Herbert Lincoln Clarke was a well-known American cornet

Cornet

The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...

 player, feature soloist, bandmaster, and composer.

Clarke’s legacy includes composing a portion of the standard repetoir for the instrument, many recordings, as well as a seminal school of playing which emphasized not only technical aptitude, but also increased warmth and lyricism of tone. He also produced several method

Method (music)

In music, a method is a kind of textbook for a specified musical instrument or a selected problem of playing a certain instrument.A method usually contains fingering charts or tablatures, etc., scales and numerous different exercises, sometimes also simple etudes, in different keys, in ascending...

 books that are still used by brass students to this day.

Biography

Clarke was born in Woburn, Massachusetts

Woburn, Massachusetts

Woburn is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. The population was 38,120 at the 2010 census. Woburn is located north of Boston, Massachusetts, and just south of the intersection of I-93 and I-95.- History :...

 in 1867. The son of composer and organist William Clarke, Herbert's family moved often to accommodate William's work engagements, from Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

 to Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, to Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

, back to Massachusetts, and finally to Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

 in 1880.

Clarke's early musical instruction had been on the violin

Violin

The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

; by 1881, he was a second violinist in the Toronto Philharmonic Society. However, according to his autobiography, one of the formative moments in his musical upbringing was attending a concert of D. W. Reeves' American Band

The American Band

The American Band is a community band based in Providence, Rhode Island. It was founded as a military band in 1837 by Joseph C. Greene. During its early years, the members were some of the highest paid in the country - even higher than the New York Philharmonic in its first season. Since then, it...

 of Providence, Rhode Island

Providence, Rhode Island

Providence is the capital and most populous city of Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region...

 at the Horticultural Pavilion in Toronto in 1881, and hearing Bowen R. Church play a cornet solo. He subsequently began practicing his brother's cornet and took a chair as a cornetist in the Queen’s Own Rifle band in 1882, in order to obtain his own government-issue cornet on which to practice.

Between 1884, when he graduated from high school, and 1887, Clarke drifted between playing both viola and second cornet (when required) in the pit orchestra of English's Opera House in Indianapolis

Indianapolis

Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...

, where his family had moved; working (unhappily) at the John Kay store in Toronto, while playing second chair cornetist with the Queens’s Own

The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada

The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada is a militia regiment within the Canadian Forces, based in Toronto, Ontario. The regiment is part of Land Force Central Area's 32 Canadian Brigade Group. It is the only Primary Reserve regiment in Canada to have a parachute role. The regiment consists of the reserve...

; and playing at the Ontario Beach lake resort in the summer. He had joined the Queen's Own at the age of 14 (even though the legal age was 18), in order to obtain his first Cornet, a band owned Curtois

Antoine Courtois

The Antoine Courtois company was founded in Paris in 1789. The company's current name comes from the name of one of the founder's children who created the brand name in 1803. The company has been a leading manufacturer of brass instruments ever since, particularly saxophone, trumpet, cornet,...

. In Indianapolis he would finally buy his own horn, a Boston 3-star cornet

Boston Musical Instrument Company

The Boston Musical Instrument Company was an American manufacturer of brass band instruments in the late 19th and early 20th centuries located in Boston, Massachusetts.- Corporate History :...

. It was in 1887 that he joined the Citizen's Band of Toronto, under John Bayley, as the band's cornet soloist. He spent the next five years playing in and leading several bands around Toronto (the Taylor Safe Works Band, Heintzman Piano Company Band, Streetsville Ontario Band) and teaching viola at the Toronto Conservatory of Music (where he also played in the Toronto Conservatory String Quartet) and at the Trinity College School

Trinity College School

Trinity College School is a coeducational, independent boarding/day school located in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. TCS was founded on May 1, 1865, more than 2 years prior to Canadian Confederation. It includes a Senior School for grades 9 to 12 and a Junior School for grades 5 to 8.Among its...

 in Port Hope, Ontario

Port Hope, Ontario

Port Hope is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, about east of Toronto and about west of Kingston. It is located at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the west end of Northumberland County...

. In September 1889 he married Elizabeth (Lizzie) Loudon, with whom he had two children: Vivian (Grace) in 1890 and James (Edward James Watkin) in 1892. In the spring of 1892, he left Canada once again, after successfully auditioning for the Patrick Gilmore

Patrick Gilmore

Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore was an Irish-born composer and bandmaster who lived and worked in the United States after 1848. Whilst serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, Gilmore wrote the lyrics to the song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", the tune he took from an old Irish antiwar folk...

 Band, based in Boston.

In 1893, he joined John Philip Sousa

John Philip Sousa

John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J....

’s Band as a cornet soloist. After playing at the Chicago World's Fair

World's Columbian Exposition

The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...

 in the same year, he left to play with various other bands, continuing to do so over the next five years. During this period, he held temporary positions as second trumpet with the New York Philharmonic

New York Philharmonic

The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...

, and as principal trumpet in the Metropolitan Opera

Metropolitan Opera

The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...

, for which he temporarily switched to trumpet

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...

. He also divorced Lizzie Loudon and married Lillian Bell Hause, with whom he had two more children, Ruby Bell and Herbert L. Clarke, Jr.

In 1898 he returned to Sousa's Band, with whom he toured extensively, and later became Sousa's assistant director, succeeding Arthur Pryor. After Pryor's departure from Sousa in 1903 to form his own concert band, Clarke conducted Sousa's Band in many recording sessions for the Victor Talking Machine Company. Furthermore, he spent time testing and developing instruments for Conn Instruments in Elkhart, Indiana

Elkhart, Indiana

Elkhart is a city in Elkhart County, Indiana, United States. The city is located east of South Bend, northwest of Fort Wayne, east of Chicago, and north of Indianapolis...

, and making a considerable number of solo recordings for Victor, Edison, Columbia, and finally Brunswick. He resigned from Sousa's band in September 1917 and returned to Canada to lead the Anglo-Canadian Leather Company Band in Huntsville, Ontario

Huntsville, Ontario

Huntsville is a town in the Muskoka Region of Ontario, Canada. It is located north of Toronto and south of North Bay....

 from 1918 to 1923. During this time he performed very little, instead focusing his efforts not only on conducting, but also composition, and setting up his own school of cornet playing in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

.

In 1923, he moved to Long Beach, California

Long Beach, California

Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...

 due to his wife's health and conducted the Long Beach Municipal Band until 1943. In April 1934, he was elected President of the American Bandmasters Association

American Bandmasters Association

The American Bandmasters Association was formed in 1929 by Edwin Franko Goldman to promote concert band music. Goldman sought to raise esteem for concert bands among musicians and audiences...

. From 1936 until his death in 1945, he developed a friendship with and gave private lessons to Claude Gordon

Claude Gordon

Claude Gordon, the "King of Brass", was a trumpet virtuoso, band director, educator, lecturer, and author. He was born on April 15, 1916 in Helena, Montana. His father was a clarinet soloist as well as an orchestral director. Claude's mother was a concert pianist...

. His ashes were interred at the Congressional Cemetery

Congressional Cemetery

The Congressional Cemetery is a historic cemetery located at 1801 E Street, SE, in Washington, D.C., on the west bank of the Anacostia River. It is the final resting place of thousands of individuals who helped form the nation and the city of Washington in the early 19th century. Many members of...

 in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, near the gravesite of John Philip Sousa. His papers and memorabilia are held at the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

.

Solo cornet compositions

Clarke composed over 50 solos for cornet, many of which have experienced several editions. Here are his most famous pieces, with the date of the earliest publication included.

• Bride of the Waves (1904)
• Sounds from the Hudson (1904)
• Caprice Brilliante (1908)
• Southern Cross (1911)
• The Carnival of Venice (1912)
• Sounds from the Hudson (Valse Brilliante) (1914)
• The Debutante (1917)
• Stars in a Velvety Sky (1919)
• From the Shores of the Mighty Pacific
• The Maid of the Mist

Cornet methods

• Elementary Studies (1909)
• Technical Studies (1912)
• Characteristic Studies (1915)
• Setting Up Drills (1929)

External links

• Biography from Library and Archives Canada, which was the source for much of the information in this article.
• An extremely detailed biography from 4barsrest.com, an online brass band resource.
• How I Became a Cornetist text
• Clarke's Technical Studies, then and now by Jeff Purtle
• Claude Gordon and Herbert L. Clarke and Their Teaching by Jeff Purtle, published December 2008 in The Brass Herald
• Online Radio Station of historic cornet soloists
• Discography of Herbert L. Clarke on Victor Records
  Victor Talking Machine Company
  The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American corporation, the leading American producer of phonographs and phonograph records and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time. It was headquartered in Camden, New Jersey....
  
  from the Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings (EDVR)

Resources

• Clarke, Herbert L. How I became a Cornetist. St. Louis: Joseph L. Huber, 1934. Reprint, Kenosha: G. Leblanc Corporation, 1973.
• LP Record: Herbert L. Clarke with Sousa's Band and the Victor Orchestra, Jacket Notes by Gerald R. Endsley, Crystal Records, Sedro Woolley, Washington, 1979