The following is a guest post by Loras John Schissel, Senior Music Specialist, Music Division.
To commemorate Veterans Day (known formerly as Armistice Day), we present a sketch of an important American arranger, composer, and conductor who broke the color barrier in the U.S. armed forces in 1918. This man was Bandmaster William “Will” Henry Bennet Vodery (1885-1951). Vodery was born in Philadelphia and raised in a home that was frequented by many notable Black theater performers. He attended the University of Pennsylvania where he studied with Canadian composer and organist Hugh A. Clarke. He began his professional career as music director of Washington, D.C.’s Howard Theatre.
Several important people figure prominently in this story. By way of a brief introduction, we present the following supporting cast:
General of the Armies John J. Pershing (1860-1948). Decorated five-star U.S. general. He served most famously as commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) during World War I from 1917 to 1920. Pershing was deeply committed to the unifying and morale-boosting power of music upon his troops.
Walter Damrosch (1862-1950). An important American conductor, composer, and educator. Damrosch was part of a musical dynasty in the U.S. that still loom large. The family reach can be seen in such institutions as the New York Philharmonic, the Juilliard School, and the Mannes School of Music. Damrosch was the conductor and host of an important music education radio program – “The NBC Music Appreciation Hour” from 1928 to 1942.
André Caplet (1878-1925). A French composer, conductor, and educator. Caplet is largely remembered as a close friend of composer Claude Debussy. Debussy entrusted Caplet with the orchestration of several of his popular works. Caplet enlisted in the French Army and was badly wounded in 1915.
Albert Stoessel (1894-1943). An American conductor, composer, violinist, and educator. Stoessel rose to prominence as a violin soloist before becoming a conductor and composer of note. Stoessel founded the music program at New York University. When the Damrosch School merged with the Juilliard School, Stoessel was hired to develop the orchestra and opera departments. Stoessel was also the Music Director of the Chautauqua Symphony as well as Oratorio Society of New York.
Francis Casadesus (1870-1954). A French composer, critic, and educator. The Casadesus family in French music is rivaled only by the Bach’s of Germany. The family is still a major musical force (within many genres) in France to this day.
What prompted this essay was a chance perusal of a World War I scrapbook created by and preserved in the Albert Stoessel Papers in the Music Division at the Library of Congress. Therein, I found a photograph of the second graduating class from the U.S. Army Bandmaster School at Chaumont, France:
As the war was rapidly coming to its conclusion, General Pershing decided to focus his attention on the developing the quality of musicians and bandmasters under his command. By chance, conductor Walter Damrosch was in France engaged in organizing concerts for the benefit of the Allies. Pershing sent for Damrosch to discuss the establishment of a school of music at his headquarters in Chaumont. With the able assistance of Lieutenant Michel D. Weill (an American serving in the French Army), Damrosch was able to assemble a very distinguished faculty.
Damrosch examined over 200 bandmasters then stationed in France. With the assistance of Francis Casadesus, a faculty of eight musicians from the French Ministry of War as well as Lieutenant Albert Stoessel were assembled in a renovated mill near General Pershing’s headquarters at Chaumont.
One of the outstanding bandmasters examined by Damrosch was a Philadelphia-born composer, arranger, and conductor, Bandmaster Will Vodery. He would go on to a career akin to that of Robert Russell Bennett for Broadway and film, yet while facing the challenges of being a Black man in the early 20th century. Throughout his long and distinguish career, Vodery was the official arranger for the “Ziegfeld Follies,” numerous Broadway and traveling shows, and one of the arrangers for the first production of Kern and Hammerstein’s “Show Boat.” Vodery would later go to Hollywood as arranger for the Fox Studios. He is best remembered today as the orchestrator of George Gershwin’s early opera, “Blue Monday.”
During the war, Vodery was Bandmaster of the 807th Infantry, and its successes were carried widely in the Black-owned newspapers of the time. Vodery reported to Chaumont for training sometime after January of 1919. The only Black student in a class of about 40 bandmasters, Vodery distinguished himself honorably by graduating “top of his class.”
The end of the war, and return of the troops back to the United States, would finally close the Bandmaster School at Chaumont. Casadesus and Damrosch thought that their pioneering school was too important to die on the vine. With the assistance of the French government, the U.S. Army Bandmaster School was moved from Chaumont to the Louis XV wing of the Chateau of Fontainebleau in 1921 to become the Conservatoire Américain de Fontainebleau. Numerous Americans have studied there, and names like Nadia Boulanger, Aaron Copland, and our recently departed musical force Quincy Jones comes to mind. But it all started with a stellar musician of impeccable credentials who broke the color barrier 30 years before President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 which stated that “there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed forces without regard to race, color, religion, or national origin.”
So we offer a Veterans Day salute to a distinguished musician and patriot, Will Vodery.