VIII High School Bands 167 FARM AND TRADES SCHOOL BAND 171 _A. R. McAllister_ 174 IX As We Go Marching On 178 Books, Magazines, and Newspapers Consulted-- 183 _ACKNOWLEDGMENTS_ For help in collecting data for this book, I am especially grateful to-- MISS NORA BEUST _Specialist for Schools and Children’s Libraries United States Department of Education._ MISS VANETT LAWLER _Associate Executive Secretary of the Music Educators’ National Conference._ MRS. W. H. POWELL, for her aid in research and cooperation on the manuscript. The following members of the staff of the Library of Congress: COLONEL WILLARD WEBB, _Chief of the Stack and Reader Division_; MR. FRANK C. CAMPBELL MRS. MARGARET HASSELBUSH MR. OLIVER A. DUDLEY _All of the Music Division_; MR. DAVID H. COLE MR. STEWARD DICKSON MR. FRANK E. LORRAINE _Assistants in Charge of Public Reference._ _There’s Something About a Band_ What is more thrilling than a fine brass band? There’s something about a band that sets hearts pounding and pulses racing. Band music stirs all ages. Young and old pour into the streets to see and hear a band. Mothers with babies in their arms and wide-eyed youngsters clinging to their skirts, line the sidewalks. Small boys run to keep pace with the drummer, then with shoulders back and stomachs stuck out, they proudly march beside them. Old men lift heads high, women’s eyes are tear-filled as the band brings sad memories. All America loves a band. Even in Washington, the National Capital, the most popular parade ground in the United States, crowds quickly jam the streets to the very curb, as a band leads a parade along the Avenue. For it is a marching band which makes the deepest appeal to the emotions of the human mind and heart. A lively march will bring smiles to the faces, sparkles to the eyes and a rhythmic step to the feet. Since that long-ago day when Joshua commanded his seven high priests--probably the first seven-piece wind band--to blow their rams’-horn trumpets as they marched seven times around the walled city of Jericho, countless marches have been played. And the walls still “come tumbling down” in hearts that thrill to band music. Down through the ages the band, in its development, has sounded the call to arms and played the hymns of peace. In years gone by the music of the band led the townsfolk to the village green. Today the concert bands draw thousands of people to the public parks. In our own country neither the Puritans nor the Quakers of New England’s early days would allow the use of musical instruments. But the German and Swedish colonists brought their music with them to this country.