AN APPRECIATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 31, 6 February 1940, Page 7

AN APPRECIATION

(By H. Gladstone Hill, President. Wellington Bands Association.)

To those of us who believe that music in general, and band music in particular, plays a very important part in the life of a community—and their number is legion—the name of Captain Thomas Herd ranks with many, of those who, in other walks of life, hava been honoured by King and country with a title.

He was a born leader, a strong man, a tactician, a general amongst bandmasters. As such it was of necessity that he would be misjudged, that he should be blamed for things which had never been done, or even thought of. That is the penalty of leadership.

The leadership of Thomas Herd was along the lines of musical achievement His one aim, the cultural advancement of man in the mass. To accomplish this end he selected the brass band, as that musical combination more closely allied to the average man and woman, and to Jhis he devoted his life. Ask any man who played under his baton and who achieved success in the solo field, and he will tell you that his inspiration, his standard, of achievement, the driving force of his work was Thomas Herd. And this was so right through his band, whether soloist or not, and this spirit permeated the whole band movement of New Zealand and set a standard which. every, bandmaster since has, consciously or unconsciously, followed and, maybe, developed. WIDESPREAD INFLUENCE. The name of Lieutenant Thomas Herd and the Wellington Garrison Band were, at that time, accepted throughout the length and breadth of Australia and .New Zealand, and even the Old Country, synonymous with all that meant first-class band music. Is if any wonder, then, that the influence of Thomas Herd was felt in every corner of this Dominion? To those of us who lived through that period it is as if we can see a thin red line running through the various bands that have arisen since the days of which we speak. That thin red line leads back to Thomas Herd and the Wellington Garrison Band. These are not statements of a partisan, a friend who can see no wrong. No, but from one who has had greater opportunity than many to view the scene from afar as well as from within. My personal contact dates back to 1898, when I first met Lieutenant Herd. Ten years later I settled in Welling-, ton and joined the Garrison Band. In the meantime I had met him as a judge and I, a competitor. Again as an adjudicator and I, an official. Again I had the offer to accompany the New Zealand Band, which he formed, and to tour England with it. In all these circumstances I found Thomas Herd the musician and the gentleman. Since my return to Wellington twelve months ago, I have met him frequently, and he was most concerned with the lack of organisation throughout the Dominion in connection with the boys, and commended most highly the work I was trying to do in this direction. Up to the last his interest was that of the bands —bands now and bands in the future. To have achieved the ideal we set out in life with must be an accomplishment which brings its own satisfaction and reward, and in this regard I feel that, although the parting with her husband must be sad indeed, it must be a consolation to Mrs. Herd to know that the work of her lata partner is so understood and appreciated throughout the Dominion. "Though being dead yet he speaketh" is applicable in the case of Captain Thomas Herd, and it is to those of us who are left to carry on that the responsibility rests of seeing that the name we hold so dear is for ever perpetuated in the realm of bands- and music. SUGGESTED MEMORIAL. To that end I make the suggestion that some fitting memorial for annual competition amongst bandsmen in New Zealand be established to be known as the "Captain Thomas Herd Memorial," and that a fund be opened from all bands in the Dominion. As president of the Wellington Bands' Association, I am confident our members will open the list with a good donation and also undertake the issuing of the list to all bands. By this means we can show in a practical way our appreciation of the life's work of Captain Thomas Herd.