Vincent Bach

{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2014}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Vincent Bach | image = | image_upright = | image_size = | landscape =  | alt = | caption = | background = | birth_name = Vincent Freiherr von Schrottenbach | alias = Vincent Schrottenbach | birth_date = March 24, 1890 | birth_place = Baden bei Wien, Austria-Hungary | origin = | death_date = {{Death date and age|1976|01|08|1890|03|24}} | death_place = New York City, U.S. | genre = | occupation = Musician, Manufacturer | instrument = Trumpet | years_active = | label = Edison Records | past_member_of = Boston Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera }} '''Vincent Freiherr von Schrottenbach''' (March 24, 1890 – January 8, 1976), known professionally as '''Vincent Bach''', was an Austrian and American musician and instrument maker, who founded the Vincent Bach Corporation.

== Vincent Schrotenbach == [[File:High-brass-x6-large.jpg|thumb|right|Brass instruments]] He was born as '''Vincent Freiherr von Schrottenbach''' in Baden bei Wien<ref name=bachloyal>{{cite web |url=http://www.bachloyalist.com/history/vincentbach.htm |title=Vincent Bach |publisher=Bach Loyalist |access-date=July 23, 2010}}</ref> near Vienna, Austria.<ref name="Priestly">Priestly, Brian, Dave Gelly, Tony Bacon, The sax & brass book, Miller Freeman Books, San Francisco, CA, 1998, P. 1970</ref> He received training on the violin and bugle as a youth switching to trumpet at age 12.<ref name="Priestly"/> 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.<ref name="Hempley">Hempley, Roy & Lehrer, Doug, Play it again Mr. Bach, 2002, Bachology essay at http://www.bachbrass.com/bachology/article.php?uid=4 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110904211920/http://www.bachbrass.com/bachology/article.php?uid=4 |date=September 4, 2011 }} retrieved May 31, 2011</ref>

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.<ref name="Hempley"/>

His military experience inspired him to go against his family's wishes and pursue a career in music. Vincent Schrottenbach toured Europe performing on an Alexander cornet, but while in England in 1914 became entangled in the politics of World War I finding it necessary to escape confinement as an enemy alien. He changed his name to Vincent Bach and fled to the United States.<ref name="Priestly"/>

==Vincent Bach, American== Upon his arrival with a Besson cornet, he wrote to Karl Muck,<ref name="Priestly"/> conductor of the Boston Symphony, 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 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.<ref name=bachbrass>{{cite web |url=http://www.bachbrass.com/history/ |title=History of Bach Stradivarius |publisher=Bach Brass |access-date=July 23, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091130185935/http://www.bachbrass.com/history/ |archive-date=November 30, 2009 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Hempley"/> His vaudeville touring included July 1915 performances in San Francisco<ref>"Vaudeville: Hippodrome." San Francisco Examiner, 11 July 1915, 47.</ref> and Los Angeles.<ref>"Big Allegory at 'Hip." Los Angeles Evening Express, 15 July 1915, 17("formerly cornet virtuoso of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.").</ref>

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 mouthpieces.<ref name="Priestly"/> 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.<ref name=bachbrass /><ref>Note: This was the same field artillery regiment credited with bringing the "Cassion Song" to John Philip Sousa in 1917. The result, "The Caisson Song," would become the official U.S. Army march, "The Army Goes Rolling Along." See [http://skyways.lib.ks.us/orgs/mcb/Library/M0126.htm http://skyways.lib.ks.us/orgs/mcb/Library/M0126.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070211144010/http://skyways.lib.ks.us/orgs/mcb/Library/M0126.htm |date=February 11, 2007 }}</ref>

He was married on 29 April 1925 to Esther Staab in New York City.<ref>"Miss Staab Bride of Vincent Bach." Chattanooga (TN) Daily Times, 10 May 1925, 27.</ref>

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.<ref name="Hempley"/>

As of April 1927 he was first-chair of the six trumpets in the orchestra at the Roxy Theater in New York, while continuing his manufacturing business.<ref>"Vincent Bach Is Now First Trumpeter for Roxy." Musical Merchandise 4:2 (April 1927), 26.</ref>

==Bach company==

[[File:Embouchure - montage.jpg|thumb|left|Vincent Bach trumpet mouthpiece]] Bach established a mouthpiece business in the back of the Selmer music store in New York after being released from the military in 1918, and by 1920 was advertising a business location at 204 E. 85th.<ref>"Bach Mouthpieces Help You Earn More" (advertisement). New York Tribune, 17 October 1920, 47.</ref> He expanded to the production of trumpets and cornets under the "Stradivarius" 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.<ref>Hempley, Roy & Lehrer, Doug, TO THE BACK OF THE CONCERT HALL THE EVOLUTION OF BACH STRADIVARIUS C TRUMPETS, 2011 at http://www.bachbrass.com/bachology/article.php?uid=12 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927150903/http://www.bachbrass.com/bachology/article.php?uid=12 |date=September 27, 2011 }} retrieved August 26, 2011</ref> In 1961, at 71 years of age, Bach sold his company to the Conn-Selmer corporation even though some of the other 13 bids he received were higher.<ref name="Priestly"/>

Bach's instruments attained the reputation for quality he aspired to with the name and became widely used.<ref>Rehrig, William, Hoe, Robert, The heritage encyclopedia of band music: composers and their music: Volume 1, Integrity Press, 1991, p.33</ref> Two of Bach's bugles figured prominently in the funerals of US presidents: One played for John F. Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson, and is on display at Arlington National Cemetery;<ref>Hempley, Roy & Lehrer, Doug, Bach's Bugles, 2004 at http://www.bachbrass.com/bachology/article.php?uid=7 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110904212029/http://www.bachbrass.com/bachology/article.php?uid=7 |date=September 4, 2011 }} retrieved May 31, 2011</ref> A second one played at the funeral of Ronald Reagan and was subsequently retired to the Reagan Library.<ref>Royce, Knut, Bugle will go to Reagan Library, Newsday, June 10, 2004</ref> This was chosen after a week-long process in which the Reagan family, Bach's grand-nephew (John Vincent Bach<ref>Bach, John Vincent, Vincent Bach grand-nephew</ref>), 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 researcher<ref name="Dundas">Dundas, Richard, 20th Century Brass Musical Instruments in the United States, p.5</ref> continuing to work until at least 1974.<ref>Pavlakis, Christopher, The American music handbook, The Free Press, Calhun Publishing, 1974, p. 655,</ref> Bach died January 8, 1976, in New York.<ref name="Dundas"/> He is buried in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.<ref name=bachloyal />

==See also== * Vincent Bach Corporation

== References == {{reflist}}

==External links==

Vincent Bach Division of Conn-Selmer group of Steinway Musical Instruments at http://www.bachbrass.com/

The Bach Loyalist at http://www.bachloyalist.com/

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bach, Vincent}} Category:1890 births Category:1976 deaths

Category:20th-century American male musicians Category:20th-century Austrian male musicians Category:20th-century trumpeters Category:American musical instrument makers Category:American trumpeters Category:American male trumpeters Category:Austrian trumpeters Category:Burials at Kensico Cemetery

Category:Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States Category:Male trumpeters Category:Musicians from Baden bei Wien Category:United States Army personnel of World War I