the groom performed the marriage
ceremony, and the Headquarters Staff Band provided the music for the
happy occasion. The young couple made their home in Elizabeth until
Captain Holz was appointed in the United States First Air Force in
April 1943.
Even during the War, music continued to be one of the Captain’s chief
interests when his Salvation Army trumpet “Shorty” sounded church calls
and accompanied the singing. At Laurinburg--Maxton Army Air Base--he
received glider training with the Airborne Troops in the Troop Carrier
Command. And as chaplain of the 872nd and 882nd Airborne Engineers,
he served in New Guinea, Leyte and Okinawa. Captain Holz was with the
first group of Americans to enter Japan when, on September 1st, 1945,
he and his jeep “Sweet Chariot” were flown to Tokio.
It was upon his return from service in the United States Army that
Captain Holz was appointed Territorial Music Secretary of the Eastern
Section of the Salvation Army. He has written a number of musical
compositions. His works, as well as that of other outstanding
musicians, have noticeably improved the quality of the music of the
Salvation Army.
Captain Holz believes that many of the new attractive ideas found in
modern dance music “can be used just as easily in the service of the
Lord as in bebop.” Many of the well-known band and orchestra leaders,
early in their music experience played in Salvation Army bands.
The bands of Stan Kenton and Woody Herman are two of the Captain’s
favorites.
Another one of Captain Holz’s duties--not a minor job either--he is
Editor of the Salvation Army Music Publishing Department at the New
York Headquarters. Many musicians say that the best Salvation Army
music in this country comes from this department.
At this time Captain Holz is arranging a Salvation Army Hymnal for
Youth and also is putting the finishing touches on an instruction
method for cornet, horn, baritone, tuba and trombone.
_Merle Evans, Toscanini of the Big Top_
“See the waltzing horses keeping time to the music of the band,
Johnny!” exclaimed one of the many fathers who had taken his son to the
circus. The horses seemed to be crossing their slender legs to the beat
of the music, and at each boom of the drums they reared gracefully.
But Johnny’s father didn’t know that Merle Evans, bandmaster of the
Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Bailey Circus, was keeping his third eye
on the waltzing, glossy-coated horses and directing his band to follow
them. Merle says that he uses three eyes during performances--one to
watch his music and one to glance at his players, but the third one
never misses anything that goes on under the Big Top.
Actually, horses learn to dance without music. Evans watches them go
through the intricate steps taught by the trainers. Then he chooses a
composition to match the rhythm of their dance, usually a waltz or a
galop.
Merle Evans, the Toscanini of the Big Top, is now in his thirty-second
year as leader of the Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Bailey Circus
twenty-seven-piece Band. During this time he has not missed a single
performance out of more than 14,000 engagements, and he has no
assistant.
Merle began his musical career at an early age, and his cornet has been
an obsession ever since. His first teachers were the local musicians
in his hometown of Columbus, Kansas, where he was born fifty some
years ago. At the age of ten he was playing in the town band. For
the next few years he practiced six hours every day. He listened to
such “greats” as Clarke, Sousa and Gilmore then tried to copy their
phrasing, tones and style.
Merle says, “I came up the hard way. I was never able to study at
famous conservatories or under famous teachers. But I believed that if
you work hard, treat people right and keep looking up to better things
all the time, your time will come.”
And Merle’s opportunity did come at the age of fifteen when he was
asked to sign up with the “Mighty Brundage Shows,” a traveling
carnival. His parents and sisters tearfully bade him goodby. His mother
was worried about the bad company he would keep, but his letters soon
assured her that in the circus there must be a strict schedule of
rehearsal, right living and sound training. Merle had little leisure
time as his job included playing in the band, helping to set up the
props and working the carousel.
Merle next signed up with a band on a show boat on the Mississippi
River. In the towns where they gave shows, the band led the parades.
He not only learned much from this larger band, but he had time to
practice five hours a day.
A succession of jobs followed. While working for a touring medicine
show, Merle played his cornet to attract the crowd then turned to
packing pills into bottles to sell to them. From this work he went to
the National Stock Company which opened up in Baton Rouge. He says,
“I not only led the band, but I also took the tickets and worked the
pulleys for the ‘Saw Mill.’ This act was the climax of the show, a
thriller act where a young girl narrowly escaped being sawed in two.”
In 1918 Merle went out with Gus Hill’s Minstrel Band of twenty-eight
musicians. This was a busy life of long parades and long programs.
About this time he realized that he should be looking for a better job.
He had heard the great Sousa several times and he yearned to have a
band like his.
Things began looking up for Merle when Ranch 101 hired him to play for
its huge Wild West show whose main attraction was Buffalo Bill. Merle
recalls, “Buffalo Bill used to stop to talk to me about my music and
encourage me to keep on with it.” Soon at the age of nineteen Merle was
asked to lead the band for the combined Ringling Brothers-Barnum and
Bailey Circus.
Since that time Maestro Evans has truly been the pulse of “The Greatest
Show on Earth.” He and his all-brass array play more than 225 different
cues during each show. The music ranges from _Big Time Boogie_ to
selections by Wagner and Tchaikovsky. The typical galops and marches
that they play were composed mostly by men whose ears were tuned to the
sounds and atmosphere of the kingdom of spangles.
But special music has been written for the Merle Evans Band by the
distinguished composers, Deems Taylor and Igor Stravinsky. The musical
scores, _Circus Suite_ and _Through the Looking Glass_, Deems Taylor
wrote for the 1945 plot of _Alice in Wonderland_. Stravinsky’s music
was arranged for the first elephant ballet ever to be staged. Fifty
elephants in fetching ballet skirts performed a dance routine whose
music called for elaborate changes of rhythm.
For a number of years Evans himself composed most of the original music
and made the musical arrangements for the star acts--waltzes, foxtrots,
marches, galops, rhumbas, tangoes, cakewalks, or various combinations
of rhythms. He did this while the circus was in winter quarters at
Sarasota, Florida, where the next years’ productions are prepared.
“Music has changed a lot since I joined the big show,” Merle said
recently. “Now we have much of it arranged for our band. We also have
production numbers--and that is special music.”
Aerialists have said that it is rhythm that makes it possible for them
to accomplish the seemingly impossible in their flying trapeze acts.
Sometimes Evans spends much time and effort finding the appropriate
music for them. When Alberty, the “upside-down daredevil,” needed
music to accompany his swaying back and forth atop a forty-five-foot
pole, Evans finally chose _Pagan Love Song_, a slow waltz.
He must combine different melodies and rhythms to make the varied
pattern needed for times such as the swooping of _The Famous Ringling
100 Clowns_ into the show. But the music, like a colorful backdrop,
sets off these boisterous buffoons as they bustle, blunder, or rush
hither and thither in baffled confusion. For the clowns’ entrance, the
band plays _High Riding_ and for a clown “walk around” they play _The
Anvil Chorus_.
Evans spends about eight weeks preparing the circus score, and of
course that is subject to change during the thirty-two-week season.
The bandsmen must be drilled on the new material and rehearsed on the
routine so that they are ready when the circus opens at Madison Square
Garden in New York each April.
The veteran bandmaster and his men present a splendid picture in their
blue uniforms with red-striped trousers. His musicians come from
various backgrounds--some even from symphony orchestras. Theirs is a
difficult routine as they average seven hours of playing a day. They
must be constantly alert and have the ability to adjust instantly to
any possible change in rhythm.
The band has a repertoire of memorized selections to play at a moment’s
notice in time of need. Sometimes death flies along with the circus
actors’ thrilling performances. Gay marches are used to cover up
accidents. When Sousa’s _Stars and Stripes Forever_ suddenly breaks
into any other music, it means just one thing--“All Out!” The circus
people call it _The Disaster March_.
Evans had to use this march in 1944 at Hartford, Connecticut, during
the worst fire in circus history. He was one of the first to see the
flames racing along the top and he immediately swung into the Sousa
march, leading loud with his cornet. Hearing the strains roll forth
like a call to arms, the bull man in the back yard shouted, “Tails!”
and forty elephants hooked up trunks and tails and swung out of the lot
into the street. Trainers rounded up wild animals--not one remained
loose. Troupers mobilized to direct the crowd out.
Evans and his band literally split the rafters repeating the stirring
march until the kettle drums caught fire. Only when the main pole
began to sway did he give the order, “Jump!” and the men cleared the
stand. In this heroic action Evans’s band had again proven that circus
bandsmen must be alert men of iron nerves and perfect control.
Merle Evans, self-made musician, has enjoyed an illustrious career.
Besides his circus work, he has directed bands in the Middle West, on
the coasts and in Europe--in programs that have included Bach, Brahms,
Tchaikovsky and Beethoven. He has taught the art of cornet playing in
universities of Texas. He has made recordings for Columbia, and an
album entitled _Circus_ was cut in the late thirties.
During the winter seasons of 1921, 1922 and 1923, Evans went to London
to direct the International Circus band at Olympia. Members of bands of
Welsh, Scotch, Irish and the Coldstream Guards made up the group that
he led. They played at St. James or at Buckingham Castle in the morning
and at Olympia in the afternoon and evening. Merle said, “I believe I
am the only bandleader that ever went to Europe alone.”
Recently during the winter seasons, Ringling Brothers-Barnum and
Bailey Circus has taken its feature acts from Sarasota, Florida, to
Havana, Cuba, for five weeks of performances, at the Sports Palace,
there Evans, taking his double drummer and organ, used fourteen Cuban
musicians for his band. He said, “I had men from the Havana Symphony
and from the Police, the Navy, the Army and the Municipal Bands. They
surely did a fine job, too!”
Besides playing concerts for state fairs and other Florida groups,
during the winter, Merle finds time in February to play three weeks
for School Assembly Service in different parts of the country. At the
different high schools he rehearses the bands in playing circus music
in the morning. Then that is given as an assembly program.
“I play cornet with the band,” Merle says, “I use a whistle and change
the music just as we do for acts in the circus, and you would be
surprised how well they can do it.” In addition, he gives a talk on his
experiences in the show business.
Merle has two obsessions--his love for popcorn and his love for his
cornet. He must have his daily ration of the former both summer and
winter. After a hard day’s work he relaxes at home by playing cornet
solos or listening to good records--with a bowl of popcorn nearby.
Super-bandmaster Merle Evans has made a lasting name for himself--not
only in circus band music but in concert band music as well.
The story of the Merle Evans Circus Band is in a big way the story of
all modern circus bands.
However it is far removed from those of yesterday. At the turn of the
nineteenth century, the circus had one or two fiddlers to furnish
the music for their shows. But more often the owners relied upon the
players they could get to help out in the towns where they appeared.
The owner himself furnished the music in the John Robinson Circus,
which made its debut in 1854. John propped his chair against a center
pole and fiddled away while the bareback riders rode their cavorting
horses and the acrobats performed their dangerous stunts.
A rival circus, Quick and Mead, boasted a two-man band with a
hurdy-gurdy and a bass drum. The hurdy-gurdy player was a specialist
hired for that job alone. But various members of the company took turns
as parade drummers, sometimes with more noise than rhythm.
Doubling as musicians was the usual thing after the circus parade
became a big feature of show day. Then clowns were required to fill in
as musicians, and there were some very fine “clown musicians” such
as the renowned Adler. A clown band not only marched in the lineup
but usually played during part of the big show program. Sometimes the
ticket sellers helped out. Gradually the size of the bands increased
until there were as many as thirty musicians.
Then as now everything centered around the circus band. The um-pahs
blaring forth from the marchers or from the top of the big, gayly
painted band wagon drawn by eight coal-black horses became an
unforgettable part of the memory of children and adults.
After the parade the band played an hour’s concert under the big top.
The immense drum, on wheels fully six feet high, emitted tremendous
booms as it was drawn about the arena.
During the acts that followed, the bass drummer could make or break an
act. Acrobats, riders, and clowns timed their tricks to the boom of the
drum. Stunts such as the midget rider falling off his horse, catching
it by the tail, and lifting himself into the saddle with a thump were
much funnier with the drum’s booms. The clown’s awkward falls and
his antics which involved noises like exploding cigars were always
accented by the thud of the bass drum at the right moment. Sometimes
the bandmaster in order to amuse the audience would pick up the rhythm
of the movements of a latecomer who was vainly trying to locate his
family. And there seemed to be a march for every occasion and situation.
Now all that is changed. Ablaze with color and pageantry as the
modern circus is, its band must furnish the circus atmosphere, during
the entire performance. Besides playing an half-hour concert at the
beginning of the show, it binds the acts together, as well as furnish
the rhythm and swing to the individual acts.
The bandsmen today must be musicians of ability and of great endurance.
In parade days they often played as many as fifty marches, but now
the larger circus bands play more than 200 pieces during a three-hour
performance. Frequently they must change tempo and score to follow the
change of routine in some animal act. If a panther decides to “slink”
instead of taking a bow as he usually does at that time, the band must
instantly synchronize its music to the panther’s movements. It must
be ready and alert to meet any emergency. There is not a moment’s
relaxation during the two shows a day.
However a circus bandsman, like other members of the Big Top family,
gets one whiff of tanbark and sawdust in his nostrils and is lost to
other fields of music forever.
_College and University Bands_
Almost every college has its football team and its band, and every
year some of these bands put on exhibitions which rival great Broadway
shows. But these organizations have come a long way since college bands
began.
The first entertainments staged by the bands at football games usually
consisted of formation of the initials of the opposing teams. Year
by year their efforts became more ambitious and the results grew
more elaborate. Today they carry out intricate designs with perfect
precision while the appropriate music rolls on directed by one or more
strutting drum majors whirling their gleaming batons high in the air.
Spectacular formations have included a flag with a “C” inside it, which
waved as the band played “Wave the Flag for Old Chicago.” Another was
a stalk of corn that “grew” on the fifty-yard line in honor of the
University of Iowa. A giant clock was portrayed with a second-hand that
moved around telling the time accurately. The word “Ohio” appeared
changing into “Auto” with the O’s as wheels so it rolled down the
field.
Other figures showed a “Gopher” for Minnesota, a “Mustang” for Southern
Methodist, a “Trojan Horse” for Southern California and a “Wildcat” for
Northwestern.
These shows have to be exactly timed to a split-second for there are
just fifteen minutes in the period between halves. When both college
bands are present, each one has only a brief 7½ minutes for its
performance although there must have been hours and hours of practicing
both the marching and the music.
In addition to the marching band many colleges and universities have
concert bands and often well-trained orchestras. These band departments
are under full-time conductors and bandmasters and the players receive
full college credits.