Klarinet Archive - Posting 000875.txt from 1999/05

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: RE: [kl] re: Bennett- Robert Russell
Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 17:33:44 -0400

On Tue, 18 May 1999, Jim O'Briant wrote:

> There was indeed a lot of band music with the name of the composer
> given as "Harold Bennett," including what is probably the best easy
> march ever written -- "Military Escort."

Oh, yes, now I remember hearing that story before about Fillmore. And, I
definitely remember my junior high school bands playing "Military Escort."
The part that must have been a figment of my imagination must have been
seeing a tall, thin elderly man with a lot of white hair!

Thanks for clearing this up.

There were other band composers who also wrote entire books of
compositions, using several different pseudonyms. At one time, in the
late 1930's, there were four music educators here in Evansville, Indiana
who were issuing such collections of compositions. They were: Claude
Smith, who was the supervisor of music in the public schools here for over
30 years; Wesley Shepard, who later became the head of the music
department at the University of Evansville, and who was the one who hired
me here; Paul Yoder, who went on to gain quite a lot of acclaim as a band
composer and taught at the University of Miami; and Harold Bachman, who
became the band director at the University of Alabama, and originated the
title and concept of "The Million-Dollar Band" there.

Among the things that they collaborated on was a series of band method
books, the "SYB Method" (for Smith, Yoder, and Bachman), which became
quite popular in the 50's. Also, there are other books containing
marches, overtures, suites, and other pieces, all of which were written by
these four, but which were published under many different names. Wesley
Shepard once told me that they spent more time trying to come up with the
names than they did in writing the music. Sometimes they borrowed names
from their dead relatives, used their middle names, the family names of
their wives, etc. Today, I don't suppose there is anyone in the world who
could sort out which pieces were by which composer.

Ed Lacy
el2@-----.edu

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