The Solitary Musician

A painting is static. Fixed in time.
 

Music is fleeting. As ephemeral as the wind.

When an artist lays down their brush,
the work is finished, ready to be viewed.

But a composer's notes can make no sound
without a musician to bring voice to them.

To do this, musicians spend
countless hours of their life alone,
studiously perfecting their skills
to recreate the composer's music.

It's usually a solitary pursuit,
though sometimes shared with a partner.
Yet it requires faithful dedication
to polish musical tones
into sparkling brilliance.

But it's only when the notes are shared,
harmony supporting melody,
that instrumentalists
blend into one unified sound.
In that brief time
the composer's musical notation
is magically transformed
into an intangible art form
that is heard but not seen.

It takes a talented artist
who can illustrate the earnest effort
it takes to make music.

These solo musicians
may remain immobile on the canvas
but in our imagination
we can hear them play.

* * *

The artist of this series of five paintings of musicians, reproduced as postcards, was Paul Stubbe,. (1874–1950). He was born in Neustettin, now Szczecinek, Poland, in 1874 when it was in a region of Germany called Middle Pomerania, about 60 miles south of the Baltic Sea. As a young boy he showed promising artistic talent, but his father, a merchant, directed him to a more secure profession as a doctor. Stubbe was sent to Strasbourg where he studied both medicine and art. He pursued more training in Munich before  returning to Neustettin in 1904 to take up a physician's practice. Within a few years he found such success as both a doctor and artist, that in 1907 Dr. Stubbe became the first person in his hometown to own an automobile.

During World War 1, Stubbe served as a doctor on a German hospital ship. When the war ended, Neustettin became part of Poland, so Dr. Stubbe moved to Hamburg, Germany. There he found employment as a commercial ship doctor which allowed him to travel the world. Unfortunately in the next war, bombing raids struck his home and studio in Hamburg destroying his artwork. After the war he tried to recreate some of his paintings, and I suspect his series of musicians may come from that postwar time. Paul Stubbe died in Hamburg on May 14, 1950. Much of what remains of his art is preserved at the Regional Museum in Szczecinek, where I found his history. 

Paul Stubbe's painting of the horn player
is aptly entitled:

Mit voller Kraft
~
With full Power

The title of his painting of a trombonist
is appropriately called:

Fortissimo
~
Very Loud

The title of the forlorn violinist is:

Melancholie
~
Melancholy

The flutist performing for his wife is called:

Aus der Jugendzeit
~
From the Youth

The wind quartet
of oboe, bassoon, clarinet, and horn
is entitled:

Das Dorfquartett
~
The Village Quartet

None of the postcards ever went through the mail
but the artist's name in printed on the back.
Kleins Künstlerpostkarten
Paul Stubbe: (title)

The publisher was Kleins Buch und Kunstverlag GmbH, of Lengerich in Westfalia, Germany. This family-owned company was established by Alwin Klein in 1892, with a specialty for printing books and fine art. In 1922 it began producing paper sacks for the cement industry, and today the firm Bischof + Klein has become a major manufacturer of plastic packaging. 

It is difficult to place a date on these postcards, but to me the feel of the paper and print seem more suited to the 1950s than any earlier decade. Still I can't be certain that they may date from the 1930s or 1970s too. Since each postcard is numbered on the back, I do know that there are at least 6 in this series, of which I have found 5. With luck I will find the missing number with a postmark to establish the era. {See UPDATE below!}

 

I suspect these amusing caricature paintings by Paul Stubbe came from an early time in his career, possibly made when he lived in Munich at the turn of the 20th century. It was then, as now, a very musical city and no doubt an inspiring place for a young observant artist/doctor. His paintings have a wistful romantic quality that I initially admired for their gentle wit, but recently I've recognized myself and other musician friends in Stubbe's images.

The solitary activity of a musician practicing their art is still true today as it was in 1895. But Stubbe added an element of sorrow to his paintings that resonates with the isolation musicians everywhere have endured over the past few months. Music is an art form that requires a connection between both performer and listener, and one of the many consequences of this dreadful pandemic is the sharp break in that dynamic interaction. With theaters and concert halls closed, musicians are forced into a quarantine that sadly resembles the gloomy rooms depicted in Stubbe's paintings. Usually it is music that renders the sadness of the heart. Here it is art that mirrors the anguish of arrested music.

UPDATE:

 

Hooray!
I found it.
 

The missing sixth postcard
depicts a solitary clarinetist.
The short length of his instrument
suggests he is an E-flat clarinetist,
who are the most solitary of all clarinet players.

Stubbe places his solo musician
standing with his music stand
in the sunlit half of a dark interior room.
The title is:

Sein Morgenlied
~
His Morning Song

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where the motto of the day is
keep calm and watch your step.

Any Way the Wind Blows

This is an uncommon photograph of a musician. His instrument, an oboe, is rare to find pictured in photographs, but it is because he is actually blowing into it that this becomes an uncommon musical image. With his lips clamped firmly on the reed, his eyes closed in concentration, we can almost hear the note he plays.

It's a small unmounted photo without any identification. His wool suit and tie gives him a vague 20th century style. There is a calendar on the wall behind him but the focus is too unclear to read a date. The room's plate rail, ornate radiator, and light fixture suggest a house style from 1900-1920. The curious phantom on the left is in the photo print and is not a paper tear.

****

Unfortunately we must imagine how this next man played the flute under his splendid mustache. He sits for the camera in a photographer's armchair that has elaborate carving and turnings. A flute made of African blackwood rests on his leg. He is well dressed with bow tie and dark suit that may be a bit older fashion than the oboist. The man's confident pose suggests a professional musician but not a vaudeville performer. This steely eyed flutist was not intimidated by any imperious conductor.

The musical term Woodwind refers to the group of instruments made of wood and sounded by a musician's wind, i.e. breath or air. The flute is the most ancient of this family and was originally made of wood though most modern flutes are now made of silver and gold. It is the only woodwind that does not use a reed to make the vibrating sound, but instead the whistle comes from blowing across the open tone hole at one end.

****

In this case we do know the name of the musician as he signed the back of his postcard.   

June 5 / 1915

Respectfully yours    | Alfred
Wm Levi                  | Levi

The postcard was also made in Canada, but despite my best efforts I've been unable to trace the name. Is the flutist William or Alfred? I think it is William Levi and the card was addressed to Alfred Levi who is perhaps his brother.

This next woodwind musician boasts a similar bold gaze. He holds a clarinet or clarionet as it was often called in the 19th century. The gentleman sports a fine mustache and goatee with a carefully groomed hairstyle that belongs to a decade that predates the flutist's postcard photo. His suit and broad bow tie are a men's fashion of 1870s-1880s.


 

****

This carte de visite or cdv has square corners, no border, and a simple imprint on the back for the photographer's studio.

Ferris'
Excelsior Photographic
Gallery,
Malone, N. Y.

The cdv fits into the type produced in the 1860s. Malone is the county seat for Franklin County in far upstate New York, very close to the Canadian Border and Montreal. In 1860, Malone's population was 6,565, and Charles Ferris, born in 1828, was the town photographer from around 1860 to 1890.

If it were not for the 50 year difference between the photos, the resemblance of this New York clarinetist with the Canadian flutist could almost make them brothers.

****

Here is another clarinet player with an impressive goatee and self-assured manner. Like the previous clarinetist, this man also wears a dark suit with piping along the collars and cuffs, which I think is typical of the dress of a 19th century professional musician.

**

This is a larger cabinet card photograph without decorative borders and only a very plain photographer's stamp on the back.

Justus Zahn,
photographer
High Street
Bet. Main St. and P.O.
Belleville, IL
All Work Guaranteed

This fits the early style of  cabinet cards that places it in the 1880s. Though the stout little clarinetist must remain anonymous, the photographer was prolific enough to be found on the internet.

****

Justus Zahn (1847-1918)
Source: Rosenberg Library Museum

Justus Zahn (1847-1918) traveled from Germany to the United States as a young man in the 1870s, after service in the German Army during the Franco-Prussian War. After first living in Chicago where he started work as a photographer, and then St. Louis, in the 1880s he moved just across the Mississippi River to Belleville, IL which was then a center for German immigrants. His studio there did not last long, as by 1887 he opened a new photography studio in Galveston, TX, another hub for German Americans. It was there that he made his career until the Great Hurricane of 1900 destroyed Galveston. He and his family survived, but he subsequently moved to Montana, which was safely above any ocean storm surge.

The history of Belleville, IL describes this influx of Germans. In 1880 the population was 10,683 and German was the language commonly spoken in town. In 1866, the community formed a Philharmonic Orchestra Society that remains active today. So it seems fair to say that German was probably this clarinetist's mother tongue.

xxxx

The previous musicians are not dressed in band uniforms though they undoubtedly played in a band from time to time. However the next two woodwind players were members of military bands, specifically French army regimental bands. This oboist sits in a photographer's studio chair with his instrument, le hautbois or "the high wood" neatly resting in the crook of his arm. The oboe's double reed is clearly visible too.

The collar of his long great coat has his infantry regiment number 97 and his epaulets are in the style of a military bandsman.

This is another cdv and the style is similar to the late 1870s to 1880s. The photographer was H. Perla of Avenue du Verney, Chambéry, France. Monsieur Perla won an award in 1879 for his photography skill. Chambery was also noted for a base for the French army. I've found several similar photos of French soldiers by Perla that fit an 1870 to 1885 date.

****

This last musician also wears the uniform of a French military bandsman, but he holds a bassoon, which he is only pretending to play. His collar is hidden so his regiment number is unknown. He does have a military musician's lyre shoulder patch.

In earlier centuries, before the advent of valves for brass instruments, military bands depended on the double reeds of oboes and bassoons to carry the march tunes. As brass instruments became the dominant sound in the 19th century bands, the use of the oboe diminished and the small piccolo E-flat clarinet replaced it as the treble woodwind instrument.  However the bassoon retained its position as the bass woodwind instrument, and one or two bassoons were still commonly used in military bands until the First World War.  


For a bonus, at his feet lies another instrument, an alto saxophone. This instrument is usually associated with woodwinds because it has a single reed and key work like a clarinet, but it was never made of wood and was originally manufactured in conical shaped brass metal, making it a kind of hybrid instrument. It was patented in Paris in 1846 by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax.  This instrument came in several sizes corresponding to soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass, which made it more versatile and adaptable for band music.

****

This cdv dates from a later decade that the French oboist, perhaps 1890s or possibly 1900s. The photographer was E. Verry of 53 Boulevard de la Liberté, Rennes, France.  Whereas Chambéry is in the Rhône-Alpes region of south-eastern France, Rennes is in northeast Brittany.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where everyone is going
Up, up, and away
in a beautiful balloon.

****

****

The Poet Photographer

Some photographs are more than a two-dimensional image. Some have hidden meanings and clever twists that convert a picture into poetry. This modest carte de visite photo is one of them.

A bearded man stands in a typical 1860's photographer's studio blowing into a type of woodwind instrument. His plain hat and coat are not those of a bandsman or professional musician. Though his instrument might be mistaken for a clarinet or even an oboe, it is something very different which is seldom pictured in early photographs.

He is playing a gentleman's instrument, a flageolet.  

English Flageolet
Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection

The flageolet or flageolett is a type of recorder or fipple flute which produces a whistle sound when the player's breath is split over a sharp edged window that is carved into the wooden tube. It descends from the recorder or blockflöte which was an ancient wind instrument common throughout the medieval and baroque eras. But the recorder lacked the ability to play very loudly and as Baroque composers like Bach became old fashioned in the new Classical era of Mozart, many early wind instruments like the recorder were made obsolete. Its replacement was the keyed flute which was played in a transverse manner by blowing across a hole placed in the top part of the tube. It offered more notes and more dynamic contrast.

But the flageolet had a brief period of resurgence in the early Romantic era when English and French instrument makers made a new version with keys. The ivory beak-like top is hollow and makes no noise. The lower section has 6 or 7 finger holes in front and one thumb hole in the back. The additional keywork untangles the fingerings for different notes. On 19th century flageolets there are often ivory buttons between the tone holes which are mainly decorative but help in holding the instrument. Like the recorder it was incapable of loud and soft dynamics and therefore was not intended as an orchestral or band instrument. Mostly it was played as a solo instrument for private enjoyment or occasionally as an accompaniment for voices. 

YouTube provides a very good demonstration of a flageolet played by Rubens Küffer - his first try with an original French flageolet. This one is made of ebony while the example above is in boxwood. It's a short video so stick with it until his courteous bow when he doffs his cap.

***

***

This second cdv shows the same musician but this time seated and surrounded by three men who have placed their hands on his shoulders in an affectionate manner. The flageolet player has removed his hat and holds a piece of paper in his hand. They have the look of friends rather than family and initially I thought they might be a quartet of singers.

The floor cloth has the same pattern as the first and the only thing to suggest that the photographs were taken at different times is the color of his hat. Cream for summer and grey for fall?

What is on that paper and why does he want us to look at it?

 _ _

The unsophisticated poses of the men and the way the paper mount of these two cdvs has been trimmed at the corners so as to better fit the early photo albums, likely dates them from around 1865 to 1870. On the back of both small photographs is a large dramatic design of a young man holding a flag and heroically waving his hand forward. On the flag is the word EXCELSIOR.  The photographer is:

C. G. BLATT,
Traveling Artist

 
His full mellifluous name was Cyrus G. Blatt of Bernville, Pennsylvania, and he was a traveling artist, a common term then used for photographers who took up a itinerant trade with their camera and went town to town with all their equipment making photographs. In the 1860s this part of southeast Pennsylvania seems to have been the center of American photography to judge by the thousands of carte de visites and later cabinet photos preserved from this area.   

Excelsior is a word usually defined as Ever Higher!

It is also the term for fine wood shavings used as packing material, the 19th century bubble wrap.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)

The illustration of this flag man in the short kilt is actually a literary allusion which would have been instantly recognizable to anyone from the mid-19th century. He is the young standard-bearer in the poem Excelsior by  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882).

Poetical Works of H. W. Longfellow pub. 1856
Source: Google Books

Excelsior
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,

Excelsior!

His brow was sad; his eye beneath,
Flashed like a falchion* from its sheath,
And like a silver clarion rung
The accents of that unknown tongue,
Excelsior!

In happy homes he saw the light
Of household fires gleam warm and bright;
Above, the spectral glaciers shone,
And from his lips escaped a groan,

Excelsior!

"Try not the Pass!" the old man said;
"Dark lowers the tempest overhead,
The roaring torrent is deep and wide!"
And loud that clarion voice replied,
Excelsior!

"Oh stay," the maiden said, "and rest
Thy weary head upon this breast! "
A tear stood in his bright blue eye,
But still he answered, with a sigh,
Excelsior!

"Beware the pine-tree's withered branch!
Beware the awful avalanche!"
This was the peasant's last Good-night,
A voice replied, far up the height,
Excelsior!

At break of day, as heavenward
The pious monks of Saint Bernard
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,
A voice cried through the startled air,
Excelsior!

A traveller, by the faithful hound,
Half-buried in the snow was found,
Still grasping in his hand of ice
That banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!

There in the twilight cold and gray,
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay,
And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell like a falling star,
Excelsior!

* A falchion is a short sword with a curved blade.

Longfellow published this poem in a collection of his poetry in 1841 and it became one of his most well known short poems. Though he had traveled widely throughout Europe and spoke several languages, Longfellow reportedly took his inspiration for this poem from the motto Excelsior on the New York state seal. The poem was originally published without illustrations, but its popularity invited artists to render the words into art and even into song. This next image comes from a 4th grade school reader published in 1886 by a company using Excelsior as their trade name.

Sadlier's Excelsior 4th Reader: pub. 1886
Source: Google Books

The imagery in Longfellow's poem captured the sentiment of many aspiring adventurers, entrepreneurs, and artists of the second half of the 19th century. When you see a man with a banner held high on a mountaintop in a 19th century painting it undoubtedly is a reference to this poem. Composers also were captivated by the words. Franz Liszt used the idea of the ever upward youth for the prelude to an early secular oratorio entitled Die Glocken des Strassburger Münsters – The Bells of Strasbourg Cathedral. Richard Wagner like it so much he ‘borrowed’ Liszt’s Excelsior theme for the opening motif of his opera Parsifal. There were at least two popular song settings of Excelsior made by other composers, and even a ragtime piano piece published in 1909 by the composer Joseph Lamb entitled Excelsior - A Rag.

Title page: Excelsior - A Rag
by Joseph Lamb 1909

Walt Whitman
frontispiece to Leaves of Grass 1855

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was not the only poet who liked this wonderful exclamation. His contemporary Walt Whitman (1819-1892) also used it as a title of a poem that was published in 1855 in the collection Leaves of Grass, arguably the most influential literary work of the 19th century.

_ _

Excelsior 

by Walt Whitman

Who has gone farthest? for I would go farther,
And who has been just? for I would be the most just
    person of the earth,
And who most cautious? for I would be more
    cautious,
And who has been happiest? O I think it is I !  I
        think no one was ever happier than I;
And who has lavish'd all? for I lavish constantly the
        best I have;
And who has been firmest? For I would be firmer;
And who proudest? for I think I have reason to be
        the proudest son alive — for I am the son of the
        brawny and tall-topt city;
And who has been bold and true? For I would be the boldest
        the boldest and truest being of the universe;
And who benevolent? For I would show more be-
         nevolence than all the rest;
And who has projected beautiful words through the
         longest time? By God! I will outvie him! I
         will say such words, they shall stretch through
         longer time!
And who has receiv'd the love of the most friends?
         For I know what it is to receive the passionate
         love of many friends;
And to whom has been given the sweetest from
         women, and paid them in kind? For I will
         take the like sweets and pay them in kind;
And who possesses a perfect and enamour'd body?
         For I do not believe any one possesses a more
         perfect or enamour'd body than mine;
And who thinks the amplest thoughts? For I will
         surround those thoughts;
And who has made hymns fit for the earth? For I
         am mad with devouring extacy to make joyous
         hymns for the whole earth!

U.S. Postal Stamps 1940

I will leave it to readers to decide which is the better poem, though it seems clear that Whitman has used Longfellow's thematic idea. What interests me is that both men cultivated an individual fashion style and frequently posed for photographs to enhance their celebrity status. And as you can see there is a resemblance between both poets and the musical gentleman from Pennsylvania. To be clear he is neither Whitman nor Longfellow, but I do think he might be a poet too.

This infant of undetermined gender is perched on a photographer's stool and has wiggled its foot just as the camera shutter blinked. The child seems unsupported but it's possible a hidden mother is holding on to it from behind the backdrop.

The style is typical of thousands of similar children's  photographs made by traveling artist photographers.

But the printing on the back is what makes it a unique photo.

C. G. Blatt's
Photographic Emporium,

Isn't this a good old treat,
Where the public fears no cheat,
They know his pictures have no beat,
In finish, excellence,–and cheap.

Sour faces made so sweet,
And the style so nice and neat:
Besides they are so very cheap,
That the poor man need not squeak.

And all this you will find,
If you only come in time,
To see C. G. Blatt, you see,
Who will still in Bernville be.

He knows that you must laugh
Fifteen pictures for one and a half,
Additional pictures he will
Give fifteen for one dollar bill.

 > <

Cyrus G. Blatt was a poet as well as a photographer with high aspirations. His promotional idea was one of the first jingles printed so that the public might remember his business. Born in 1841, the same year as Longfellow's poem, he was listed as a photographer in the Bernville census of 1870. There are no military records with his exact name, so he may not have served in the Civil War. At some point he quit the traveling artist work to takeover a studio in Bernville, PA. His home still remains as a historic landmark in this small town of 900 citizens. 

There are a few varieties of Cyrus's advertising rhymes. This next one has 5 verses and refers to a photographer's specialized techniques and mishaps. 

Source: American Museum of Photography

C. G. Blatt's
Photographic Emporium,
Bernville, Pa.

Only have your shadow secured by C. G. Blatt,
Will take better portraits than any you had;
I take them myself, as no other can,
I color them, too, as no other man.
 

I praise each production than goes from my shed;
The ears and the nose, the mouth, and the head.
'Tis true that an eye may be lost to the view,
Or an ear left uncolored and awfully blue.
 

A scratch on the plate, or a hand double size,
A bright pinky color close up to the eyes;
One side of the head in shadow, no doubt,
The other is lost and quite eaten out.
 

By the rays of the sun and open air light,
Is a fallacy settled by those who have sight,
No matter whatever I do is well done,
Influenced by moon or influenced by sun.
 

My portraits are second to none, and I say it
Or rather my language being different I pray it.
Then such are my pictures, such also am I,
I live to be laughed at by all passers by.

> <

 I like how the word Emporium has the same grand qualities as Excelsior!  A 1939 article in the Reading PA Times on past times of Bernville said that C. G. Blatt advertised "magic invisible photographs" and gave them this astonishing name: "aquamirabiliso-graphictrickography".

His output of photographs continued to about 1900 and he died in 1915 at age 77. His obituary noted that in his early career he traveled Berks county with a magic lantern show and that on his death the locality of Bernville loses one of its most useful citizens. 

As you may have guessed, I believe this bearded gentleman is Cyrus G. Blatt. In the second photo I think he is holding an advertising flyer for his photography Emporium and that the other men are his assistants and apprentices. A man who liked words would likely dress the part of the romantic poet, and the few clues to his evident good humor make me think that he would enjoy music and song too. The flageolet would be a perfect musical instrument to accompany a traveling artist like C. G. Blatt. What better way to let customers know that your wagon was approaching than to announce it with the ever higher trill of a flageolet. Perhaps there was even a melody that he played for his poems.





Of course I can't prove it beyond doubt, and instead this may be some unknown musical shop keeper from some other town in Pennsylvania. But sometimes poetry has hidden meanings that we can never learn unless we keep striving higher and higher.

Excelsior!

>>> <<<

Sam Loyd's "Excelsior" 1858
White to play and mate in 5 moves
using the least likely chess piece.

One last interesting trivia connected to this poetry theme. The great puzzle maker and chessmaster Sam Loyd (1841 - 1911) created a special chess problem in 1858 to challenge a friend who claimed to be able to always find the one chess piece that would finish a game with checkmate.

Loyd bet his friend that he could not pick out the one chessman in this problem which could not possibly play for a checkmate of the black king. But actually would! Sam Loyd gave it the title Excelsior in honor of Longfellow's heroic boy who climbed ever higher to the top. 

{ see the answer below }

Did I ever mention that I like poetry and puzzles too?

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where everyone else has gone finshin'

Excelsior Solution
follow Pawn b2
to its promotion to Queen a8 - checkmate

Helen May Butler and her All-American Girls

In the 1900s, owning shares in a South African ostrich farm should have paid a very nice dividend to judge by this feathered ensemble of ladies, all musicians with Helen May Butler and her Ladies Brass Band. Despite the name this 24 piece concert band had an additional woodwind section of flutes, clarinets, and saxophones. Helen May Butler (1867-1957), the band's directress as she was sometimes called, stands in front holding her baton and dressed in a fabulous white uniform. She is surrounded by her girls - young ladies from all across America, each wearing a white blouse and uniform skirt that resembles the attire of Georgia Rymer, whom I introduced last week. But unlike her cap, these young ladies have tri-corner hats with splendid ostrich plumes. If you shake your monitor screen you might produce the same effect you would see when the band performed on stage.


The image is a reproduction photo from a Smithsonian Museum postcard which I acquired because it is hard to find many photos of Ms. Butler and her band. The card gives no date or place, but their popular tours began in 1901 and continued until 1912, when Helen May retired  to Cincinnati with her two children and 2nd husband.

This postcard of a lady with a tenor saxophone, shows a member of the Butler Ladies Band and if I am not mistaken, she is standing to the right of Helen May in the band photo. Unfortunately there is no identification on the card.

Her pose is not unlike the postcard of the trombonist Georgia Rymer, which was a gift I received from Helen Costigan, the grand daughter of Helen May Butler. Not long after that gift, she sent me a second envelope with several more postcards of her grandmother's girls, and I would like to present them for your favor today.

These young musicians performed with the Butler Ladies Band at festivals, expositions, world fairs, chautauquas, and vaudeville shows from California to New York to South Carolina and Colorado. This women's band was acclaimed the equal of any men's ensemble, and in its time, became the most renowned musical group of women musicians in America.



Today we see only a band of elaborately costumed young women, but in this era when music was a very masculine occupation, this was THE premier band of professional female musicians anywhere. They may have been a novelty to some people, a distraction or even irritation to others, but in that first decade of 1900 they were part of a cultural revolution that would introduce the American public to the very best talent and artistry that women could achieve. 

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Dec. 22, 1901

According to a display ad for New York City's Orpheum Theater,  Helen May Butler's Ladies' Military Band headlined the vaudeville stage for the first time in December 1901. First organized in 1898 by Helen May as the U.S. Talma Ladies Military Band in Providence, Rhode Island, the emphasis on military was to avoid any association with tawdry burlesque troupes and to compete directly with the hundreds of professional bands, all ensembles of men of course, which were often named as Marine Band or Regimental Band.

The Billboard, Oct. 25, 1902

Around 1901 Helen May Butler met John Leslie Spahn who became her business manager and then her husband. Together they had two children. His letters to magazines suggest Spahn was a glib talker. Perhaps too smooth, as their marriage did not last the decade.

At the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, he changed the name of the band to promote her as the foremost female band leader. As the band's agent he was responsible for making the bookings around the complex entertainment circuits. In April 1902 there was this report in Billboard magazine.

J. Leslie Spahn has just closed contracts for 118 one-night stands over the Texas Independent Opera House Circuit. At the end of that time Helen May Butler and her Ladles Military Band will have put in 304 consecutive day's work. Mr. Spahn is now considering an offer for 200 days on the Lyceum Circuit at the close of the Texas season. The band has played The Billboard March over 1000 times. 

This lady trombonist likely memorized The Billboard March as did the saxophonist and had her photo taken in the same studio. Most brass bands typically had two and usually three tenor trombones. Though there's no certainty, she may be the middle trombonist, 2nd from right on the 3rd row of the band photo.

One thing I am certain is that she is not Georgia Rymer, who is a bit shorter, measured by using the length of a trombone for reference.


As the band became more successful, Helen May Butler arranged to endorse Conn Band Instruments and in return had her band equipped by Conn with silver instruments. At the time,  C.G. Conn of Elkhart, Indiana was the world's largest manufacturer of musical instruments and a major influence in promoting bands in American culture.

The Billboard, March 16, 1906

Artists of the entertainment world of 1900 were constantly on the move, traveling from theater to theater on the vast 19th century network of trains and ships. They and their agents kept appraised of the latest showbiz news through the pages of entertainment weeklies like The Billboard, The New York Clipper, and The New York Dramatic Mirror. The advertisements targeted the theater owners and agents rather than the public. This 1906 ad for Helen May Butler's Military Band ran in the The Billboard and it's interesting that it includes a very pro-union statement that the band would "not contract with parties that have a Union Strike or any thing unfair to the Musical Unions."  Like Georgia Rymer's union card, this is more evidence that Helen May and her girls were union members of the American Federation of Musicians. You don't have to read many pages of these magazines to recognize that the working life of performers in vaudeville and traveling shows was very difficult. In between reports of successful shows and profitable ventures, there were stories of failed theatrical companies and disreputable managers which produced miserable conditions and wages for the countless people drawn to a career on the stage.

This young cornet player looks to be hardly more than age 12 or 13. Her postcard has a novel soft focus halo, but you can just about see the HMB badge on her cap. Her skirt is shorter to show off white stockings and shoes and she wears a cadet-style jacket.

Many of the girls probably responded to ads like this one from the August 11, 1906, edition of the New York Clipper:

WANTED AT ONCE:
Lady Musicians
FOR BAND. Prefer SOLO CORNET and TROMBONE
Good readers. Salaries reasonable, and R.R. fares paid after joining. Kickers and cranks stay away. 
Claysons. wire.
HELEN MAY BUTLER Dubuque, Iowa

_

New York Dramatic Mirror, Sept 1901

The New York Dramatic Mirror published a list of the members of the Butler's Ladies' Military Band in September 1901. Helen May was always listed as proprietor as well as musical director. In the early years, many of the band's musicians were girls from Providence, Rhode Island where Helen May lived in 1900. Several girls have the same last name and were undoubtedly sisters. As the band became better known, female musicians from across the country applied to join the band. I found names of girls from Colorado, Kansas, New York, and Minnesota who were praised in their hometown papers for winning a spot in the band.

Though she was most familiar with New England, growing up in Providence and studying music in Boston, for some reason in the mid-1900s, perhaps because of J. Leslie Spahn, Helen May made her home in the small town of Beatrice, Nebraska just south of Lincoln, Georgia Rymer's home. During the winter off-season, Helen  May took work there teaching music lessons and conducting church and theater orchestras, but to succeed in the super competitive world of music meant a band leader had to stay on the road and tour.

In 1904, Helen May Butler was reported to have plans to add a saxophone quartet to her band. Though the saxophone, in it's various sizes - soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone, had been around since the 1850s, it was not then a common instrument in the established American bands. However it was fast becoming a popular instrument with women and already several small ensembles included women saxophonists. No doubt Helen May decided to capitalize on this novelty factor and add female sax players to augment the usual band instrumentalists.

This lady has a tenor saxophone and clearly posed at the same studio as the cornet player. One magazine report mentioned that there were two uniforms for the ladies, one for street and one for stage, and another report described the uniform colors as purple and white.

_

The Billboard, April 18, 1908

By 1908 the Ladies Band was competing not only with bands but all manner of vaudeville acts, including Prof. Welch's Whippets, Capt. Mattery's Airships, Schepp's Dog and Pony Circus, and Mlle. Loubet's Loop of Death _ THE BEST OF ALL THRILLERS_ The only "Loop" act in which the lady is not strapped in the car.

This photo is my favorite of the collection I received from Helen Costigan. It is a very skillful portrait of a flutist and shows the HMB band uniform in better detail. She has that same modern military cap, affixed with a strategic hat pin, and a beautifully embroidered blouse under her jacket. Her instruments, a flute and piccolo, are both in African blackwood, the traditional material for this oldest of the woodwinds, and which is now used only for clarinets and oboes.


She looks older than the other band girls, not in her teens but perhaps in her twenties. All the girls were unmarried and carefully chaperoned. They were strongly discouraged from interacting with the public, especially the boys and men. This report was in the Iola, Kansas Daily Register, June 4, 1906:

The ladies in the band are not permitted to flirt or carry on conversation with strangers. The first violation of this rule means a $5 fine and the second one dismissal. This hardhearted rule has called forth a good deal of lamentation from the ever gallant southern newspapers in towns in that section which the band has visited. All save three of the ladies who were with the band in its initial year eight seasons ago have since married. All of them married their old sweethearts back home and for this the strict rules that hedge the organization may be thankful.

_

Minnesota Journal, Sept. 1905

The original band was small with between 16 and 20 musicians, mostly brass with maybe two drummers. Later the band expanded to 24 adding two or three clarinets to the brass sound. But success brings competition and the band needed to demonstrate its superior talent, so the personnel went to 40 and even 60 musicians when performing for a large audience.

In 1904, Helen May took her band to Missouri to play at a musical extravaganza that was part of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, also called the St. Louis World's Fair. The concerts they played there established Helen May Butler as a great bandleader and demonstrated that women were very much the artistic equal of men.  This promotional piece from the Minnesota Journal in 1905 shows Helen May Butler preparing for the downbeat and mentions three soloists in her 40 piece band, Florence Hamilton, trombone; Petite Vashti, horn; and Ora Sneary,  who played several brass instruments.

_

This flutist had her photo taken in Minnesota at the studio of Charles H. Collins of St. Paul. Her instrument is also made of African blackwood, but she is not wearing the same uniform as the other women. With fringe on the sleeves and skirt it might be a costume of another band, perhaps from one of the many wild west shows.

But this young lady took a business-like approach with Helen May Butler and added her name and address on the back -  
Emma Thome,
214 Dakota St.,
St. Paul, Minn.

Unfortunately I was unable to locate her in the 1900 or 1910 censuses. But the 1914 St. Paul city directory listed a hotel owner named Frank Thome with daughter Viola Thome, occupation - musician. In 1915 she was at the same address, though not on Dakota St., and now working as a clerk. But this time it was Viola E. Thome. What flutist with the name Viola wouldn't prefer to use a middle name when writing to a band director?

This last postcard has a woman posed with two different woodwind instruments, an alto saxophone and a flute, this time in silver. Doubling on several instruments is a common skill for woodwind musicians as once the finger work skill is mastered, learning another woodwind is relatively easy. It also means a versatile doubler is paid more under union rules.

This lady also added her name on the back:
Jeanne A. Graybill
Saxophone Soloist
1317 Napolean Ave.
New Orleans, La.












_

Jeanne was the daughter of Dr. Jacob B. Graybill, a physician in private practice. In the 1910 census at age 19, she was living with only her father and no mother, and listed no work. By 1920 she had a job as bookkeeper for an export company and was still single. And sadly, by 1930 her father now deceased, she was still unmarried and without occupation.





Too many mysteries, and too little time to solve them all.

These seven musicians were just a fraction of the hundreds of young women who played in Helen May Butler's bands. They were all pioneers in music, but more importantly they helped transform a culture to accept women as equals in art, business, and society.

The pressures of a failed marriage, two small children to raise, and the fatigue of constantly being on the road, caused Helen May Butler to retire from show business in 1912 and break up her band. She probably also recognized that the great age of band music was now in decline and about to be disrupted by the looming conflict in Europe. Recovered from divorce with J. Leslie Spahn, she married a Scotsman named James H. Young, and they moved to Cincinnati, Ohio to run a hotel. It was also the city of The Billboard magazine which ran this small classified ad in the May 17, 1917 edition.

LADIES BAND UNIFORMS — Like new, 8 blue,
   8 red; either set a bargain at $100.00 cash.
   HELEN MAY BUTLER,  Burlington Hotel, Cinclnnati, O.

Helen Costigan's first gift helped solve a challenging photo mystery for me, but her second gift was the key to a much larger door of cultural history. One that I am immensely thrilled to have opened and in some small part preserve the neglected musical history of Helen May Butler and her Ladies Brass Bands.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where everyone is just standing around gawping at something.

There is much much more to this story,
as Helen Costigan's gift included even more photos!
So my faithful and too kind readers can expect
at least two more sequels in the near future.

 

For more about
Helen May Butler
and her Ladies Band
start with the Prequel to this story:
A Young Lady from Nebraska

The next sequel
to Helen May Butler is:
Cornets and Apples