Union Cornet Band History
Buffalo, New York
The Union Cornet Band first appeared in Buffalo in 1851 when, on June 5th, an advertisement appeared in the Buffalo Morning Express announcing that "The UNION BRASS BAND... respectfully inform the citizens of Buffalo and vicinity that they are prepared to furnish music for Funerals, Processions, Excursions, &c." The following day, the Express said "We would call attention to the card of the Brass Band. It is composed of young men of respectability and industry, who have accomplished themselves in music during odd hours when their daily duties did not call for their time, and who are entitled to encouragement for their perseverance and skill in acquiring a good practical knowledge of the concord of sweet sounds." The advertisement, which was dated June 4, 1851, appeared in the paper daily until July 10, 1851.
For the next thirty or more years, the Union Cornet Band was one of the most prominent musical organizations in the city. During this time, there was hardly a parade or celebration in the city that did not include the Union Cornet Band. In addition to their regular Wednesday and Saturday night concerts at Schenkelberger's Hall, they played on excursions and at picnics, at balls and church dedications, in parades and benefit concerts.
The band, however, may not have met with immediate success. The notice which first appeared on June 5th, 1851, was repeated almost every other day for over a month, yet their first recorded appearance is not found until December 6, 1851. During this period, W.H. Barnhart's Buffalo Cornet Band was very active in Buffalo.
The first known public performance of the Union Brass Band was on a pleasure excursion to Dunkirk aboard the steamer Empire which took place on Monday, June 20, 1853, "for the purpose of defraying the expenses of their new uniforms. The boat will leave the foot of Commercial street, at half past 9 o'clock A.M. The members of the band will spare no exertions to render this trip a pleasant and satisfactory day's recreation to all." By October 1854, the band was known as the Union Cornet Band, a name which would be retained until the 1874 reorganization when reed instruments were added.
In 1853 the First Annual Festival of the Union Brass Band was held. This apparently was an attempt to make themselves more well-known. The Second and Third Annual Festivals were held in 1854 and 1855 at Roth's New Hall at the corner of Michigan and Cypress streets.
During the Civil War, some members of the Union Cornet Band, including the four Nebrich brothers, joined the Regimental Band of the 21st New York Regiment. The rest of the band members kept up a regular schedule of events throughout the war. After the war, the band served as the Regimental Band for the 74th Regiment of the New York National Guard and made two trips to the Philadelphia Centennial in 1876.
Years later, Otto F. Andrle, son of long time band member Francis Andrle, recalled the Wednesday and Saturday evening concerts at Schenkelberger's Hall. "Grand concerts, those, out Main street in the Cold Spring district. Whole families gathered about, glasses of bubbling beer on the tables in the beer gardens, while the brasses thrilled, and moaned, and hummed music of the masters and music of the day. The Clements were there, and the Carys, and the Drullards, the Blochers, and the Schoellkopfs' and Philip Becker, Conrad Diehl, and Augustus Scheu. It was a bit of the old world and the new - that beer garden."
Schenkelberger's Hall was described in an Express article in June 1874 at the inauguration of the regular series of summer night concerts. "The hall has been renovated and repainted, and with its high roof and spacious interior will prove to be a refreshingly cool and comfortable place to spend an evening when the real hot weather sets in. The floor was thickly scattered over with chairs and tables, and baskets of trailing plants were suspended from the beams overhead. The yard back of the hall, which has been floored and covered over with an awning of white cloth, will accommodate a large number of guests, and is the most attractive spot about the premises."
In 1874, the band was reorganized as the Union Cornet Reed Band under the
direction of Louis H. Plogsted. Plogsted had become a member of the band in 1865 at the
age of 17, when Professor Federlein was the conductor. Plogsted became the conductor in
1873 upon the retirement of Federlein. This was the first military band using reed
instruments in the city, and gave its first concert at St. James Hall, May 29, 1874. At
this time, the band was composed of 28 pieces, 2 e flat clarinets, 4 b flat clarionets, 1
piccolo, 2 bassoons, 2 b flat cornets, 2 e flat trumpets, 4 horns, 2 trombones, 1 euphonium,
3 e flat basses, 1 bass trombone, 1 big drum, 1 pair cymbals, 2 small drums and 1
triangle.
In 1876, the band made two trips to the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.
Benefit performances were often given by the band for different causes. On Thursday evening, September 20, 1877, the band gave a concert at Kehr's Hall for the benefit of one of their own members, Mr. Frank Andrle, "who is much in need of this assistance, in consequence of protracted illness." At his funeral in December of that year, "the members of the Union Cornet Band were present as mourners, and the remains were escorted to Pine-Hill Cemetery by the Germania, Miller's, Kehr's and Young's bands."
After the break-up of the Union Cornet Band sometime after 1880, some of the members joined the Young's Band.