Jules Levy

Jules Levy (London, april 24, 1838 – november 28, Chicago, 1903) was a British-American composer, music educator and cornet player.

Content[]

[hide]*1 early life

Life Course[Edit][]

Already at the age of five play, but his father wanted to Levy Cornet could buy no instrument for financial reasons. Only when he was 17 years, it was so far. In 1856, he played in the Royal Band of h.m. Grenadier Guards and since 1860, he played for 30 shillings per week Cornet solos in the interval of the executions in the Princess Theatre in London.

In 1861 he became a member of the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. He also has performed at the Crystal Palace and in the Floral Hall.Between 1864 and 1876 he gave concerts throughout Europe and was in 1866 on a concert tour in the United States. In the summer of 1869 he was again in the United States and has performed together with the Theodore Thomas Orchestra in New York. In 1871, he played in the Fiske Cornet Band.

After the end of a concert by Fiske's Cornet Band in which Jules Levy, Levy got an invitation as a soloist occurred was of Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia for a visit on are good in Russia. There, he was asked by the Tsar or conductor of the military band of the garde and Imperial cornet player wanted to be. This offer he took not to, even though he is only 20 months remained in Russia.

He then went back to the United Kingdom and performed as a soloist at the London Proms and later solo concerts in the United States, particularly in the Hippodrome in New York City.

In 1876 he became a member of Henry Gilmore's Band and played daily on the World Exhibition of 1876 in Philadelphia. At the opening ceremony of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York on May 24, 1883 he gave a brilliant execution of a private operation of the American national anthem Star Spangled Banner and "Hail, Columbia".

From 1878, he made the first cornetist plates with Edison recordings (15 for the Columbia Label and 23 for the VictorLabel). In 1892 he founded theLevy American Military Band, which not long existed and stopped in 1895.

At the instrument maker c.g. Conn in Elkhart, Indiana, he worked as tools tester and taught at the Conservatory of Music, Conncornet. After an argument with the owner he went over to the Lyon Healy Band Instrument Company in Chicago.

In his young years he composed works which are still to be found in the programs.

Compositions[Edit][]

Work for Cornet and brass band[Edit][]

1877 Lizzy Waltz
1877 Young American Polka
1878 Levyathon Polka (Levy Athens Polka)
1880 Grand Russian Fantasia
1885 levy's Cornet Polka
1888 "Du, Du liegst mir im Herzen" with Variations
1888 Yankee Doodle
1891 Whirlwind Polka
1897 Emily Polka
1902 Red's Air and Variations
1903 Our Own Make Polka
1903 Best Shot Polka
Attila
Alice, Where Art Thou?
Blue Bells of Scotland
Carnival of Venice, special processing of the composition by Jean-Baptiste Arban
"God Save the Queen" or "America" with Variations
Humoresque
Maud
Minka: Russian Fantasy
Nearer, My God, to Thee
Palm Branches
Promenade Polka
Robin Adair
The Merry Birds
The Salute Polka

Bibliography[Edit][]

Wolfgang Suppan, Armin Suppan: Das Neue Lexikon des Blasmusikwesens, 4. Auflage, Freiburg-Tiengen, Blasmusikverlag Schulz GmbH, 1994, ISBN 3-923058-07-1
Paul e. Bierley, William h. Rehrig: The heritage encyclopedia of band music: composers and their music, Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1991, ISBN 0-918048-08-7
Margaret Hindle Hazen, Robert m. Hazen: The music one. An illustrated history of brass bands in America, 1800-1920, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1987.
Irving Sablosky: What they heard: music in America, 1852-1881: From the pages of Dwight's Journal of Music, Baton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1986.
Glenn d. Bridges: Pioneer cornetist... Jules Levy, in: The School Musician 25 (May 1954): 11 +.
Herbert l. Clarke: Famous cornetists of the past: Jules Levy, in: Jacobs ' Band Monthly 16 (Apr 1931): 6-7 +.
William Smith Babcock Mathews: A hundred years of music in America. An account of musical effort in America..., Chicago: 1889