Henry Fillmore was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

, composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, publisher, and bandleader

Bandleader

A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....

, best-known for his many marches

March (music)

A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John...

 and screamers

Screamer (march)

A screamer is a descriptive name for a circus march, in particular, an upbeat march intended to stir up the audience during the show.- History :...

.

Biography

James Henry Fillmore Jr. was born in Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati, Ohio

Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...

 as the eldest of five children. In his youth, he mastered piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

, guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

, and flute

Flute

The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...

, as well as the slide trombone, which at first he played in secret, as his conservative religious father believed it an uncouth and sinful instrument. Fillmore was also a singer for his church choir as a boy. He began composing at 18, with his first published march

March (music)

A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John...

 "Higham", named after a line of brass instruments.

Fillmore entered the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music

Cincinnati Conservatory of Music

The Cincinnati Conservatory of Music was a conservatory, part of a girls' finishing school, founded in 1867 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It merged with the College of Music of Cincinnati in 1955, forming the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, which is now part of the University of Cincinnati.The...

 in 1901. After this, he traveled around the United States as a circus bandmaster

Bandmaster

A bandmaster is the leader and conductor of a band, usually a military band, brass band or a marching band.-British Armed Forces:In the British Armed Forces, a Bandmaster is always a Warrant Officer Class 1 . A commissioned officer who leads a band is known as the Director of Music...

 with his wife, an exotic dancer

Exotic dancer

The terms exotic dancer and exotic dance can have different meanings in different parts of the world and depending on context. In the erotic sense, "exotic dance" is a often used to refer to practitioners of striptease...

, named Mabel May Jones. They were married in St Louis.

In the 1920s, he was back in Cincinnati, directing the Shriners

Shriners

The Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, also commonly known as Shriners and abbreviated A.A.O.N.M.S., established in 1870, is an appendant body to Freemasonry, based in the United States...

 Temple Band, which he turned into one of the best marching band

Marching band

Marching band is a physical activity in which a group of instrumental musicians generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching with their musical performance. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments...

s in the country.

In 1938, Fillmore retired to Miami, Florida

Miami, Florida

Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...

, but kept active in his later years organizing and rehearsing high school bands in Florida. Henry Fillmore Band Hall, the rehearsal hall for many of the University of Miami

University of Miami

The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...

's performing groups, including the Band of the Hour

Band of the Hour

The Frost Band of the Hour is the marching band at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. The band plays at all home football games and one away game. It also travels to post-season football bowl games in years that the football team plays at one. The university also has separate...

, stands today as a tribute to Fillmore's work in the band genre. There, he wrote his final piece, "President's March". He was given an Honorary Doctorate of Music by UM in 1956 in appreciation for his outstanding contributions to local school bands. Fillmore lived out the rest of his days in South Florida.

Music

A prolific composer, Fillmore wrote over 250 tunes and arranged orchestrations for hundreds more. He also published a great number of tunes under various pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

s. Henry Fillmore wrote under a series of different names such as Harold Bennett, Ray Hall, Harry Hartley, Al Hayes, and the funniest, Henrietta Moore. The name that caused a conflict was Will Huff, because there was a Will Huff who composed marches and lived in his state and area.

While best-known for march music and screamers

Screamer (march)

A screamer is a descriptive name for a circus march, in particular, an upbeat march intended to stir up the audience during the show.- History :...

, he also wrote waltz

Waltz

The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...

es, foxtrots

Foxtrot (Dance)

The foxtrot is a smooth progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band music, and the feeling is one of elegance and sophistication...

, hymns, novelty numbers, and overtures. Fillmore's best known compositions include:

• "The President's March"
• "The Footlifter"
• "Americans We"
• "Men of Ohio"
• "His Honor"
• "The Klaxon"
• "Lassus Trombone"
• "(We're) Men of Florida"
• "Military Escort"
• "Mt. Healthy"
• "The Crosley March"
• "Noble Men"
• "Orange Bowl March"
• "Rolling Thunder March
  Rolling Thunder March
  "Rolling Thunder" is a screamer composed by Henry Fillmore in 1916. It includes a fast and extremely technical trombone part. It has a fast and furious tempo and is performed as openers and encores of concerts...
  
  "
• "The Circus Bee
  The Circus Bee
  "The Circus Bee" is a circus march composed by Henry Fillmore in February 1908. It is a technically advanced composition and is used as openers and encores in concerts....
  
  "
• "King Karl King"

Fillmore gained fame as the "Father of the Trombone Smear", writing a series of fifteen novelty tunes featuring trombone smears called "The Trombone Family". A number of these have a strong ragtime

Ragtime

Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...

influence. All of Fillmore's trombone rags are:

• "Miss Trombone" (1908)
• "Teddy Trombone" (1911)
• "Lassus Trombone" (1915)
• "Pahson Trombone" (1916)
• "Sally Trombone" (1917)
• "Slim Trombone" (1918)
• "Mose Trombone" (1919)
• "Shoutin' Liza Trombone" (1920)
• "Hot Trombone" (1921)
• "Bones Trombone" (1922)
• "Dusty Trombone" (1923)
• "Bull Trombone" (1924)
• "Lucky Trombone" (1926)
• "Boss Trombone" (1929)
• "Ham Trombone" (1929)

External links

• Fillmore on hutchcc.edu
• Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary Composer Biographies - Henry Fillmore
• also see the Karl King Page (each of these "March Kings" wrote a march saluting the other)

See also: "The Music of Henry Fillmore and Will Huff", by Paul E. Bierley, Columbus, OH: Integrity Press, 1982. ISBN 0-918048-02-8.