User:Chetsford/usmb

The United States Marine Band (also known as the U.S. Marine Band and "The President's Own") is a military band maintained by the United States Marine Corps (USMC), one of twelve such bands so-maintained by the USMC. Activated in 1798, and continuously operational since, it is the oldest professional music organization in the United States and among the oldest military units in the United States Armed Forces. The U.S. Marine Band was designated "The President's Own" by order of Thomas Jefferson and the band's principal mission is to provide music for the President of the United States.

The early development of the U.S. Marine Band was influenced by Italian martial music, performers from Italy were recruited to serve as members of the band and five of its early leaders were Italian natives, including Francis Scala who headed the band for 18 years. During the directorate of John Philip Sousa, the band established itself as one of the finest military bands in the world. It is one of the first known musical ensembles to have made sound recordings of its performances and was an inaugural inductee to the American Classical Music Hall of Fame.

The office of director of the Marine Band is established in the Law of the United States and he simultaneously serves as an official adviser to the President. The director of the Marine Band has been described as "the most powerful commander in the Marine Corps". As of 2019 the U.S. Marine Band is composed of 160 personnel and is directly subordinate to Headquarters Marine Corps. It is posted at Marine Barracks Washington.

History




Origins and early years
The U.S. Marine Band is the oldest professional music organization in the United States still in existence and among the oldest military units in the United States Armed Forces. Established by a statute signed by John Adams on July 11, 1798, the U.S. Marine Band initially consisted of a drum major, fife major, and 32 drummers and fifers.

Following his inauguration as President, Thomas Jefferson bemoaned the state of musical sophistication in the United States, observing that "fortune has cast my lot in a country where it is in a deplorable state of barbarism". In 1802 the traditional fife and drum corps that had been the Marine Band was reformed into a brass band. Jefferson later directed Commandant of the Marine Corps William Ward Burrows to recruit Italian musicians for the U.S. Marine Band and, in 1805, 16 Sicilians joined the ensemble's ranks. The Italians soon became discouraged by the primitive state of the city of Washington, which was still under construction, and within eighteen months all had quit and returned to Sicily. Nonetheless, they left a lasting influence on the band in terms of its quality and professionalism. Jefferson would ultimately designate the band "The President's Own".

During the War of 1812, bandsmen were detached and assigned to serve as marine infantry with the ad hoc company formed from the garrison of Marine Barracks Washington to slow the British advance into Washington. They saw action at the Battle of Bladensburg, during which United States forces were routed by the British Army. Following the collapse of the capital's defenses, bandsmen assisted with the evacuation of the federal government. During the Second Seminole War, when the entirety of the Marine Corps was dispatched to Florida, the band was assigned to perform guard duty at Marine Barracks Washington and the Washington Navy Yard.

The influence of Italian martial music continued on the ensemble after the early war years and several of its early leaders were natives of Italy, including Venerando Pulizzi (1824 to 1827), Joseph Lucchesi (1844 to 1846), Francis Scala (1855 to 1871), Louis Schneider (1873 to 1880), and Francesco Fanciulli (1892 to 1897).

During the presidency of John Tyler, the Marine Band began the custom of playing public concerts on the grounds of the White House, the first such performance occurring on January 7, 1845. The band was embarked aboard USS Princeton, accompanying President John Tyler, during the 1844 gun explosion that killed United States Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur and United States Secretary of the Navy Thomas Walker Gilmer.

John Philip Sousa
In 1880, 25 year-old John Philip Sousa – a professional musician who had served in the Marine Band from age 13 to 20 and who was, himself, the son of a Marine Band musician – was recalled to Washington to assume command of the ensemble as its 17th leader, and the first American-born. Sousa led the band from 1880 to his 1892 retirement. During this period, the band came to be colloquially referred to as the National Band.

Though he would later object to recorded music, during his time as head of the U.S. Marine Band, Sousa saw more than 400 of its performances recorded by the Columbia Phonograph Company, making the Marine Band among the earliest musical ensembles to be widely recorded and propelling the group to heightened levels of national fame.

20th Century
In 1899 the size of the band was increased from 30 to 60 personnel. During the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, the size of the band was further increased to 70.

In 1931 the band was given a weekly show on NBC Radio. Titled The Dream Hour, the program ran until 1960. At the time of its cancellation it was the longest-running program on network radio.

The 1942 documentary film United States Marine Band, a look at the Marine Band directed by Jean Negulesco, was nominated for an Academy Award during the 15th Academy Awards.

Though never officially prohibited from enlistment in the band, the first woman was not accepted as a member of the ensemble until 1973 when hornist Ruth Johnson joined. Thirty-two years later, in 2005, Sara Sheffield became the band's first female feature vocalist.

The 200th anniversary of the founding of the Marine Band was observed in 1998 with a display at the White House Visitor's Center that included an 1890 wax cylinder of a march performed by the band, and an early 20th century band uniform. During that year it was inducted into the inaugural class of the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. Anniversary celebrations culminated with a gala concert at the Kennedy Center, attended by President Bill Clinton and First Lady of the United States Hillary Clinton.

Later years
Since 2000, the U.S. Marine Band has seen three directors: Col. Timothy W. Foley, Col. Michael J. Colburn, and Col. Jason Fettig. In 2018, the U.S. Marine Band selected its first female assistant drum major, Gunnery Sergeant Stacie Crowther.

The Marine Band was named as an artist in its first regional Emmy Award in 2018, given in the category Special Event Coverage Other than News and Sports, for the WNET-TV broadcast of the television special United States Marine Band "New England Spirit".

Notable performances
The Marine Band has performed with Frank Sinatra, John Williams, Bob McGrath, Yo-Yo Ma, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Stevie Wonder, Gloria Estefan, Itzhak Perlman, and other notable musicians.

Presidents of the United States Warren Harding and Bill Clinton have both performed with the Marine Band, Harding on sousaphone and Clinton on saxophone. The first president to conduct the U.S. Marine Band was George W. Bush, who briefly assumed personal command of the band during the performance of "The Stars and Stripes Forever" at a 2004 dinner.

Due to its primary mission in service to the President, the U.S. Marine Band rarely leaves the United States. Its first overseas performance came 187 years after its founding when, in 1985, it gave a concert at De Doelen Concert Hall in Rotterdam. In 1990 it toured the Soviet Union. In 2001 the U.S. Marine Band performed in Switzerland and, 18 years later, deployed outside the United States a fourth time for a performance in Japan with the Central Band of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force.

Other Marine Corps and presidential bands
In addition to the U.S. Marine Band, the Marine Corps maintains the United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps "The Commandant's Own", and ten field bands assigned to marine divisions and air wings. Unlike personnel in the U.S. Marine Band, musicians of "The Commandant's Own" and the field bands complete U.S. Marine Corps Recruit Training and are combat-deployable; during emergencies, the field bands are reconfigurable into command post defense platoons.

While the U.S. Marine Band bears the designation "The President's Own", the U.S. Army Herald Trumpets are the official fanfare unit of the United States presidency.

Ensembles
As of 2019, the United States Marine Band consists of 160 personnel including 130 enlisted musicians, and 30 officers and support staff. It is divided into the Marine Band and the Marine Chamber Orchestra.

The Marine Band is the ceremonial marching unit of the U.S. Marine Band and operates as a 42-piece ensemble for official arrival ceremonies at The Pentagon and the Friday Evening Parade, as a 49-piece ensemble for state arrival ceremonies at the White House, or as a 99-piece ensemble for state funerals and the presidential inauguration. The Marine Chamber Orchestra, meanwhile, was formed in 1955 to perform dinner and concert music at the White House, though string instrumentalists had been enlisted in the U.S. Marine Band as far back as 1879.

The Directorate
Early heads of the U.S. Marine Band were titled "Leaders". The directorate was created in XXXX and established by an Act of Congress within Title 10 of the United States Code, which provides that the directorate shall consist of one director and two assistant directors. The director of the U.S. Marine Band holds concurrent responsibility as adviser to the President of the United States on questions of music and musical affairs. According to Colonel Raymond P. Ayres III, his father – Lt. General Raymond Ayres, former commander of Fleet Marine Force, Atlantic – once described the director of the Marine Band as "the most powerful commander in the Marine Corps" due to the fact USMC regulations give the director absolute authority to award promotions, this authority being customarily "unquestionable"; promotion to director itself requires the recommendation of the director, making the directorate essentially self-perpetuating.

In place of a unit color, changes of command in the U.S. Marine Band are accomplished by the passing of the John Philip Sousa Baton from incoming to outgoing director under the supervision of the Commandant of the Marine Corps as reviewing officer. The baton, originally presented to Sousa by members of the band on the occasion of his 1892 retirement, was donated to the United States Government by the Sousa family in 1953 and, when not used for change of command ceremonies, is held at the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

Musicians
Until the second half of the 19th century, enlistment in the Marine Band was open to children as young as 13 years who could join in the rank Musician Apprentice. They would spend their childhood training in instrumental performance in preparation for eventual service to the president as a regular bandsman. Education of musician apprentices in non-music subjects, such as reading and mathematics, would be done under the tutelage of the band's assistant drum major.

In the modern era, persons enlisted to the U.S. Marine Band as musicians are obligated for duty "with the U.S. Marine Band only" and may not be transferred or reassigned to other units. While enlistment in the U.S. Marine Corps is not generally restricted by citizenship status, membership in the U.S. Marine Band is limited to citizens of the United States.

Candidates selected to the U.S. Marine Band enter military service at the rank of Staff Sergeant, automatically advancing past the five lower enlisted ranks. Auditions are considered are highly competitive. In 2019, a trumpet audition occurred in three rounds with candidates expected to perform more than a dozen pieces including “Danse napolitaine” from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, "The Royal March" from Stravinsky's Histoire du soldat, Ottorino Respighi's The Pines of Rome, and Jean-Baptiste Arban's "Fantaisie Brillante".

In 1920 the average period of service of bandsmen was 18 years, this had increased to 28 years as of 1991 and, in 2019, the Marine Band noted that "many Marine Band musicians serve for 20 years or more" placing the average bandsman in his 40s at the point of separation. By contrast, as of 2017, the average age of all United States marines at separation was about 27 years. Prior to retirement in 2013, Marine Band historian Master Gunnery Sergeant Michael Ressler was the longest-serving marine in the USMC at the time, having served more than 39 years.

U.S. Marine Band personnel are exempt from United States Marine Corps Recruit Training. By not completing Marine Recruit Training, bandsmen represent a unique exception to the Marine ethos of "every Marine a rifleman". This exception has led to the occasional contention that U.S. Marine Band personnel are not "real marines". Raymond Ayres III, former commander of All Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 224, in a paper for the Marine Command Staff College, has observed that "the history of our Country, our Corps, and the Band is inexorably intertwined ... although there are several unique characteristics about the Marine Band and the way it operates, the explanation of such differences is often found in the same history and traditions that Marines hold dear". In 1970 Kenneth Carpenter, a former U.S. Army soldier who later served as director of the South Dakota State University marching band, explained these differences by noting that "when Bandsmen join the Marine Corps they are fully qualified to carry out their duties the very day they enlist. In most cases these Marines have been training to do their job since they were children". Ayers also contends, noting that centralized recruit training was not established until 1911, that "unless one is willing to make the claim that all Marines before 1911 were not 'real Marines' it is disingenuous to argue that boot camp or OCS are the only paths to becoming a Marine".

According to the Marine Corps, most Marine Band musicians "hold advanced degrees from the world’s top music schools" including the Julliard School, the New England Conservatory, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the Eastman School of Music, and others. Among musicians assigned to the Marine Chamber Orchestra, nearly two-thirds possess a master's degree or better.

State and ceremonial performances
Annually, on the anniversary of the birth of John Philip Sousa, the Marine Corps Color Guard "The Commandant's Four" and the U.S. Marine Band are assembled at Congressional Cemetery to perform memorial obeisances at Sousa's tomb.

National Concert Tour
In 1891, Sousa requested to take the band on a tour of the United States. His request was initially denied by Marine Corps officers so he appealed the matter directly to President Benjamin Harrison who granted the request. After Sousa's departure, the band left Washington, D.C. infrequently until beginning annual tours in 1920 which continued through the start of the Great Depression before they were terminated. They resumed in 1935 but were again aborted during World War II. Resurrected in 1946, the National Concert Tour has been an annual engagement undertaken by the band since that time. The year 2018 marked the band's 100th non-consecutive National Concert Tour, during which it performed 29 free public concerts in 12 states.

Young People's Concert
In 2008

Uniforms
The parade uniform of the Marine Band, termed "ceremonial dress", consists of scarlet blouses with choker collars and white trousers in the summer, or blue trousers in the winter. Assistant directors wear distinctive uniforms with golden braid crossing the chest, while the director of the Marine Band wears an identical uniform patterned in blue. The "special full dress" uniform is a variation of a U.S. Marine Corps formal uniform deprecated for general use in the early 20th century and now reserved for personnel in the Marine Corps Chamber Orchestra. Though similar to the "ceremonial dress" uniform, it is worn without white belt and lacks the elaborate braiding.

The drum major's uniform includes a ceremonial baldric and is worn with a black, bearskin helmet. The bearskin helmet was first introduced in 1855 during the directorate of Francis Scala. The mace of the drum major of the U.S. Marine Band is a 35 inch staff constructed of Malacca cane and weighing 3.5 pounds. It is capped with a gold-plated ball on which is engraved the major campaigns of the U.S. Marine Corps, as well as the armorial achievement of the United States and the Eagle, Globe and Anchor emblem of the USMC. The ball is crested with an engraving of the dome of the United States Capitol.

Notable personnel

 * Bill Pearce