Men of Ohio by Henry Fillmore Brass Quintet - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1727379

Men of Ohio for Brass Quintet

2 Trumpets, Horn, Trombone, Tuba and Drums

Henry Fillmore (December 31, 1881, Cincinnati, Ohio - December 7, 1956, Miami, Fla.) was an American composer and publisher. The eldest of five children, he mastered the piano, guitar, violin, and flute — as well as the trombone. He began composing at 18, with his first published march, Higham, named after a line of brass instruments. Fillmore entered the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music in 1901. Afterward, he traveled around the United States as a circus bandmaster with his wife, an exotic dancer named Mabel May Jones.

Fillmore composed over 250 tunes and arranged hundreds more. He also published many songs under various pseudonyms like Harold Bennett, Ray Hall, Harry Hartley, Al Hayes, and the humorous Henrietta Hall. While best known for march music and screamers, Fillmore also wrote waltzes, foxtrots, hymns, novelty numbers, overtures, and more waltzes.

Henry Fillmore moved from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Miami in 1938 after a doctor told him he had six months to live. The doctor suggested that moving to a warmer climate might increase his chances of living longer. Following the doctor's advice, the Fillmores relocated to Miami, hoping to improve Henry's health. It apparently worked, as they lived happily there until their deaths in the 1950s.

Fillmore dedicated Men of Ohio "To the President, Warren G. Harding, and his staunch Loyalists" in 1921, the year Harding became the 29th president of the United States. Harding had played alto horn in his hometown band of Caledonia and later, in Marion, Ohio, where his family moved. He also enjoyed boxing, motoring, fishing, baseball, card playing, and golfing. In 1920, the "small-town hero" took advantage of the American mood against the restrictions of the war years and ran a successful campaign for the nation's highest office. His popularity in that office was tarnished after two of his political appointees were convicted of graft and sent to prison. In an effort to regain the confidence of the American people in himself and his Republican Party members, Harding undertook a rigorous speaking schedule that left him completely exhausted. A stroke followed, and he died in August 1923.