Rolling Thunder
Henry Fillmore
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Browse piano sheets by Henry Fillmore on Zen Virtual Piano. The eldest of five children, Fillmore was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and as a youth got to grips with piano, guitar, violin, flute and slide trombone. His mother secretly bought a used trombone for him and hid from his father the fact that he was learning it. The Miami Military Institute in Germantown, Ohio, was his school from 1899 to 1901, after which he moved on to the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. A mother's secret purchase of a trombone, in a youth spent on several other instruments, hints at how widely music touched his youth. Schooling at a military institute before the conservatory hints at a youth that ran through several kinds of training. After the conservatory he toured the United States as a circus bandmaster with his wife, Mabel May Jones, an exotic vaudeville dancer. Miss Trombone, written in 1908 for solo trombone and piano, came out through the family business, Fillmore Music House of Cincinnati. When his father died in 1937 he became president and transformed the firm to focus on orchestral and band music, along with instrument sales. A circus tour with his wife, followed by headship of the family firm, hints at a career that moved from the road toward publishing. Many pseudonyms appeared over his career: he feared that a market flooded with pieces under the Henry Fillmore name would put buyers off, and the other names are linked to grade, difficulty or genre. Explaining his names in a 1953 interview, he described Harold Bennett pieces as easy and non-progressive, so that anyone who could play one could play them all. Fame as the Father of the Trombone Smear came from The Trombone Family, fifteen novelty tunes built on trombone smears, a series with a disturbing origin in the racial stereotypes of the minstrel era. Pseudonyms linked to grade, difficulty or genre, together with the Harold Bennett example, hint at names that doubled as labels for what a buyer would get. A smear series whose origin lies in minstrel-era stereotypes may hint at a part of his output that deserves caution. Rolling Thunder, a 1916 screamer, puts a fast, extremely technical part in the trombones; concerts often open or end with it, taken at a quick tempo. A doctor told him in 1938 that he had only months left, so he retired to Miami, Florida, then proved the doctor wrong by staying busy with high school band rehearsals and march composing. Members of the Band of the Hour affectionately called him Uncle Henry; he wrote the University of Miami's current official fight song, Miami U How-De-Doo, and the university gave him an honorary Doctor of Music in 1956. A retirement to Florida that brought high school band rehearsals hints at a move that changed the setting more than the work. A fight song for the University of Miami and an honorary doctorate from the same university hint at a lasting connection with it.
Browse piano sheets by Henry Fillmore on Zen Virtual Piano.
The eldest of five children, Fillmore was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and as a youth got to grips with piano, guitar, violin, flute and slide trombone. His mother secretly bought a used trombone for him and hid from his father the fact that he was learning it. The Miami Military Institute in Germantown, Ohio, was his school from 1899 to 1901, after which he moved on to the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. A mother's secret purchase of a trombone, in a youth spent on several other instruments, hints at how widely music touched his youth. Schooling at a military institute before the conservatory hints at a youth that ran through several kinds of training.
After the conservatory he toured the United States as a circus bandmaster with his wife, Mabel May Jones, an exotic vaudeville dancer. Miss Trombone, written in 1908 for solo trombone and piano, came out through the family business, Fillmore Music House of Cincinnati. When his father died in 1937 he became president and transformed the firm to focus on orchestral and band music, along with instrument sales. A circus tour with his wife, followed by headship of the family firm, hints at a career that moved from the road toward publishing.
Many pseudonyms appeared over his career: he feared that a market flooded with pieces under the Henry Fillmore name would put buyers off, and the other names are linked to grade, difficulty or genre. Explaining his names in a 1953 interview, he described Harold Bennett pieces as easy and non-progressive, so that anyone who could play one could play them all. Fame as the Father of the Trombone Smear came from The Trombone Family, fifteen novelty tunes built on trombone smears, a series with a disturbing origin in the racial stereotypes of the minstrel era. Pseudonyms linked to grade, difficulty or genre, together with the Harold Bennett example, hint at names that doubled as labels for what a buyer would get. A smear series whose origin lies in minstrel-era stereotypes may hint at a part of his output that deserves caution.
Rolling Thunder, a 1916 screamer, puts a fast, extremely technical part in the trombones; concerts often open or end with it, taken at a quick tempo. A doctor told him in 1938 that he had only months left, so he retired to Miami, Florida, then proved the doctor wrong by staying busy with high school band rehearsals and march composing. Members of the Band of the Hour affectionately called him Uncle Henry; he wrote the University of Miami's current official fight song, Miami U How-De-Doo, and the university gave him an honorary Doctor of Music in 1956. A retirement to Florida that brought high school band rehearsals hints at a move that changed the setting more than the work. A fight song for the University of Miami and an honorary doctorate from the same university hint at a lasting connection with it.
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Henry Fillmore
Common questions
Henry Fillmore was a musician, composer, publisher and bandleader from Cincinnati who lived from 1881 to 1956.
Henry Fillmore wrote this screamer march in 1916. Bands play it fast, and the trombones carry a demanding line; it often opens or closes a concert.
He feared that too many pieces under his own name would put buyers off; his pseudonyms are associated with grade, difficulty level or genre.
It is a series of fifteen novelty tunes featuring trombone smears, whose origin is steeped in the racial stereotypes of the minstrel era.