Selected Content from the April 1939 Edition of The Etude

“Sound the Trumpet, Beat the Drums!” (From Handel’s “Judas Maccabeus”)

EDWARD VII and his son the Prince of Wales (later George V) were, according to the Court Calendar, to appear in a military ceremony to take place before St. James” Palace in the heart of London. As an American youth… Read More




The Renaissance of the Band

The band itself was largely to blame for its own downfall. The musicians felt that they were secure in their positions; and their chief interest, and in many cases also their only interest, was in the pay envelope. The result was that many of the bands were terrible. Read More





What Do Bands Mean to America?

“Music has been aptly termed ‘the fourth essential,’ only food, clothing and shelter preceding music in importance in a well rounded and happy life. And to participate in a musical performance, even one of mediocre degree of excellence, is ever so much more enjoyable than merely to sit and listen. The progress or retrogression of a nation depends on its home life; and a musical home is a happy home.” Read More






And the Band Won!

The band has its own trade mark, duly registered. It has two large busses and an instrument truck for transportation to music festivals and football games. It has a wardrobe and property department. Thirty-five volumes in its scrap book library tell of the value of the band as a means of publicity. Read More






New Concepts In Present Day Music

I look upon the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy as the greatest musical instrument of its type in the world. There has never been anything in the way of an orchestra so exquisitely perfect and responsive. Read More







America’s Oldest Civic Band

Realizing that a player does not belong to himself, but to the community in which he is privileged to live, the real musician feels somewhat like the missionary who is guided by the urge to “teach all nations.” From such heroic beginnings are handed down through the ages great reminders of the struggling past. Such a fair memory must belong to The Allentown Band, coming down to these days in an unbroken line and standing before us as perhaps the finest monument and tribute to the perseverance of a few performers who boasted only primitive instruments and a great love of music. Read More







Tooting a Horn for Fifty Years

B. A. Rolfe is distinctly a self-made musician, in every sense of the word. Literally brought up from childhood in a circus band, his progress to Broadway, and his large variety of enterprises, make this one of the most colorful articles The Etude has ever presented. Read More








Sing With Your Heart! By Frieda Hempel, Internationally Renowned Prima Donna

I see no harm in learning by imitation, provided that the models are worth imitating, and that the imitation does not become mechanical or slavish. Read More