When General George Washington established the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1802, the students’ daily signaling needs — not to mention the general’s taste for an “agreeable” evening of music — led to an increase in the number and variety of musicians assigned to the post. In anticipation of the band’s official recognition as a unit by Congress in 1817, musical life at West Point had evolved to the point of requiring not only a full-time band, but also an appointed Teacher of Music to train and lead them. They just needed to find the right man for the job.
Enter Richard Willis. Then a recent Irish immigrant living in New York City, Willis quickly became well-known throughout the area for his virtuosity on the newly-invented keyed bugle. This instrument proved revolutionary for military music, as it provided the volume and portability of the bugle as well as the technical facility of the clarinet or oboe, making it suitable not only for signaling, but also for the performance of concert music. Willis’s skill on the instrument was nothing short of legendary. With Willis at the helm (and often in the soloist’s spotlight), the West Point Band became known throughout the region for its showmanship and skill. Crowded ships traveling between New York City and Poughkeepsie would drop anchor near West Point to give their passengers an opportunity to hear the band — and the virtuoso Willis — perform evening concerts from an overlook above the Hudson.
At the same time, the band maintained its important field music role in the daily routine of the post and in accompaniment of the Corps of Cadets at wildly successful summer marches through New York (1816, 1817, 1819), Philadelphia (1820), and Boston (1821). Willis’s attention to both aspects of military musicianship — recreational and functional — would plant the seeds for the West Point Band’s growth for years to come.
One of the band’s most influential figures and certainly its best-known Teacher of Music, 1st Lt. Philip Egner nurtured those seeds into a flourishing new era for the band and a budding relationship with those who it most closely served. Egner was appointed as Teacher of Music in 1909 after a brief but laudable civilian career as cellist with both the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic. His contributions to the musical output of the band were many — he composed over 200 original marches, dance numbers, and concert pieces during his tenure — but his pursuit of a stronger connection between the band and the Corps of Cadets would prove to be his lasting legacy at the Academy.
Under Egner’s leadership, the band became inextricably woven into the fabric of cadet life, joining them with music on the field, in formations, at drills and details, on training marches, and at sporting and social events. At one such sporting event, a cadet from the “Yell Kings” cheerleading team approached Egner with lyrics for a new football chant. As Egner pondered the words on his walk home that night, inspiration struck. He stopped to transcribe a melody by the dim light of the setting sun. From those notes, quickly jotted down on the bandmaster’s shirt sleeve, evolved the fight song On, Brave Old Army Team and a partnership between the band and the Corps of Cadets that has continued ever since.
When Egner retired in 1934, Col. Francis Resta took over in the role of Teacher of Music. Following in his predecessor’s footsteps, he used his natural way with the composer’s pen to expand the West Point songbook, most notably composing the Graduation March, an annual cadet favorite.
However, Resta is best remembered for his dedication to the advancement of concert band repertoire as a whole. In 1952, perceiving a decline in the quantity and quality of artistic compositions for wind band, Resta took it upon himself to rectify the situation, using the Academy’s Sesquicentennial celebration as a catalyst to commission 13 new works for his highly-skilled band from famous composers such as Darius Milhaud, Morton Gould, and William Grant Still. This pioneering commissioning project was one of the earliest forays into establishing a body of substantial artistic works for wind ensemble. Before this time, the band had rarely performed outside the post of West Point, but Resta’s efforts in the expansion of his medium ascended the band to national prominence and blazed the trail to critical recognition of wind band music as an art form.
