R.B. Hall, ‘March King of Maine’

Strike up the band! Return for a moment to what has been called the golden age of band music, when any self-respecting town had its own band (and possibly an orchestra or two). In those days, a star cornet player could be as popular as the village baseball slugger.

A century ago last Friday, popular band director R.B. Hall, “the March King of Maine,” died, and many musicians and music lovers in the Bangor area doubtlessly were reminiscing. They included Melville H. Andrews and Abbie N. Garland, two of the stalwarts behind the Queen City’s fabled musical institutions – the Bangor Band and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra.

The Bangor Daily News ran a big photograph of “Professor” Hall. He had lived in Bangor for only eight years in the 1880s before moving on to Waterville, but he left an indelible impression with his cornet playing. directing and teaching skills.

The city was also the place where Hall inaugurated his composing career for which he is best known today.

“Hall’s marches hold a place of respect, perhaps second only to those of [John Philip] Sousa,” according to Gordon W. Bowie, Hall’s biographer and a former director of the Bangor Band himself. “His mastery of the subtleties of the march form was so complete that his works achieved an enduring popularity for the composer, and a place for him in the hearts of band musicians everywhere.”

Bowie’s new book, “R.B. Hall and His Bands,” is the source of most of the information in this column. The author, an accomplished musician, has helped untangle conflicting stories about Hall, the man and the musician. The result is the most accurate and thorough account of his life that’s likely to be written. Hall remains in some ways a mystery, however. Who was the man in the uniform with the walrus mustache and the wistful look in his eye?

Robert Browne Hall was already a well-known cornet player when he came to Bangor in the winter of 1882-1883 to play in Andrews’ Orchestra, the most popular musical group in the Queen City at the time. He played his cornet at dances and concerts and in the orchestra pit of the Bangor Opera House, where his solos were sometimes more popular than what was happening onstage.

His tone was legendary, described by one contemporary as “full, round, rich luscious.” Occasionally, he was accompanied on the organ or piano by Miss Garland, director of the Bangor Piano School and a key figure in the founding of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra a few years later.

While playing in Andrews’ Orchestra provided Hall with a living, he is known today as the director – sometimes, incorrectly, as the founder – of the Bangor Band, a post he assumed in 1883, a year or so after Andrews gave it up to play summers at a resort. Andrews’ departure apparently precipitated a sharp drop in the band’s activities, and Hall is credited with reviving the group that was founded before the Civil War.

Hall began writing marches in earnest in Bangor. He would eventually write more than 75 marches and several other pieces for band. If a person was deserving, he might dedicate one to him. His first published march was “M.H.A.,” in honor of Andrews. He also wrote “General Mitchell,” dedicated to Henry L. Mitchell, a prominent Bangor lawyer who helped rebuild the Bangor Band.

Sometimes he wrote a march for a group or a whole city. “March Chilcothian” was dedicated to a girls drill team in Bangor, according to Bowie. Hall is said to have written “Greeting to Bangor” in 1884 after being presented with a lavishly engraved, gold-plated cornet by local residents in testimony to his popularity. Other marches with a Bangor connection included “Col. Perkins,” “Adjutant Bridge,” “Hamlin Rifles” and “Norumbega.”

In 1890, Andrews disbanded his orchestra and started a music store. The next year, Hall was in Waterville where he spent most of the rest of his career writing marches, directing the Waterville Military Band and Hall’s Orchestra, giving lessons and playing his cornet. Waterville is the city most associated with his career today. His fabled cornet resides in a museum there. His fame, however, is international.

Two days after his death, the Bangor Daily News printed a story about how a friend of Hall’s, Norbert Krutsky “of Waterville and Bangor,” was visiting Berlin, Germany, two years before when he heard a march being played by “the best band in the city” that sounded familiar. The conductor verified it was indeed a piece by an American named R.B. Hall. The band then, much to Krutsky’s amazement, proceeded to play three more of Hall’s compositions.

Hall’s personal life remains sketchy. He had a short unhappy marriage, which is not surprising considering he was 43 and in ill health while his bride was 19. What is more surprising is the number of health problems he suffered throughout his life considering his vigorous career. Respiratory ills that may have included tuberculosis plagued him as well as lameness of indeterminate origins that sometimes caused him to use a crutch. He had a stroke in 1905 at age 46 from which he partially recovered, and then, on June 8, 1907, he died from kidney disease.

Hall’s fame lives on. The Legislature in 1981 made the last Saturday in June each year R.B. Hall Day. This year the event will be held at Fairfield Park in Fairfield. Sixteen bands are scheduled to play. One of them appropriately is the R.B. Hall Memorial Band of Waterville. The Bangor Band will be there too. Some R.B. Hall marches are guaranteed to be on the program.

Wayne E. Reilly can be reached at wreilly@bangordailynews.net “R. B. Hall and His Bands” can be obtained by mail by contacting www.s-press.com