Upbeat Downbeat on the Common
Whitefield, New Hampshire
“Music turns the world upside down” —Michael Portillo
______________________
Up and down Main Street
hand-scrawled placards summon
Come to the Promenade Concert on the Common!
A cornet suddenly cuts the still
with the punch of a near-ripe plum,
gun-start for a dance on the grass,
neighbors and friends passing a lazy
afternoon with a strawberry supper.
Under cover of the white bandstand
the august Whitefield Amateur Band
swings upbeat in dapper hats,
quick-tap toes, thrumming downbeat,
air thick with summer heat,
scent of raspberry off the moondance rose,
September drenched in wide blue sky–
an upside-down lake filling up the windows
that ring the Grand Resort nearby,
itself ringed round by hills and mountains
echoing back the lively strains
of The Little Log Cabin in the Lane
and Goodbye Liza Jane.
Hours pass, and frogs and crickets
join the pulse of the early night
coursing through the heart of Whitefield,
once a parcel no one wanted,
very last of the English towns
where, in Pine Street cemetery,
Varnum Blood lies in his place
with an upward pointing finger
sculpted on his tombstone face,
while several rows across the yard
Henry Lane lies in repose
under another moss-stained stone
with a carved finger pointing down.
Reverberating bandstand sounds
chase away any loitering clouds,
room for the lonely moon up high
to cast its spotlight down to find
a couple kissing in the crowd,
gently swaying, keeping time
to the rhythmic beat of Baby Mine.
NOTES:
Bandstands were a common feature in towns and parks across England and America in the second half of the nineteenth century, offering a stage for public concerts and other gatherings.
“Promenade Concerts” were those where much of the audience stood around and listened.
Popular in the day were the “cornet bands” (brass bands with percussion). See below the 1874 Mason Cornet Band as an example.
4. The Whitefield bandstand was erected in 1875 and it was dedicated, according to town records, "with an appropriate amount of ceremony." An unattributed newspaper writeup in the possession of the Whitefield Historical Society offers some interesting information about the bandstand. "Whitefield Amateur Band," said the account, "offered lively entertainment. In dapper hats, the band offered promenade concerts and an occasional 'strabbery supper', fining members 25 cents for any 'disturbances.' A later band was formed in 1907 with 15 members offering summer concerts on the common every Saturday night." –Eileen Alexander, Coos County Democrat, February 23, 1999.
5. Whitefield is known for its Victorian architecture. Many buildings from the 1800's remain today including the Mountain View Grand Resort, completed in 1866.
Mountain View Grand Resort and Spa, Whitefield, New Hampshire.
6. The songs referenced in the poem are popular tunes from the 1870’s in America. The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane (music and words by Will[iam] S[hakespeare] Hays), 1871. Good-Bye, Liza Jane, 1871. Baby Mine (words by Charles Mackay, music by Archibald Johnstone), 1878.
7. Kim R. Nilsen, A History of WHITEFIELD, NEW HAMPSHIRE 1774-1974. According to this book, the parcel of land (that is now Whitefield) was "left over" after boundaries had been established for neighboring towns and was later referred to as "the land that no one wanted."
8. Whitefield was the last town to be established by the English provincial government, just two years before the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Whitefield was chartered on July 4, 1774, exactly two years before adoption of the Declaration of the Independence.
9. http://newenglandfolklore.blogspot.com/2013/11/strange-gravestones-of-whitefield-new.html. Check out this link to see the upward pointing finger for Varnum Blood and the downward pointing for Henry Lane in Pine Street Cemetery.
10. For much of the information above, and much more, see the Whitefield website Town Heritage tab at https://www.whitefieldnh.org/home/about-us/pages/town-heritage.