March written by Tiskilwa native restored

Jim Jones of Tiskilwa holds a copy of an old photograph of Ralph C. Jack, the Tiskilwa native who wrote the march “White Hussars” in 1936. The photo, which was taken in Sept. 1923, shows Jack dressed in uniform and standing at the base of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Princeton. The newly restored “White Hussars” march will be played by the Princeton Community Band at 6 p.m. Sunday at Soldiers and Sailors Park. (BCR photo/Heather Holland)

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TISKILWA — The sounds of music written by a Tiskilwa man more than 70 years ago will be heard for the first time since the late 1930s this Sunday, at 6 p.m., in Soldiers and Sailors Park in Princeton.

The “White Hussars” march was written by Tiskilwa native Ralph C. Jack in 1936 and restored this spring, in a process that began in the summer of 2007, when current Princeton Community Band director Jim Jones of Tiskilwa found the original copy of the march tucked away in an old band folio.

Jones, former director of the Tiskilwa and Princeton high school bands, said he discovered Jack’s music while researching the history of Tiskilwa town bands. He and his wife, Jane, desktop published a Tiskilwa town band history in 2000. Included in that history was Ralph C. Jack, a prominent cornet player, conductor and music teacher during the 1920s and 1930s.

“I was cataloging the old band folios, and I found this march called ‘White Hussars,’ and it said ‘by Ralph C. Jack,’ and I said, that’s got to be my Ralph C. Jack,” Jones said.

Jones said he felt it was important to restore the march so bands could play it once more. There was no conductor’s score in the original folio, and, unfortunately, several of the instrument parts were missing, Jones said.

Jones contacted George Foeller, professor emeritus at Illinois State University and former longtime director of ISU bands. Foeller restored the “White Hussars” march during the spring and early summer of this year. He recreated the missing parts, created a conductor’s score and worked on the harmonies.

Hearing the march played by a live band was a moving experience, Jones said.

“This is the only piece of music written by a Tiskilwa native that I know of,” Jones said. “In rehearsal last week, when we started playing that march, I got a little chill and just about fell off the podium. Hearing it from real live people playing and the full sound and orchestration that Mr. Foeller did — I knew after eight bars it was going to be a dandy. I don’t think I’ve ever felt as satisfied as I did, after playing just that little bit. It was really a thrill for me.”

Born in 1880 in Tiskilwa, Jack conducted and played for numerous bands during his lifetime, including the Hagenback Wallace Circus Band, the 6th Regiment Band at Monmouth, the Peoria Shrine Band, the Bureau County Fair Band, the Tiskilwa Town Band, the Princeton Municipal Band, the Janesville, Wis., All-Girl Band, and Dunbar’s “White Hussars” band on the Chautauqua East Coast circuit, for which he wrote the “White Hussars” march. Jack died in 1948.

Jones said the history of Tiskilwa musicians has always been important to him and he felt it was very important for Jack’s march to be in playable condition again.

“A lot of people in Tiskilwa’s band history have been musically prominent nationally,” Jones said. “I have high hopes that other bands in the area will want to play the “White Hussars” march.”

In time, Jones plans to make an indoor recording of “White Hussars” and to donate the recording, a score, and a full set of parts to the Tiskilwa Historical Society.

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