Taiwan gets an odd -- some might say surreal -- opportunity to hear a musical history from both sides of the Mason-Dixon line in the coming weeks, when Civil War revivalist combo, Saxton's Cornet Band (SCB) marches into town for a series of concerts nationwide.
Although the current 20 piece band was founded in Frankfurt, Kentucky, in 1989 the non-profit educational act can in fact trace its roots back more than 100 years.
Initially formed in the 1850s by Henry Saxton in Lexington, Kentucky, the original Saxton's military marching band built up a strong following during the American Civil War. Although Saxton is today believed to have been pro-Union, as the band's base was located in the border-state of Kentucky, many of Saxton's early performances took place under the Stars and Bars at Confederate military tattoos.
By creating its own elaborate patriotic ballads, many of which were in fact adapted from popular operas of the day, Saxton's band quickly became famous for its quickstep marches throughout Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia and the Carolinas.
Not that it was all about marching and dancing, however. According to historical records, these early performances often included pianists and vocalists as well as poetry recitals.
Along with continuing to entertain the troops, albeit the guys in blue, after the fighting had stopped, the band also branched out and began to perform for civilians at dances, parades and weddings and, of course, funerals.
The music performed by Saxton's latter-day combo all originates from the Civil War period. Some of the scores are painstakingly copied note-by-note from the actual manuscripts originally used by bands during the mid-1800s. When compositions are incomplete the band attempts to reconstruct the lost segments of the tunes, basing themselves on the styles of composition prevalent at the time.
To recreate the genuine Civil War sound the ensemble uses a combination of instruments dating back to the mid-1800s and accurate reproductions of instruments of the period. And while it may not sound hygienic, the band uses only antique mouthpieces, for added realism. The band's percussion instruments are reproductions of mid-19th century animal skin and hemp snare and bass drums. In order to appease both sides of the Mason-Dixon line today, the combo performs a mixture of Union, Confederate and popular non-military music.
Like the detail and authenticity given to its instrumentation, Saxton's Cornet Band strives to ensure that its attire is as genuine as possible. All of its uniforms are accurate reproductions of the originals and are made using period--style fabrics and by employing the same tailoring techniques as those used back in the mid-1800s.
In these more tolerant times, the combo no longer only dons the Confederate colors. It now appears in the Union Army of Cumberland blue as well as the Confederate Army of Tennessee gray. Both armies fought in the Western theater of the Civil War. The band also performs occasionally in period-style civilian clothing.
While the band no longer performs at military tattoos, it is, on occasion, recalled to active duty. The SCB continues to play a role in many of the large-scale reenactments of Civil War battles. These have included reenactments of such infamous melees as the battle of Olustee, Florida, which took place on Feb. 20, 1864 and the battle of Boone Plantation, which took place near Charleston, South Carolina on June 16, 1862.
Performances have also included appearances on both the big and the small screen. In 1991, the band played itself in the Tom Berenger and Martin Sheen movie, Gettysburg, and appeared again as a military band in 1998's The Day Lincoln Was Shot, a made-for-TV movie starring Rob Morrow and Lance Henriksen.
And, while some may question whether it's either something to write home about or tell the grandchildren about, the band also performed at the Jan. 2001 inauguration of George W. Bush at the Reagan Center as well participating in Bush's inaugural parade.
For the group's up-coming Taipei concerts, the combo will be presenting a series of sets that combine the music of the period with poetry and narration, with a focus on the historical significance of the various Yankee and Johnny Reb rousing melodies.
The SCB's Taiwan tour will begin tomorrow, when the combo brings the sounds of the American Civil War era to the stage of the Chungli Arts Center (
Tickets cost between NT$300 and NT$1,000, depending on the venue, and are available from ERA ticketing outlets nationwide, or direct from the venue. For a full tour schedule and further information about the tour, visit www.kham.com.tw.
May 11 to May 18 The original Taichung Railway Station was long thought to have been completely razed. Opening on May 15, 1905, the one-story wooden structure soon outgrew its purpose and was replaced in 1917 by a grandiose, Western-style station. During construction on the third-generation station in 2017, workers discovered the service pit for the original station’s locomotive depot. A year later, a small wooden building on site was determined by historians to be the first stationmaster’s office, built around 1908. With these findings, the Taichung Railway Station Cultural Park now boasts that it has
The latest Formosa poll released at the end of last month shows confidence in President William Lai (賴清德) plunged 8.1 percent, while satisfaction with the Lai administration fared worse with a drop of 8.5 percent. Those lacking confidence in Lai jumped by 6 percent and dissatisfaction in his administration spiked up 6.7 percent. Confidence in Lai is still strong at 48.6 percent, compared to 43 percent lacking confidence — but this is his worst result overall since he took office. For the first time, dissatisfaction with his administration surpassed satisfaction, 47.3 to 47.1 percent. Though statistically a tie, for most
In February of this year the Taipei Times reported on the visit of Lienchiang County Commissioner Wang Chung-ming (王忠銘) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and a delegation to a lantern festival in Fuzhou’s Mawei District in Fujian Province. “Today, Mawei and Matsu jointly marked the lantern festival,” Wang was quoted as saying, adding that both sides “being of one people,” is a cause for joy. Wang was passing around a common claim of officials of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the PRC’s allies and supporters in Taiwan — KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party — and elsewhere: Taiwan and
Six weeks before I embarked on a research mission in Kyoto, I was sitting alone at a bar counter in Melbourne. Next to me, a woman was bragging loudly to a friend: She, too, was heading to Kyoto, I quickly discerned. Except her trip was in four months. And she’d just pulled an all-nighter booking restaurant reservations. As I snooped on the conversation, I broke out in a sweat, panicking because I’d yet to secure a single table. Then I remembered: Eating well in Japan is absolutely not something to lose sleep over. It’s true that the best-known institutions book up faster
RSS