Bringing Down the (Barn)house

Before any notes were played at Monday evening’s 31st annual district band concert in Northfield, I knew I’d have to blog about the event.  A concert devoted to music of the Civil War, including a song by Iowa composer and music publisher C.L. Barnhouse?  An impressive 618 participating student musicians in grades 5-12, including two of my children and two nieces?  A guest musicologist offering historical background and showing slides of Civil War soldiers and scenes?  It was as though the band directors had tailored the concert specifically to appeal to me.

The Northfield News today posted a video of the concert, with snippets of songs from each band.  I also took video at the concert and have included two video clips from the evening.

The first one is of Sebastian’s eighth grade band, directed by Ethan Freier, playing “The Great Locomotive Chase” by Robert W. Smith.  At the beginning of the clip, the guest musicologist, Randall Ferguson (in the red uniform) explains the historic event upon which the song is based.

(A Northfield resident who has taught music in the Farmington schools for 36 years, Ferguson also teaches classes on ethnomusicology and the music history of the United States through the department of continuing studies in Hamline University’s graduate school.  I met him when we both worked on the planning of the 2010 Vintage Band Festival.) 

Seb has a trumpet solo about two minutes into the piece.

This second clip is of the high school’s concert band (comprised of sophomores, juniors and seniors) playing a Barnhouse march, “The Battle of Shiloh.”  It sounds much happier that you’d expect, considering the subject.  Directed by Mary Williams, the band has an awesome French horn section – six players in all, including Louisa.

The concert concluded with the combined band of 618 musicians playing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” to a standing-room-only crowd of parents, family members and band enthusiasts.  It was a feat that my great-grandfather G. Oliver Riggs would have appreciated – he was known for directing large bands, especially during his years in St. Cloud.

As the son of a Civil War veteran who fought at Shiloh, G. Oliver also would have appreciated the musical selections of the evening.  He had been known to include Barnhouse compositions in his own band concerts, and I’m certain the men knew each other, at least by reputation, although I haven’t done much research about their acquaintance.

Five years apart in age, Barnhouse and G. Oliver had several things in common: both played cornet, both directed town bands at age 16, both directed bands in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, both were in bands that performed at the Iowa State Fair, and both were friends of George Landers, father of the Iowa Band Law.

Charles Lloyd Barnhouse was born in 1865 in West Virginia and dropped out of school at age 14 to work as a laborer.  According to the C.L. Barnhouse Company website, Barnhouse played in and directed the town band in Grafton, West Virginia, before he joined various traveling show bands, gaining experience as a cornet soloist and director.  He began composing during this time, and he moved to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, where he directed a band and started his own music publishing company in 1886 with catalog No. 1, “The Battle of Shiloh” March.

In 1890, Barnhouse became director of the Burlington (Iowa) Boat Club Band, and in 1892 he settled in Oskaloosa, where he directed the Knights of Pythias Band.  That same year, G. Oliver moved to Mount Pleasant to teach at the Conservatory of Music at Iowa Wesleyan University and direct the IWU Cadet Band.

C.L. Barnhouse, 1865-1929

Barnhouse directed the Oskaloosa Band (aka the Iowa Brigade Band) for many years; he died November 18, 1929, at age 64.  His company, C.L. Barnhouse, is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year as one of the world’s oldest band-focused music publishing companies.

I imagine Barnhouse would be pleased to know that his first published song is still eliciting audience applause nearly 82 years after his death.  I hope to find out more about him and his connections to G. Oliver when my dad and I travel to Mount Pleasant in March to give a presentation on G. Oliver at Iowa Wesleyan.