Books › Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937 › scan 250
Scan 250
Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937
11 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 224. See the scan on archive.org.
11841 when the name of Elbridge G. Wright, who was also a good cornet player, 6 appears in the city directory as a musical instrument maker. From 1842 to about 1860 he had his own brass band instrument manufacturing business. Then he, like the others in this field, changed his affiliations several times as Section D of Appendix IV shows. Among the instruments made by him was a double bass or monster ophicleide, an octave below the alto ophicleide, for Thomas David of Concord, New Hampshire. According to the catalogue of Chickering & Sons' Exhibition held in 1902 it was the only one made in America. Unfortunately it had been lost track of even then. His firm also made a silver E-flat keyed bugle with eleven keys used by Rudolph Hall, second leader of Hall's Boston Brass Band. He like his brother David was a bugle and cornet player.
3Another early maker of brass band instruments was J. Lathrop Allen of Boston. He made in 1845 the silver cornet in the unusual key of A for Harvey Dodworth, whose family obtained the Dodworth patent in 1838, an American invention for cornet, first made in pump valve and later in rotary style. This instrument was a gift from the members of his band and was used by him for over forty years while leader of the Dodworth Band of New York. He played this cornet in the Central Park Concerts for over twenty-five years and at ten inaugurations of Presidents of the United States. It is bell over the shoulder, rotary action, with five valves and is the only one known to have been made. 7
5In 1852 Mr. Allen formed the partnership of Allen & Richardson which seems to have been the start of two firms whose names became well known in brass instrument manufacturing, namely—Allen Mfg., succeeded first by Allen & Hall, then Hall & Quinby and finally Quinby Brothers; and B. F. Richardson, followed by Richardson & Bayley, manufacturers of the Bayley Model Cornet used by a famous player of the day, Mathew Arbuckle, and finally Richardson & Lehnert.
7David C. Hall, first leader of Hall's Boston Brass Band and a partner in Allen & Hall, was born at Lyme, New Hampshire, about 1820, and came first to Lowell and then to Boston. He was one of the most noted key bugle players of the day along with Joseph Green, second leader of the Boston Brass Band, later in Providence,
96 Information supplied by Thomas M. Carter, leader of Carter's Band.
107 Historical Musical Exhibition Under the Auspices of Chickering & Sons, Horticultural Hall, Boston, January 11th to 26th 1902, Catalogue of, p. 38.
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