Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection
AR406-6-1983
Don Gillis, a TCU alum and former marching band director, was a prolific composer whose music drew on several popular genres.
What is an Amon Carter Stadium without an “Amon Carter March” to accompany its athletic contests?
An emerging composer named Don Gillis raised that question in 1937 — eight years after the development of Amon Carter Stadium at Texas Christian University — and challenged himself to fill that musical gap with a memorable melody.
The result was a lively swing-tempo gridiron anthem that became a halftime standard at the TCU Horned Frogs’ football games. Carter, the Star-Telegram’s publisher, had led the campaign to build a new stadium in 1929 and by himself sold $500,000 worth of bonds. Gillis sought to deliver a belated gesture of thanks with “The Amon Carter March.”
Carter welcomed the Gillis composition: By all accounts, he enjoyed the occasional opportunity to lead the TCU band in “The Amon Carter March” while wearing a pair of customized purple-and-white boots, emblazoned with the symbolic likeness of the Horned Frog mascot.
One does not hear much these days about Gillis or his “Amon Carter March” (something ought to be done about that), but a campaign of rediscovery has brought new attention to Don Gillis’ career as a TCU alumnus-turned-conductor. An archive of his music and memoirs at the University of North Texas, his other alma mater, stands ready to yield its melodic secrets, and none too soon.
Distinguishing works in addition to “The Amon Carter March” include the commemorative Symphony No. 7: Saga of a Prairie School, which was commissioned by TCU for a début during commencement exercises in 1948 at Will Rogers Auditorium. The Prairie School epic was preserved in an album of 78-rpm phonograph platters from Decca Records’ affiliated London label. (That graduation ceremony included Gillis’ anointment with an honorary Doctor of Music degree.)
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection
AR406-6-757 11/27/1937
Don Gillis, leader of the Texas Christian University band, described Amon G. Carter as the band's "greatest benefactor" as he presented Carter with a scroll naming him "honorary band leader for life." The Horned Frog band stood in front of Carter's box between the halves at the TCU-SMU football game as Gillis presented the scroll. As Gillis finished the presentation, the band played publicly for the first time "The Amon Carter March," written by Gillis.
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection
AR406-6-757 11/27/1937
Members of the Texas Christian University band performing during the TCU-SMU football game. During the game, Amon G. Carter was presented with a scroll naming him "honorary band leader for life" by TCU band leader Don Gillis. Gillis described Carter as the band's "greatest benefactor" and the Horned Frog band stood in front of Carter's box between the halves at the game as Gillis presented the scroll. As Gillis finished the presentation, the band played publicly for the first time "The Amon Carter March," written by Gillis.
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram Collection
AR406-6-757 11/27/1937
Don Gillis, leader of the Texas Christian University band, described Amon G. Carter as the band's "greatest benefactor" as he presented Carter with a scroll naming him "honorary band leader for life." The Horned Frog band stood in front of Carter's box between the halves at the TCU-SMU football game as Gillis presented the scroll. As Gillis finished the presentation, the band played publicly for the first time "The Amon Carter March," written by Gillis.
Gillis (1912-1978) also was fluent in many contemporary styles, idioms, and genres. He adapted American vernacular forms, such as jazz, cowhand refrains, and the blues, the better to convey playful whimsy and humor. Some audiophiles who have heard surviving copies of TCU’s London Records album and the Arturo Toscanini radio-transcription recording of Symphony No. 5½, A Symphony for Fun (1947) have likened Gillis’ works to those of other, more prominent, folksong-influenced artists. There can be found in Gillis’ work various resemblances to such perennial standards as Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, Ferde Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite, and Raymond Scott’s reimagined approach to jazz, “Powerhouse.” (“Powerhouse” remains prominent today as a recurring leitmotif for the “Looney Tunes” series of animated cartoons.)
Donald Eugene Gillis, a native Missourian, came to Fort Worth in 1931 with his family. His parents encouraged his interest in music. Gillis excelled as a schoolboy trombonist while moving toward TCU and a bachelor’s degree. He became the assistant conductor of the TCU band and graduated in 1935. A master’s degree followed in 1943, at the University of North Texas. A younger brother, Lew Gillis, spent many years as conductor of the Fort Worth Stock Show’s Rodeo Band, in addition to music-making involvement with Six Flags and the Miss Texas Pageant.
Don Gillis, doubling as full-time TCU band conductor and chief of production at Fort Worth’s WBAP-Radio, developed credentials that led him to the NBC Radio Network in New York. He became the producer responsible for the NBC Symphony Orchestra during the tenure of famed conductor Arturo Toscanini. After Toscanini retired in 1954, Gillis served as president of the Symphony Foundation of America and developed the Symphony of the Air, involving veterans of the NBC Symphony. Gillis also produced the radio program “Toscanini: The Man Behind the Legend,” which ran for several years on NBC after the maestro’s death.
Administrative responsibilities seem not to have dampened Don Gillis’ enthusiasm for building melodies and harmonic structures. During the 1930s-1970s, he composed numerous orchestral symphonies, tone poems such as “Portrait of a Frontier Town,” and piano concertos, rhapsodies, and chamber-music exercises.
Gillis’ publications include a textbook on media instruction and a satire about methods of conducting. His unpublished autobiography, a droll piece called And Then I Wrote... (1948), prompted this wisecrack from Gillis: “Nothing has been left out of here except a brief mention of the spawning habits of the lamprey eel and a recipe for fried grits.”
