Subscribe
Community
Trumpet call
Musician recalls three decades of playing in the U.S. Marine Band
Friday, Nov. 6, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photos by REID SILVERMAN
Rasmussen practices at his apartment last week.
|
E-Mail This Article
Johannes Rasmussen, 90, lives in a corner apartment at Cedar Lane Senior Living Community in Leonardtown.
He moved into Cedar Lane three years ago, and then waited for a corner apartment to become available "so I can shut my door and not bother another soul," Rasmussen said Friday.
He shows some visitors why he wanted to be a little apart from the other residents. A collection of three bugles is displayed on a dresser. On a table nearby there are two trumpets and, next to them, two cornets. The cornets are the instruments Rasmussen points to first. One was created in 1883. The other, he won in a contest.
It was with the cornet that Rasmussen earned his living, and now it's the playing of his cornet that he is concerned might bother his neighbors.
He played the cornet in the U.S. Marine Band, The President's Own, for 30 years, from 1947 to 1976.
Rasmussen calls himself a lucky man. "Since the time I've been 10 years old, I've been doing something I love — blowing the horn."
He played a tune for some visitors, laughing at some rough notes. "I don't have that strength of lip any more."
The son of Danish immigrants, Rasmussen grew up in Illinois. He studied music at the University of Illinois. "University of Illinois had one of the best concert bands in the country," he said.
With the onset of World War II, Rasmussen left school to serve on the USS Sierra in the South Pacific for four years, four months and four days, he said. He and his shipmates formed a band. "We were a tough bunch of musicians," he said.
When he was discharged, he returned to the University of Illinois. It was then that he got the chance of a lifetime for a musician. The U.S. Marine Band needed to replace an unusually high number of band members as servicemen left the military in droves after the war. Normally, the elite band would handpick single replacements as vacancies occurred, Rasmussen said. But the band was holding auditions. Rasmussen heard about it and grabbed his coronet.
"Oh, this was a rare item," he said. "It didn't happen all the time," Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen got the job.
About one semester shy of getting his degree, Rasmussen left school. He served in the U.S. Marine Band during the administrations of Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford.
But the pomp and power of the White House aren't what he's anxious to describe. "He had a great job," said his daughter, the third of his six children, Cheryl Ciecka, who lives nearby in Leonardtown. But "it was a job, and he had to work for whoever was in the White House. He was very matter of fact about it really."
The members of the band remained stationed in Washington, D.C. "I was in the White House, constantly playing in the East Room," he said.
He loved the brief nine-week touring season, when the band would hit the road, though they always stayed within the United States. "That's what I loved to do," he said.
When Rasmussen reminisces, it's not the politicians, political drama or visiting dignitaries that he wants to discuss – it's the great musicians he's known and worked with that make him smile.
He wrinkles his eyes and stares into the distance, "I remember …." he starts:
On Robert DeHart – a fellow member of the U.S. Marine Band's brass section – "He had one of the most beautiful tones on a cornet that I've ever heard."
On Albert Austin Harding, a friend of John Philip Sousa, "What a conductor. Wow."
On Dick Cisne, a band leader, "He played the piano like mad."
Though big band and swing music was popular, the U.S. Marine Band stuck to classical music, Rasmussen said.
"The Marine Corps Band, as famous as it was, was a pretty square outfit," he said.
Rasmussen retired in 1976. He went back to school, completing his degree at Keene State College. He worked at a private school in New Hampshire where he taught music and math. The music program was prized there. "It was a school where every student was required to take an instrument," Ciecka said.
After leaving the U.S. Marine Band, it became Rasmussen's hobby to call up his friends, then living all over the world, and play "Happy Birthday" for them. Now, with fewer of his friends around, Rasmussen plays "Happy Birthday" for significant birthdays of Cedar Lane residents, as when Merrie Himmelheber turned 100 in October last year. And he plays for Memorial Day services and other special events. "Whenever they want some help, I play for them," he said.
Janice Pruett, move-in and marketing coordinator for Cedar Lane, said during warm months, when the windows are open, she can sometimes hear Rasmussen practicing. "I think they enjoy him," she said of the residents. "And the people from outside appreciate it even more" because of the significant nature of his career.
"He'll sit up a little straighter when you bring it up," Pruett said.
Rasmussen wears a thick gold ring with the U.S. Marine Band insignia on it. He says he can't get it off anymore.
He spends free time now watching television. He loves old movies, he said. "He likes to reminisce," Ciecka said.
To learn more
Founded in 1798 by an Act of Congress, "The President's Own" United States Marine Band is America's oldest continuously active professional musical organization. Today, "The President's Own" is celebrated for its role at the White House and its public performances. "The President's Own" encompasses the United States Marine Band, Marine Chamber Orchestra and Marine Chamber Ensembles, and performs regularly at the White House and for more than 500 public performances across the nation each year. "The President's Own" is the only military organization whose primary mission is to provide music for the President of the United States. For more, see www.marineband.usmc.mil.
