Maurice Reichard made an enormous contribution to the development of the Music Department at the University of Dayton. It must be noted, however, that some of the allegations made in a student paper by John C. Sutton are false. Sutton states in the opening paragraph of his paper that "he is regarded as the founder of the Music Department at the University, and almost single-handedly he brought it from obscurity to the level it is today." Unfortunately, this paper has become the source of information for most people who have just a cursory interest in the Music Department at the University of Dayton. This statement unwittingly ignores the over fifty years of work that Bro. Louis Vogt put into the establishment of the UD Band, Choir and Orchestra. Bro. Vogt literally started from scratch. After all, he created a band from four students who were caught experimenting with some old instruments in the basement of St. Mary's Hall. Clearly, no more needs to be said as this work, documenting the extensive progress made by Vogt before the "official" recognition of the Music Department at the University of Dayton, contains overwhelming proof that without Bro. Louis Vogt and his enormous dedication and effort, the recital halls might now be silent.
Brother Louis Vogt, S.M., was director of musical activities at the university for over fifty years. Although Maurice Reichard is traditionally recognized as the founder of the Music Department at the University of Dayton, this forgotten man is truly the one responsible for the flourishing department that exists today. Indeed, "band history is practically synonymous with Brother Louis' life history, as he is the organizer of the band, and has been its guiding spirit."
Bro. Louis Vogt was born in New York City on 7 July, 1856. In his youth he was a choir boy at Holy Redeemer Church in New York which was considered one of the best choirs in the city. He joined the Society of Mary at Dayton, Ohio in 1873. He took his vows on 2 February 1875. After his probationary year was over, he received Violin, Clarinet and Flute lessons from Prof. Dennewitz and Prof. Louen (a one time organist at the Cathedral of Strassburgh, Alsace and a graduate of the Paris Conservatory of Music). He was appointed Director of Music in the Normal Department of St. Mary’s Institute in 1878. His duties included training a choir of 200 boys and young men in Church, Secular and Instrumental Music. The Music Department received an unpleasant blow on 10 December 1883 when a fire destroyed all the buildings in the Normal Department. The department alone lost about $2,000 worth of instruments and books.
Bro. Vogt's heath had never been good, and all of the strain of managing the rising talent in the department proved to be a considerable strain. In 1896, his doctor sent him to San Antonio, Texas for a year of recuperation. After a year of rest, he was appointed Music Director of St. Mary College. He was recalled to Dayton in 1902. During this time, he studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and still found time to study theoretical music works and attend band and orchestral concerts and recitals.
Another faculty member, Robert Holzmer, presents an inside view on Vogt's life in his article "Bro. Louis Vogt--Reminiscence and Tribute." He and Vogt were referred to as "side-partners." He first met Bro. Vogt in June of 1883. He had the unique opportunity of knowing Vogt as a teacher, a fellow-religious and a friend. During the early years of Vogt's teaching at Dayton, he isolated his effort on the study and performance of "serious" music. Vogt was known to refer to these days wistfully as his "Palestrina Days," which consisted of studying, copying, printing and teaching the works of outstanding composers such as Palestrina, Viadana, Witt, Stehle, Greith, Piel, Koenen, and Singenberger. But, "under pressure that was not easy to resist, he later abandoned his finest standards for more 'popular' ones."
Holzmer describes Bro. Vogt's method of choir teaching as "in the man, much the same as that in use by the better choirmasters and teachers of his time." The students rarely read the vocal music by did have the printed notes as help in drill. Bro. Vogt had a wonderful falsetto covering the entire treble range which enabled him to instruct the young boys, whose voices had not yet fully developed. His favorite admonition to the choir was "'Look at the notes!!'" Holzmer remarks, "I know from experience with many choristers what a 'battle' it is to get adolescents to look at their music, when it is so much less trouble to let a patient (or not so patient) instructor shout it, or fiddle it, or thump it into parrot ears, with brains carefully side-tracked!" Reichard adds a student's perspective. He remembers that Vogt was a warm person who kept to himself. He also comments that when Vogt was conducting that he would wear a pair of glasses down on his nose and look over the top of them.
In 1904, Bro. Louis taught violin and other orchestral instruments, while Holzmer taught piano. He remarks on the quality of the beginning band. "Writing as one who has seen and heard at close range, I consider a beginners' band as about the most hideous noise-producing apparatus that has been so far devised. There are other worse noises, but they just happen. In the band they are made." And so, only with much patience and fortitude was Bro. Vogt able to conver this "aggregation" which "looked hopeless and sounded worse" into the "musical unit of which the University of Dayton has been proud ever since."
Bro. Vogt's work ethic was incredible. Holzmer describes this in his article: "Bro. Louis had a great capacity for work. He would arrange music for orchestra, or band, or choir, and copy out the parts by hand for hours. All his work- a lot of it before me as I write- was neat and legible as print. In the early days of his career as choir-master he did quite a lot of musical typesetting, printing the music in Normal School printery. Specimens still in the music department at Mount St. John, fifty years after Bro. Louis printed them, are eloquent proof of his industry and skill. There is also at Mount St. John a great amount of his manuscript- finished and unfinished compositions, copies of an entire Mass by Palestrina, and of dozens of pieces for Benedication and other occasions. When in 1896 he was sent to St. Mary's College, San Antonio, it was to rest and recuperate. But in a short time he tired of mere 'existence' and began to look around for something to do. Soon he had sizable violin class and orchestra. He took charge of the choruses, and drilled the orchestra for commencement and other appearances. Before long he was acquainted with every worth-while musician in the city and the musicians prized his friendship and enjoyed playing in his orchestra." He also composed several pieces, mosly religious, including "All for Thee, O Heart of Jesus," and "All hail, O Virgin Mary, hail." Many of the original manuscripts can be found in the University of Dayton Archives.
Vogt was also an exceptional religious. He advocated the receipt of daily communion. He also donated two statues for the niches provided in the outer design of St. Joseph Hall. The statue of St. Joseph is still visible in its lofty position today. Bro. Vogt was "one of those men who do not know that a thing ‘can’t be done’ and just go ahead and do it."
As noted above, Bro. Vogt was in poor health most of his life. Reichard comments that he was an odd-looking, short man with bowed knees. In his estimation, Vogt always seemed old. Vogt was often heard to comment, "'If you only knew how I feel.'" Holzmer remarks, "When I was a postulant, I thought, as did the other postulants, that Bro. Louis was a dying man, who might drop dead at any moment." Each time someone was brought to the cemetery, Vogt would remark, "'I am the next.'" Remarkably, Bro. Louis Vogt lived a productive and full life, and he wasn't the "next" until August 1938.