Legacy
In many ways Gilmore can be seen as the principal figure in nineteenth-century American music. He was a composer, the "Famous 22nd Regiment March" from 1874 is just one example. He held the first "Promenade Concert in America" in 1855, the forerunner to today's Boston Pops. He set up "Gilmore's Concert Garden", which became Madison Square Garden. He was the Musical Director of the Nation in effect, leading the festivities for the 1876 Centennial celebrations in Philadelphia and the dedication of the Statue of Liberty in 1886. In 1888 he started the tradition of seeing in the New Year in Times Square.
In 1891, he played for some of Thomas Edison's first commercial recordings. Musically, he was the first arranger to set brass instruments against the reeds, which remains the basis for big band orchestration. His arrangements of contemporary classics did a great deal to familiarise the American people with the work of the great European musical masters.
Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
Read more about this topic: Patrick Gilmore
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“What is popularly called fame is nothing but an empty name and a legacy from paganism.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)