Robert Browne Hall

The New Colonial March ^{? / i}
United States Navy Band

Robert Browne Hall (born June 30, 1858 in Bowdoinham , Maine , † June 8, 1907 in Portland , Maine) was an American composer , conductor and cornetist . He also composed under the pseudonym Milt Hall .

Life

His mother was a pianist and also played the violin, his father played the cornet. His father Nathaniel Browne Hall was also a virtuoso on the flap horn , as well as a conductor and soloist in the Nobleboro Silver Cornet Band . So it was very natural that he was brought up musically from an early age and learned the Eb cornet. His health had been weakened since childhood. The family moved to Richmond , the father died shortly after the move and for reasons of existence Robert Browne initially worked in a shoe factory.

When he was 19, he became the conductor of the Richmond Cornet Band and cornet player in the Chandler’s orchestra in a Portland casino . At that time he also began to compose and named his first marches RCB1 , RCB2 , RCB3 . In the fall of 1878 he became a cornet player with the JT Baldwin First Corps of Cadets Band in Boston . He learned solo pieces with the well-known virtuoso Alessandro Liberati , who later became the conductor of a well-known professional wind orchestra and also a composer. He then became a soloist with the well-known Germania Band in Boston. A sponsor (promoter) of this band was John Behr and RB Hall dedicated his The New Colonial March to him.

Some time later he was tasked with reforming the band in Bangor . This succeeded with great success and out of gratitude, an RB Hall Week was launched as a festival. He also received a precious cornet that always accompanied him in his further career. He dedicated his first published March MHA to a friend from Bangor Melvin H. Andrews . During and after his time in Bangor, he conducted and accompanied various bands in the Bangor area. It reached its peak immediately after the re-founding of the 10th Regiment Band in Albany , with which, after 11 months of intensive rehearsal work, he performed as a conductor at the Pan American Exposition alongside the John Philip Sousa Band and the Patrick Conway Band with great success.

Of his 105 works, 62 have been published.

Works

Works for wind orchestra

• American Cadet
• Chandler's March
• Commonwealth
• Cotton blossoms
• Cows in the Cotton
• Eternal rest
• Gardes du Corps
• Greeting to Bangor
• Independentia
• Main Festival
• Marche Funèbre
• Minstrel jokes
• Officer of the Day
• The American Bell
• The Cavalier
• The Imperial Life Guards
• The New Colonial March
• The Sentinel
• Tenth Regiment identical to Death or Glory
• Waterville

Web links

• Sheet music and audio files by Robert Browne Hall in the International Music Score Library Project