Remembering the Spirit of the 'Titanic'—The Band That Played On
100 years after the sinking of the ill-fated luxury liner, a book examines the healing power of music
It’s the most famous disaster in the annals of nautical history, and one that is emblematic of man’s arrogance at its worst. Yet, the sinking of the RMS Titanic—the luxury liner that had been billed as unsinkable before it plummeted into the icy waters of North Atlantic on April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg midway on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City—has produced one of the most inspiring stories ever told of players making the ultimate sacrifice for their music.
In his book The Band That Played On: The Extraordinary Story of the Eight Musicians Who Went Down with the Titanic (Thomas Nelson, 2011), author Steve Turner notes that, in the weeks immediately following the disaster, the public knew little about the brave eight-piece band that played on the Titanic as it sank. That night, a century ago, 1,517 people lost their lives, due to a severe shortage of lifeboats.
The ship’s eight hired musicians had never performed together before the voyage. Their leader was violinist Wallace Hartley, 33, who had worked before on the seas for the Cunard ship line before leaving his fiancée to accept the job on the Titanic.
The other seven band members were violinists George Alexandre Krins and John Law Hume, violist and bassist John Frederick Preston Clarke, cellists John Wesley Woodward and Roger Marie Bricoux, and pianists Percy Cornelius Taylor and Theodore Ronald Brailey.
At first news accounts often got their names wrong, but reports of their bravery were immediate and widespread. The band, it was said, had helped calm the nerves of passengers by playing hymns up on the fore deck as the ship slowly slipped bow first into the dark waters. Survivors watched in horror from lifeboats floating in the frigid night.
On May 18, Hartley’s body was brought back to Lancashire to be buried in his family’s vault. He was the only band member to have been recovered by search parties. His funeral drew crowds estimated at between 30,000 to 40,000 people.
Indeed, it was Hartley’s story that especially inspired the band’s legend. One survivor had reported seeing him standing heroically with his fellow musicians on the deck, clinging to the rails of the Grand Staircase and exclaiming, just before that section of the ship was dragged down with the bow, “Gentlemen, I bid you farewell.”
What’s not known for certain is what song the band played during its final moments.
