Alliance City Band Stories
Two former Alliance City Band members, Paul Hobe and Ralph Holibaugh, share the history of the Alliance City Band and their reminiscences of the members of the band through a series of blog posts.
The Band began in 1859 with the Haines Family and became a first class ensemble during the early 1900s under the baton of Emil Rinkendorf. The last concert performed by the band was in 1988 and it dissolved in 1991.
The Joy of Music: Ron Buetler, A Lead Trombonist in the ACB
By Ralph Holibaugh How and when music came to Ronald Edmund Buetler is not documented. Not even his family knows. He was born in 1924 on Walnut Street in the north end of Alliance. Nearby was an intriguing scene of freight cars, railroad switches, junctions, spurs,...
Money, Money, Money …
By Paul Hobe A viewing of the timeline in A Band of Music shows that the organization had a constant struggle for financing. Money was needed for music, rehearsal space, director’s salary, uniforms and perhaps a small salary for the musicians. Although there is record...
Rinkendorf: The “Zenith Years”
By Paul Hobe Music teachers are amazing. From elementary school to the most professional orchestral conductors, they are teaching. Most school district’s music departments will have some sort of concert or “band in the round” by which various band levels beginning...
It Takes a Family …
By Ralph Holibaugh The history of America is dotted with examples of “family bands” made up of spouses, their children, and relatives who made music together in vocal and instrumental groups or a combination thereof. Each band had a focus. Following the Civil War, the...
The Mannerchor Band and Frank P. Atherton
By Paul Hobe Early in its existence the City Band was reported by a variety of names. In early years it was often published in The Alliance Review as the “Silver Cornet Band,” or just as the “Alliance Band.” Brothers Columbus and Floy Haines are mentioned as...
William Booth Best, Trumpet Teacher Extraordinaire
By Ralph Holibaugh Mr. Best was the most extraordinary musician and teacher I’ve known. I first met this former coal miner from County Durham, England in 1954. He was thin, tall, bald, and had huge hands. I had heard that he was a euphonium soloist in the Alliance...
The Band, Haines and the Civil War
By Paul Hobe Often when one imagines a small town in the late 19th and early 20th century in popular culture a shady park or town square with a gazebo or band stand comes to mind. It is estimated that there were ten thousand bands in 1889, a significant number were...
Playing the Trumpet
By Ralph Holibaugh When it came time for me to choose a musical instrument, the ‘final step’ recommended by Mr. Nash, I remember immediately thinking about the trumpet and two of its players. One was Clyde McCoy, who was famous for recording “Sugar Blues” on Columbia...
A Remarkable Photograph
By Paul Hobe Wouldn’t it be remarkable if there were a photograph of one of the first noteworthy performances of the Alliance City Band in existence? In essence there is. These seminal historical events are revealed in two newspaper reports and one telling photograph....
It All Started with a Flutophone
By Ralph Holibaugh There was a time when a small pipe with holes became very important to me. It didn’t just drop down from the heavens into my lap, but it was presented to me as part of a system that combined science and art which I knew nothing about. Very slowly I...
A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words
By Paul Hobe Pictures, photographs actually, bridge the time between the instant the shutter was pressed until the moment it is noticed my someone at a later time. I was that someone. The five or six framed photographs of the Alliance City Band were displayed on the...