Abstract
Only a few accounts reveal the activities of U.S. bands and bandsmen during World War I, particularly how the bands developed, functioned, and fit into the new conscription army. From 1905 until his death Philip James (1890-1975) kept a remarkable diary that includes information on his army career during the first great war of this century. James was born in Jersey City, and except for his World War I experiences near and on the front lines in France as an army bandsman, he spent his professional life as a composer, conductor, an organist, and a music educator in metropolitan New York City. Drafted into the infantry in October 1917, James quickly learned to play a wind instrument to become a member of the 308th Infantry Band, thus changing his wartime weapon from the rifle to the saxophone. He served in this regiment's thirty-six member band as an instrumentalist, an arranger, and a fill-in conductor at Camp Upton, on Long Island, and in France. He ended his military career in 1919 after reaching the rank of second lieutenant in the U.S. Army and serving as the conductor and commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces Headquarters Band (the famed General Pershing's Band), with which he made the famous Victory Loan tour in U.S. cities during spring 1919. Some of the most descriptive entries in James's diaries are those
Published Version
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