of 'the Regiment Band of Fayetteville wiU open the festival on Saturday with a 19th Century touch and the Gen. Robert F. Hoke march.
Regiment adds Civil War musical note
By Ed Miller
Take a step back into the dim cor
ners of the past. Not just Hoke Coun
ty's past, but everyone's.
To stand beside the Hoke County
Library at 11:30 on the morning of
September 21 with eyes closed, one
might think they were just coming off
a battlefield of the Civil War.
The Regimental Band of the 1 1th
North Carolina Troops will be play
ing their style of music and, their style
is the way it was written in the 19th
century.
The Fayetteville group plays
original civil war band music, not in
jazzed arrangements, but the exact
way it was written. They use period
instruments to play their music on,
said Dr. Robert E. Downing, leader
of the group.
"What you hear us play is what
they heard. We haven't changed it or
jazzed it up a bit," he said.
The instruments used in the band
are quite different from ones found
today.
The regimental band uses two types
of cornets, two different horns and a
tuba, Downing said.
Instruments for the 15 member
band had to be custom made by a
California man at a cost of about
$1,000 apiece.
What is very interesting about the
band is the way they get their music.
According to Downing, most of it
comes from band books from the
days of the civil war that have been
uncovered in an attic somewhere or in
a library.
"Most people don't know what
they're looking at when they see a
book of music from that period," he
said.
Some of the music has been
transposed from books of music for
pianos of the period, he said.
Even the transposed music is
authentic down to the last chord, said
Downing.
The Saturday morning concert will
contain tunes recognizable by all in
cluding a surprise song, the title of
which he would not say.
Downing did say the song was said
to be one of Abraham Lincoln's per
sonal favorites.
Another song to be played is one
written for the man Hoke County was
named for.
Colonel Hoke's March will be
heard for the first time in a long time,
if at all, in the county bearing his
name.
The song was written in 1862 to
honor Robert W. Hoke when he was
colonel of the 21st North Carolina
Regiment, said Downing.
It takes a special kind of person to
research the history of this music and
to research the music itself.
"I've always been a history buff
since I could read," said Downing.
The man holds a particular facina
tion for civil war history.
In 1981, he published a compila
tion set of suites from the period. "It
naturally followed that we form a
band," said Downing.
The Regimental Band is one of the
most respected in this area if not in
the country.
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