Biography of Clarence Sawhill

CHAPTER IV - The Lawrence Years

The move to Lawrence, Kansas was a great opportunity for Clarence Sawhill. Lawrence, a larger town in Eastern Kansas was the home of the University of Kansas, and offered Sawhill the chance not only to develop a larger high school program, but also to come in contact and study with the faculty at the University.

Sawhill again received tremendous local support for the band program. Because of the depression, money was extremely tight and school budgets were cut to maintain the bare minimum of programs. A great deal of the monies for the band program had to be raised from outside of the schools' revenues. Sawhill stated that, "We would buy instruments from pawn shops in Kansas City; I would pay $25 for a Victor Conn Cornet and $40 for a Selmer Clarinet.”

The band was also given the concessions during the summer months at the city softball park, and many parents pitched in to help the band earn additional revenues." The band also played for all home football and basketball games and presented a weekly concert on KFKU radio in Lawrence.

In his first year at Liberty Memorial High School, Sawhill also supervised all the grade schools, taught the junior and senior high school band and orchestra, and directed the Clarence Cameron White Chorus. Sawhill wanted to specialize in the instrumental area, so an assistant was hired in his second year (1934) to help with the vocal ensembles. This gave Sawhill more free time for various instrumental classes, ensembles, and individual lessons for the students.

Also by 1934, Sawhill had increased the size of the high school band to eighty members, achieving success with both the concert and marching band. The following quote from the high school annual helps validate this point:

“Eighty piece marching band marched onto the field in the shape of H-E-L-L-O for the first football game. It was very significant of the pep and spirit that was instilled in the student body. Lawrence Chamber of Commerce designated the Lawrence Memorial High School Band as the official City Band and also gave financial help. Much of the success of the band is due to the inspiration of C. E. Sawhill.”

The Liberty Memorial High School Band won the hearts of the depression-ridden Kansas community. To encourage the already prevalent local support for equipment and trips, members of the band put up posters in the local merchants' windows with slogans such as "You boost for us, and we'll blow for you." Sawhill states, "I wanted a slogan like Joliet's (Illinois) "Give a boy a horn, and he'll never blow a safe.”

Band contests on the state and national levels had become extremely popular throughout the 1920's and 1930's. The first National Contest was held in Chicago in 1923 under the auspices of the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce. This set the stage for the National Contests sanctioned by the Music Teachers National Association beginning in 1926 in Fostoria, Ohio.

State contests had become equally popular with forty-four states holding contests by 1932. These state-level events were important because a band had to win a first place for two consecutive years in order to qualify for the National Contests.

In 1936, the Liberty Memorial High School Band qualified for the National Contest in Sawhill's third year as their director. The band had been selected as the most outstanding in the state of Kansas the previous spring. This was a great honor for the Liberty Memorial students and much work went into raising money and preparing for the national contest that was to be held in Cleveland, Ohio.

The 1936 National Contest in Cleveland featured sixty-six bands from twenty-six states. Sawhill relates that the band was well prepared for the performance and the concert was well performed. The Liberty Memorial Band received a first division for their concert performance. However, the band was awarded a third division in sightreading. Under National Band Contest regulations this dropped their overall rating to a second division.

This was quite a respectable showing for a band in their first time in national competition, but Sawhill was disappointed at the rating and felt that he had not prepared the band to the best of their abilities. Sawhill states, "I worked all summer teaching classes in rhythmic counting, student conducting, and sightreading."

Harold Bachman, who had judged the band in Cleveland in the national contest, adjudicated the Kansas state contest the following spring in Lawrence. Sawhill relates that Bachman was amazed at the progress that the band had made since the previous year, especially in their sightreading skills.

In this, Sawhilll’s last year at Liberty Memorial the Band again was rated the best in Kansas and also was a first division rating at the mid-west music festival at Kansas University. They were, however, unable to return to the national contest, since the bands and orchestras were at this time alternating years, and 1937 was the orchestra year.

Sawhill was featured in the School Musician Magazine in 1936 in their "We're Making Music" section. Second, it offered him the opportunity to continue his studies on a variety of wind, string, and percussion instruments at the University of Kansas.

Through his work at the University, he became closely associated with Russell Howland, woodwind teacher at Kansas, who became one of Sawhill's closest professional and personal friends. This association helped in his eventual move to the University of Illinois. A student of Sawhill's during his Lawrence years sums up her experiences with the young teacher:

“He was a talented conductor, I guess, since our high ratings in contest must have meant good musical interpretations on his part. But, his real gift is the same as Margaret Mead says she had, a capacity to appreciate other peoples' work in away that seems to give them something like a transfusion of energy and brings out in active form all latent talent they have, and then some! Mr. Sawhill is, in other words, a catalyst. He inspires. He makes students devoted to him, and they all want to do their best to please him. He is very human and makes every student feel his personal interest and affection. Consistently, he gets students to perform at a level better than what they are basically capable of – this is Mr. Sawhill's amazing talent. I wasn't ever musical, but he convinced me that I could play well the various flute solos in contest numbers, and somehow I did. Mr. Sawhill used entirely positive approaches. He selected good quality music for us to study. He introduced it to us as something very much worth working on, and we were convinced. I do not remember getting bored with rehearsals.”

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