Featured Book: Hallelujah Junction, continued

Copy at Case Memorial Library
"Even more critical in my development were the summers playing in Nevers's 2nd Regiment Band. This band dated back to the Civil War and continues to exist today as a semiprofessional ensemble that gives weekly concerts in the various city parks of the Concord area and marches during all the appropriate summer holidays, from Memorial Day to Labor Day. I played in the clarinet section along with my father. Again, although playing in a group mostly comprised of adults, I quickly advanced to the position of principal clarinet, which in a band is akin to concertmaster. For me the musicianship training was excellent, as each concert usually featured some transcription of a nineteenth-century opera overture. The lead clarinet parts were in most cases simply transposed versions of the original violin parts and at times could be ferociously difficult. I ate up the Oberon overture, Leonore No. 3, and Poet and Peasant while the baritone horns and mellophones and bass drum struggled to stay on the beat. Every concert began and ended with a march. Although Sousa was the favorite, I learned dozens of others. …" (p. 18)