So much to dissent with politically, but I just need to cleanse the mind. I need to write about something I miss musically. I miss marches. I miss playing them. I miss conducting them. I miss searching for odd ball marches that make me smile. MetaMarch by Steven Bryant comes to mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt69OtUIOqU&list=RDVt69OtUIOqU&start_radio=1

Why the march? It was a love/hate relationship at first. Being a tuba player marches can be a bit drab. Oompahs and an occasional run to spice up things a bit. There are some fun tuba parts in marches. The Sousa marches of Semper Fidelis and Nobles of the Mystic Shrine bring back some back row smiles. The circus marches of Karl L. King (The Big Cage, Barnum & Bailey’s Favorite) or Henry Fillmore (Circus Bee, His Honor) always excited me. Most things just left me kind of blue. Playing three to five marches in an average week with a couple of municipal bands kind of soured me on the march until a couple of things happened.

The first inspiration was attending a clinic given by the late Dr. Robert Jorgensen from The University of Akron. I don’t remember if the clinic was at the Illinois Music Educator’s State Conference or the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic as most conferences are a blur once you have attended 20-30 or so. I do know it was during the first decade of this century, very close to my oldest son’s birth. His clinic on the American march and the composers of note really inspired me to look and listen to the march differently. I would like to thank friend and colleague Brad Linboom for introducing Dr. Jorgensen to my municipal band colleagues all of those years ago. Dr. Jorgensen shaped a new way to listen to marches that I never would have learned if it wasn’t for this clinic. I really started listening to Sousa, Fillmore, King, and countless others in a different way.

The second inspiration was becoming the conductor of the Dixon Municipal Band in 2007. Now that I was going to be programming the marches I started sculpting the performances in interesting ways to bring out various nuances. These interesting ways were shared in the clinic I attended previously. Sousa and Fillmore were showmen. They knew their bands could do anything asked of them. No performance was the same as they tinkered with dynamics, reduced instrumentation, or added a tempo change or two to keep the band or audience on their toes. It really engages the band when you ask them to make music not written specifically in the page. I even took my own artistic license on a few things to save my trumpet player’s chops on occasion. It was a grand experiment.

Out of these two inspirations I discovered countless marches that I had never heard through the President’s Own Marine Corps Band “Sousa” project, and Dr. Timothy Rhea’s March Project at Texas A&M University. As many marches are coming into public domain they are now free to share with the public. New updated scores for modern instrumentation are being released for free. Recordings can be made without necessary royalty agreements. I added some of these pieces from the Sousa project to the DMB repertoire. Transit to Venus and The Untitled March became favorites of mine. I also enjoyed programming Sousa’s The Pride of the Wolverines for graduation commencement at Sauk Valley Community College instead of a traditional English-style commencement recessional. Pride is the official march for Detroit, Michigan by the way. It made for a great recessional, we had people clapping as the students and faculty exited. https://youtu.be/_GZsu2gL7HM

My primary form of march enjoyment is now from listening to music through the stereo, computer, or headphones. I get to control the volume and this prevents me from having pain and discomfort from the raging tinnitus I suffer from. I have it. It isn’t going away, and I have adapted by shifting my work to general music instead of band. I still enjoy teaching music, but I do miss band music and conducting some days. Today I was reminded of this when I heard three Sousa marches within an hour: Stars and Stripes, Black Horse Troop, and The Northern Pines.

My only dissent with marches at this point in my life is not seeing college, high school, and middle school directors programming them. Yes, the art music is so enriching, but ignoring our band history is a bit like the orchestra not programming Handel, Vivaldi, Bach, etc… We need to do something from the past to remind our future where we came from! OK, off my soap box.

Now here is a small listening list for your enjoyment If your read this far… why not listen and watch the links with all the marches:

Malcolm Arnold: The Padstow Lifeboat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qzYhRQbjPE This is an English brass band march. The out of tune note is the horn pitch of the actual Padstow Lifeboat Station. This is a brilliant march. There is a version for concert band… somewhere…

Percy Grainger: Children’s March https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVGNzmRWqM0&list=RDsVGNzmRWqM0&start_radio=1 This is the first march I ever conducted. I was junior taking instrumental conducting when my professor selected this beast for me to prepare. I barely tread water. I liberated myself years later. This is an incredible piece of music. Every instrument gets a chance to shine.

Henry Fillmore: The Klaxon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFdazvSWjLk&list=RDgFdazvSWjLk&start_radio=1 This is the first march I played for a festival band in high school.

John Philip Sousa: Bullets and Bayonets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkIMUQAbwc4&list=RDMkIMUQAbwc4&start_radio=1 This is the only traditional American march I played in my undergraduate career. It left a lasting impression.

Robert Sheldon: Petunia Festival March (aka Stormchasers) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fo2Lj3B3OFI&list=RDfo2Lj3B3OFI&start_radio=1 This march was commissioned by the Dixon Municipal Band. We played this from hand manuscript until 2009. This recording is from our Reagan Centennial Concert. Yes, I am conducting this performance. It is by far our best recording of this circus screamer. Sheldon was able to get it published under the Stormchasers title in 2010. Thanks Brad Linboom for making the new printed score from the manuscript so we could make this recording properly without errata.

Paul Hindemith: Marsch from the Symphonic Metamorphisis (transcribed for band by Keith Wilson) This is an orchestra march originally. It is the conclusion of the suite composed by Hindemith. I love either version, but there are some things about the band version that just… get me… emotional…

John Williams: The Imperial March https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsMWVW4xtwI&list=RDvsMWVW4xtwI&start_radio=1 The most recognizable march worldwide. I could not leave it out.

Thank you for reading. I feel so much better now after cleansing my palette with a subject near and dear to me. …so it goes…