My Hero! from The Chocolate Soldier

The RMS Titanic did not have a single band. There were, in fact, two music units aboard. There was a quintet lead by violinist Wallace Hartley which was used for routine business aboard ship—tea time and after-dinner concerts, Sunday church service and such.

• Wallace Hartley (quintet leader, violin)
• John Frederick Preston Clarke (bass violin, viola)
• W. Theodore Ronald Brailey (piano)
• Roger Marie Bricoux (cello)
• John Law Hume (violin)

In addition to the quintet, there was a trio of violin, cello and piano that played exclusively in the reception room outside the Ala Carte restaurant and the Cafe Parisien.

• George Alexandre Krins (trio leader, violin)
• Percy Cornelius Taylor (cello, piano)
• John Wesley Woodward (cello)

The musicians were not members of the Titanic crew, nor were they employees of the White Star Line. Both units were employed by Messrs. C.W. & F.N. Black of Liverpool and, though they performed in First Class venues aboard ship, they traveled and dined as Second Class passengers. Once the voyage was complete and C.W. & F.N. Black was paid, the agency would in turn pay the musicians.

The eight musicians of the RMS Titanic. Published April 1912 by the Amalgamated Musicians' Union.

As the RMS Titanic left the port of Southhampton on its maiden voyage, the quintet played a favorite air from “The Chocolate Soldier.”

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