Herbert L. Clarke (1867-1945)

In the last issue of the Brass Bulletin it was revealed that Herbert Clarke began the study of the cornet as a boy and had dreams of being able to play in a band. After joining the Queen's Own Regimental Band of Toronto, Canada at the age of twelve, his pleasures for sports led him to join a boys' football team during which time he contracted a serious chest cold which confined him to the house from December to April. The cornet issued to him by the Queen's Own Band was called in and his position was replaced. After Herbert’s illness he was allowed to practice the old family alto horn for a few minutes each day. This helped strengthen his lungs, and he developed great breath control which formed the foundation of his great power and endurance. He again started playing Ed's cornet and worked in the office of a wholesale drug establishment for four dollars per week in order to save enough money to afford his own cornet.

Ed became leader of a road show orchestra and hired Herbert as cornetist because, at the last minute, the regular cornetist quit and was not going to travel with the orchestra. At age fifteen, Herbert left for Buffalo with brothers Ed and Ern to play a summer's engagement before starting to travel around the country playing one-night engagements. After one month with the orchestra, Herbert returned home, homesick and disheartened about the music profession, and re-joined the Queen's Own Band and eventually moved up to second chair.

Herbert Clarke graduated from high school in June of 1884. After living for four years in Toronto, the Clarke family moved back to Indianapolis, save Will, the oldest son, who had a good job in a department store. In Indianapolis, Herbert heard a young cornetist from Delphi, Indiana who played in the Opera House in Indianapolis. This young man, with whom Clarke became great friends and with whom he also played in Sousa's band, was Walter B. Rogers. As boys, Rogers and Clarke often played duets and parades together and also formed the Schubert Brass Quartet in which Walter and Herbert played cornet, Ed played alto horn, and Ernest played trombone. The quartet played several jobs around town and Herbert began to study the viola in order to play in the family string quartet. Rogers, an excellent violinist who graduated from the Cincinnati Conservatory, gave viola lessons to Herbert.