McNamara's Band
Shamus O'Connor (arr. Briegel)
This article is a stub. If you can help add information to it,
please join the WRP and visit the FAQ (left sidebar) for information. |
General Info
Year: 1889 / 1917
Duration:
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Larway
Cost: Score and Parts – Out of print.
Instrumentation
(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
McNamara's Band (originally "MacNamara's Band") is a popular song composed in 1889 by Shamus O'Connor (music) and John J. Stamford (lyrics). Stamford was then the manager of the Alhambra Theatre in Belfast, and the song was written expressly for the theater's owner, the Irish-American music hall veteran William J. "Billy" Ashcroft. Ashcroft had earlier in his career in the U.S. performed a blackface routine called The Lively [or 'Musical'] Moke, which interspersed comic song and dance with brief performances on multiple instruments. McNamara's Band gave him scope for a similar Irish "character song."
It has been claimed that the song was inspired by an actual band, the St Mary's Fife and Drum Band, formed in Limerick in 1885. In the late 19th century the band featured four brothers, Patrick, John, Michael and Thomas McNamara, and became famous for playing shows all across Ireland.
Modern listeners associate the song with the version recorded on December 6, 1945 by Bing Crosby, with a set of lyrics credited to "The Three Jesters."
- Program Note from Wikipedia
Media
(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- Cary (N.C.) Town Band (Stuart Holoman, conductor) – 27 February 2017
Works for Winds by This Composer
- McNamara's Band (arr. Briegel) (1917)
Resources
- Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. "Shamus O'Connor." Accessed 12 August 2017
- McNamara's Band, Wikipedia Accessed 12 August 2017