Although relatively few cities maintain municipal bands now, there are still some excellent ones to be found in the smaller cities. There seems to be a trend toward more community-supported bands again with an increased interest in public concerts, particularly park concerts where large numbers can meet. THE ALLENTOWN BAND The Allentown, Pennsylvania, Band has authentic records to prove that it was organized in 1828 and that it played at a “celebration in honor of General Lafayette, who had recently died, held on July 31, 1834. In the center of the troops, leading the white horse draped in mourning, the band marched to the rumbling of the muffled drums.” Marching at the head of the first firemen’s parade in Allentown was one of the various important holiday functions the band has participated in. “The band was followed by the hose company with four horses and a fine banner; the Friendship engine, drawn by two horses and having a banner; the Lehigh engine, drawn by four gray horses, with a banner; and the Humane engine, drawn by four horses with a banner. All were decorated with laurel, evergreens and flowers.” During World War I the band played for many civic and military affairs, including the launching of the first wooden ship by the Trayler Shipbuilding Company at Cornwells, on July 5, 1918. In 1926 the present director, Albertus L. Meyers, who had many years of professional experience with Sousa, Conway, Pryor and Liberati was elected leader and business manager. Under his direction the Allentown Band has grown into a concert band of seventy members which has played in Toronto and Montreal, Canada, and in various large cities of the East. This is Allentown’s own municipal band. It plays a series of winter concerts in a local theater and a summer series in West Park, as well as many concerts in nearby communities. THE BARRINGTON BAND The Barrington Band in East Barrington, New Hampshire, is just four years younger than the Allentown Band, but it has the unique distinction of having had only three leaders, all from three generations of the Wiggin family. In 1832 James Wiggin, grandfather of the present leader, organized the Wiggin Band with his five sons and a few neighbor boys as members. George Wiggin, one of the five sons, “had the band in hand” at the age of seventeen and carried on as bandmaster until 1880. During this time George had five of his sons in his band. Elmer Wiggin, the present leader, had his four brothers in his group when he took over in 1880. “After I became leader, we played our initial job for a Garfield and Arthur torchlight parade,” he says. “But our uniforms weren’t as colorful and elaborate as those of my father’s band, purchased about the Mexican War time.” In 1890 the name was changed from the Wiggin’s Band to the Barrington Band. Now Elmer Wiggin, loved and revered by his community, carries on with his son and a grand-nephew representing the family in today’s band of thirteen players.