AND THE BAND PLAYS ON

~Correction: The name of the band director in the 1920s was Tom Danks, not Dansk.

The sound of music, as provided by Cape Girardeau municipal bands, has grown better over nearly 100 years.

Over the prior century, the city's municipal band experiences have varied. Teen-age boys in military uniforms have been replaced by a group of paid semi-professionals. But the consistency of gathering in the park to make music together stays the same.

"You get used to the baseball games going on around the band shell as you play," said Karen Walker, a French horn player. "Then the crowds sit out in lawn chairs or on blankets in front of us on the grass. If someone wants Americana, it's here."

Although city bands have been struck up in Cape Girardeau since the mid 1850s, the practice of regular summer concerts didn't get started until a dentist, C.E. Schuchert, began organizing a group in 1904.

"It wasn't until he said this was a large enough city to have a regular band that things began to take shape," said Walker, program director at KCRU radio.

Walker had completed a master's thesis on the early history of bands in Cape Girardeau.

The 28-member Schuchert Concert Band started regular summer concerts in 1905, and quickly built a reputation that extended outside Missouri. They were invited to play at an "Old Confederates Reunion" in 1907 in Alabama, and then later to Tennessee and Virginia, Walker said.

The band did experience some early breakups from Schuchert moving to St. Louis and band members' discontent with their leader.

"Many thought Schuchert was too hard on them," Walker said.

But unlike its predecessors, Schuchert's band was gathered back together.

Probably its most significant tour was in the military. As a group, the band enlisted to play and fight in 1917 during World War One.

The group remained together during most of its boot camp training, and regular reports of the band's activities appeared in Cape Girardeau news reports.

The biggest blow came when band members were split up to serve overseas in different units, and Schuchert was sent home because of his age, Walker said.

"Schuchert was probably 40 at that time, and rumors were that he was feeling too old for active duty," she said.

Band performances in Cape Girardeau lapsed again over various periods, with Schuchert assuming leadership of the group whenever it gathered together.

The group didn't gain permanency until a statewide tax levy was passed in 1927 to fund bands in towns with populations under 20,000.

The band still operates under its 1927 bylaws, Walkers said.

Although Schuchert had left Cape Girardeau a few years earlier, he was active in lobbying for the tax levy.

Homer Gilbert, who played with the band for 73 years, never had a chance to blow his trumpet for Schuchert. But he recalls that Tom Dansk, director of the newly funded group, helped inspire him.

"He sat me on first chair with my trumpet, and told me I could do anything," said Gilbert, who has taught generations of musicians since then in Cape Girardeau. "I was 14 then. He had me so scared."

Gilbert remained on first chair with his trumpet for about 40 more years, he said, before slipping back into a supporting role on second cornet.

"I figured I'd let the younger guys fight it out," he said.

Leland "Freck" Shivelbine came into the band's fold in 1943, following his father who conducted the group in the 1930s. Concerts on the second floor of the Common Pleas Courthouse got crowded.

"We would move the chairs out on Monday nights to play," Shivelbine said.

Some indoor concerts were a struggle, with heat and mosquitos flying in and out of the open courtroom windows, he said.

After World War Two, Elmore Kassel and other band members campaigned for a permanent location to play. Donations of money and building supplies enabled the construction of a band shell in Capaha Park, where the band still performs.

For most of its existence, the municipal band has been a place for white male performers. Only one black musician has been a member over the years, Gilbert said. He also recalled a man from India.

The band's first female musician arrived in the early 1970s.

"I was surprised this happened so late," said Walker. "It really wasn't so long after I joined in 1984."

Former and current band members agree that the band has gotten better. Shivelbine cites improved musical education in schools occurring at earlier grade levels.

"By the time I left in 1998, they were playing anything thrown at them," Gilbert said.

A number of the performers have advanced degrees in music, Walker said.

But it still remains a learning experience.

"It's a place for good students, and the band tries to get them involved," Walker said. "And it sure helps older musicians to keep their chops up."

Gilbert would still be in the band if he could. Although he still keeps trumpets around his house, he just looks at them now.

"At 87 years old, I thought I'd quit blowing," he said. "I just don't have any lip left."