The City of Fairfax Band
The First 25 Years: Fact and Opinion
by
Thomas H. Hill with Ruth C. Hill
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Excerpts from the Preface History, in a sense, is like a never-completed jigsaw puzzle, one that depends upon myriad pieces of information that must be fitted into exactly the right place. But in reality, history, to be meaningful, must be interpreted. This study, one of fact and opinion, is but one of the pieces, one attempt to chronicle the earliest years of the community band that is part of the recent history of what was originally the Town of Providence, better known as Fairfax Court House during much of the 1800s, later the Town of Fairfax starting in 1870, and since 1961 the City of Fairfax. Since its first concert in the summer of 1969, the City of Fairfax Band has established itself as an important part of the cultural history of a small city with no other permanent instrumental musical organization other than the school ensembles. As such, the band's heritage needs to be preserved. . . . One final thought. Even after a lifetime of involvement with bands, orchestras, and all sizes and shapes of smaller ensembles, the fact that humankind has developed instrumental groups to play music written specifically for them with individual musicians capable of playing this music, remains to me a marvelous, almost incomprehensible thing. Being part of this remarkable ongoing cultural process as a player and listener is something available to many individuals, but the privilege of conducting one of these larger ensembles, the City of Fairfax Band in this case, and being responsible for making music with accomplished and dedicated musicians was, indeed, a rare one. |
