The Smith-Spring-Holmes Orchestral Quintet

              1917

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The Smith-Spring-Holmes Orchestral Quintet



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MISS COYLA MAY SPRING READER, SOPRANO, PIANIST

The Smith-Spring-Holmes Orchestral Quintet
THE Smith-Spring-Holmes Orchestral Quintet is a company of high class musical interpreters who play the best in music, and who use no clap trap methods in order to win applause.  Mr. G. E. Holmes and Mr. Clay Smith were two of the original organizers and proprietors of the Apollo Concert Company and were with that company for the past ten years.  Miss Coyla Spring has also recently appeared with the Apollos, and was for some time at the head of her own company.  Messrs. Smith and Holmes are also well known composers.

The program of the Smith-Spring-Holmes Quintet includes trombone and cornet solos and duets. Violin, flute, basset horn, 'cello and vocal solos, saxophone selections and ensemble instrumental numbers, readings and pianologues, all of high merit.  Their instruments are elaborate and expensive.  They are of 18k gold and were used for display purposes at the Panama-Pacific Exposition.  Each instrument has about one hundred hours' engraving on it.  At least four of the members of this company have appeared before single audiences comprising as many as 7,000 people and their work has been praised by some of the most notable men in America.



Personnel
MR. CLAY SMITH was solo trombonist with the Kilties' Band; was one season soloist with Richards Concert Orchestra; first trombonist with Finney's Concert Band; trombonist with Rosenbecker's Orchestra; first trombonist with Carl Clairs' Concert Band in a tour of every state in the Union but three, also Mexico and Canada; solo trombonist one season with the N. H. D. V. S. Government Band, and trombone soloist with the Famous Fourth Regiment Band during the St. Louis Exposition, where he secured the trombone that took first prize for tone quality and finish—a beautiful instrument of 18K gold.  He studied technical trombone with G. Simons, W. F. Wilkins and C. C. Walters soloists with Damrosch, Innes and Finney, respectively.  He studied individual style and phrasing with W. F. Weldon and H. A. Vander Cook, considered the world's authority on respiration and all wind instruments.

MR. G. E. HOLMES was flute soloist two seasons with Weldon's famous band of Chicago; two seasons with Dode Fisk's Concert Orchestra; assistant director N. H. D. V. S. Government Band; director one season of the Ben Hur Band; musical director and arranger for the well known John W. Vogel's Minstrels; teacher of harmony and instrumentation in Pryor's Conservatory one season.  He had written musical compositions which were published before he was eighteen years old.  His music is used now by most of the bands and orchestras on both sides of the water, including such celebrated bands as Sousa's, Innes, Kilties', Banda Rossa's, Wield's, Weber's and others.

MISS COYLA MAY SPRING entered the lyceum field six years ago; she traveled one season with a ladies' quartet as reader and soprano, then one season working alone; following that for the next three years with the Apollos, and the past two seasons heading her own company—The Coyla May Spring Concert Company.  She studied voice with widely known teachers in Chicago, Danville, Ill., and Denver.  In dramatic art she is a graduate of the Chicago Conservatory, and did special work at the Columbia School of Expression.

MISS LOTUS F. SPRING has been 'cello soloist with her sister's company for the past two seasons.  She has played with several well known local orchestras in Chicago and Denver.  She studied 'cello with Benjamin of Chicago, and C. C. Stuttgart of Denver, and others.  She has a beautiful mezzo soprano voice.  She too studied voice with well known teachers in Chicago.

MISS ALMA FORSYTHE Violin soloist is a graduate of the Illinois College Conservatory of Jacksonville and has devoted four years to post graduate work under such well known violinists as Ludwig Becker of the Thomas Orchestra and W. E. Kritch formerly of the faculty of the Stern Conservatory of Berlin.  Miss Forsythe has the rare ability to produce a tremendous tone without sacrificing the finer qualities.  She is gifted with unusual musical temperament and has clear, brilliant technique.





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Messrs. Smith and Holmes in Brass Duet

The Smith-Spring-Holmes Orchestral Quintet

Messrs. Smith and Holmes in Saxophone Duet





Messrs. Holmes and Smith Widely Known in the Musical World for their Musical Compositions

Published Compositions of G. E. Holmes


Minstrel Days March.
Above the Clouds March.
Alkahest March.
Our Merchant Marine March.
The Courtier March.
The Prospector March.
The Promotor March.
The Inventor March.
The Kings Jester March.
The Master Builder March.
Our Congressman March.
The Live Wire March.
High and Lofty March.
Soldiers of the Sea March.
La Promenade Grand March.
The Guardsman March.
Winter Sports March.
The Frost Queen March.
The Oracle March.
Alabama Queen March.
Chippewa Indian March.
Roselawn (Two Step) March.
The Owl Club March.
The Tourist March.
The Summer Girl March.
The Banqueters March.



CONCERT WALTZES

Spirit of the Dance.
Queen of Flowers.
Little Ione.
Youths Golden Dream.
Cupids Call.
Love's Reply.
Azalea.
In Beauties Realm.
The Social Whirl.
A Dream of Love.
La Belle Marie.
Youth and Beauty.
Fern Dell.
Fairyland.
Lolita.
Meditation.
Violetta.



CHARACTERISTICS

Incense.
Primrose Intermezzo.
Saint Vitus Dance.
Hydrophobia.
Dazie Mazurka.
Uncle Abe.
Estelle Mazurka.
Dance of the Mermaids.
Nanette Polka.
The Trap Drummer's Dream.
Ellsworth Quadrille.
Highland Park Lancers.
Jolly Girls Quadrille.
The Dryads Quadrille.
Metropolitan Lancers.
Old Black Joe Lancers.
Memories of Stephen Foster Selection.
Visions of Old Madrid Spanish Serenade.



SONGS

Let Me Down Easy.
A Vision.
Gods Afterwhiles.
It May Mean Dinner Time to Some.
And Many Others.

Also twenty-four sets of Saxophone Quartets and lots of Duets, Solos and Trios.

This is only a partial list of his numbers.




Compositions of Clay Smith


Solos for Trombone, Baritone, Cornet or Saxophone.
The Water Witch Concert Polka.
The Philistines Concert Polka.
Fantasia (Annie Laurie).
Imogene (Brass Duet).
The Soul of the Surf Polka de Concert.
Wings of the Morning Concert Waltzes.
Pipes 'O Pan.
Air Var Coming Thru the Rye.
Old Kentucky Home and Variations.
The Pleadies Polka de Concert.
In Sincerity Concert Waltzes.
The Satellite Polka Brilliant.
Miraflories (See the Flowers) Waltzes.
Nautilus Polka Brilliant.
Memories of the Past Valse de Concert.
The Salamander Duet.
The Sea Serpent Polka de Concert.
The Call of the Sea Valse de Concert
The Iron Trail March.
Etc., Etc.



SONGS

Sorter Miss You.
Evening Time (a Lullaby).
Gethsemine.
My Wish For You.
The Land of Dreams.
Home Memories.
The Weather Prophet.
Etc., Etc.




Compositions by Holmes and Smith

The Triumph of TRUE TONES March.
Thru Shadowed Vales (Duet) for brass and wood and others.



Press and Personal Comments

G. E. Holmes is a fine saxophone player as well as a most excellent flute ploist.  He is a composer of great prominence.—
(Belle Plains, Kansas) News.


G. E. Holmes' flute solo was one of the main features of the evening.—
Freeport (Illinois) Press.


The audience was treated to several compositions by G. E. Holmes.  They were descriptive in character as is indicated by the titles The St. Vitus Dance Lights and Shadows Caprice and Primrose Intermezzo.—
Battle Creek (Mich.) Enquirer.


Holmes and his exploits could fill a chapter.  Holmes is so full of music it oozes out of his pores.  He snores chromatically.  He has toured the earth and composed music waiting for trains.  * * * * * * * He has been pouring out music that the big publishing houses are glad to pay fancy prices for, and he is still at it.  He is becoming one of the best known American composers.  If breakfast is late he brings out a new march, if the curtain is slow it means another waltz in the repertoire.  He just can't stop composing, save when he is playing.  His is great playing.  His flute is wonderful, so is his soprano saxophone and his cornet.  Hunt up another artist who plays flute, cornet and saxophone the same evening.  The long-haired ones always said it was impossible.—
Ralph Parlette.

I sometimes rather think that I would like to wake to the silver tongued notes of that cornet of Holmes' in the day of resurrection, and surely those sonorous trombone tones of Smith would echo gloriously thru the crystal sarcophagi of the mighty deep, when the sea gives up its dead.—Father P. J. MacCorry.


Among the numbers that greatly delighted was the trombone solo by Clay Smith, who thoroughly enraptured his audience with his encore Nevin's Rosary.—
Norwalk (O.) Leader.


The trombone solo—Down On The Farm with variations played by Clay Smith proved one of the favorites of the evening.—
Galesburg (Ill.) Evening Mail.


The artistic number on the program was the trombone solo by Clay Smith.  If there is any better trombonist in the Lyceum, we have yet to hear them.  He stands in a class by himself.—
Sleepy Eye (Minn.) Press.


Clay Smith is a finished trombone soloist; especially good was his own composition, The Philistine, Concert Polka.—
Leavenworth (Kan.) Times.


As a vocalist and reader, Miss Spring charmed her audience in every number and was a favorite throughout the evening.—
Atchison (Kan.) Daily Champion.


Miss Spring proved to be a charming reader.  Her interpretation of the Cup Scene from Ingomar was realistic and delightful.—
Morris (Ill.) Daily Herald.


The vocal selections and readings by Miss Spring were exceptionally good.  The only fault with her readings was that there were too few.  Miss Spring possesses a splendid personality and has a very finely cultivated soprano voice.—
Leavenworth (Kan.) Times.


The vocal numbers of Miss Spring were rendered in a manner that brought appreciative response from the audience.—
Lebanon (Ind.) Daily Reporter.


Miss Bethig, violinist, proved popular with the large crowd present, as she showed remarkable ability and musical talent.—
McIntosh (Minn.) Times.


Miss Bethig proved herself a violinist of considerable ability.  Miss Lotus Spring, mezzo and 'cello, was very popular thruout the evening.—
Newspaper Comment from Rosetown Canada.


Miss Lotus Spring, 'cellist and mezzo-soprano, delighted the audience thruout the program.—
Bancroft (Neb.) Press.


Miss Spring created a furor, being recalled time and again.  Her child readings were particularly effective.—
Clinton (Iowa) Herald.

Congressman Richmond Pearson Hobson on Aug. 30, 1914, wrote as follows: I have heard Miss Spring a number of times and enjoyed the work every time with increasing measure.  What impresses me most is the variety of her talents and the versatility of her work.  She is an accomplished musician, both in vocal and instrumental music.  She is an accomplished reader and monologist.  Her pianologues are particularly effective.  She adds the finished touch to the artist in tragedy, comedy, pathos, and humor alike, and withal is very successful in children's pieces.  I can bear high testimony to her worth in prelude or in full program.






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MISS LOTUS FLOWER SPRING CELLO - MEZZO


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The Smith-Spring-Holmes Orchestral Quintet
Redpath