Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 248, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 October 1913 — BRITISH ARMY BANDS [ARTICLE]

BRITISH ARMY BANDS

Founding of Schools Followed Crimean War incident _____ 0 Students as Conductors—What May Be Seen at Kneller Hall, Where Bandmasters and Bandsmen Are Thoroughly Trained. New Ybrk. —“Doing London” is certainly one of the hardest of hard tasks, writes a correspondent of the New York Evening Post After a week or two of diligent sightseeing, with eyes and brain in an attitude of constant attention, the strenuous visitor is a lit candidate for a rest cur&. If he Is wise he will interrupt his program now and then by taking an afternoon off —for a lounge In the parks, a trip up the river or a quiet drive through Burnham Beeches. One of the pleasantest of these available breaks seems to be almost unknown to visitors, whether from the country or abroad. It Is not advertised in the papers or mentioned in the guide books. To ninety-nine visitors out of a hundred who are familiar with the main attractions of London the name of Kneller Hall suggests no ideas. In the grounds of this Institution, which is the training school for English military bands, there Is given every Wednesday afternoon from May to September (excapt on the last Wednesday in the month, when it is held in the evening), a concert of a unique type. A very brief railway journey from the city brings you either to Hounslow or Twickenham, with its associations of Alexander Pope and Horace Walpole. From either station It is only a short walk to Kneller Hall. Entering through lodge gates marked with the government “broad arrow,” you pass through chaining grouhds, like those of an old country estate, up to a fine house occupying the site of the dwelling place of Sir Godfrey Kneller, who came here in 1709 that he might be near Hampton Court If you are attending one of the evening concerts you will find the paths illuminated with hundreds of fairy lights and Chinese lanterns, many of them reflected in the waters of a miniature lake. The whole scene has a delightfully sylvan effect Paying twopence for the program which admits you to a garden seat in the inclosure —there is a charge of threepence extra for the evening concert —you And yourself face to face not with the conven-tional-bandstand, but with a rising platform erected In the gap between two lofty qlms. On this platform are ranged the 160 performers with a remarkable variety of uniforms, differ lng, according to the regiments they represent Among them Is a turbaned negro from a colored regiment of West Africa or the West Indies. His instrument „ is not the banjo, but the solemn bassoon. Not far away Is a Scotchman in kilts. An average program consists of seveg or eight items, with as many different conductors, each of them a student at the school. It Is a fine op-

portunity for watching the possible varieties in conductors’ mannerisms. The first piece is always a march composed by the student who contacts it The character of the rest may be Judged from a typical program; overture to “The Flying Dutchman,” a selection of Brahm’s melodies, Mozart’s Jupiter symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Casse-Noisette suite, three dances from German’s "Nell Gwynne” and a valse of Gungl’s. What strikes the average hearer —who can make no claim to be a musical expert —with ever renewed astonishment in the exquisite delicacy of the effects obtained by a band composed almost entirely of wood and brass The whisper that one usually associates with a pianissimo on the strings is produced on these instruments with a skill that seems almost magical. A

great favorite with Kneller Hall audiences is a rather ad captandum descriptive piece entitled “The Mill In the Black Forest” The first time you bear it you wonder why the band is so long in beginning, although the conductor is already wielding his baton. There are some birds twittering in the trees Just above, but all the Instruments are silent Presently it dawns upon you that the imaginary birds are actually bandsmen. This is followed by equally realistic imitations of the swish of water over a mill wheel and of the clank of machinery. The illusions are so perfect that by and b#, when a dog happens to bark a little way off, it is with some surprise that you discover that the sound comes from a real dog and is not another tour de force of the musicians.