Cincinnati native Henry Fillmore (1881-1956) was prolific composer and arranger and a beloved band leader whose music and performances delighted audiences. He started his own professional band (the Fillmore Band) in Cincinnati in the 1930s, one of the last great professional bands of its kind. He was also prolific in creating pseudonyms, including Harold Bennett (whose young band books were famous), Will Huff, Al Hayes, Gus Beans, Henrietta Hall (a rare female name), Ray Hall, Harry Hartley, and others. Over the span of his 50 year career, he (and his pseudonyms) wrote more than 250 original compositions, including 113 marches. He also created more than 750 arrangements for band, many of which are gold standards of the genre. After a long career in Ohio, he moved to Miami (the one in Florida, not the one in Ohio) and became involved with the bands at the University of Miami, where he had a lasting impact and where he left most of his estate.
Americans We dates from 1928, when Fillmore was conducting a small professional band in Cincinnati. The march’s earliest appearances were at the Cincinnati Zoo‘s Pure Food and Health Show, so Fillmore experimented with calling the march Cincinnati Zoo and Pure Food and Health before finally settling on Americans We in time for its publication in 1929. This first edition was dedicated “to all of us.”
Remembering that Fillmore composed prolifically in the circus march genre, here is Americans We at its appropriate, bright tempo:
Editions of Americans We edited by Frederick Fennell and Robert Foster now dominate the sheet music market. The original 1929 publication is also still in many band libraries.
See bios of Fillmore on Wikipedia, allmusic, ClassicCat, On Music Dictionary, and the Music Room.