‘General Mitchell’ & The Band of the King’s Division

We have had a number of enquiries to our website in the last few days about the march “General Mitchell’. The march was used in the annual Whit Friday March Contest in the Saddleworth and Tameside areas by the Band of the King’s Division to display their talented playing and marching skills. A number of social media sites have shown excerpts of the band’s performances and these have prompted great interest about the origins of the march and its availability.
It was written by Robert Browne Hall, (1858-1907), better known as R.B.Hall who was a leading American composer of marching music in addition to his capabilities as a fine cornet player, conductor and teacher who seldom left his native state of Maine during his lifetime. He is perhaps better known in this country for his marches, “Death or Glory”, “Officer of the Day” and “New Colonial”.
We were fortunate to spend three days as guests of the Band last month celebrating the first anniversary of their re-role to a brass band and we were privileged to work with them to discuss microphone and recording techniques as well as capture some recent repertoire for their training and archives.
With their permission we have uploaded below their performance of the march which we recorded at that time and hope you will enjoy it.
 
Copies of the march parts for brass band (priced at £19.99) are available from Safe Music or by e-mailing gkingston@safemusic.demon.co.uk.
To learn more about the Band of the King’s Division please visit their website.