W. Paris Chambers
Encyclopedia
William Paris Chambers was an American composer, cornet
Cornet
The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...

 soloist and bandmaster of the late 19th century.

He was born in Newport, Pennsylvania
Newport, Pennsylvania
Newport is a borough in Perry County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,506 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Newport is located at ....

 but spent most of his early years in Newville, Pennsylvania
Newville, Pennsylvania
Newville is a borough in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania near Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The population was 1,367 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area.Newville is served by the Big Spring School District....

. It was in Newville that he studied music, quickly becoming a proficient performer on the cornet which he began to study around age thirteen. By the age of eighteen he was conducting the Keystone Cornet Band. At the age of 25, he conducted the Capital City Band of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 49,528, making it the ninth largest city in Pennsylvania...

. He was also given credit for bringing the Chambersburg
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
Chambersburg is a borough in the South Central region of Pennsylvania, United States. It is miles north of Maryland and the Mason-Dixon line and southwest of Harrisburg in the Cumberland Valley, which is part of the Great Appalachian Valley. Chambersburg is the county seat of Franklin County...

 and Martinsburg
Martinsburg, Pennsylvania
Martinsburg, in Morrisons Cove, is a borough in Blair County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,236 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Altoona, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Martinsburg is located at ....

 bands into state-wide fame.

Between 1887–1893 he conducted the Great-Southern Band of Baltimore, Maryland. While on a tour with the Great-Southern in 1892 Chamber’s demonstrated his stamina and skill with the cornet with a solo performed from the 14,500 foot summit of Pike’s Peak.

At the turn of the century, Chamber’s managed the C.G. Conn store in New York City, performing impromptu on the cornet for the customers including fellow cornet virtuosi. His forte was a phenomenally high register ascending to the third high C. He liked to tell his store audience: “It is all really very simple, all you have to do is to develop the muscle in and around the lips, by long hours of the right kind of practice, and anyone can do the same things I do on the cornet”.

He was regularly featured in cornet solos with Francesco Fanciulli’s Seventy First Regiment Band on the mall at Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...

.

In 1905–1906 he performed cornet solos in Europe and Africa, accompanied by his own band of musicians. One of his favorite concert tricks was to hold the cornet inverted during difficult solos, pushing the valves up instead of down and with the backs of his fingers and maintaining correct tempo. He would sometimes perform on the cornet with the bell touching his right ear.

In 1906, he performed for Jules Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...

 in Paris. The famous French composer was averse to hearing the cornet, but he relented and accompanied Chambers in his own Élégie Op. 5, No. 10 and afterward complimented Chambers on his performance and said “I have just composed a little song Je t’aime!, which ought to make a fine effect on the cornet when performed by an artist like yourself”. Massenet played the piece on the piano and then chamber performed the work on the cornet.

Chambers filed for bankruptcy in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York is a federal district court. Appeals from the Southern District of New York are taken to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (in case...

 on October 28, 1908. On February 20, 1910, he performed on the cornet with his wife (she on the piano) at the Maine Memorial Service” for the United Spanish War Veterans
United Spanish War Veterans
Soon after the Spanish-American War ended, in early 1899, discharged veterans rushed to form fraternal societies. Among these were the Spanish War Veterans, the Spanish-American War Veterans, the Servicemen of the Spanish War, American Veterans of Foreign Service, the Army of the Philippines, the...

 at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

 in New York.

He wrote several cornet solos and nearly 90 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...

. His most well-known works are The Boys of the Old Brigade (Unrelated to the Irish republican song of the same name) and Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

, both marches. His compositions have been called “some of the finest and most difficult works in the American march repertoire”.

Marches

  • The Boys of the Old Brigade (1901)
  • Buffalo Bill's Equestrian (1903)
  • Chicago Tribune (1892)
  • Comrades Return (1902)
  • Detroit Free Press (1897)
  • Hostrauser's (1896)
  • King of Terror (1892)
  • Marche Religioso (1895)
  • Northwind (1895)
  • St. Andrew's March (1902)
  • Sweeney’s Cavalcade (1902)
  • Trombone Section (1886)

Cornet Solos

  • Commodore Polka (1899)
  • Kryl’s Favorite
  • Narcissus
  • Nelly Gray with Variations”
  • The Seraph (1899)


Chambers’ compositions were published by John Church, Harry Coleman, Carl Fischer Music
Carl Fischer Music
Carl Fischer Music is a major publisher of sheet music based in New York City that has been in business since 1872. As one of the few remaining family-owned music publishers, it supplies educational materials to professional and beginning musicians of all ages, as well as new music works.Notable...

, J. W. Pepper and Son, Roland F. Seitz
Roland F. Seitz
Roland Forrest Seitz was an American composer, bandmaster, and music publisher. For his many march compositions he earned the sobriquet “The Parade Music Prince”....

, Southern Music, E. F. Kalmus, and Wingert-Jones Music.

Chambers was the earliest artist to record the cornet on disc, for Berliner.
Chambers performed on Edison and Berliner records (in the 1890s) and on Zonophone (in 1901). Several of his works were performed on Victor records.

Amongst his famous cornet students were Frederick Otis Currier (1872–1921), B. Frank Maurer (1870–?), and Al Sweet (1876–1945).

In 1912 Chambers formed the municipal band in Atlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, and a nationally renowned resort city for gambling, shopping and fine dining. The city also served as the inspiration for the American version of the board game Monopoly. Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island on the coast...

. Chambers returned to Newville, Pennsylvania and while trying to rebuild his health he also rebuilt the band there. W. Paris Chambers died in Newville in 1913 and is buried in the Newville Cemetery.

External links

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