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This informative volume on the subject of music for bands and band music composers was written by Norman E. Smith and his colleague Albert Stoutamire. Smith (1921⁠–1998) was born in Missouri. A B-17 pilot during World War II, after the war, he received a master's degree in Music Education from Southwest Louisiana Institute (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) in 1950 and a PhD from Florida State University in 1968. Smith was the McNeese band director from 1954 to 1964. He retired in 1978 as Professor Emeritus. Stoutamire (1921–2002) was educated at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, at Columbia University in New York, and at Florida State University in Tallahassee. He worked as composer and also held lectureships at various academic institutions, including at McNeese where he succeeded Smith as band director in 1965. The revised edition of their reference work is the result of two years of work, which Smith began just before his retirement from McNeese. The volume provides a comprehensive foundation and is widely used as a primary source of information about composers and compositions of band music.

March music notes is the most informative book ever published on the subject of march music for bands and march music composers. Since his retirement as band director at McNeese State University, Smith has devoted himself to this project, which comprises information on over 600 popular marches from three centuries and 380 biographies of composers from 30 different nations. Much of the biographical material has not been published elsewhere. An unusual feature is the lists of popularity polls of famous marches taken in several states and six foreign countries. No other encyclopedic work contains such an array of details on march music culture.