Monday, October 10, 2022
If there was ever a 'music for life' event this year, Springfield hosted it! This past July, over 90 fans of circus band music gathered at the annual summer meeting of the Windjammers Unlimited Circus Music Preservation Society. The group included 67 instrumentalists, along with spouses and a surprising number of non-playing members who enjoy the genre. Many attended just to hear the mammoth playlist of 81 pieces that the group rehearsed over the length of the four-day meet.
Windjammers Unlimited (WJU) was formed in 1971 as many of the traditional big-top shows were scaling back from full-sized live bands in favor of recorded music or more modern styles. The retirement of legendary circus bandmaster Merle Evans (born in Columbus, KS--a great stop for band fans is their local historical society, as well as the display in the museum at Joplin's Schifferdecker Park) in 1969 was a milestone event in the century-plus tradition of marches, waltzes, galops, and characteristic pieces that accompanied each act. Like many bands of the time, Evans' Barnum & Bailey/Ringling Bros. Combined Show traveled with a compact nucleus of a band and picked up local musicians at each stop to fill out the band.
It was the retired musicians of these circus bands, plus many of the locally hired bandsmen who joined together in 1971 to form WJU. Only a few original members attended the meet in Springfield, where the ages of the bandsmen spanned a 60-year range. Many had never played in a traveling circus ensemble but grew to love this type of music through their school marching and concert bands, community bands, and professional groups. The experience levels in the group included high school band graduates to a newly retired career member of the Philadelphia Orchestra and St. Louis Symphony. Several local directors joined in for an educational session hosted at Hillcrest High School.
The band held a total of ten rehearsal and clinic sessions over the four days and a dress rehearsal for the grand finale concert at the end of the convention. Each 80-minute session featured a playlist of nine selections, many of them familiar to the old pros in the band--but occasionally, a rare gem or newly unearthed piece from a familiar composer would appear in a session and receive extra rehearsal time. In the spirit of the WJU's mission to preserve the music of the circus, each piece was recorded and added to the archive, which is available on the organization's website (www.mywju.org) in full for members, with a rotation of musical selections for visitors.
The group holds a summer meet (typically in the Midwest) and a January meet in Sarasota, FL to commemorate "Ring of Fame" members and play for the Sailor Circus (an academy for acrobats, jugglers, equestrians, and more in the Bradenton area.)
Directors who enjoy the PMC Quick Notes are encouraged to visit the organization's website and to investigate the music of regional composers for the circus, including Evans, J.J. Richards, and Russell Alexander. Each created challenging but tuneful marches and galops for bands that are great for developing technique in addition to providing an entertaining and tuneful experience for the next generation of band students.
The collaboration of 'children of all ages' during the four-day meet is a great testimonial to the lifelong appeal of learning a band instrument. For this group of band performers who took a few days to run away with the circus, it was a summer to remember.
| Marvin Manring retired from Stockton R-1 Schools in 2022 after 37 years as a public school band and choir director. He is currently active as a clinician and adjudicator, and as a candidate for the 127th Missouri House District. Manring serves the Missouri Music Educators Association as Historian and the Windjammers Unlimited as a member of the board of trustees. He was the site coordinator for the WJU summer meet in Springfield in July 2022, and served as a session conductor for the 2018 and 2022 meets. |
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