16 Facts About Philip Egner

Philip Egner was a US military bandmaster who served as longtime director of the US Army's West Point Band.

Egner was born in New York City to German immigrants Philippe and Emma Egner and grew up in East Orange, New Jersey.

Philip Egner's father was a music teacher and, by age six, the younger Egner had mastered the violin; he was described by one account as a "child prodigy".

Philip Egner went on to learn additional instruments and, by age 16, was the leader of his own orchestra in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

In 1898, on the outbreak of war with Spain, Philip Egner joined the United States Army and was appointed bandmaster of the 17th Infantry Regiment.

Philip Egner spent the next three years in the Philippines.

Philip Egner later served as director of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company Band, and for six years led the band of New York's Hebrew Orphans Asylum, a Jewish orphanage organized and disciplined along military lines.

In 1910 Philip Egner collaborated on scripting a new cheer with one of West Point's yell kings.

Philip Egner scribbled the notes on his shirt cuff and the resulting composition became "On, Brave Old Army Team".

Philip Egner scored the 1916 musical comedy staged by the cadets, The Wasp-Waisted Vampires about a time in the future when half the corps of cadets is women and the academy on the verge of being shuttered by the US government on account of a lack of wars.

In 1932 Philip Egner invited Mabel Bauer, a music teacher in New Haven, Connecticut and wife of a West Point alumnus, to direct the band in performing Franz von Blon's "With Energy and Strength", which marked the first time since the band's formation in 1817 that a woman had taken-up the baton.

From 1929 until his retirement five years later, Philip Egner served as director of the West Point Glee Club.

Philip Egner married Emma Hausens in 1895, with whom he had one daughter and one son.

Emma died in 1926 and Philip Egner married Gertrude Laswick Specht in 1927.

Gertrude died in 1939, and in 1942 Philip Egner married her sister, Anna Laswick.

Philip Egner died in 1956 and is buried in the West Point Cemetery beneath a grave etched with the first seven notes of the chorus to "On, Brave Old Army Team".