Amesbury High School Orchestra

Music matters any time of year, but there’s something about the celebrations and ceremonies of June that elicits a particular craving for music in community.  Marking both endings and beginnings; triumphs, and defeats; music amplifies our experiences and cements our memories.  With the end of the school year the crescendo of culminations feels almost like a constant crush.  Our athletes off to battle at state championships, school graduations, and celebrations of academic and artistic excellence all hit our calendars this time of year.

It’s easy to dismiss those neighbors who lament the passing of time and the loss of the “good old days” for a vision of success that clings to a progressive ideal, but with a shift in perspective we can see that history does have so much to teach us and some things that have come and gone are worth resurrecting.  The celebrated and sweeping High School music program complete with marching band and Orchestra may just be one of them. 

Ask any high school athlete if music has a place in athletics and in my experience, you’ll hear a resounding yes.  From the pulsing power of locker room pump-ups to the on-field performances of classic marching tunes, music infuses the experience of athletic communion.  Cheerleaders rely on rhythmic calls and chants to invigorate the crowd (couple their physical prowess with the accompanying band and you’ve got an inspiring and captivating cultural spectacle; and that’s all before the game officially begins).  

The enthusiasm of the crowd inspires athletes, calling them to their communal effort of exertion and agility, strength, and creativity.  Hockey players glide onto the ice to soundtracks meant to aggregate the energy of the arena bringing the fans and players together in their unified goal of achieving collaboratively what no individual could do alone. 

On these teams, each player has a role to play, a position to focus on, an instrument of their excellence to employ in the larger effort of rallying around a shared joy and effervescence.  And they rely on our musicians to create the soundtrack to this experience.   One team of players with brass and drums, melody and pitch playing out the rhythm that amplifies the athletes on the field thumping and pumping them up to play and perform in tandem.  The ebb and flow of the musicians and the athletes contributes to the success of the capital T, Team.

There's been much discussion of late regarding statistics of the formal band and music program in Amesbury Public Schools, passion abounds, and it seems no matter what seat you are sitting in there is an enthusiasm for music education even if also deep disagreement on how to best execute and support a strong program.

AHS didn’t always have a band.  Before the formation of the High School music program, musically inclined students took private lessons played in the home or community concerts.  During the latter years of the 1800s and into the turn of the century Amesbury schools shifted from neighborhood schoolhouses to a more centralized model.  This aggregation of students coupled with shifts in educational theory facilitated the introduction of more extra-curricular offerings, activities deemed valuable for student development, but which fell outside the core curriculum.  Before the formation of the band the High School hosted an orchestra.  At the outset this musical ensemble included violin, and cello and was a largely stringed assembly.  In later years instruments expanded to include percussion, brass, and wind.  The High School Orchestra was formed around 1919.  

By the mid-1920s many US school systems recognized musical education as core curriculum and school band offerings expanded to complement the existing orchestra ensembles.  Character development and social strengthening became paramount forces in support of music education.  As one educational philosopher stated, “the trouble with our common school education is that it is concerned too exclusively with the things of knowledge, and that it leaves the deepest power in the children undeveloped. This unused part is his spirit; the realm of Motive and Creative Life. The boy whose powers are merely physical is but a fraction of his true self...To fully fit your child for life, then, you must complete him; body, mind, and spirit.”   William L. Tomlins 

As neighboring communities here began to expand their music programs for public school students, Amesbury followed suit.  In the 1930s conversations within the community began encouraging support for a High School marching band with the express purpose of playing at sporting events and community ceremonies.

Music mattered, for parades, assemblies, veteran’s events, and funerals and residents wanted results.  Our community and so many others craved these soundtracks to their lives and believed public schools should support their formation and development. Several booster programs including the Amesbury Youth Music Foundation, formed over the years to raise awareness and funds for band uniforms, instruments, and field-trips. 

Over the next several decades the uniformed band, accompanied by drill teams and color guards, performed at hundreds of events, The Thanksgiving Day football game proving to be an annual highlight.   

Just as regular practice time is key for success in sports, rehearsal time has long been understood to be critical to the High School band’s excellence.  In 1949 students and staff introduced a magazine drive to support the High School band program for purchase of higher quality instruments and uniforms and to ensure rehearsal time was allocated. In 1960 the band held two rehearsals weekly during the school day in addition to an hour and half evening rehearsal each week. 

In 1960 Band Director Francis Lawlor (in the Amesbury Town Annual report) highlights the 55 High School Band members and the program’s strength in supporting both public relations and music education in its performance schedule (and that’s not to mention the 35 players in the Junior High School Band).

After 22 years of leadership High School Band Director Horan retired in 2011 marking the first time in decades the school lacked a full time Band Director position.   

Like sports, music takes practice, dedication, commitment, aptitude, and training.  Excellence is achieved through perseverance.  To excel in anything its paramount that have something greater than yourself to strive for.  Middle school musicians deserve to have senior artists to look up to, to emulate and to see as role models.  To engender in them the determination and grit required to get through the monotonous practices and, sight reading, and scales that lead to growth and excellence. 

There is a corporality to both athletics and music.  We feel music in our whole selves. It can bring us to our knees in sorrow or exalt us to joyous expression.  We turn to musicians in our deepest suffering for funerals and rites of passage, and to accompany us for those most joyous occasions of celebration: a retirement; a graduation; a wedding.  We find comfort in a crowd of concert goers moving in unison.  We rally around our teams to soundtracks that stir sing-alongs in crowds of tens of thousands. 

What underlies this encompassing experience? Recent research points to Awe.  Catching up to what many spiritual leaders and artists have been expressing for centuries, scientists are beginning to demonstrate the biological benefits of awe.  Music and athletic events are two of the primary sources of this fundamental emotion.  Coupled together, and you've got kryptonite for the soul.  

It is a seemingly unlikely symbiosis between the band kids and the jocks but in my experience one that profoundly inspires each and every player we field for game day. The corollaries between bandmates and teammates can’t go unnoticed.  Just as our freshman players motivate themselves with a desire to reach that high school pinnacle of starting Varsity or a coveted spot on a D1 team, our musicians practice with the same drive for excellence, and when they strive in tandem our community achieves a true symphony. 

(Bits of Beauty is written by Meghan Fahey, Head of Archives, Amesbury Public Library. All images unless otherwise noted are from the APL Local History Collection, use credit line if sharing images: Courtesy Amesbury Public Library Local History Collection.)