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Henry Fillmore
Biography
Henry Fillmore (born 3 December 1881, Cincinnati; died 7 December 1956) was a United States composer and publisher. Fillmore wrote over 250 tunes and arranged hundreds more. Fillmore also published a great number of tunes under various pseudonyms such as Harold Bennett, Ray Hall, Harry Hartley, Al Hayes, and the funniest, Henrietta Hall. The name that caused a conflict was Will Huff, because there was a Will Huff, who did compose marches and lived and composed in his state and area. While best known for march music and screamers, he also wrote waltzes, foxtrots, hymns, novelty numbers, overtures and waltzes.
James Henry Fillmore Jr. was the eldest of five children. In his youth he mastered piano, guitar, violin, and flute -- as well as the slide trombone, which at first he played in secret, as his conservative religious father believed it an uncouth and sinful instrument. Fillmore was also a singer for his church choir as a boy. He began composing at 18, with his first published marchHigham, named after a line of brass instruments. Fillmore entered the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1901. After this he traveled around the United States as a circus bandmaster with his wife, an exotic dancer named Mabel May Jones. They got married in St Louis.
Fillmore gained fame as the Father of the Trombone Smear, writing a series of fifteen novelty tunes featuring trombone smears called "The Trombone Family", including Miss Trombone, Sally Trombone, Lassus Trombone and Shoutin' Liza Trombone. A number of these have a strong ragtime influence.
Works for Winds
- Americans We
- Circus Bee, The
- Footlifter, The
- His Honor
- King Karl King
- Klaxon, The (ed. Fennell) (1930/1984)
- Lightning Fingers (ar. Foster)
- Men of Ohio
- Miami March
- Military Escort
- Miss Trombone (ar. Contorno)
- Mt. Healthy
- Rolling Thunder March
References
