Thomas Coates (musician)

Thomas P. Coates (1803 – October 11, 1895) was a 19th-century American musician who achieved initial prominence in Pennsylvania for his performances on the cornet and French horn. The director of Pomp's Cornet Band in Easton, Pennsylvania, he was commissioned as the first conductor of the regimental band of the 47th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the early months of the American Civil War. Post-war, he became a prolific and popular composer of band music, and was subsequently nicknamed "the Father of Band Music in America."

Early life and education

Coates was born in Easton, Pennsylvania in 1803, the son of John and Barbara (Boynton) Coates who were natives of Tynemouth, Northumberland, England. His father became a naturalized citizen of the United States in Philadelphia in 1813.

Career

Band music

In 1813, Coates joined a circus band but was left to fend for himself by band members sometime after they reached South Carolina. He survived by finding work as a French horn player with another band. By 1824, he was a cornetist with Pomp's Cornet Band, and was a member of that ensemble when it performed for Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette when the general visited Easton, Pennsylvania during his grand tour of the United States.

Continuing to expand his performing experience as both a soloist and ensemble member of the popular concert bands of Patrick Gilmore and Harvey B. Dodworth from the late 1820s into the 1830s, he subsequently was appointed as the conductor of P. T. Barnum's Hippodrome Circus band, as well as a second ensemble established by Dodworth, and Pomp's Cornet Band during the 1840s and 1850s.

In 1857, he composed a national melody for performance at the dedication of the new National Guard armory on Race Street in Philadelphia.

American Civil War

On August 14, 1861, Coates enrolled for military service in the American Civil War at Camp Curtin in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.