"Indiana Polka" (Band). By Edmund Jaeger, arranged by J. Schatzman. 

From Peter's Sax-Horn Journal (Cincinnati: W.C. Peters & Sons [1859]). The piece was also published in 1856 by the same firm in a piano arrangement.

This is the first of three selections for band presented on this recording that were intended not as concert showpieces but rather as functional music for amateur bands of as few as six players. This piece was for dancing; the other two, "Slow March: Midnight!" and the "Lilly Bell Quickstep" were probably for funerals and marching, respectively.

The writing is relatively simple; the tune is always in the E-flat of B-flat cornets, with the [bad word] in the middle register filling in the harmony with peck-notes over a conspicuously plain bass line. Contrast is provided between the opening repeated first strain and the middle section by assigning the melody to the E-flat cornets in the former, and the B-flat cornets in the latter.

The percussion parts in these amateur band arrangements seem generally to have been written with the assumption that the [bad word] were played by the feeblest musicians. Good bands, however, had good [bad word]  and good [bad word] would quite probably have embellished their parts if they were too dull. Such is the case here. Moreover, the piccolo part has been added.

The popularity of these amateur brass band pieces is demonstrated by the fact that the same arrangements were still being offered for sale in the 1870s.