Music in an American Frontier Communal Society

Rehearsals of the band were apparently public. According to one contemporary source, the band "would practice on pleasant evenings to the delight of the travellers."¹⁴ Public or not, high quality was insisted upon. Bass player George Wolfer recalled that all solo passages were to be played to the complete satisfaction of all musicians present at rehearsals.

The Pioneer Band was an ever-present feature of colony gatherings, including the spring and summer festivals, Dr. Keil's birthday celebration on March 6, colony funerals, and most religious holidays.¹⁵ Frequently it played in the two large colony halls as a concert band or for colony dances. During the summer the band often performed in the bandstand located in the Aurora Park. The land for this 12-acre park, which had been cleared and maintained by colony labor, was given to the colony by Henry C. Finck expressly for this purpose.

According to Hendricks:

The colony people... improved and beautified the park, built a grand stand, provided seats for large crowds and erected a commodious kitchen and constructed a big bakery for the preparation of meals on public occasions. They hauled dirt and formed a great mound in a place convenient to the grand stand and to the amphitheater for the seats, and the spacious refectory. They covered the mound with a beautiful growth of grass, bordered with flowers... and provided a most unique and ornamental place on the top for the band.¹⁶

Following the suggestion of Henry C. Finck, two balconies were built on the Aurora church tower so that two groups might play antiphonally,¹⁷ and the band often performed from one or both balconies. The rooftop platform of the hotel (constructed between 1864 and 1867) was also used by the band on festive occasions. After the appearance of the railroad the band frequently greeted arriving passengers with short concerts from the hotel platform.¹⁸