Brass bands became popular in Italian towns and villages in the 1800s, performing for funerals and religious processions and rituals. The bande also brought the music of opera houses and symphony halls - albeit in easily digested excerpts - to the workers and peasants who hadn't the means or inclination to enter those temples of high culture. Italian immigrants formed bande in North America, often under the auspices of Catholic parishes, and the tradition still endures. On religious feast days and other holidays, the marching band of St. Mary's Church parades through the streets of my Queens, New York neighborhood, playing their repertoire of hymns, marches, arias and Neapolitan songs.