The Leader of the Dover Cornet Band

When did a bowler hat become a musician's fashion accessory? Especially for a musician wearing white tie and tails? Somehow it suits this rakish cornet player with his bristle brush mustache much better than a silk top hat would.

The photographer has posed him standing on fur rugs imitating grass, his arm casually resting on an immense carved newel post, and behind him is an elaborate backdrop of classical architecture, which I think resembles the Massachusetts State House.

Massachusetts State House
Source: Wikipedia

However the photographer was named Drew from Dover, New Hampshire which is on the northern border with Maine just above the seaport of Portsmouth, NH. The photo dates from the mid-1870s to 1880s and has been trimmed to fit into an album. This cornetist might have been relegated to the category of lost musicians except he was included as part of a set of photos.

All identified.

This photo was probably made by the same photographer but the card was trimmed more severely leaving just a bit of the same Gothic letters for Dover in the lower right corner. The cornet player is not wearing white tie and tail coat this time, but he is still very well dressed. The photographer has penciled in some improvement to his mustache and he also sports a small tuff of hair beneath his lower lip, which was a fashion popularized by several of the great cornet virtuosos of this era. The camera has even caught the ornamental engraving on his cornet. (click image to enlarge)

This third photo is a standard portrait and our musician is without his instrument. He appears a bit older and this time he wears a crisp wingtip collar with black tie. The reason we know it is the same man is because someone signed his name on all three photos. The handwriting on the maroon cards is difficult to reproduce, but on this cream color card the name is very clear.

R. L. Reinewald

With such a distinctive name and a location from the other photos, it did not take long for research to reveal that he was as distinguished a musician as he looks. 

His full name was Ralph Livsey Reinewald, and he was born in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1852. His father was a German immigrant and Ralph grew up in Providence, Rhode Island where he became an accomplished musician on the cornet. In 1870 he joined the US Navy to serve as a marine bandsman aboard the USS Vandalia. This enlistment lasted until 1876, when he took on a new job as bandleader of the Dover, NH Cornet Band. This is probably the time when the first two photos were made.

He played with that band for another 6 years when he was invited to take over the Salem Brass Band which had become famous under its previous bandmaster, Patrick Gilmore, a rival of John Philip Sousa. Gilmore went on to organize the great 22nd Regiment Band of New York, while the Salem Band under Reinewald's direction became known as the 8th Regiment Band of Massachusetts.

In 1900 he accepted an offer to return to the US Navy and become the new bandmaster of the Portsmouth Naval Yard Band. His commission was to train the best band in the US Navy. Reinewald, like many bandmasters of this era, was a self-taught musician who had no academic degree but came up through the ranks based on his reputation as a talented musician and composer.

In the navy, an admiral's flagship would always have a band to provide shipboard entertainment for officers, sailors and guests. Most navy band musicians could play string instruments as well as traditional wind instruments and they were equally adept at playing orchestral, opera, and dance music as military marches.

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US Naval Band, Portsmouth, New Hampshire circa 1908
Source: ibew.org.uk

This image of the Portsmouth Naval Band is undated but was probably made around 1915-25. In the center of the back row, we can recognize that the older man with a cornet and gold stripes on his jacket - the bandmaster, has the same features and nearly the same stance as R. L. Reinewald in his first photo wearing the bowler hat. 

Portsmouth, NH Herald  June 16,1900 

As bandmaster Reinewald had freedom to organize concerts outside of the navy and to take on students. In 1900 he set up Reinwald's Conservatory of Music in Portsmouth and offered lessons on violin, cornet, clarionet, piano, trombone, guitar, mandolin, and cello. He also furnished music for weddings, concerts, balls, parades, etc.  His advertisement which notes Special Attention to Beginners was changed a few months later to read Special Pains Taken with Beginners.  

His concerts which may have included non-navy personnel, were booked into the seaside resorts and clubs along the New Hampshire coast between Maine and Massachusetts. On one engagement for the Portsmouth Athletic Club in September 1900, a local telephone operator arranged to have Reinewald's band concert transmitted over the telephone lines to several telephone exchanges in Massachusetts. This broadcast was only heard by other operators, but they were so impressed with the sound quality and the music that they asked to know the name of the band.

R. L. Reinewald transferred to sea duty in 1908 and made two European tours. After 30 years of exemplary service he retired from the navy but remained in Portsmouth where he ran a music store. The store sold instruments, sheet music, and offered music lessons on all instruments. He advertised regularly in the Portsmouth Herald newspaper  right up to his death in 1934 at the age of 82. In addition to an obituary (which has provided many of the details on his life), the newspaper also ran this special editorial tribute. 

Ralph L. Reinwald 1852-1934
Portsmouth, NH Herald  February 15, 1934 

Bandmaster Reinewald was a celebrated musician for good reason. He was clearly an important teacher for countless navy musicians as well as a honored performer in the Portsmouth area. He represents a tradition of musicianship and professionalism that was part of American military culture at the turn of the 19th century.

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When photos like these are sold, they are rarely kept together. Undoubtedly there were other interesting photos in the adjacent pages of the Reinewald photo album from which these were taken, but we will never see them. But even more rare is the following bit of ephemera that came with the photos. It celebrates a special occasion in Ralph Reinewald's life – his marriage. It may even be the reason he once posed for a camera dressed in white tie, tail coat, and bowler hat.

It was 137 years ago on a Tuesday. June 19th, 1877 to be exact, that young Ralph L. Reinewald married Alice Gertrude Adams of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We can only guess how long the ceremony took, but surely the party afterwards lasted much, much longer. He was a sailor after all. There was food, music, drink, more music and speeches. One of Ralph's fellow bandsmen delivered a poem that day. Sadly time has torn his name from the old paper, but his clear fine handwriting gives him a voice to tell the story of a young man about to embark on a voyage of discovery.

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Dover N. H.
June 19th 1877

The following lines are respectfully dedicated
to Mr. & Mrs. Ralph Reinewalde by their author
Hen... Ho...pun( ?)

What are the bells all ringing for,
Now what on earth is up?
Has somebody been drinking of
Th' intoxicating cup?
The Turks, have they been beaten? or,
The Dutchmen taken Holland?
Wont some please, to tell me, as
A stranger, here I stand.

T'was thus I spoke, (while on a warm
And sultry day in June
I, in the town of Portsmouth had
Been cast by Dame [Fortune]
But ere an answer I could get
A procession came in view
And who, and what, I then did see
I'll now relate to you.

Now as they near, and nearer came,
A voice both loud and hearty
Cried out, "you now know what it is,
It is a wedding party."

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T'was so; and in the mid'st there was,
One by who's timid carriage!
Showed he was going to be tied,
In bonds of holy marriage.

Now when [he] close to me had [come]
In accents loud I bawled
That chap! why dont you know
T'is little Ralph Reinewalde
And sure enough, the man w...
Frightened, and pale, did stan[nd]
Was Ralph, the well known Lea[der of]
The Dover Cornet Band.

For seven long years, he on the br[ink]
Of matrimony stood!
And shivered, and shook first s...
But now At last he said he would.
So now the've both made up thei...
That f... ... will be bet...
To sail the stormy seas of life,
As man and wife, together.

That health, and wealth, and happiness,
In this life they will see!
This is the wish of all the boys,
That play in the D. C. B.
And now to both, I'd like to say,
Ere the pen falls from my hand.
I hope they'll have a little Ralph.
To play in the Dover Band.
    1877

Alice and Ralph Reinewald were able to celebrate their 50th anniversary together in 1927. As far as I know they never had a little Ralph, but they did have a daughter, Asa. Did she ever learn to play a musical instrument? With a bandmaster father, what do you think?

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where everyone sends congratulations to the happy couple.