Sounds from the Valley: A History of the U.C.-U.T.C. Band 1923 to 1979

By Christian Leonard

There is a frustration while researching and writing history. The things one really wants to know about cannot usually be found. Will Durant wrote thus in the Story of Civilization series: Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting, and doing things historians usually record while, on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry, whittle statues. The story of civilization is the story of what happens on the banks. You will find some interesting events in this history of the UC/UTC band, but you will not find everything. You will not find the name of the first song the University of Chattanooga band played, how Professor Blinn Owen felt about stepping down as the first dean of the department of music when it merged with the Cadek Conservatory, or what the reaction of the crowd was when the band played a Spanish tune for the first time in the late sixties. These are the kind of events and happenings that one would like to know, especially for the early years of the university band. This is not to be, however. Alas, we will have to settle for what witnesses selected to tell us, for it is unlikely that they realized they were historians at the time they recorded it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781684568611

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Sounds from the Valley

A History of the U.C.-U.T.C. Band 1923 to 1979

Christian Leonard

Copyright © 2019 Christian Leonard

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2019

ISBN 978-1-68456-860-4 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68456-861-1 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Beginnings

Growing with the University

War and Postwar Years

Years of Struggle

Glory Years

To the directors, musicians, faculty, and staff who have made music for our college, which stands in the valley.

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Alma Mater

Lookout Mountain ’o’er us guarding

Ceaseless watch doth keep.

In the valley stands our college

Where the shadows creep.

Chattanooga, Chattanooga,

Loud the anthem swells.

Sing, O sing of Alma Mater-

All her praises tell.

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Dr. Stuart M. Benkert, former associate director of bands and director of athletic bands at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, who first suggested this project.

Mr. Steven Cox, former UTC special collections librarian, was invaluable. He began the research before I showed up and was always on the lookout for material. All photographs used are from the University Special Collections Archives, unless otherwise noted.

Very special thanks to Dr. William R. Lee, retired professor of music education at UTC, who never gave up on my finishing this degree, and to Mr. Anthony J. D’Andrea, retired director of bands at UTC, who inspired me to continue in instrumental music education.

Thanks, Mom and Dad and family, for putting up with my abnormal (?) habits during this long process!

I acknowledge the grace of God, without whom nothing would be possible. All things are possible through Jesus Christ, God’s Son.

Introduction

This writer found a frustration while researching and writing this history. The things one really wants to know about cannot usually be found. Will Durant wrote in The Story of Civilization :

Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting, and doing things historians usually record—while, on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry, whittle statues. The story of civilization is the story of what happens on the banks.¹

You will find some interesting events in the following pages, but you will not find everything. You will not find the name of the first song the University of Chattanooga band played, how Professor Blinn Owen felt about stepping down as the first dean of the Department of Music when it merged with the Cadek Conservatory, or what the reaction of the crowd was when the band played a Spanish tune for the first time in the late sixties. These are the kind of events and happenings that this writer would like to have found in the research, especially for the early years of the university band. This is not to be, however. Alas, we will have to settle for what witnesses selected to tell us, for it is unlikely that they realized they were historians at the time they recorded it!

While there is thought to be some limited evidence that a band may have existed in the 1890s at U. S. Grant University, the predecessor of the University of Chattanooga, this history is limited to the existence of the University of Chattanooga to spring 1979. Barry Jones, director of the UC/UTC Band from 1967, died that next fall and was its most heralded leader. The years 1967 to 1979 were the band’s most successful years to that point in its history.² U. S. Grant University was changed to the University of Chattanooga by charter in 1907. In turn, the University of Chattanooga joined the University of Tennessee system and became the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 1969.³

In the United States, permanent bands were organized around the beginning of the nineteenth century. These were mainly minstrel bands, professional bands, town bands, and industrial bands. College bands began to appear in the last few years of the 1800s. World War I helped meet the need for qualified band directors by providing the opportunity for bandleaders to be trained in the military. By 1923, public school bands had become a great force in music education and a national school band tournament that year had convinced the musical instrument manufacturers of the school band market potential.⁴

The University of Chattanooga band had a strong beginning in 1923. National trends and favorable geography positioned the band to become a regional influence in instrumental music education. During its long history, however, it has struggled at times to take advantage of these early assets. However, the struggle is the story, and the following pages tell something of what happened.

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¹ Will Durant, The Story of Civilization (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963), as quoted in Fred Rogers, The World According to Mr. Rogers: Important Things to Remember (New York: Family Communications Inc., 2003), 161.

² This writer was a member of the band from 1984 to 1990, and from 1991 to 1992, and a music educator in the area for several years. He also witnessed personally many of the band’s performances from the late seventies to the early eighties. It is felt by the writer that he may be too close to events to write objectively about the period from 1979 to the present and that it was best to stop this history just before Jones’s death and the ensuing interim years. It is hoped it may be continued at a later time. (See chapter 5, above.)

³ John Longwith, Light Upon a Hill: The University at Chattanooga, 1886–1996 (Chattanooga, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 2000), 69, 149. (See chapter 5, "Spelling Correction: Band Puts the T into UC," below.)

⁴ James A. Keene, A History of Music Education in the United States (Hanover, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 1982), 283–304.

Chapter 1

Beginnings

On the morning of October 12, 1923, a new musical organization made its appearance on the University of Chattanooga (UC) campus. Under the direction of Major Ira R. Summers, eight members played for a student body meeting. The members of this small but apparently impressive group were listed by the school paper, the University Echo , as follows: Robert Bracewell, Dudley Hall, Ed Meachman, Edgar Lee, Ira McKenney, [?] Vanderpoorten, Garrett Carter and Leon Carter. The meeting was said to be made twice and again more successful by the presence and the music of the band. ⁵

The band also played at the UC versus Cumberland College football game the following day, making the bleachers more than ever merry and ‘peppy’ by the presence of UC’s own band. It was reported that students said the band’s being of the very campus of the University instead of made up of paid musicians added to the enjoyment of the music. It was hoped that the great power of the band would be increased with more members. Major Summers, the new director, was given much of the credit for the favorable comments the band received for their first performances after a very short preparation time.⁶

During the fall of 1923, the band was mentioned a few times in connection with athletics at the university. In October, a pep meeting was said to have taken place all over Market Street and ended up at the train station. The headline stated that a brass band and signs and shouts of UC’ s right greeted incoming passengers as the team left.⁷ In November, the band, along with a capacity student body crowd, endured a muddy game at Chamberlain Field on the UC campus. Even though the team lost to the University of the South Tigers, the paper expressed the appreciation of the students for the hard work of the UC band, which helped materially the progress of the spirit of things. The Chattanooga Central High School band also attended the game. The article stated that this showed the kind of growing spirit the UC Moccasins liked to see in the local schools.⁸ The inclusion of area school bands in activities at the university would continue through the years.

The school paper had some interesting references to the band later in November 1923. Before a football game against the Birmingham Southern College Panthers that took