Vincent Bach (March 24, 1890 – January 8, 1976) was a musician and instrument maker, who founded the

Vincent Bach Corporation The Vincent Bach Corporation is a US manufacturer of brass instruments that began early in the early Twentieth Century and still exists as a subsidiary of Conn-Selmer, a division of Steinway Musical Instruments. The company was founded in 1918 by ...

Vincent Schrotenbach

He was born as Vincent Schrotenbach in Baden bei Wien near Vienna, Austria.Priestly, Brian, Dave Gelly, Tony Bacon, The sax & brass book, Miller Freeman Books, San Francisco, CA, 1998, P. 1970 He received training on the violin and bugle as a youth switching to trumpet at age 12. At age 15, he purchased his first instrument, a rotary valve trumpet. Bach desired to be a musician, but that career was not supported by his family.Hempley, Roy & Lehrer, Doug, Play it again Mr. Bach, 2002, Bachology essay at http://www.bachbrass.com/bachology/article.php?uid=4 retrieved May 31, 2011 Bach graduated from Maschinenbauschule with an engineering degree, at the age of 20. During his subsequent compulsory military service, he served in the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Navy. That was followed by a period as an elevator operator before being called up a second time during which he served as a military musician in the Austrian Marine Band. His military experience inspired him to go against his family's wishes and pursue a career in music. Vincent Schrotenbach toured Europe performing on an

Alexander Alexander is a male given name. The most prominent bearer of the name is Alexander the Great, the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia who created one of the largest empires in ancient history. Variants listed here are Aleksandar, Al ...

cornet, but while in England in 1914 became entangled in the politics of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

finding it necessary to escape confinement as an enemy alien. He changed his name to Vincent Bach and fled to the United States.

Vincent Bach, American

Upon his arrival with a Besson cornet, he wrote to

Karl Muck Karl Muck (October 22, 1859 – March 3, 1940) was a German-born conductor of Classical music. He based his activities principally in Europe and mostly in opera. His American career comprised two stints at the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO). M ...

, conductor of the

Boston Symphony The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the " Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in 1881, ...

, who had him audition for an associate who, despite the audition being on cornet, immediately hired him and sent him to Boston. Through fellow Boston trumpeter Gustav Heim Bach was introduced to the

Frank Holton Company Holton is a brand owned by the Conn-Selmer division of Steinway Musical Instruments. The original business was a used instrument shop began in 1898 by Frank Holton, a trombone player, in Chicago, Illinois. The firm built brass instruments for ten ...

and began playing a 1914 Low-Pitch-Only New Holton Trumpet, with which he was photographed for BSO publicity. A year later, he was performing as principal trumpet with the

Metropolitan Opera The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...

. During his first 3 years in the US, Bach pursued many musical ventures including composing solos, recording on the Edison label, writing a short pamphlet version of his later '’The Art of Trumpet Playing'’ and endorsing Holton instruments. While touring in Pittsburgh, Bach's mouthpiece was destroyed by a repairman's attempts to rework it. On his return to New York, Bach began experimenting with

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...

mouthpieces. Bach also realized the need for a higher quality instruments when he served as bandmaster of the 306th Field Artillery band as a result of finding himself inducted once again, this time in the American military during World War 1. The last time Vincent Bach took a job as a performer was during 1926, one year after attaining his US citizenship when he accepted one more orchestral position for only a matter of months. His only other public performances were as a soloist on the radio and records between 1927 and 1929 promoting his instruments.

Bach company

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Starting with a mouthpiece business in the back of the Selmer music store in New York after being released from the military in 1918, Bach expanded to the production of trumpets and cornets under the "

Stradivarius A Stradivarius is one of the violins, violas, cellos and other string instruments built by members of the Italian family Stradivari, particularly Antonio Stradivari (Latin: Antonius Stradivarius), during the 17th and 18th centuries. They are c ...

" name (to project an image of quality) in 1924. By 1928, he relocated to a Bronx factory adding trombones to his product line. The company survived the depression and by 1953 moved to Mount Vernon New York. Collaborating with Georges Mager, during World War II, Bach developed the large bore C Trumpet that would become the standard of symphonic trumpeters in America. In 1961, at 71 years of age, Bach sold his company to the

Conn-Selmer Conn-Selmer, Inc. is an American manufacturer of musical instruments for concert bands, marching bands and orchestras. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Steinway Musical Instruments and was formed in 2003 by combining the Steinway properties, ...

corporation even though some of the other 13 bids he received were higher. Bach's instruments attained the reputation for quality he aspired to with the name and became widely used. Two of Bach's bugles figured prominently in the funerals of US presidents: One played for

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

, Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson, and is on display at

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is one of two national cemeteries run by the United States Army. Nearly 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington, Virginia. There are about 30 funerals conducted on weekdays and 7 held on Sa ...

; A second one played at the funeral of Ronald Reagan and was subsequently retired to the

Reagan Library The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library is the repository of presidential records from the administration of Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, and the burial place of the president and first lady, Nancy Reagan. It is the la ...

. This was chosen after a week-long process in which the Reagan family, Bach's grand-nephew (John Vincent Bach), the military and the bugler involved decided not to use the Kennedy bugle in favor of the one that the performer had used for two decades.

Later years

After the sale of the business, Vincent Bach stayed on as a researcherDundas, Richard, 20th Century Brass Musical Instruments in the United States, p.5 continuing to work until at least 1974.Pavlakis, Christopher, The American music handbook, The Free Press, Calhun Publishing, 1974, p. 655, Bach died January 8, 1976 in New York. He is buried in Kensico Cemetery in

Valhalla, New York Valhalla is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) within the town of Mount Pleasant, in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the New York City metropolitan area. Its population was 3,162 at the 2010 U.S. Census. The name was in ...

References

External links

Vincent Bach Division of

group of

Steinway Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...