Band Music from the Benjamin H. Grierson Collection

While noted in Civil War history as the cavalry colonel who led Grierson's Raid, before the war Benjamin H. Grierson was a musician and leader of bands in the Midwest. His musical activity extended from 1846, when he established his own band in Youngstown, Ohio, into the 1850s, with his musical organizations acclaimed in Jacksonville and Springfield, Illinois. Grierson's collection of two manuscript sets of band books and a manuscript of full scores for band from the 1840s are the earliest substantial collections known for an American band. This edition presents a selection of works from Grierson's collection of band music, which traces the evolution of the American brass band, its music, and its instrumentation, in the years preceding the Civil War.