Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • FALL 2016 • PAN PIPES 15 A LOOK BACK position was nearly exclusively male for many decades. At the start of the 20 th Century, the ma- jority of music educators were female. However, when bands became part of the school environ- ment, males entered the field in large number, to direct these new groups. 14 Just as World War II created a crisis amongst college marching bands, it similarly challenged the music teaching profession. So many school band directors were draed that there was a shortage of qualified teachers. In a 1943 article, William D. Revelli, Director of Bands at the Uni- versity of Michigan, lamented the situation. He noted that the school vocal programs were not facing the same problem, as they traditionally had female teachers. Revelli called for the train- ing of female band directors, but also noted that they could make their best contributions at the elementary and junior high school levels. 15 e male dominance of school band director positions continued well aer World War II. In 1975, females constituted 80% of all general mu- sic teachers in America, but only 17% of instru- mental music teachers. At the high school and college levels, that percentage was even smaller, 5%. 16 One of the reasons for the gender gap was the all-male tradition of the collegiate marching band. When hiring a high school band director, principals were inclined to favor someone with marching band experience. Because the major- ity of female music education students had been barred from marching in college, it was oen perceived they lacked the required experience to teach a high school band. 17 Gladys Stone Wright, who was one of the first nationally renowned fe- male high school directors, wrote that it was oen assumed if a school band had a female director, all the male students would leave. 18 ough female band directors were a minor- ity, there were several who broke through the status quo and made sizable achievements with their careers. Music education professor Wayne Bowman has stressed the importance of making known the careers of successful female musicians: "e first steps in the process of redressing the problems of women's omission from accounts of music are relatively clear: identify women whose contributions have been overlooked and excluded and rewrite histories to include them. 19 e earliest, most widely known female band director was Helen May Butler, who lived from 1867-1957. Butler conducted an all-female concert band during the early 20 th century, and was named "e Lady Sousa." While there were other all-female bands at the time, Butler's band was unique in that it had a female conductor. 20 Butler strived for her group to be viewed on mu- sical terms; the band's uniforms were military in nature, and did not emphasize femininity. 21 Such was Butler's fame that she was the first female to guest-conduct John Philip Sousa's band. During World War II, a Marine Corps Reserve Band was created, consisting entirely of female musicians. is was to free Marine musicians for combat duties. e direction of the group went to Charlotte Plummer, who was a high school band director in Oregon and a graduate of the University of Oregon. Plummer credited the opportunity to being "in the right place at the right time," as there were few female band directors. 22 e Marine Corps Reserve Band played for ceremonies and rallies, and were cred- ited with helping raise millions of dollars in war bond sales. e band was deactivated once the war ended, but not before Plummer received the opportunity to conduct e President's Own, the US Marine Corps Band. She was the first female to do so; there would not be another until 2003. e aforementioned Gladys Stone Wright was a trailblazer in terms of female high school band directors. Like Charlotte Plummer, Wright was also an alumnus of the University of Oregon. In 1960, her Otterbein (IN) High School band was selected to perform at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago, which is among the highest honors a school band can achieve. Previously, she was the first female to guest-conduct at the Midwest, which she did in 1951. A constant champion for female band directors, she founded Women Band Directors International in 1969 along with writing several articles on the subject. Wright was the first female elected to member- ship in the prestigious American Bandmasters Association and to the National Band Associa- tion's Hall of Fame of Distinguished Conductors. Barbara Buehlman was a contempo- rary of Wright's. She spent much of her teaching career at the grade school/junior high school lev- el, largely because she lacked the required march- ing band experience to teach high school band. Buehlman taught from 1960-1982 in Round Lake, Illinois, a distant, working class Chicago suburb. Paula Crider. First fe- male Director of Bands at a Class 5A high school in Texas, first female marching band director in the Big 12 conference, first fe- male president of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association. The cover to the score of "Coronation Scene from Boris Godunov," arranged by B. Buehlman. The name of "B." was to obscure that the arranger was a female, for fear by the publishers that male band directors would not purchase band music written by a female. This copy of the score is autographed by Ray Cramer, longtime Director of Bands at Indiana University, and Charles Menghini, president of the VanderCook College of Music. Picture of Helen May Butler, "The Lady Sousa." It was ... a campus flu epidemic that led to the University of Texas' marching band admitting female members. With the important 1957 Texas/Oklahoma football game on the horizon, female musicians were asked to fill in for sick male band members. With their hair tucked under their Stetson hats, the audience was unable to notice anything different. ... Female members became a permanent part of the Longhorn Band. BAND continued on page 16

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