MARK HINDSLEY, 93, BAND LEADER

By Margaret O'Brien
Chicago Tribune Staff Writer
October 6, 1999

Because he had strong ties to both schools, it was a fitting tribute that the University of Illinois and Indiana University dropped their rivalry at Saturday's football game to dedicate marching band performances to longtime band director Mark Hindsley the day after his death.

Mr. Hindsley, 93, was a Phi Beta Kappa music graduate of Indiana University, where he wrote the school's "Loyalty Song." Shortly after graduating, he went on to spend more than 35 years as a band director at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Mr. Hindsley died Friday of complications from a fall at the Clark-Lindsey Village nursing home in Urbana.

"In his funeral bulletin we are putting a poem called `I Am Music' . . . that's very befitting for him," Mr. Hindsley's wife of 73 years, Helene, said of her husband's lifelong passion for music.

Mr. Hindsley was born on a farm near Union City, Ind., and took up the cornet as a young boy, playing in the school and town bands.

"There wasn't too much musical education available in such a small town, but he was born into a musical family and he was a smart kid," said his wife. "He was largely self-taught."

He taught himself so well that he joined the Indiana University band as a first-chair cornet player after graduating from high school at 15, she said.

Mr. Hindsley also became a skilled musical transcriber.

"He didn't think there was enough good band music published, so he took classical music and transcribed it to fit the orchestra instruments," Mrs. Hindsley said.

He made more than 75 transcriptions, many of which were recently recorded by the University of Illinois band department in a three-CD set called the "The Hindsley Legacy."

"Conductor, transcriber, teacher, scholar, Mark Hindsley is certainly one of the most important figures in the history of the American band movement," said James Keene, the current director of bands at the university. "This collection of recordings represents only a small portion of Dr. Hindsley's contributions. . . . His innovations in marching band techniques and drill writing were decades ahead of the time."

After five years as the supervisor of instrumental music in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, Mr. Hindsley joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1934 as the assistant director of bands and the director of the Marching Illini. As the head of the marching band, he developed marching routines for the football band that are still used.

World War II briefly interrupted his career at the university, but not his music. As a member of the Army Air Forces, he supervised more than 150 corps bands and was assigned to the music faculty of the American University of Biarritz, France, where he was a conductor and teacher.

Mr. Hindsley returned to the university in 1948 as the director of bands and professor of music, positions he held until his retirement in 1970.

During his career, Mr. Hindsley wrote eight books on music and music education. He also spent many years experimenting with wind instrument intonation, which led to changes in the manufacturing of several wind instruments in the United States, France and England, according to Keene.

Among the long list of musical honors Mr. Hindsley received were an honorary doctorate in music from Indiana University, induction into the College Band Directors National Association Hall of Fame and induction into the Ohio Pioneer Band Directors' Hall of Fame.

After his retirement, Mr. Hindsley continued to serve as a guest conductor, musical contest judge, clinician and transcriber.

Besides his wife, Mr. Hindsley is survived by a daughter, Marilyn Haynie; two sons, Harold and Robert; eight grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at First United Methodist Church in Urbana. Burial will be private.