Dr. Paul Van Buskirk Yoder (October 8, 1908 - April 4, 1990) was an American musician

Musician

A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

, composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, arranger, and band director.

Life

Paul Yoder was born on October 8, 1908 in Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma, Washington

Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...

. He obtained an undergraduate degree from the University of North Dakota

University of North Dakota

The University of North Dakota is a public university in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA. Established by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before the establishment of the state of North Dakota, UND is the oldest and largest university in the state and enrolls over 14,000 students. ...

, which later conferred an honorary Doctorate upon him and, in 1941, a Masters Degree from Northwestern University

Northwestern University

Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

 in Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. He co-founded the Japanese Band Director's Association, served as 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...

,and served on the Board of Directors of the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic.. Following years of heart trouble, Paul Yoder died April 4, 1990 in Hendersonville, North Carolina

Hendersonville, North Carolina

Hendersonville is a city in Henderson County, North Carolina, USA, southeast of Asheville. In 1900, 1,917 persons lived in Hendersonville; in 1910, 2,818; and in 1940, 5,381 people lived here. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 12,223, up fivefold in one century. It is the county...

.

Involvement with Japan

While investigating where in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 his music was being played, and generating royalty checks, Yoder met many band directors interested in and performing western music. Thus began an involvement with music education

Music education

Music education is a field of study associated with the teaching and learning of music. It touches on all domains of learning, including the psychomotor domain , the cognitive domain , and, in particular and significant ways,the affective domain, including music appreciation and sensitivity...

 and concert band

Concert band

A concert band, also called wind band, symphonic band, symphonic winds, wind orchestra, wind symphony, wind ensemble, or symphonic wind ensemble, is a performing ensemble consisting of several members of the woodwind instrument family, brass instrument family, and percussion instrument family.A...

s in Japan that would include coordinating performance at the MidWest Clinic by many Japanese bands and being dubbed by contemporary Alfred Reed

Alfred Reed

Alfred Reed was one of North America's most prolific and frequently performed composers, with more than two hundred published works for concert band, wind ensemble, orchestra, chorus, and chamber ensemble to his name...

 "an unofficial ambassador of band music between the US and Japan".

Composer and arranger

Yoder's first band composition, Our Family Band, was published in 1933. He wrote over 1,500 original compositions and arrangements during the course of his career. He composed and arranged with a focus on works for young bands and also produced several instrumental methods. Biographer Steven Kelly stated "his emphasis on ensemble class instruction changed the manner in which bands were taught" and also that a band student between the 30s and 70s in America would be unlikely to be able to go without experiencing a Yoder piece. Yoder published primarily through Niel Kjos publishing, but also nearly 100 other firms worldwide.

Paul Yoder was also the author of charts for over 30 marching band

Marching band

Marching band is a physical activity in which a group of instrumental musicians generally perform outdoors and incorporate some type of marching with their musical performance. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwinds, and percussion instruments...

 shows.

Awards and recognition

Though recognized for his "warm, humerous personality" and "humble lifestyle", Dr. Yoder was an honorary life member of the National Band Association and was awarded, amongst other awards, the Academy of Wind and Percussion Arts, the Distinguished Service to Music Medal, and was inducted into the prestigious National Band Association Hall of Fame of Distinguished Band Conductors

National Band Association Hall of Fame of Distinguished Band Conductors

The Hall of Fame of Distinguished Band Conductors was established on the campus of what was then known as Troy State University in Troy, Alabama, by the National Band Association in 1979...

. The program notes for the 1969 awarding of the AWAPA award by the National Band Association listed Yoder as "one of the most influential band personalities of the mid 20th century, he was at one time the most popular composer/arranger of band music in America"