Band directors -- United States; Bands (Music) -- United States
The vast audience was completely carried away by the marvelous voice
of the singer, Parepa-Rosa. She created a tremendous sensation by her
singing of the _Star-Spangled Banner_. Dressed in glistening white
silk with large buttons of red, white and blue, and diamonds sparkling
in her dark hair, she was magnificent. The newspapers gave her great
praise. “... Her voice ringing like a trumpet-call above the noise of a
thousand instruments, ten thousand voices, the roaring organ, the big
drum and the artillery.”
The whole program was a superb success, but the great soprano,
Parepa-Rosa, the spectacular arrangement of _The Anvil Chorus_, and
Patrick Gilmore himself, were the outstanding features of the festival.
To everyone’s surprise this huge music festival made a profit, a
comparatively small sum, but when added to the proceeds of a benefit
concert given for Gilmore, almost $40,000 was presented to him. That he
had fairly earned this reward everybody agreed. He immediately went to
Europe for a rest, he said, but later it was learned that he had spent
much time making contacts with great bands for a bigger and a better
Jubilee.
Gilmore who was now acknowledged the country’s greatest bandleader,
returned from Europe all agog over another great musical Festival. The
siege of Paris and the Franco-Prussian War had ended, so he decided to
produce an International Peace Jubilee in Boston. He planned to double
the chorus--20,000 instead of 10,000 singers, a band of 2,000 instead
of 1,000; and a festival lasting three weeks instead of three days.
His preparations were soon under way. Another enormous auditorium--the
first one had burned--and a larger organ were constructed. A bigger
drum than at the previous festival was built in Portland, Maine. The
heads were 12 feet across and the sides 4 feet high. It was so big that
a wall had to be knocked out of the house where it was made in order
to get it outside. It was shipped to Boston on an ocean steamer, but
only a giant could have struck both sides at once and its thunderous
sound was so slow in coming after the beat that it was useless. The
World’s Peace Jubilee and International Music Festival was announced
for June 17 to July 4, 1872. A whole regiment of soloists was engaged,
and Johann Strauss came from Germany to personally conduct the huge
orchestra in playing his beautiful _Blue Danube Waltz_. As the high
point in the international Music Festival, Gilmore brought the greatest
of Europe’s noted bands. The Grenadier Guards from London, from Paris
the Garde Republicaine, The Kaiser Franz Grenadier Regiment Band from
Berlin and also from that city, The German Emperor’s Imperial Household
Cornet Quartette. The Irish National Band came from Dublin and the
United States Marine Band from Washington, D. C.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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