A few weeks’ time, under the caption, The Gazette Was Saying Fifty Years Ago, there was mention of the Vineyard Haven Band. In that same edition, the Vineyard Haven Band was mentioned in the news columns, in precisely the same manner, that is, marching in the Memorial Day parade. For the Vineyard Haven Band has existed from the late days of Just Before the Battle, Mother, through the era of Dolly Gray, and I Miss My Coffee, down through the period of Sousa’s marches, the Rose of Noman’s Land and Tipperary, to the age of unnamable jazz and worse, and it is still thriving, while, from choice,
the organization plays classical and near-classical numbers which were popular through all the generations.
There were, at one time, many musicians of considerable note who summered on the Vineyard, and in one way or another acquainted the Island people with what is still recognized as good music. The effect of such entertainment upon a population which was and still is music-mad, may be imagined. Houses contained instruments of various kinds, but those summer concerts by artists whetted an appetite that could not be satisfied by a kitchen orchestra, no matter how good. There must be something more, and the idea of a band was born.
Founders Aimed High
Undoubtedly, there had been other organized groups of Island musicians, but it is doubtful if any of these had enjoyed such advantages as the prime movers in this effort. In other words, the organizers of the Vineyard Haven Band aimed high indeed because their tastes and inclination in music ran that way. They had heard the operas and arias, and the thrilling marches and other compositions of famous composers. They wanted to hear more of them, and they wanted to play them. There is no stifling of such ambition.
Those who could blow a horn or beat a drum, and many who could not, but whose craving for music was quite as great, joined in the effort. It was not confined to Vineyard Haven by any means. Though the movement started there, and the band had continued to bear the name of that town, the organizers reached out to all points for talent, and found it.
The culmination of the effort took the form of a “fair”, held in Vineyard Haven for the purpose of raising funds to equip the band, and in 1883 a band composed of about eighteen or twenty members, assembled with its new instruments, for the first rehearsal. Since that time the Vineyard Haven Band has continued to exist, to rehearse regularly, turn out on stated occasions, and has maintained a membership varying from eighteen to thirty-five, these members hailing from various of the Island towns.
There are still a couple of the charter members living. Marshall W. Norton and Arthur Smith, both of Vineyard Haven, were among the young fellows who signed up at this time. Neither holds active membership today, but the revised list of a few years later contains the names of several who are still living.
Alton C. Tuckerman, with somewhat more than fifty years continuous service in the band, is still active, playing any kind of a horn that may be desired, but sticking fairly consistently to the largest and most crooked horn in the group. Fred Peakes, LeRoy Lair, James L. Luce, and George G. Gifford are in the retired list with the two charter members, but played with the band for many years.
Only Two Breaks
Save for two periods of suspended operations, during the two World Wars, there has been no break in rehearsals or public performances, although it should be explained that times and changes have brought about variations in the annual program which was followed by the band for decades.
There were many leaders, as might be expected. Some were local men, elected to the position because the band probably believed them to be best qualified at the time. Mr. Peakes is one of the former leaders, but the majority of them have gone. Some were professional men of wide experience, who had handled large bands before and who were able to teach the Islanders much about band music.
Always there was some one to fill the post, just as there have always been new members to fill the ranks when death or advancing age created vacancies. Today James A. MacInnis of Vineyard Haven leads the band, which numbers in the neighborhood of thirty members, and as always, this membership includes some from Edgartown, one even coming for many years, from Chappaquiddick.
Other Island towns have organized bands of their own from time to time, but somehow they have failed to prosper, and eventually a survivor or two has been left to gravitate into the Vineyard Haven organization.
In other years, the Vineyard Haven Band marched in Memorial Day parades in all three down-Island towns, appearing in each once in three years. The band attended the annual fair, playing all three days and two evenings, a chore which grossed the twenty-five man organization, one hundred dollars. Still, they somehow managed to have good looking uniforms, good instruments and new music, and their progress was ever onward.
Like all such volunteer organizations, fire fighters, home guards, and all the rest, the history of the Vineyard Haven Band is full, and is well spiced with anecdotes. As a matter of fact their mode of travel was something to make a story in itself. For they rode in a “barge” as it was called, a huge, closed vehicle, resembling a bus or old-time trolley car, drawn by horses. A driver sat on a high seat outside, and the bandsmen sat on long fore-and-aft benches within. The barge had a name, Volunteer, and was kept gaily painted by the owner, the late Walter H. Renear of Vineyard Haven.
Hard on the Cymbals
Old members relate the tale of the parade, when some great-hearted soul passed out refreshments to the bandsmen before the start. The cymbal-player “dipped a mite too deep”, and experienced trouble in navigating, until he finally failed entirely to make a corner and left the formation on a high tangent. They continue by telling how one of the eager boys who always followed the band, picked up the fallen cymbals, fell in with the bass drum and carried on. That act is symbolic of the band’s history and prosperity; there has always been some one to pick up a discarded instrument and fill in.
There was the Teutonic leader, a professional and a man of wide experience, who came to his first rehearsal. “Mein Gott!” he exclaimed, “dis vas awful!” He it was, who did not approve of a musician’s tapping his foot in time to the music, and who dealt one of the bandsmen a heavy blow on the foot with his baton, to discourage this practice.
There is the tale of the brass quartet, selected with great care to accompany a soloist with the Star Spangled Banner at a public function. The arrangement called for a repeat before the chorus, which one member either forgot or did not realize. Therefore, when the soloist and three of the musicians, swung into the repeat, the odd musician opened with the chorus. The soloist gave with everything, the three musicians likewise, but they could not drown out the thundering chorus!
There was the player who could not master the fingering of his horn, and who always asked his neighbor for instructions. The neighbor, a true wag, always directed him wrong, and a startling blat would break in upon the harmony at unexpected places.
And then, there is the tale of the Edgartown Band, which was scheduled to march in the same parade, in Edgartown, with the Vineyard Haven outfit. “They looked pretty good and snappy, when we got out of the barge by the court house that day,” related the story-teller. “They had just spent $300 for new instruments, they had new uniforms with as much gold braid as a Swiss admiral.
“Well it was arranged for them to play, and then we would play, as we marched. They had a march that they thought a good deal of, and they sounded off. We got the signal to make ready, but Edgartown played the march through the second time. Then we were told to get set again, but Edgartown let go with their march the third time!
“To make a long story short, the Edgartown Band played five times on the way to the cemetery, and when they got there, one piccolo player and the bass drummer were all that were able to make any noise, but the Vineyard Haven Band didn’t have a chance to play at all!”
Amusing old stories, about interesting people and times, mostly forgotten today. But the Vineyard Haven Band, ever young, continues, its lines as straight, its step as brisk, and its music as stirring as ever.
This article appears in June 25, 1948.