THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 3, 1994 TAG: 9408040821
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KEITH MONROE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 107 lines
FIRST, CONDUCTOR William E. Schultz led the United States Continental Army Band through his own work ``Point Comfort March,'' which is named after the spit of land where Fort Monroe has stood for 180 years.
Then came ``Universal Judgment,'' an 1878 piece that was the first Schultz ever conducted with an Army band, 25 years ago. He concluded with a fanfare composed by John Williams for the Seoul Olympics of 1988, in part because Schultz spent nine of his years in uniform in Korea.
Finally, Schultz called forward William J. Davies Jr., who will succeed him as band sergeant major.
``This is your audience,'' Schultz said, looking out at the faces gathered for the band's weekly concert. ``This is your band. Treat them both right and you'll have more fun than any man deserves.''
And then Schultz handed Davies his baton, saying: ``And this is your stick. The band knows `The Stars and Stripes.' Go show them what you can do.''
With that, Davies led the band through a rousing march of the sort that has been heard at Fort Monroe since 1824, when an 11-member aggregation performed. As the commands at Fort Monroe have changed, so have the bands.
Over the 60 summers that the band has played at the post's white wooden gazebo, styles have changed from Benny Goodman to the Beatles and from the Lennon Sisters to Lemonheads. But the band has played on, offering old-fashioned concerts featuring marches, light classics and show tunes delivered with plenty of snare drum, flashy dynamics and crisp brass. ``Music Man'' music.
The music will continue, but last Thursday's concert was the last concert in uniform for Schultz, the band's outgoing sergeant major.
``It seems like only yesterday that a skinny kid of 20 and four other guys jumped out of a helicopter to play Christmas carols,'' Schultz said after the show.
But 30 years ago, he was the skinny kid. The audience then was a few Americans soldiers and a lot of Montagnard tribesmen in an obscure corner of the Vietnam War.
Last week, the audience ranged from babies to senior citizens. The concert was one of the weekly Music Under the Stars programs that the band has performed each summer since 1934. They take place in the waterfront gazebo of the fort's Continental Park. But rain forced this one inside the flag-bedecked post theater. No matter - several hundred band enthusiasts and Schultz well-wishers filled the hall.
Schultz is a tall, dignified man with close-cropped, steel-gray hair who resembles the actor Max Von Sydow. For the past three of his 30 years he's been the top enlisted man with the band at Fort Monroe, duty he described as ``the dessert on top of a seven-course dinner.''
Schultz explains that the U.S. Continental Army Band is one of 40. Many serve only their own unit, but Continental is a general support band. That means that, though it is part of Fort Monroe's Training and Doctrine Command, it also performs for other nearby units. It plays the last Friday of each month for Fort Monroe's Monthly Review. It plays the last Wednesday of each month for the troops at Fort Eustis. It plays Navy functions and for the public in the gazebo each Thursday in the summer. In all, the band plays 400 to 500 engagements a year and has to decline as many more.
It performs in a variety of configurations, too. As a concert band, a marching band, a large jazz band, a Dixieland band, a brass quintet, a woodwind quintet and even as a rock band - TRADOC Rock.
``Downsizing has eliminated some Army bands,'' Schultz said. ``There used to be seven in Europe; now there are four. When the organization you support goes out of business, so do you.'' But the Continental Army Band seems secure so far.
Its home is a brick building inside the great squat stone hexagon that is Fort Monroe. The fort is still surrounded by a moat that Robert E. Lee helped complete in the 1830s. Throughout the Civil War, Fort Monroe stayed under Union control because Lee knew firsthand how hard taking it would be.
After the war, Jefferson Davis was imprisoned at Fort Monroe for two years. Edgar Allan Poe was stationed there, and Abraham Lincoln visited. Today's band building was once the fort's guardhouse. Where cells stood, there are now individual practice rooms. On the second floor is a rehearsal hall that Schultz calls the finest in the Army.
Once the military recruited players for its bands straight out of high school. Now, Schultz says, many have graduate degrees in music, and the current band boasts at least one Ph.D. It has its own composers and arrangers too. And players aren't just recruited to serve out a four-year hitch but are expected to make a career of musical service, as he did. The average band member is in his or her 30s and has a rank of staff sergeant.
The departure of Schultz isn't the only transition the band is facing. In September, Commander Rotondi will be taking his baton to West Point, where he'll be deputy director of its band. But the changing of the guard won't disrupt an organization so rooted in tradition. A new commander will take over, and the U.S. Continental Army Band will play on. Schultz even promised to be back ``next Thursday with my lawn chair'' to enjoy the band as a member of the audience. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
William E. Schultz, right, recently stepped down as conductor of the
U.S. Continental Army Band, which began in 1824 at Fort Monroe. At
left is the band in 1903.
Graphic
UNDER THE STARS
Fort Monroe's Continental Army Band will perform each Thursday in
August at 7:30 p.m. in the Continental Park gazebo. The concert band
will play all of those dates except August 11, when the jazz band
will appear. The public is invited. Admission is free. Take a lawn
chair and picnic. In case of rain, the band will perform in the post
theater. For information, call 727-4052.
by CNB