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Happy R. B. Hall Day
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On May 11, 1981, Governor Joseph Brennan issued a proclamation to establish the last Saturday in June as R.B. Hall Day, to honor and commemorate Robert Browne Hall. This inspired thousands of people all across Maine to say, "Who the hell is R. B. Hall?"
Glad you asked!
Hall, a.k.a. the New England March King, was born in Bowdoinham in 1858 and grew up to be an outstanding clarinetist and a conductor for the Bangor Band. But his true claim to fame are his marches - he wrote more than five dozen of them, which are still performed in brass bands around the world today. He's especially popular in Great Britain, where his music is such a part of the fabric that he's mistaken for an English composer.
While his music has traveled the globe, Hall himself rarely left the state of Maine, dying in Portland of nephritis a few weeks shy of his 49th birthday. But he is still celebrated - in fact, today he'll be celebrated from 8:30 to 6:30 at Westbrook High School, where more than a dozen bands throughout Maine will be performing his music (for the schedule, click here; for directions, click here).
To give you a sense of his music, here are a few YouTube clips of bands playing his compositions. This is the Ballyduff Silver Band from Northern Ireland performing "The New Colonial."
This is a Hungarian band doing "American Cadet March."
Finally, a German band playing Hall's signature piece, "Death or Glory."
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