Herbert L. Clarke

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Herbert Lincoln Clarke (September 12, 1867–January 30, 1945) was a noted American cornet player, bandmaster, and composer. He is widely considered one of the greatest cornet soloists of all time. Clarke left a legacy that included some of the most popular compositions for the instrument, many definitive recordings, as well as a seminal school of playing which emphasized not only extreme technical aptitude, but also increased warmth and lyricism of tone. He also produced several method books that are still widely used by brass students to this day. Clarke was born in Woburn, Massachusetts in 1867. The son of a composer and organist, William Clarke, Herbert's family moved often to accommodate William's work engagements, from Massachusetts to Ohio, to Indiana, back to Massachusetts, and finally to Toronto in 1880. Clarke's early musical instruction had been on the violin; by 1881, he was a second violinist in the Toronto Philharmonic Society. However, according to his autobiography, one of the formative moments in his musical upbringing was attending a concert of The American Band of Providence, Rhode Island at the Horticultural Pavilion in Toronto in 1881, and hearing Bowen R. Church play a cornet solo. He subsequently began practicing his brother's cornet and took a chair as a cornetist in the Queen's Own Rifle band in 1882, in order to obtain his own government-issue cornet on which to practice. Between 1884, when he graduated from high school, and 1887, Clarke drifted bet

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