Patrick Gilmore (composer)

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Patrick Gilmore, approx. 1890-1892

Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore , pseudonym Louis Lambert (born December 25, 1829 in Ballygar , County Galway , † September 24, 1892 in St. Louis ) was an Irish-American military bandmaster and composer.

Life

Gilmore accompanied his father in his youth as a member of the Ballygar Fife and Drum Band on a protest march to Athlone. There he later played in local bands and took lessons in classical music and trumpet with Patrick Keating . In 1848 he emigrated to America and led various brass bands in Boston, including the Boston Brigade Band and the Charlestown Band (1853), with whom he played at the inauguration of President James Buchanan . The reorganization of the Boston Brigade Band resulted in the Patrick Gilmore's Band in 1858 , which made its first appearance in 1859.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, he and his band joined the troops of the northern states and accompanied them as a member of the 24th Mass. Volunteers General Ambrose Burnside to South Carolina. After the dissolution of various military bands, the governor of Massachusetts, John Albion Andrew , instructed him to reorganize them, and General Nathaniel Prentiss Banks appointed him bandmaster general . At the inauguration of Louisiana Governor George Michael Hahn , he was honored for his services with a banquet at the historic St. Charles Hotel , a silver goblet filled with 500 gold pieces, and a letter of recommendation to President Lincoln .

At the end of the Civil War, President Lincoln hired him to organize the peace celebrations in New Orleans. After their success, Gilmore organized and directed the National and International Peace Jubilee (1869 and 1871, respectively) in Boston , two of the most formidable music festivals in history. Thirty thousand singers, two thousand instrumentalists, prominent vocal and instrumental soloists and military bands from all over Europe took part.

In 1872 Gilmore toured Europe with his band and then organized a World Peace Jubilee in Boston , which, despite financial problems, cemented his reputation as America's most important conductor. Also in the 1870s, he opened Gilmore's Concert Garden (later Madison Square Garden ) in New York and performed at the 1876 Declaration of Independence celebrations in Philadelphia (1876), the opening of the Manhattan Beach amusement park in 1879, and the inauguration of the Statue of Liberty in 1886 on. Since the late 1880s, Gilmore was Kapellmeister of the 22nd Regiment Band , with whom he accompanied the New Year's Eve celebration in 1888 in Times Square . In 1892 he died of a heart attack while on a concert tour with his band.

Gilmore composed (sometimes under the pseudonym Louis Lambert ) numerous marching songs, including Good News From Home , We Are Coming Father Abraham , Seeing Nellie Home , Sad News From Home , The Everlasting Polka , Music Fills My Soul With Sadness and, most famous, When Johnny Comes Marching Home . On the day of his funeral, John Philip Sousa gave a concert in his honor as "The Father Of the American Band" . In 1906, a Gilmore Memorial Concert was held in Madison Square Garden in his memory . In 1969 the Patrick S. Gilmore Society was founded in Boston . On the 100th anniversary of his death in 1992, the Society erected a memorial stone on his grave in Calvary Cemetery .

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personal data
SURNAME Gilmore, Patrick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gilmore, Patrick Sarsfield (full name); Lambert, Louis (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish-American military bandmaster and composer
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1829
PLACE OF BIRTH Ballygar , County Galway
DATE OF DEATH September 24, 1892
Place of death St. Louis