Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- Prologue
- Chapter 1 Nicholasville, Kentucky:1850—1893
- Chapter 2 Cincinnati, Ohio, and Nicholasville: 1893—1902
- Chapter 3 A Period of Indecision:1902-1904
- Chapter 4 On the Road Again:1904-1908
- Chapter 5 A Pivotal Year:1908
- Chapter 6 The Return to A.&M.
- Chapter 7 The Big Change:1908—1910
- Chapter 8 The Buchanan Years:1910-1920
- Chapter 9 New Presidents and a Reshaped Identity: the 1920s
- Chapter 10 The Omnipresent Professor: 1930—1941
- Chapter 11 The War and Post-WarYears: 1941—1951
- Chapter 12 Coming Full Circle
- Appendix 1 James H. Wilson Journal: January 1—June 30, 1908
- Appendix 2 James H. Wilson Band and Tour Booklet
- Appendix 3 Known Compositions and Arrangements by James H. Wilson
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- A Brief Recommended Reading List
- Locations and Acknowledgments for Illustratiions
- Index
Prologue
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- Prologue
- Chapter 1 Nicholasville, Kentucky:1850—1893
- Chapter 2 Cincinnati, Ohio, and Nicholasville: 1893—1902
- Chapter 3 A Period of Indecision:1902-1904
- Chapter 4 On the Road Again:1904-1908
- Chapter 5 A Pivotal Year:1908
- Chapter 6 The Return to A.&M.
- Chapter 7 The Big Change:1908—1910
- Chapter 8 The Buchanan Years:1910-1920
- Chapter 9 New Presidents and a Reshaped Identity: the 1920s
- Chapter 10 The Omnipresent Professor: 1930—1941
- Chapter 11 The War and Post-WarYears: 1941—1951
- Chapter 12 Coming Full Circle
- Appendix 1 James H. Wilson Journal: January 1—June 30, 1908
- Appendix 2 James H. Wilson Band and Tour Booklet
- Appendix 3 Known Compositions and Arrangements by James H. Wilson
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- A Brief Recommended Reading List
- Locations and Acknowledgments for Illustratiions
- Index
Summary
In 2009 the enthusiastic television commentator for Huntsville's station WHNT laid on the hyperbole as uniformed college students marched past the cameras on a cloudy autumn Saturday:
Mother Nature did not stop Alabama A. & M. fans from celebrating this weekend. Thousands turned out to watch the Alabama A. & M. homecoming parade. The parade [is] a longstanding tradition here in the “Rocket City.” Also today the loudest, best, and classiest band in the South walked the walk and played through the talk ….
Although the more than 200 student musicians of the modern “Marching Maroon & White” band who strutted and played through the streets of Huntsville on that chilly and damp fall day may indeed have earned a place of regional if not national distinction, the band's history traces back to a time of truly modest beginnings. Ten years after the end of the American Civil War, the Huntsville State Normal School, an “Institution for the Education of Colored teachers,” opened its doors and admitted its first class of students. Five years later, this school boasted a band in addition to a thriving vocal music program. At the head of the infant music curriculum stood a talented music teacher, William Grant Still, Sr., father of the now famous 20th-century composer and conductor, William Grant Still, Jr. The senior Still was in charge of both the choir and the band, and in 1891 the school newspaper reported that:
We are now having some excellent music at Sunday morning services. Mr. Still has a first class choir…. Mr. Still is well pleased with the progress made by his band boys.
The founder of the institution, Principal William Hooper Councill, had both a personal love of music and a humanistic regard for the importance of music in general education. Aware of the artistic and financial successes of the Fisk Jubilee Singers as they toured through several northern states in the 1870s, this hard-working and practical man, a former slave, was also mindful that music might offer him an opportunity to carry the message of his school and of African-American culture and excellence to the general population of the southern states.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- With Trumpet and BibleThe Illustrated Life of James Hembray Wilson, pp. vi - xiiPublisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2015