Putting Into music the subjugation of the desert: the American band movement in Phoenix, 1885-1920

This paper contains a cultural history of the band movement in territorial Phoenix, Arizona, from about 1885-1915. I discuss how bands formed, performed, and fundraised; and how their audiences supported them. Cultural historians have conducted studies of the band movement on a national scale or within a specific context, such as music in the Indian Schools. Music historians have published studies of the structure of band music, their repertoire, and the conductors who composed that music and led professional bands of the day. My study looks at the role of bands in supporting the development of nationalism in a particular region. Phoenix, between 1885 and 1915 was the capital city of a region transitioning from a dusty, relatively isolated western territory to an economically profitable state, connected to the greater nation by railroads and canals. The activities of bands in Phoenix illustrate Arizonans’ drive to be included in the American national community.

I utilize the theories of several cultural historians and one economic historian. Jürgen Habermas, Benedict Anderson, and Maurice Halbwachs all look at how people see themselves as part of a nation, and the manners in which they communicate and socialize with each other. I assert that the development of the band movement in Phoenix parallels the stages of musical development that Jacques Attali, a French economist and historian, has established. Attali writes that music is tied to the mode of production of a society; as Arizona strengthened its economic, political, and social forms of production, bands reflected, and often heralded, those changes.

Despite their remote location and lack of professional musicians, Phoenicians were enthusiastic supporters of the band movement. They were eager to jump on the bandwagon, not because they viewed brass and wind band music as an elite, virtuosic art form, but because bands allowed them a public forum in which to collectively celebrate their American nationalism and advocate their case for statehood on a national level.