Saturday, March 2, 2013

Americans We

Henry Fillmore (1881–1956) had problems deciding on a title for this march. His band was giving a series of concerts at the local zoo so he would introduce the new work as The Cincinnati Zoo one day and Pure Food and Health the next! Finally, realizing that it was probably his finest march, he published it in 1929 as Americans We and dedicated it “to all of us.” Noting the exuberance in this march, Paul Yoder reminisced recently that Fillmore had once told him that he wrote music “to make people happy.” [Information from Paul Yoder] (Source: March Music Notes, Norman E. Smith)