Illustrious History
Notes for Dan Conte
The band was formed in 2003 to play for the annual 4th of July parade and celebration in Brooklin. As with many Maine towns, Brooklin had had a town band for years in the 1900s, but not since the 1970s. Original members of the revived band still with us are Jon Hopkins (founder), Holbrook Williams, Dan Snyder, Tracy Spencer and Dick Kane, with Don and Lee Holmes joining soon after.
We now number 22 when we all show up, and we come from all over the peninsula and beyond. We practice once a week year round and are always looking for new players to join us. Please see any member of the band if you might be interested. Most of us played once in the deep, dark past and have and have found our instruments and our lips again. We perform several times a year at area nursing homes, at Last Night in Blue Hill, for the 4th, of course, and for other groups like the Brooklin Keeping Society and Parker Ridge.
2013 Dance, March and Celebrate
- Brigadoon
- Carousel
- “Colonel Bogey” March
- Fiddler on the Roof
- “Invercargill” March
- March “National Emblem"
- Minka’s Sleigh Ride\
- Music Man
- My Fair Lady
- Star Spangled Spectacular
Glorious Past Seasons
- The Thunderer – John Phillip Sousa (1854 – 1932) The March King. After directing the Marine Corps band, he formed his own famous band in 1892 and toured the country and the world with it for years. He is the best-known composer of marches, writing 136 of them, including The Thunderer. He also found time to invent a marching band version of the tuba, which came to be known as the Sousaphone.
- Alexander’s Ragtime Band – Composed by Irving Berlin (born Isadore Israel Baline in 1888 in Siberia). This was his first “hit”, written for the vaudeville stage in 1911, when he was 23 years old. It was popularized that year by Al Jolsen. Other hit versions over the years have been recorded by such people as Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby and Bob Wills.
- You’re a Grand Old Flag. – Composed by George M. Cohan (1878-1942). Written for the stage show “George Washington, Jr.” in 1906. It was the first song written for a musical to sell over 1 million copies of sheet music.
- Orpheus in a Jam – an arrangement (with apologies to Jacques Offenbach) by Forrest Buchtel. A riff on the famous Can-can from Offenbach’s opera “Orpheus in the Underworld”, written in 1858 in Paris.
- Irish Tune from County Derry – an arrangement of the traditional Irish tune called “Danny Boy” or “Londonderry Air”.
- Waves of the Danube – The greatest hit of the Romanian composer Ion Ivanovici (1845-1902). He was prolific composer of dance tunes and led a band that toured in Eastern Europe at the same time Sousa was touring in the US.
- Stodola Pumpa – A Czech folk tune in the polka style. The name means literally Barn Pump.
- Georgia Cakewalk – A ragtime style tune written by Kerry Mills in 1897 and recorded by Ma Rainey, among others.
- Basin Street Blues – The famous tune written by Spencer Williams in 1926 and made famous by Louis Armstrong with his 1928 recording.
- The Liberty Bell – another of Sousa’s famous marches, written in 1893, and also known as the theme music for Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
- A Shaker Hymn – This is the tune “Simple Gifts”, composed by Joseph Brackett in 1848. Brackett was a Shaker, born in Cumberland Maine in 1797. He died in New Gloucester in 1848. The melody was used by Aaron Copeland in “Appalachian Spring”
- Old Tent Meeting – an arrangement of traditional tunes by James Ployhar.
- Joshua – An arrangement of the traditional African-American spiritual, Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho
- Rock Around the Clock – Probably the first Rock and Roll hit, recorded by Bill Haley and the Comets in 1955
- Tiger Rag – Recorded in 1917 by The Original Dixieland Jazz Band and written by several members of the band.
- Washington Post – Perhaps the best known of Sousa’s marches.