A Festival of 100 Marches

March of the Steelmen– Charles Belsterling (1874-1959) US lawyer and lover of band music. Composed this march in 1937. The scoring and harmonization was done by Harry L Alford. 

The Purple Carnival–Harry Alford (1883-1939)-He was a professional composer-arranger who composed the march in 1933 and dedicated it to the Nortwestern University band. Later editing for concert band was done in 1969 by Frank Ericson.

March Grandioso-Roland F Seitz (1867-1946) He was known as the Parade Music Prince for his stirring and melodic  A marches.

 

York’scher March– Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827) Beethoven composed this march in 1809. It was known as March no. 1 March of the Bohemian Militia. The music was presumably named after the Count of Yorck of Wartenbug. The original instrumentation consisted of instruments in pairs of flutes, clarinets, oboes, bassoons and single percussion, trumpet and contra-bassoon.

Colonel Bogey March- Kenneth J Alford (1881-1945) Kenneth J Alford was a pseudonym for Frederick Joseph Ricketts his mother’s family name. One of the most dynamic military musicians in world history-Alford wrote numerous marches and was a director of Music in the Royal Marines. The interval of a descending minor third was the inspiration for this march. The two note whistle was heard on a golf course as a warning and adopted into the march. The word “bogey” is a golf term well known to golfers worldwide.

The Fairest of the Fair-John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) He was the one of world’s greatest march writers and his work acknowledged him as an American patriot. One of his most favourite sayings was “A horse, a dog, a gun, a girl and music on the side”. When all of his March titles are examined his appreciation of women is obvious. This march was dedicated to a female food fair worker at the annual Boston Food fair. The march is considered to be his most melodic and best-written marches.

Colossus of Columbia- Russell Alexander (1877-1917) He was a circus musician and performed with Barnum and Bailey and later performed in vaudeville. He wrote thirty-seven marches of which Colossus of Columbia was very popular. It was composed in 1901.

Washington Grays-Claudio Grafulla (1810-1880) this march has been called a masterpiece and remains as one of the most challenging in the band repertoire. Grafulla wrote and arranged number of works for

Emblem of Unity–J.J. Richards (1878-1956) Richards moved at an early age from Wales in England to the United States. He became the conductor of the Long Beach Municipal band in 1945. During his career he wrote over 300 compositions. Emblem of Unity is Richard’s most popular march.

The Invincible Eagle–John Philip Sousa-The march was premiered at Willow Grove on May 30^th 1901. It was dedicated to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo New York and was performed by the Sousa band.

In Storm and Sunshine-John Clifford Heed (1862-1908) Heed was known as the March Wizard for his more than sixty marches. He had a very productive career, although quite brief. He was a multi instrumentalist. Storm and Sunshine was written when he was twenty-three and contains all the ingredients for a great march.

National Emblem March–Edwin E Bagley (1857-1922) National Emblem has been described “as perfect as a march can be”. Bagley had a varied career as both as a brass player and composer. National Emblem is one of America’s best loved and most popular marches.

Americans We-Henry Fillmore (1881-1956) He was considered the most flamboyant bandmasters of his time. According to his biographer Paul Bierley he composed over 250 works and arranged over 750 others. To keep his name from flooding the market he wrote under names including: Gus Beans, Ray Hall, Harry Hartley, Henrietta Moore and by a strange coincidence he used the name Will Huff who it turns out was the name of a real march composer. Fillmore had some difficulties selecting a name for this march and finally after names like Pure Food and Health and the Cincinnati Zoo chose the name “Americans We”. It proved to be his finest march.

Purple Pageant Karl L King (1891-1971) He began his illustrious career by selling newspapers to purchase a cornet and went to be one of the world’s finest march writers His career spanning over 60 years included his work as a circus musician and the leader of one of Americas finest community bands the Fort Dodge Municipal band. Purple Pageant is dedicated to Glen C Bainum at Northwestern University whom developed several outstanding marching band football formations.

Independentia-Robert Brown Hall (1858-1907) He had lifetime of poor health but still was able to overcome his problems and became a dazzling cornet player and exceptional bandmaster. Through his life he was called upon to provide expertise in various musical endeavours including teaching, composing and conducting. His march Independentia was first published in 1895 and like his other works is a simple musical structure with a flowing melody, contrasting dynamics and an element of surprise with 2 beats of silence just before the last strain.

Proud Spirit March–James Swearingen (1947- ) His talents as a performer, composer/arranger and educator include a background of extensive training and experience. He has earned degrees from Bowling Green State University and The Ohio State University. Mr. Swearingen is currently Professor of Music, Department Chair of Music Education and one of several resident composers at Capital University located in Columbus, Ohio. He also serves as a staff arranger for the famed Ohio State University Marching Band. He is a recipient of several ASCAP awards for published compositions and in 1992 was selected as an Accomplished Graduate of the Fine and Performing Arts from Bowling Green State University. In March of 2000, he was invited to join The American Bandmasters Association. “Proud Spirit” march was commissioned by the Ohio chapter of ASBDA, Swearingen’s The march is traditional in form, yet contains the writer’s “trademark’’ contemporary sounds with a fresh approach to scoring. The appealing themes, along with a blockbuster ending, make this march an excellent acquisition on this album.

President Garfield’s Inauguration March-John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) this march was composed early in Sousa’s career and dates to 1881 and his remained unpublished except in a piano arrangement. AS band version was arranged by Gay Corrie in 1965. Sousa was the bandmaster of the United States Marine band having been appointed in 1880. The march was purportedly performed at the swearing in of Garfield on March 4^th 1881 by the marine band under Sousa’s direction. Two hundred days later Garfield was assassinated.

Amparito Roca-Jaime Texidor (1884-1957) He was a native of Barcelona, Spain. After completion of bandmaster training he was appointed to the Africa 78regiment band and remained in this position in Spanish Morocco until 1920. In 1928 he won in audition the directorship of the Banda Municipal de Baricaldo. He moved to Barcaldo and started his own publishing company.  The pasodoble Amparita Roca is one of the most beloved of all performance materials in the band repertoire. The march was written for a girl named Amparo for which Amparito is the diminutive.

The Chimes of Liberty–Edwin Franko Goldman (1878-1956) He was born in Kentucky and began cornet at an early age and proved to be a virtuoso. He was principal cornet with the Metropolitan Opera orchestra for some years. He began conducting his own band in 1905 and in 1911 he founded the New York Military band. In 1920 the band became known as the Goldman band and became the most well-known band in American history. The summer concerts drew huge audiences to Central park and his entry into radio made him one of the great icons of band music in America. He was very proud to be an American thus Chimes of Liberty was one of several marches dedicated to the United States. The robust opening and sing able trio made this march a feature on many concert band programs.

Joyce’s71st NY Regiment-Thorton Boyer (1858-1936) He lived in Philadelphia and was employed by the J.W. Pepper Music Company to arrange, compile and compose music. Later he was music director for the 6^th Illinois Regiment band and the 50^th Iowa Volunteer regiment band. Boyer relocated to Santa Monica California following having written music for the 225^th anniversary of Philadelphia in 1907. He wrote the 7st Joyce’s Regiment was one of the most celebrated in the United States. The march was altered by the arranger Mayhew Lake, with the addition of a euphonium countermelody and some of the rhythmic patterns.

White Rose-John Philip Sousa-(1854-1932) the march was written by Sousa in 1917 to commemorate Rose Day in York Pennsylvania. The Yorkist rose is used in the seal of the City of York, Pennsylvania, which is known as the White Rose City. The White Rose of York (also called the Rose Alba or rose argent); a white heraldic rose, is the symbol of the House of York in Britain and has since been adopted as a symbol of Yorkshire as a whole.

The Boys of the Old Brigade-William Paris Chambers (1854-1913) His principal instrument was the cornet at which he became a virtuoso. As a result he became a well-known teacher and eventually conducted a number of bands including the Great Southern band of Baltimore. He wrote a number of cornet solos but is best remembered for his March compositions. He wrote Boys of the Old Brigade while employed by Carl Fischer in New York in 1901. He borrowed the name of the march from one by the same name which was composed in Britain in 1874. The march however was original and bore no comparison to the earlier version.

First Suite in Eb for Military Band–Gustave Holst(1874-1934)He was the descendant of several generations of musicians, with German , Scandinavian, Latvian and Russian ancestry. At an early age he studied piano and Trombone and became a competent performer. He attended the Royal College of Music beginning in 1893 and studied with Sir Charles Stanford and met Ralph Vaughan Williams with whom he became friends for life. He helped to fund his education by playing trombone at seaside pavilions. He gave up trombone and began to compose full time and with his wife becoming the breadwinner by sewing dresses. He was very successful as a composer and lecturer both in Britain and the United States. The First Suite for Military Band was written in 1909 and given its first known public performance by the Band of the Royal Military School of Music in 1920. The entire suite is superbly written and the March themes are taken from the original Chaconne melody. The Suite and March are undoubtedly the most performed selections in the concert band repertoire.

Rolling Thunder-Henry Fillmore-(1881-1956) Fillmore studied Trombone early in his musical career. He became fascinated with circus music and the life under the big top. He played with 5 different circus shows and it was during this period that he composed Rolling Thunder march which is a trombone feature. He dedicated the march to a man named Ed Hicker who it is presumed was a trombonist. Circus bands used the march to generate excitement, the march is fast and furious and on the concert stage and in recording it is known as a “show stopper.”

Unsere Marine-Composer: (Eugen Felix) Richard Thiele (1847-1903) Richard He was a theatre conductor and  wrote the march “Unsere Marine” (our fleet)  and all of the music for a show celebrating the German  navy.. It premiered 1883 in the  Kroll-Opera in Berlin. The book and the lyrics were by  Robert Linderer (1824-1896)  . For several years the march remained dormant. Then, however, the survivors of the German gunboat Iltis, which sank with most of his crew outside China in 1896, said the crew before  perishing that crew members sang the melody associated with the march. The entire Empire responded with a wave of enthusiasm, and it became an overnight celebrity. Unsere Marine advanced to  become the Imperial Navy hymn, Das deutsche Flaggenlied, and turn out to be one of the most popular songs in the first world war. The song forms the trio in March, and it is unclear when the March as such existed in its entirety. Numbered HM II,145 was inducted along with four other Marines marches in 1933 introduced into the German March book.

The March was prohibited in 1959 by a strange sanction in West Germany. The German Reichstag raised opposition on 14 October 1959 and claimed that the March would be banned, because the song paid tribute to the black-white-red flag of the black-red-yellow Federal Republic. The result was that the March performance of German Military bands  music ensembles were  denied authority to perform the march .  When the prohibition was lifted   is not known. The composer  Richard Thiele did compose a number of symphonic and operatic songs most of which is now extinct.

On the Mall-Edwin Franko Goldman(1878-1956) This march by the eminent conductor-composer Richard Franko Goldman is famously known as an “audience participation sing-along  and whistle march.” The march was written in 1923 for the dedication of the Elkan Naumburg Bandshell in New York’s Central Park. The title is derived from the park’s spacious mall where the bandstand is located. Goldman’s son Richard wrote that his father “did  not  think very much of the march but was astonished that it became the most popular of all his compositions.”

British Legion-Thomas Bidgood(1860-1925)Thomas Bidgood began to study music at an early age He studied clarinet,violin and played E flat bass and alto horn in the 9^th Kent Artillery Volunteer band. Later he studied at the London Conservatory of musical employment .He developed a very formidable schedule of musical employment, conducting bands and orchestras as well as playing in theatre orchestras. Despite his busy agenda he also found time to compose. His most well know work is Sons of the Brave written shortly after the outbreak of the Boer War. The British Legion is an organisation founded after the great war to care for vets of the armed forces it raises millions of pounds a year to help ex-servicemen and their families. The march was written in 1921. Bodgood’s 15 year old son is said to have helped with the composition.Another of his great marches is the Vimy March dedicated to the Canadian Army.

The Chicago Tribune-Paris Chambers(1854-1913) Paris Chambers most popular march was written to honour one of America’s prominent newspapers in 1892. The Tribune was the fisrt newspaper in America to syndicate comic strips such as “The Gumps”,”Gasoline Alley “and “Orphan Annie.”The newspaper has long remained one of the most widely read papers in the United States. Numerous march composers including Sousa (Washington Post 1889) selected newspapers to lionize with march pieces.

March of the Toys-Victor Herbert(1859-1924)Herbert was born in Ireland and with early playing experience gained fame in the United States asa cellist particularly with Metropolitan Opera company. He became the bandmaster of the famous twenty-second regiment band and the conductor of the Pittsburgh symphony orchestra. In 1904 he formed his own orchestra. He was considered to be a master orchestrator and began composing with enormous success. He wrote at least fifty operettas and music for the Ziegfeld Follies of 1917 and 1920. His compositions eventually numbered 320 many of which have remained iconic to this day. Babes in Toyland is an operetta composed by Victor Herbert with a libretto by Glen MacDonough (1870–1924), which wove together various characters from Mother Goose nursery rhymes into a Christmas-themed musical extravaganza. The creators wanted to cash in on the extraordinary success of the stage musical The Wizard of Oz, which was produced in New York beginning in January 1903, under producer Fred R. Hamlin, and directed by Julian P. Mitchell.  Babes in Toyland features some of Herbert’s most famous songs–among them  “March of the Toys”, “The original production opened at the Chicago Grand Opera house on June 17, 1903 with a resounding success.

The Dam Busters-Eric Coates(1886-1957)Coates typified the light music genre of Britain.  Early in his music career he was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Academy of London where he studied viola and  composition. Coates fell out of favour as leader of the viola section of the Queen`s hall Orchestra because he often had substitutes stand in for him. Much of his early works were popular ballads and short orchestral pieces. He became popular for his ability to write film scores. Although he was nota band musician many of his pieces found their way into band libraries. His works easily transcribed for the band medium. He wrotea number of marches for motion pictures including  Calling All Workers, Salute the Soldier and others.The March Dam Busters is taken from a 1955  docu-drama by the same name. During the war the RAF was given the task of blowing up Ruhr power dams, the unit that accomplished the mission were given the name the Dam Busters . Coates wrote the score for the movie and helped to revitalize his musical career in Britain.

Tenth Regiment March-Robert Brown Hall(1858-1907) He learned to play several instruments finally settling on the cornet . He gained notable success and became the co-principal cornet with the  renowned Liberati band . He moved to New York to play with the Duss band. In 1882 he was asked to reorganize the Bangor Municipal band was invited to become conductor of other bands including the Waterville Town band, In 1900 he re-built the Tenth Regiment band of Albany New York hish became anational institution playing at fairs and concerts across America including the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1907. Hall’s pride in the inordinate progress made by the  Tenth Regiment band is reflected in this stirring march.

The Washington Post March-John Philip Sousa (1854-1932) Sousa wrote this march in 1889 to help promote an essay contest sponsored by the newspaper by the same name. The 6/8 time seemed appropriate for a new dance in America called the two-step. Of the several marches written by Sousa Washington Post has become one of his most often performed along with Star and Stripes Forever. The march is a gem and exemplifies Sousa at his best. The Washington Post remains as a leading world publication.

The NC-4 March Frederick Ellsworth Bigelow(1873-1929)In addition to writing the well-known Our Director march he wrote the NC-4 march in honor of the first transatlantic flight in a Flying Boat commanded by Lieutenant Commander Albert C Read on May 27^th 1919.The NC-4 was a Curtiss NC flying boat which was designed by Glenn Curtiss and his team, and manufactured by Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. In May 1919, the NC-4 became the first aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, starting in the United States and making the crossing as far as Lisbon, Portugal, in 19 days. This included time for numerous repairs and for crewmen’s rest, with stops along the way in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and twice in the Azores Islands. Then its flight from the Azores to Lisbon completed the first transatlantic flight between North America and Europe, and two more flights from Lisbon to northeastern Spain to Plymouth, England, completed the first flight between North America and Great Britain.

Commando March-Samuel Barber(1910-1981)Barber was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. He is one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century; music critic Donal Henahan stated that “Probably no other American composer has ever enjoyed such early, such persistent and such long-lasting  acclaim.”His Adagio for Strings (1936) has earned a permanent place in the concert repertory of orchestras. He was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize for music, for his opera Vanessa (1956–57) and his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1962). Also widely performed is his Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947), a work for soprano and orchestra, which sets a prose text by James Agee. Unusual among contemporary composers, nearly all of his compositions have been recorded. Barber wrote his Commando March shortly after being enlisted in the United States Army during the Second World War. The work was completed in February 1943 and was premiered on May 23 of that year by the Army Air Force Tactical Training Command Band in Convention Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey, most likely with the composer conducting. The critic Fredric V. Grunfeld writing in High Fidelity magazine described the march as “an old-fashioned quickstep sporting a crew cut,” and the work received many performances in the final years of the war. Barber made a transcription of the march for full orchestra, which was premiered by Serge Koussevitzky leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall in Boston on October 29, 1943.

Barnum and Bailey’s Favourite –Karl L King(1891-1971) Barnum and Bailey’s Favorite, often referred to as “The Granddaddy of Circus Marches”, was composed by Karl King in 1913 and was published through C. L. Barnhouse Company. King’s earliest known compositions date from 1909 with this, his most famous work, being composed in only his fifth year of composing.King played euphonium in many circus bands including Barnum and Bailey’s, for more than a decade.[1] As is common in his compositions, Karl King made the euphonium part a major voice in the march.King was asked by the bandmaster of the Barnum and Bailey Circus Ned Brill to write a march for the circus. This has become his most famous composition, being called “the finest work written to celebrate ‘The Greatest Show on Earth'” and is one of the most recognizable marches of all time.

French National Defile-Robert Planquette(1848-1903)

One of the most famous French marches outside France is Sambre et Meuse, which is almost considered the French national march, played with bugles also in other countries. Jean Robert Planquette (1848-1903) was born on July 31, 1848 in Paris, but considered himself Norman. His father was a sculptor and modern choral singer at the Paris Conservatory. Robert grew up under very poor conditions, but studied at the Paris Conservatory, including with Jules Laurent Duprato, and received a first prize in song and a second prize in piano. He started his career as a pianist and composer of songs to later become famous for 23 operettas, of which the best known is Bells of Corneville which premiered in 1877. He was also a versatile singer and was able to both sing baritone and falsetto tenor soli to mimic the female voices. He died on January 28, 1903 in Paris.

About 1870, he published his Refrains du Règiment [regimental refrains], a collection of twelve military marches of which the most famous is Sambre et Meuse, which was a musical setting of Paul Cèzano’s 1867 patriotic poem Le Règiment de Sambre et Meuse with motifs from the French Revolution. It refers to a mythical regiment named after the war-torn region of the rivers Sambre and Meuse in northern France and Belgium.

At the request of a senior officer, the music director of the 18th Infantry Regiment, Joseph François Rauski (1837-1910) arranged the march for military band, which was first performed in 1879 at the Place de Verdun in Pau. Rauski should be praised for its arrangement, but should not be credited as being the composer, since little new thematic material had been added. Further erroneous data surfaced  (including an A. Turlet, a publisher in Paris, who made a transcription for piano and strings was also credited as the composer. The march was the regimental march of the 5th Battalion, Canadian Machine Gun Corps, that was set up in 1919 as a unit in the Non-Permanent Active Militia and later merged with the Règiment de Dorchester et Beauce in order to form to Le Règiment de la Chaudièe that retained its regimental march. In Canada, it is also the regimental march of Le Règiment de Maisonneuve.

H.M. Jollies-Kenneth J Alford(1881-1945)[Pseudonym F.J. Ricketts]Alford’s skill as an organist was a tremendous asset in his writing, particularly the many marches he wrote most of which are treasures even today. He had a particular penchant for beautiful counter-melodies which demonstrated his musicality . He left a undying legacy of great artistic proportions with his marches ranging in styles from the straightforward to the heroic. H.M. Jollies(His Majesty Jollies) HM Jollies was written in 1929.  “HM Jollies” is a nickname for the Royal Marines. Alford wrote this march two years after his entry into the Royal Marines. The Bugle calls reference each of the three divisions of the corps. The nautical feeling of this march is made evident through Alford’s use of snippets of “The Sailor’s Hornpipe.”

Semper Fidelis-John Philip Sousa(1854-1932) “Semper Fidelis”, which was written in 1888 by John Philip Sousa, is regarded as the official march of the United States Marine Corps. This piece was one of two composed in response to a request from United States President Chester Arthur for a new piece to be associated with the United States President. There does not exist an original general order documenting the proclamation of “Semper Fidelis” as the official march of the Marines. According to  accounts  Sousa is regarded by historians as honest and on many occasions noted that the march was named the official march of the Marine Corps. However, a flood destroyed many Marine Corps records, even those documenting Sousa’s rank as leader of the United States Marine Corps Band; an order designating it as an official march could have been lost. The United States Marine Corps website refers to the song as “the Official March of the Marine Corps”. Most musicians believe this march to be Sousa’s most musical and inspired march.

March of the Belgian Paratroopers– Peter Leemans(1897-1980) Born in Schaerbeek, Belgium on May 31, 1897, Leemans studied piano, harmony, orchestration, and composition at the Brussels Royal Conservatory of Music. He began his teaching career in 1917 at the Etterbeek Music Academy. At 22, he served his year of military duty and returned to teach music at Etterbeek until 1932, as conductor program director for the Belgian broadcasting company, N.I.R. In 1934, he won the composition contest for the official march of the 1935 Brussels World Exposition. He founded the Schaarbeek High School Choir in 1940 and won a composition contest for one hit wonder songs three years later. From entries by 109 anonymous composers, works by Leemans were selected for first and second prize for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. While Leemans was serving in the Belgian army during World War I, on a request from his commander he began to write a march, which he did not finish.. During World War II, when the Belgian parachute brigade was formed, he was having dinner with a group of paratroopers and was again asked to compose a march. During one single night, Leemans composed this march on themes recalled from his earlier effort.

Bravura-Charles Duble (1884-1960)Duble was a circus musician who wrote forty-five marches-Bravura being the most famous. He played trombone in various circus and minstrel bands for twenty-three years. He was a feature in the Ringling Brothers circus under Merle Evans. He was particularly adept at trombone chromatics which were so much a segment of background for the performers, clowns and animals. Bravura is a solid march written primarily for the circus with good brass figures. Bravura is Duble’s most famous composition.

Old Comrades-Carl Teike (1864-1922) Born the son of a blacksmith in Stettin-Altdamm, Pomerania, and Teike was the fourth of 14 children in his family. He began studying music when he was 14, playing a variety of instruments. When he was 19, he joined the army of Württemberg as a musician in the 123rd König Karls Regiment. He was stationed in the Swabian city Ulm, where he also played French horn and percussion for the orchestras of local theatres. Teike began writing military marches, including one in 1889 that would eventually be named Alte Kameraden (“Old Comrades”). . After presenting his superior with the musical score, Teike was allegedly told: “We have marches enough. Throw this one into the oven!” Alte Kameraden (Old Comrades) is the title of a popular German military march. It is included in the Heeresmarsch as HM II, 150. Teike resigned from the army. A publisher purchased the song from him for twenty German Goldmark. Alte Kameraden later became one of the most popular marches in the world. Teike became a police officer in Ulm and married his landlord’s daughter. They moved to Potsdam in Brandenburg in 1895, where he continued work as a police officer until illness led to his resignation in 1908. He eventually began working as a postal employee in Landsberg an der Warthe in East Brandenburg, where he died in 1922

Onward-Upward-Edwin Franko Goldman(1878-1956) Onward-Upward March was written in 1930 during a period when the composer was deeply involved in efforts to standardize concert band instrumentation. Only a few months earlier he had organized the American Bandmasters Association to raise wind and music to a higher standard of artistic excellence and to secure the adaptation of universal instrumentation so that band publications of all countries would be interchangeable. At the time, wind bands contained varying numbers of musicians and instruments and little music was composed specifically for band. The title of this composition reflects optimistic conviction that bands would evolve “onward” to a bright and flourishing future and standardized orchestration would enable “upward” progression of the genre.

T.M.B. March –Karl L King(1891-1971)Among the nearly 300 works by King is his long list of dedicatory marches including bands, people institutions and schools. It could be said that King did for the circus march what Sousa did for the patriotic march. He seemed to like composing under pressure and often composed in tight spots (such as by oil lamp in cramped circus tents). His name appeared on the sheet music as Karl King, K. L. King, and sometimes Carl Lawrence .His first known composition and  first march, T.M.B., was written by King and published in 1909, when he was only 18 years of age.  This march is considered by historians to be the first march published by King.  It was dedicated to H. Clark Thayer, founder and former director of the Thayer Military Band (T.M.B.) in Canton, Ohio.  This city was where Karl King moved in 1903 at the age of 8, and where he spent his boyhood growing up.  It was where he had his first job selling newspapers, and where he was to meet his future wife, Ruth.  Canton was also where Karl had his first music lessons and got his first band instrument.  It was the Thayer Military Band where King sat in and played the Baritone after first playing in the Canton Marine Band. His first copyrighted work was “Moonlight on the Nile Waltz” (also 1909). He contributed greatly to the school band movement with numerous compositions at various levels of difficulty.

Royal Air Force March-Walford Davies(1869-1941)Davies was an organ virtuoso whom served in this capacity at several major church posts throughout Britain. In 1918 he was appointed the director of Music of the newly formed Royal Air Force band . He was knighted in 1922. He composed number of cantatas but was most noted for his oratorio  Everyman written in 1904.Davies was the organizer of the RAF band in 1918 and shortly after wrote the march at the time the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Navy Flying Service amalgamated. George Dyson who succeeded Davies as the RAF band director wrote the trio for the march. The “Royal Air Force March Past” is the official march of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and is used in some other Commonwealth air forces including Canada where it received official sanction in 1943. A pipe band arrangement was composed in the 1950s by Pipe Major A. R. Howie of the CFB Trenton Pipe Band, and a trio for pipes was composed in 1970 by Pipe Major Archie Cairns.

The Liberty Bell-John Philip Sousa((1854-1932)This march was composed in 1893 and within one year was published for piano solo, piano duet, band, banjo, guitar, mandolin, and zither. The title resulted from Sousa and his manager seeing a huge painting of the Liberty Bell. Sousa’s patriot spirit which prompted him toward any title with a nationalistic character made the iconic Liberty Bell a perfect title. The Liberty Bell” was originally written for Sousa’s unfinished operetta “The Devil’s Deputy,” but financing for the show fell through. Shortly afterwards, Sousa and his band manager George Hinton attended the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. As they watched the spectacle “America”, in which a backdrop depicting the Liberty Bell was lowered, Hinton suggested “The Liberty Bell” as the title of Sousa’s recently completed march. Coincidentally, Sousa received a letter from his wife, saying their son had marched in a parade in honor of the Liberty Bell. Sousa agreed. He sold “The Liberty Bell” to the John Church Company for publication, and it was an immediate success. The march is played as part of an exhibit in the Liberty Bell Centre .The United States Marine Corps Band has played “The Liberty Bell” march at the last three presidential inaugurations: the 1993 inauguration of President Bill Clinton,the 2005 inauguration of President George W. Bush, and the 2009 inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Invercargill–Alex F Lithgow (1870-1929)He moved to Invercargill New Zealand at an early age and began the study of cornet and violin. After achieving good measure of success asa cornet solist and bandmaster he left to become bandmaster of the St Joseph’s   Total Abstinence society  band in Tasmania which he conducted until 1907. He conducted a number of other  bands including  the Launceston band after returning to New Zealand. In addition to his frequent performances he also had found time to compose. Invercargill where he lived was preparing to host the 1909 New Zealand  brass band contest and he was requested to write a march as a test piece. He had just completed new march which a publisher had rejected and it was a instant success and which he suitably called Invercargill. The march became a world-wide success after an arrangement for wind band was published by Carl Fisher in 1913.Lithgow composed numerous other works for both orchestra and band.

The Caissons Go Rolling Along–Edmund Gruber(1887-1941)Gruber was a song-writing army officer. The song is based on the “Caisson Song” written by field artillery First Lieutenant (later Brigadier General) Edmund L. Gruber, Lieutenant William Bryden, and Lieutenant (later Major General) Robert Danford while stationed at Fort Stotsenburg in the Philippines in March 1908. The tune quickly became popular in field artillery units. In 1917 the Secretary of the Navy and Army Lieutenant George Friedlander of the 306th Field Artillery asked John Philip Sousa to create a march using the “Caisson Song.” Sousa changed the key, harmony, and rhythm and renamed it “U.S. Field Artillery.” Sousa didn’t know who had written the song and had been told that it dated back to the Civil War. Although an Army magazine claims that Sousa passed on his royalties to Gruber, other sources state that Gruber became involved in a prolonged legal battle to recover the rights to music he had written and that had been lifted (unknowingly or not) by Sousa and widely sold by sheet music publishers who reaped profits while Gruber received nothing. The music became so popular that it was also used in radio ads by firms such as the Hoover Vacuum Company. Gruber lost his battle in the courts. They ruled that he had waited too long to complain and that his music was by that time in the public domain. “The Caisson Song” was never designated as the official U.S.Army song likely because the lyrics were too closely identified with the field artillery and not the entire army. The official song retains Gruber’s music, but with re-written lyrics. An adaption of Gruber’s song called   The Army Goes Rolling was done by H.W. Arber and was officially approved by the Army in 1956.

 

The Southerner-Russell Alexander (1877-1915) Russell Alexander (February 26, 1877, Nevada City, Missouri – October 2, 1915, New York City) was an entertainer and composer, active primarily with vaudeville shows and musical comedy organizations. He was a euphonium virtuoso who joined the circus band of Belford’s Carnival at the age of 18. At 20, he became arranger and euphonium soloist with the Barnum & Bailey Circus Band and toured Europe from 1897 to 1902. Following his tour with Barnum & Bailey, Russell Alexander worked in a novelty musical vaudeville act with his brothers. Although his compositional output was relatively small, he is considered a great composer of marches. He wrote 33 marches, 6  gallops, and several overtures, novelties, and other works. For part of his career he worked in acts with his brothers, Newton and Woodruff. The Southerner was Russell’s most popular composition. A strong  introduction , exciting modulations in the trio make this a very exciting march. He dedicated the march to his wife.

Second Regiment Connecticut National Guard-David Wallace Reeves(1838-1900)DW Reeves was a skilled cornetist , a highly respected conductor and a composer who has been given much of the credit for the stabilization of the march in nineteenth century America. He was called the “father of band music in the USA.”He became a cornet soloist and joined the famous Dodworth band in 1862. In 1866 Reeves became the conductor of the American band and he developed this band to be the most celebrated musical ensemble in America. Later Reeves succeeded Patrick Gilmore as leader of the Gilmore band when Gilmore suddenly passed away. This proved to be a difficult task as many of the band members opted to move to the newly organized Sousa band. In 1893 he resigned from the post and returned to the highly acclaimed American band in Providence and remained at this post until his death in 1900.The Second Connecticut Regiment march was written in 1876 . The march was dedicated to the officers and men of the famous unit. As Reeves was conductor of the regimental band he included parts for drums and bugles. This march has remained popular for over a century.

Repasz Band –Harry J Lincoln((1877-1937)Lincoln became an arranger for the Vandersloot Music company in Williamsport Pennsylvania in about 1900. In 1917 he founded the Harry J Lincoln Music Company in Philadelphia. The firm eventually became part of the Mills Music Company .Although Lincoln is often credited with writing Repasz band Charles C Sweeley (formerly thought of as a pseudonym of Lincoln)apparently wrote the march. The original manuscript of the march is missing buta piano version does name Sweeley as the composer. Even though Lincoln’s name does appear on later published versions there is no doubt Sweeley was the composer. The march was named for the Repasz- Elks-band of Williamsport .The international copyright however is in the name of Harry J Lincoln. As a reflection of the popularity of this march over five million copies of the published march in various forms have been sold.

Coat of Arms-George Kenny(1926-)Kenneth (Ken) George Whitcomb is an American composer, conductor, arranger and saxophonist. He also uses the pseudonym: George Kenny. Whitcomb was clarinetist, saxophonist and arranger in the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, New York. Later he became second conductor of this elitist military Orchestra. Then he was transferred to Germany and there was conductor of the 30th United States Army Band. After he left the military, he went back to California and was first saxophonist in an orchestra at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. He was then asked by Walt Disney as a composer and arranger for marches and festive music, which would be played in any Disney-amusement park in the world. He retired In 1973.Since then, he has been a freelance composer in the Los Angeles.

Pomp and Circumstance-Edward Elgar(1857-1934) Sir Edward William Elgar, was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos for violin and cello, and two symphonies. He also composed choral works, including The Dream of Gerontius, chamber music and songs. He was appointed Master of the King’s Musick in 1924.Although Elgar is often regarded as a typically English composer, most of his musical influences were not from England but from continental Europe. He felt himself to be an outsider, not only musically, but socially. In musical circles dominated by academics, he was a self-taught composer and he was acutely sensitive about his humble origins even after he achieved recognition. He nevertheless married the daughter of a senior British army officer. She inspired him both musically and socially, but he struggled to achieve success until his forties, when after a series of moderately successful works his Enigma Variations (1899) became immediately popular in Britain and overseas. He followed the Variations with a choral work. The first of his Pomp and Circumstance Marches (1901) is well known in the English-speaking world. In his fifties, Elgar composed a symphony and a violin concerto that were immensely successful. His second symphony and his cello concerto did not gain immediate public popularity and took many years to achieve a regular place in the concert repertory of British orchestras. Elgar’s music came, in his later years, to be seen as appealing chiefly to British audiences. His stock remained low for a generation after his death. It began to revive significantly in the 1960s, helped by new recordings of his works. Some of his works have, in recent years, been taken up again internationally, but the music remains more played in Britain than elsewhere. Pomp and Circumstance No 1 is the most popular of all of Elgar’s works . It was used as a coronation ode iun 1902. The trio is very often a used as a reflection of the spirit of Britain and for which words were written for the trio and known world-wide as Land of Hope and Glory.

On Parade -Edwin Franko Goldman(1878-1956)Goldman wasa prolific composer with over 100 works to his credit. Goldman began art least 13 of his compositions with the preposition “On”. His marches often celebrated the majesty of New York State and the Hudson River. He especially admired the United States Military  Academy  which was built at West Point in 1802. On Parade is as suggested in the tittle in dedication to the school.

St Julien–Arthur Wellesley Hughes(1870-1950) Arthur Hughes was born near Kingston Ontario , Canada He moved to the United States at an early age and became an itinerant circus musician . He performed mostly on alto horn .  Subsequently he played in several great circus bands. During WWI he was the bandmaster of a machinegun battalion band in Canda and overseas.  After the war he joined the Ringling Brothers circus  band  but he was dismissed by Merle Evans in 1929 . He wrote a number of circus marches and Canadian patriotic tunes. St Julien march was Hughes most popular march and is named for a town near French-Belgian Border which was the scene of several WWI battles.

The High School Cadets-John Philip Sousa(1854-1932) Following the civil war, drill teams became an exciting feature in Washington D.C. In 1890 The High School Cadets, sponsored by the city’s only secondary school requested Sousa write a march which would be better than written for their rivals The National Fencibles. Sousa complied with their request and the march has been rated as one of his finest march compositions ever since.

The Billboard March-John Klohr(1869-1956) John Nicholas Klohr (July 27, 1869 – February 17, 1956) was a composer of band music. Klohr was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. A graduate of the Cincinnati public schools, Klohr set upon a career in music, especially vaudeville. He was a vaudeville trombonist by trade, but also performed as a member of Cincinnati’s musical life. He played in the Syrian Temple Shrine Band, led by fellow composer Henry Fillmore. From 1921 to 1926, Klohr was a trombonist in Henry Fillmore’s concert band. He was a member of the Syrian Temple for over 50 years, as well as a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Klohr was also an early member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers and worked as editor of the band and orchestra department of the John Church Company, a music publisher in Cincinnati. “The Billboard March” is a circus march written in 1901 by John N. Klohr, and dedicated to the Billboard music-industry magazine. Its tune is widely known among Americans, and it has been repeatedly used in mass media, even though its title is little known.

 Father of Victory-(Louis Gaston Ganne (1862-1923) He composed numerous operettas, music for ballets, military marches and popular songs. He founded the Orchestra of Monte-Carlo in 1905. Louis Ganne studied music at the Paris Conservatory under Dubois, Massenet and César Franck. Like a lot of composers of his time, Ganne started by writing songs and was very popular. For example, La Czarine and La Marche Lorraine are still famous and popular today. Ganne composed ballets for the Folies-Bergères and operettes : La Source du Nil (1882), Merveilleuses et Gigolettes (1894) produced in the Casino de Paris, L’heureuse Rencontre (1892), Rabelais (1892), Les Colles des femmes (1893) and Cythère (1900).In order to celebrate the new century, Ganne wrote his Saltimbanques (Acrobats) produced on December 30th, 1899 at the Théâtre de la Gaîté in Paris. Ganne was also director of the Opera bals and composed at the same time operettes, ballets, songs and 150 piano works. In 1909, Ganne even composed a tale, Hans, le Joueur de Flûte (Hans, the flute player), one of the most beautiful operetta ever written. This show is a poetic and charming comic opera. Ganne, who was very popular at the time, is still well-known as the composer of the Marche Lorraine. His music and memory are also alive thanks to a lot of his piano works. Father of Victory was originally written as  an opening march to a musical called En revenant de la revue in 1886 . By 1889 it became known throughout Europe. From Covent Garden in England to Unter den Linden in  Berlin it was played by both orchestras an bands.

The Klaxon March-Henry Fillmore(1881-1956)The Klaxon march is connected to the sound of the car horn of 1929, the  Following year the march was published by  Fillmore. The march was subtitled “The Automobile March”, written for the . It consisted of twelve automobile horns mounted on a table and powered by a  car battery.

Strike Up the Band-George Gershwin(1898-1937)He was an American composer and pianist.Gershwin’s compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known. Among his best known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue and An American in Paris, as well as the opera Porgy and Bess.

Born in Brooklyn to a Ukrainian father of Jewish descent and a Russian mother, Gershwin studied piano under Charles Hambitzer and composition with Rubin Goldmark and Henry Cowell. He began his career as a tune smith but soon thereafter started composing Broadway theatre works with his brother Ira Gershwin and Buddy DeSylva. He moved to Paris in an attempt to study with Nadia Boulanger, where he began to compose An American in Paris. After returning to New York City, he wrote Porgy and Bess with Ira and author DuBose Heyward. Initially a commercial failure, Porgy and Bess is now considered one of the most important American operas of the twentieth century. Gershwin moved to Hollywood and composed numerous film scores until his death in 1937.Gershwin’s compositions have been used in numerous films and on television, and several became jazz standards recorded in many variations. Countless singers and musicians have recorded his songs.

The musical Strike Up the Band had two different versions. With songs by George and Ira Gershwin and a book by George S. Kaufman, it had an unsuccessful tryout in Philadelphia in 1927 and closed without moving to Broadway. Then, it was heavily revised, both in terms of the Gershwins’ music and with Morrie Ryskind brought in to refashion the script as a vehicle for the comedians Bobby Clark and Paul McCullough, and finally opened on Broadway on January 14, 1930, for a successful run of 191 performances. Theater historians, however, have tended to agree with some of the Philadelphia critics that the 1927 version was preferable, if ahead of its time, as a satiric examination of government corruption and capitalism. (In its initial plot, an American cheese company gets the U.S. government to declare war on Switzerland in a bid to increase sales.) Neither version was recorded for an original cast. The march Strike Up the Band”   was written for musical Strike Up the Band, where it formed part of a satire on war and militaristic music. Although the musical was not successful, the instrumental version of the song, titled the “March from Strike Up the Band”, has become quite well known.

L`lesina March-Davide Delle Cese(1856-1938) He was Born in Pontecorvo, Italy and received first music lessons from this godfather Antonio Geminiani, former director of the theaters in Rome. Delle Cese concluded studies at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella in Naples.his

 

In 1875   He wrote the music for a ballet titled for  “The Emancipated Scholar”, which was performed with great success at the Politeama Theatre in Naples. From 1885 to 1888 – spent much of his time fulfilling a request from the Italian War Office to transcribe all known national hymns(anthems) of the world for band. In 1886 he became the bandmaster at San Leo and in 1891 won competition over eighty other candidates to become bandmaster at Bitonto. In 1894 the band were  invited to play a concert at Colonna Square in Rome replacing the famous Rome City Military Band. No other band had ever been so honored. In 1900 After the assassination of King Umberto I, Queen Margherita wrote a poem titled “Prayer” and Commissioned Delle Cese to set the words to music for mezzo-soprano and piano. Delle Cese also organized a band of young boys, most of whom were less than ten years of age. Known as the Lilliputian Concert Band, the group traveled throughout southern Italy playing for the numerous popular feasts of that region. Inglesina, originally L’Inglesina, known by its popular title, The Little English Girl, was composed in 1871. It was first published by Adolfo Lapini (1897), republished by O. Pagani & Bro., Inc. (1946 and 1960) and found in present form, as arranged and edited for American bands by John R Bourgeois, through Wingert-Jones Music, Inc. (2000)

The piece is best defined as a concert march or marcia sinfonica, composed in a flexible form that does not adhere to the functionality normally associated with the standard military march. Its phrases and sections are often asymmetrical with various elements of the composition reintroduced to create dramatic effect. Additionally, the sudden dynamic shifts and wide-ranging expressiveness do not lend themselves to the accepted standard military march functions normally associated with the use of the compositional style outside of the concert hall. Inglesina gained popularity in a variety of polls about marches conducted by Karl M. Holvik and Norman E. Smith between 1961 and 1986, both in the United States and internationally. It remains an important part of the march repertoire, particularly of interest as an example of late nineteenth century, Italian concert march style.

Up The Street-Robert G Morse(1874-1965)Morese graduated from Harvard in 1896 and studied mining at Columbia school of Mines. He was employed by several Steel manufacturing companies during his lifetime. In 1946 he returned to Harvard for his 50^th class reunion and was honored for his Up the Street march which he had written while asa astudent at Harvard. The march is played very often at reunions at Harvard.

Smilin’Jack-Robert S Keller(?) Likely a Pseudonym for George F Briegel(1890-1968) trombonist, music publisher, arranger, and military man In his teens he was a member of the United States military academy band.  Briegel set up Triangle Music in New York City in 1915 with partner Joe Davis; this was one of the first, and most famous, of the Tin Pan Alley song tune smiths.
When the first World War broke out in 1917, both Davis and Briegel wound up in the Navy, with apparently very little effect on their musical ventures. While Davis continued scribbling songs such as “If You Can’t Enlist, Buy a Victory Bond,” Briegel was leading the Pelham Navy Band, writing arrangements and arranging for his pal Davis to get in the band as a French horn player. In 1919, Triangle had big hits with the longwinded “I’ve Done My Bit for Uncle Sam” and “Some Mother’s Daughter Is Lonesome (For Some Mother’s Son in France),” but Davis and Briegel also turned aside from patriotic themes to explore pure instrumental invention, another dominant theme in Briegel’s composing and arranging career.

In the ’20s, Briegel became the bandmaster for the New York Fire Department  He was to arrange, and thus acquire publishing rights, to new material. Briegel kept busy with these ventures, arranging “Hill Country Melodies,” “Irish Melodies,” “Italian Melodies” and the Argentine tango “El Choclo” in folios .
During the Second World War, Briegel was responsible for publishing a whole series of songs whose titles speak, or rather march and fire guns, for themselves: “Fight to Victory,” “Here Come the Engineers,” “The Infantry,” “Fight to Victory,” “On, On, To Victory,” and “The Regimental Polka.” Some of these songs were written by R. J. Burt.  The Adventures of Smilin’ Jack was an aviation comic strip that first appeared October 1, 1933 in the Chicago Tribune and ended April 1, 1973.The march was written in 1941.

Anchors Aweigh-Charles A ZimmermanCharles A. Zimmermann (1861- 1916) was an American composer of marches and popular music. A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, he was appointed bandmaster at the United States Naval Academy in 1887 at the age of 26. He served as the Academy’s bandmaster until his death  in 1916. He is buried at the Naval Academy cemetery. Zimmerman composed his most famous march, “Anchors Aweigh”, in 1906 when he was a Lieutenant in the United States Navy. The lyrics were written by Alfred Hart Miles, a cadet. The march was intended from the beginning to serve as a rousing tune for football games. Zimmerman also composed numerous songs for the 1902 stage play The Wizard of Oz. In 1906, Lieut. Zimmerman was approached by Midshipman First Class Alfred Hart Miles with a request for a new march. As a member of the Class of 1907, Miles and his classmates “were eager to have a piece of music that would be inspiring, one with a swing to it so it could be used as a football marching song, and one that would live forever. Supposedly, with the two men seated at the Naval Academy Chapel organ, Zimmermann composed the tune and Miles set the title and wrote to two first stanzas in November 1906. This march was played by the band and sung by the brigade at the 1906 Army-Navy football game later that month, and for the first time in several seasons, Navy won. This march, Anchors Aweigh, was subsequently dedicated to the Academy Class of 1907 and adopted as the official song of the U.S. Navy. The concluding stanza was written by Midshipman Royal Lovell, Class of 1926.

 

Radetzky March Johann Strauss The Senior (1804-1849). Johann Strauss was born on the 14th of March 1804, as the son of an innkeeper. The location of his father’s inn at the Danube Channel and the neighboring harbor with its rafts and boats from different countries and the music played by the sailors, influenced Johann Sr. enthusiasm for popular dance music. After the death of both parents he began working as an apprentice for bookbinding in 1816 and started studying the violin. He got hired for the chapel of Michael Pamer as violin player but soon Strauss decided to become independent with his own orchestra. After a longer period of existential and financial problems he managed his breakthrough. He started to tour through Europe where he celebrated his popularity and he even played at the crowning of Queen Victoria in London. His success was enormous and he became conductor of the first civil regiment, where he composed the “Radetzky Marsch”. Radetzky, Op. 228, was composed by Strauss  in 1848. It was dedicated to the Austrian Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, and became quite a popular march among soldiers.

 

When it was first played, in front of Austrian officers in attendance, they promptly clapped and stomped their feet when they heard the chorus. This tradition is carried over today when the march is played in classical music venues in Vienna, among members of the audience who are familiar with the tradition. It is almost always played as the last piece of music at the Neujahrskonzert, the Vienna New Year Concert.

Les Patineurs Ballet Music-Giacomo Meyerbeer(1791-1864)He was a famous German-born opera composer. He was the most important composer of French Grand opera during the 1830s and 1840s. Although he was tremendously popular in his day, his music is not often played today. Les Patineurs (“The Skaters”) is a ballet choreographed by Frederick Ashton to music composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer and arranged by Constant Lambert. With scenery and costumes designed by William Chappell, it was first presented by the Vic-Wells Ballet at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London, on 16 February 1937.[1] It has been called “an exemplar of an Ashton ballet, perfectly crafted with a complex structure beneath the effervescent surface.

The Barnum-Joseph John Richards(1878-1956) Joseph John Richards was a composer, conductor, and music educator best known for writing over 300 compositions for circus and school bands. His most successful works were marches, including Crusade for Freedom, Emblem of Unity, and Shield of Liberty. Richards was born in Cwmafan, Wales, but spent most of his childhood in Pittsburg, Kansas, United States. He began playing alto horn and cornet at the age of ten and became director of the Norton-Jones Circus Band at the age of nineteen. He would later play for and conduct several other circus bands, including the Barnum and Bailey Circus Band and the Ringling Brothers Band before they combined. When not playing for a circus, Richards studied music at Kansas State Teachers College and the American Conservatory of Music.He began teaching music during World War I, first to Army bands and later to public schoolchildren. He conducted several municipal bands in Florida and Kansas until 1945 when he was selected to succeed Herbert L. Clarke as conductor of the Long Beach, California Municipal Band. He became a member of the American Bandmasters Association in 1936 and was elected president in 1949.The Barnum march was written in 1910 and published by Willis Music Publishers. He had played cornet previously in 1908-09 in the Barnum and Bailey circus band.

The Melody Shop-Karl L King(1891-1971)This march was dedicated to E.E. Powell and Al Shortridge of the Powell River Music Company Melody Shop in Canton Ohio in 1910. It was  King’s Home at that time. He was nineteen and playing euphonium in the Robinson’s Famous Show during this period. He often returned to Canton after touring around North America. The music is very challenging for low brass and clarinets and has been called one of the “best marches ever written” by numerous march connoisseurs.

The Footlifter-Henry Fillmore(1881-1956) In 1938 Fillmore began an active retirement in Miami, Florida. He kept an active schedule rehearsing high school bands in Florida and composing marches. Henry Fillmore Band Hall, the rehearsal hall for many of the University of Miami’s performing groups, acquired its name as a tribute to Fillmore’s work in the band genre. His march Orange Bowl was written for Miami’s Band of the Hour. His arrangement of the ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ is the traditional arrangement performed by the Florida State University Marching Chiefs. His march Men of Florida was composed for the bands at the University of Florida. He was given an Honorary Doctorate of Music by the University of Miami in 1956 in recognition of his career. Fillmore lived out the rest of his days in South Florida. The Footlifter march was composed for a series of radio broadcasts sponsored by a small Cincinnati Insurance agency in 1928. The company’s slogan was “A penny a day” (meaning for insurance) march was then  referred to as the Penny A Day March but the program ended very quickly because of the onset of the depression. The president of the company referred to the march as a Footlifter. King had annotated the original manuscript with that name. Later it was suggested to King that he writea march called the footlifter and with a march by that name on his table he was prepared and it was published in 1935.

El Capitan-John Philip Sousa((1854-1932) In 1895, Sousa wrote a comic operetta entitled El Capitan, which was a great success at its April 13, 1896, Boston premiere. It garnered 112 performances in New York and also created a sensation in Europe. Sousa extracted a march from it, using two of the operetta’s most popular themes, and it too became a hit. Arrangements of it were subsequently made for various and quite exotic instruments, including piano, guitar, banjo, zither, and mandolin. But it was, of course, the band version of this march that achieved the most success then and the one that remains popular today. It opens with a theme similar to the ones in Sousa’s King Cotton March (1895) and Liberty Bell March (1893), the latter quite famous in the 1970s and ’80s from its use as the title music on the British television show Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The El Capitan March theme has a bouncy exuberance and jovial spirit, quite suited to the comic nature of the operetta. Its latter half features the theme that appears at the operetta’s close, a playful, carefree creation less march-like than the opening, but more colorful in its carefree, jaunty manner.

The Official West Point March-Philip Egner (1870-1956) Composer, songwriter (“Sound Off”, “On Brave Old Army Team”), conductor, cellist, author and teacher, educated in public schools, and an orchestra leader at 16. He was a cellist in the orchestras of Theodore Thomas and Walter Damrosch, and in the New York Philharmonic between 1888-1898. Later he was bandmaster for the 17th US Infantry Band, and served in the Philippines between 1898-1901. From 1901 to 1909 he taught music and conducted band in New York, and then until 1917 he taught music in the US Military Academy. During WWI he served as an officer in the US Army then led the West Point Band and Orchestra for 25 years. Joining ASCAP in 1936, his other popular-song compositions include “At the Fair”, “On to Victory”, “It’s the Army”, “Down in Maryland”, “Luck O’Blarney”, “West Point From Dawn to Midnight”, “A Moorish and Spanish Episode”, “Army Team” and “West Point March”. The official West Point March came from original and traditional military songs. Egener wrote the march in 1928. It contains segments of On Brave Old Army Team, Army Blue, Alma Mater, The Corps, Recall, West Point Song, Taps, Reveille, and Dashing White Sergeant. The result  is a fusion of sentiment, loyalty, patriotism and musicianship.

In Treue Fest Carl Teike(1864-1922) He was very disappointed in the treatment his march Old Comrades received and he left military service at the end of 1889, and after a short stay in Ravensburg, he joined the Ulm Police. Probably it was his North German upbringing. Perhaps too, it was the many happy memories of his time as a musician which led him to leave Ulm and be attracted by a successful application to Potsdam in May 1895, where on 1st September 1895 he started his service with the Royal Bodyguard. The position also had pension rights, should he ever be unfit for work.

 

 

The old military town was for composer Teike a fruitful base because the military band based there was rated as the best in the old army and provided him with stimulus in abundance. It is not at all surprising that he composed a string of his best marches while in Potsdam. In Treue Fest . “Steadfast and True” which undoubtedly rated alongside his famous “Old Comrades”. Teike’s composing is all the more surprising that, since his career offer in Potsdam, he was no longer employed in music.

The Guadalcanal March-Richard Rogers(1902-1979) Richard Charles Rodgers was an American composer of music for more than 900 songs and for 43 Broadway musicals. He also composed music for films and television. He is best known for his song writing partnerships with the lyricists Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II. His compositions have had a significant impact on popular music down to the  the top show business awards in television, recording, movies and Broadway—an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony—now known collectively as an EGOT. He has also won a Pulitzer Prize, making him one of two people (Marvin Hamlisch is the other) to receive each award. Victory at Sea is a documentary television series about naval warfare during World War II that was originally broadcast by NBC in the USA in 1952–1953. It was condensed into a film in 1954. The music soundtrack, by Richard Rodgers and Robert Russell Bennett, was re-recorded and sold as record albums. The original TV broadcasts comprised 26 half-hour segments—Sunday afternoons at 3pm (EST) in most markets—starting October 26, 1952[1] and ending May 3, 1953. The series, which won an Emmy award in 1954 as “best public affairs program”, played an important part in establishing historic documentaries as a viable television genre. Guadalcanal march was a major component of the theme music.

Hands Across the Sea-John Philip Sousa(1854-1932) hands Across the Sea was written in 1889 and premiered during the same year at the Philadelphia Academy of Music. Hands Across the Sea is a military march composed in 1899[1] by John Philip Sousa. Sousa told interviewers that the following phrase inspired him to compose the march:

“A sudden thought strikes me; let us swear eternal friendship”

The march was dedicated to all of America’s allied countries abroad and the Highty-Tighties, the Regimental Band of the Virginia Tech Cadet Corps. Hands Across the Sea remains as one of Sousa’s more popular marches, and is still performed widely by bands.

The Sceamer-Fred Jewell(1875-1936) Frederick Alton Jewell was a remarkable musician At the age of 16, Jewell ran away from home and joined the Gentry Bros. Dog & Pony Show as a euphonium player. He also played the calliope.After making excellent impressions with successful circus officials, Jewell rose through the ranks. He eventually landed himself as the leader of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus band (like Karl King, another successful American composer of his time). He also played in or directed the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus and the Sells-Floto Circus. Jewell retired from circuses in 1918. He traveled to Iowa and took leadership of the Iowa Brigade Band. From there he began his own publishing company and moved back to his hometown, Worthington, and served as high school band director, as well as a steady composer of band music. He directed other local bands in Florida and Indiana also. Screamers were mostly composed in a 60-year period (1895 – 1955). Circuses were in need of music that would stir the audience into a frenzy, as four-footed animals galloped across the ring. Because march music was a prominent part of American music at that time, and because it carried such a quick tempo, it was this that ringleaders demanded. Circus marches are faster than a normal military march, often 130 to 150 beats/minute.

Although screamers tend to follow the march form, many times they are abbreviated, and additions, such as a quick cornet call introduction to a new melody, are included. The average screamer can last a minute to three and a half minutes. Screamers are a very demanding type of music, due to their extremely fast and advanced rhythms, especially the low-brass parts. Double and even triple tonguing is often required in order to play these rhythms. The trio in The Melody Shop is a good example of this.Many screamers have two prominent melodies playing at once. Although this is not unusual in a march, screamers tend to go further with this. The low-brass section can be playing a long, stately melody, while the woodwinds can be moving along with a phrase of 16th notes, or vice versa.Due to the circumstances in which screamers are played, dynamics tend to stay at a level forte. Unlike some military marches, piano is rarely used.

Florentiner March– Julius Fučík ( 1872 –1916) was a Czech composer and conductor of military bands.Fučík spent most of his life as the leader of military brass bands. He became a prolific composer, with over 400 marches, polkas, and waltzes to his name. As most of his work was for military bands, he is sometimes known as the “Bohemian Sousa”.Today his marches are still played as patriotic music in the Czech Republic. However, his worldwide reputation rests on one work: his Opus 68 march, the Entrance of the Gladiators (Vjezd gladiátorů), which is universally recognized, often under the title Thunder and Blazes, as one of the most popular theme tunes for circus clowns. The Florentiner March, is not as popular as Entrance of the Gladiators, but it is regularly performed and recorded by wind ensembles. Fucik must have tried to condense an operetta into a march with the  Italian March Florentiner. The march opens with a short bugle fanfare, then proceeds directly into a strain of repeated notes which sound like a flighty Florentine signorina chattering to her gentleman friend from Berlin who only has time to answer a two-note “ja-wohl!” occasionally. The march continues with another fanfare; a light, floating trio melody; an interlude; and a triumphant repeat with a challenging piccolo part.

Semper Paratus-Francis Saltus Van Boskerck(?)  In 1917 he was Captain of the Port in Philadelphia and an aide for the fourth naval district at the American routing office in Philadelphia. He was also censor for the district, and was the first Coast Guard officer to report a German submarine on the Atlantic coast. After the war, Van Boskerck transferred to the Puget Sound Navy Yard to supervise repairs on the famous cutter Bear. He commanded Bear on the 1920 summer cruise to the Bering Sea and Arctic Ocean.In 1922, as commander of Yamacraw, Van Boskerck was stationed at Savannah and chased rum-runners off the coast of the Carolinas and Florida. In 1923 he went to the Naval War College at Newport, R.I., and in 1924 became District Commander of the Great Lakes District. Van Boskerck was commissioned Captain in 1925.

 

“Captain Van,” as he was known to his many friends, was next ordered to Seattle as Assistant Inspector of the Northwest District. In 1925 and 1926 he was Commander of the Bering Sea Forces, headquartered at the remote port of Unalaska. It was here that he found time to fit the words of his song to music with the help of two Public Health dentists, Alf E. Nannestad and Joseph O. Fournier.  Mrs. Albert C. Clara Goss, the wife of a fur trader, let them use the beat-up piano on which the song was written. For probably as long as Captain Van Boskerck could remember, Semper Paratus had been a Revenue Cutter and Coast Guard watchword. The words themselves, always ready or ever ready, date back to ancient times.No official recognition was given to the Coast Guard motto until it appeared in 1910 on the ensign. Captain Van Boskerck hoped to give it as much recognition as “Semper Fidelis” of the Marines and “Anchors Aweigh” of the Navy.

Salutation-Roland  F.Seitz(1867-1946)Roland Forest Seitz was known as a the Parade Music Prince. Roland Forrest Seitz (1867–1946) was an American composer, bandmaster, and music publisher. For his many march compositions he earned the nickname “The Parade Music Prince”. Despite an early interest in music, Roland started work as a printer’s apprentice at the weekly Glen Rock Item  in Pennsylvania a small rural newspaper. He joined the family band performing on the flute; and then the Glen Rock Band performing first on the euphonium and then the cornet. In 1894 at age 27, Seitz enrolled in the Dana Musical Institute in Warren, Ohio. (Dana is now part of Youngstown State University). Roland graduated from Dana in 1898. Seitz returned to Glen Rock to teach wind and percussion as well as perform in the town band and soon became their conductor. By 1901, under Seitz, the band was selected to perform at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.Beginning with New York Journal published in 1897, Seitz composed nearly fifty marches. One of these marches, Grandioso (1901), is often featured in parades. Grandioso incorporates a theme from the fourteenth of Franz Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies. Additional well-known marches include Brooke’s Chicago Marine Band (1901), Brooke’s Triumphal (1904), Salutation (1914), and University of Pennsylvania Band (1900). On November 21, 1930, John Philip Sousa conducted the University of Pennsylvania Band at the student quadrangle in Seitz’s march for the band. Afterwards, Sousa said: “That is one of the best band marches, aside from my own productions, I have ever conducted”. Seitz also opened a music publishing business in Glen Rock. His catalog included compositions by many famous march composers including W. Paris Chambers, Harold Josiah Crosby, Charles E. Duble, Frank H. Losey, George Rosencrans, and Charles Sanglea. In 1908, Seitz became the first to publish seventeen year old Karl L. King’s compositions. Roland’s company was purchased by Southern Music in 1964. It was his custom to write marches for special groups or persons to whom he felt a loyalty or friendship.  This method of dedication was used time and time again, and often the organization or person honored is revealed by the name of the march. Salutation is as the name represents a marching band march and would represent number one in the march book.

Wild Blue Yonder-Robert Crawford The U.S. Air Force March  is the official song of the United States Air Force. Written in 1939, it is known informally as “The Air Force Song,” and is often referred to informally as “Into the Wild Blue Yonder”, “Off We Go Into the Wild Blue Yonder,” or simply “Wild Blue Yonder.” In 1937, Assistant Chief of the Air Corps Brig. Gen. Henry H. Arnold persuaded the Chief of the Air Corps, Maj. Gen. Oscar Westover, that the Air Corps needed an official song reflecting their unique identity in the same manner as the other military services, and proposed a song competition with a prize to the winner. However, the Air Corps did not control its budget, and could not give a prize. In April 1938, Bernarr A. Macfadden, publisher of Liberty magazine stepped in, offering a prize of $1,000 to the winning composer, stipulating that the song must be of simple “harmonic structure”, “within the limits of [an] untrained voice”, and its beat in “march tempo of military pattern”.

Over 700 compositions were received and evaluated by a volunteer committee of senior Air Corps wives with musical backgrounds chaired by Mildred Yount, the wife of Brig. Gen. Barton K. Yount. The committee had until July 1939 to make a final choice. However, word eventually spread that the committee did not find any songs that satisfied them, despite the great number of entries. Arnold, who became Chief of the Air Corps in 1938 after Westover was killed in a plane crash, solicited direct inquiries from professional composers and commercial publishers, including Meredith Willson and Irving Berlin, but not even Berlin’s creation proved satisfactory, although it was used as the title music to Winged Victory by Moss Hart. Two days before the deadline, Crawford, a music instructor, aviation enthusiast, and professional musician billed as “the Flying Baritone,” personally delivered a sound recording of his entry, which proved to be a unanimous winner. Mrs. Yount recalled that Rudolph Ganz, guest conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra and a consultant to the committee, was immediately and enthusiastically in favor of the winner. The contest rules required the winner to submit his entry in written form, and Crawford immediately complied. However his original title, What Do You think of the Air Corps Now?, was soon officially changed to The Army Air Corps. Crawford himself publicly sang the song for the first time, over national radio from the 1939 National Air Races.

Not everyone was fond of the song. During a dinner of September 1939, Mrs. Yount played a recording of the song for Charles Lindbergh and asked his opinion. He responded politely to Yount, but years later remarked in a diary, “I think it is mediocre at best. Neither the music nor the words appealed to me.” Arnold did not share Lindbergh’s opinion: he sought to fund publication of band and ensemble arrangements of the song for nationwide distribution. However, the Air Corps did not have enough money to publicize the song, so Crawford arranged a transfer of the song’s copyright to New York music publisher Carl Fischer Inc., including a perpetual performance release in favor of the U.S. Air ForceRobert Crawford was born in Dawson City Canada. He spent his early youth in Fairbanks Alaska. He took courses at the Julliard School of Music  and the American School of Music in Fountainebleu in France.After the war he taught at the University of Miama from 1957 to 1967. The band hall of the United States Air Force at Langley Virginia is called Crawford Hall in his memory.

Eagle Squadron-Kenneth J Alford(1881-1945) He was a dynamic musician and very demanding asa conductor of Royal Marine bands. His march compositions are still considered as masterpieces ,particularly because of his mastery of counterpoint. The juxtaposition of melody with harmonically interdependent (polyphony) lines was the hallmark of his superb marches. The Eagle Squadrons were three fighter squadrons of the Royal Air Force formed during World War II with volunteer pilots from the United States. While many US recruits simply crossed the border and joined the Royal Canadian Air Force to learn to fly and fight, many of the early recruits had originally come to Europe to fight for Finland against the Soviets in the Winter War.

Charles Sweeny, a wealthy businessman living in London, began recruiting American citizens to fight as a US volunteer detachment in the French Air force, echoing the Lafayette Escadrille of World War I. With the Fall of France a dozen of these recruits joined the RAF. Sweeny’s efforts were also co-ordinated in Canada by World War I air ace Billy Bishop and with artist Clayton Knight who formed the Clayton Knight Committee, who, by the time the USA entered the war in December 1941, had processed and approved 6,700 applications from Americans to join the RCAF or RAF. Sweeny and his rich society contacts bore the cost (over $100,000) of processing and bringing the US trainees to the UK for training. Alford made use of snippets of other material in Eagle Squadron, including “The Star Spangled Banner”, ”The Royal Air Force March” and “Rule Britannia”. By the time Alford had written this march in 1941 at Plymouth three American RAF pilots had been killed in action.

Valdres-Johannes Hanssen(1874-1967)Hanssen was one Norway’s most active and influential bandmasters, composers, and teachers during the first fifty years of the twentieth century. Johannes. He was bandmaster of the Oslo Military Band from 1926 to 1934 and again from 1945 to 1946. Hanssen received the King’s Order of Merit in Gold and King Haakon VII’s Jubilee Medal. His most famous composition is his Valdresmarsjen (1904), a march celebrating the beautiful Valdres region in Norway that lies between Oslo and Bergen. The main theme is the signature fanfare for the Valdres Battalion, which is based on an ancient melody formerly played on the medieval lur, an uncoiled wooden wind instrument. The melody of the trio section derives from a fiddle tune traditional in Hardanger and a pentatonic folk tune, above a typical Norwegian drone bass line. It was first performed in 1904 by the band of the second regiment of Norway, with the composer playing the baritone horn himself. Numerous settings for brass band exist in addition to various arrangements for concert band.

Officer of the Day–Robert Brown Hall(1858-1907) Usually known as R. B. Hall, was a leading composer of marches and other music for brass bands. A principal American composer of marching music, he was born in Bowdoinham, Maine and seldom left his native state during his lifetime, dying in Portland. His music though has traveled around the world. He is particularly popular in the United Kingdom, so much so that many lovers of brass band music there mistakenly imagine that Hall is an English composer. His celebrated march “Death or Glory”, written in 1895 and dedicated to the Tenth Regiment Band in Albany, New York, is a well-known staple of brass band concerts and competitions all over the UK. Hall was famous during his lifetime as a particularly fine player on the cornet and served for a time as conductor of the Bangor Band. As soloist, conductor, composer and teacher, Hall is still remembered in Maine. The last Saturday in June every year is officially Robert Browne Hall Day in the State of Maine. Having suffered a stroke in 1902 from which he never recovered, he died in poverty in Portland as a result of nephritis five years later and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Richmond, Maine.^[4] His widow sold the manuscripts of many compositions. Unscrupulous publishers assembled and realized from fragments works they passed off as genuine Hall compositions. He left over a hundred marches and other compositionsOfficer of the Day was first published in 1903 and for which he received a royalty. In the first year of publication over 300,000 copies were sold in Europe alone. The title represents an officer being appointed to represent the Base Commander. The practise continues to this day where a roster of both duty officers and NCO’s are published, and is in force twenty-four hours per day. Officer of the Day continues to bea top seller especially in Britain.

The Gallant Seventh-John Philip Sousa(1854-1932) Sousa wrote this march for the 7th Regiment, 107th Infantry, of the New York National Guard. Its conductor Major Francis Sutherland had been a cornetist in Sousa’s band before joining the Army during the First World War. The march was premiered by members of the 7th Regiment’s band and of Sousa’s band at the NY Hippodrome in November 1922. Written during the last decade of Sousa’s career, it is considered one of his best

National Spirit March-Silas Early Hummel(1861-1931)He was born in Hummelstown  named for his ancesters. At age 14 he began playing drums and played with the Capital City band of Harrisburg Pennsylvania.Hummel’s nickname for many years was “Oldsi” as he worked for the Olds Instrument Company. He was instrumental in organizing the Philadelphia chapter of the American Federation of Musicians. He is remembered primarily for National Spirit March which was published in 1917.It was introduced just as the United States entered the First World War and became very popular as a patriotic feature both for concert and marching bands

Viscount Nelson March-Wilhelm Zehle(1876-1956) Born in what was known as Prussia he began music studies in Magdeburgin in 1895 at age nineteen. He eventually joined the Royal German Mobile 2nd Sea battalion at Wilhelmhaven as a military bandsman. He was a very talented cornet and trumpet player and soon became the band soloist. In 1900 his battalion was ordered to China to help quell the boxer rebellion and was part of the joint invasion forces from Austria, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. Shortly before sailing, the band leader became ill and Zehle was appointed in his place. Following his service in China he began writing the suite “Sounds of Peking”: which was later published. On his return to Germany he resumed his role as solo trumpet player. He left military service in 1903 taking the position of Administrator at the Civil Port Authority in Wilhelmshaven. He won the prestigious march composition contest sponsored by Hawkes and Son with the march Viscount Nelson in 1900, Army and Marine in 1901,Wellington (although he may not have named it thus) in 1906 and Trafalgar in 1908.He had a great influence on future composers with the strong melodic and harmonic structure of his marches. He was an enormous talent and his marches are still performed around the world. Many of his marches are still being recorded by major bands world-wide, and the Viscount Nelson march is considered  one of his best.

E Pluribus Unum-Fred Jewell(1875-1936)Jewell wrote several marches with patriotic titles. This march was written in 1917 during the gloomy days of World War I. The Latin motto of the United States used as the march title refers to the government created from many states. The expression was suggested by the Continental Congress in 1776 and won support from the entire congress.

Men of Ohio-Henry Fillmore(1881-1956)Fillmore dedicated this march to “President Warren G Harding and his staunch Loyalists in 1921”Harding had become the twenty-ninth President of the United States in that same year. Harding had played alto horn in his hometown of Caledonia and later in Marion Ohio. Harding had been elected to the state senate in 1898 and to Congress in 1914. He became known as the “small town hero” and with this attraction for conservative voters won the presidential election of 1920.Fillmore wrote the march while conductor of the Syrian Temple Shrine band. In 1927 he organized his own professional band, the last in a long line of great professional bands in America.

A Warrior Bold-Frank Panella(1878-1953)Frank Panella was known as the March King of Pittsburgh, where he grew up. He began the study of clarinet at the age of seven. His made steady progress and was accepted in the Arthur Pryor band, the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Pittsburgh Festival Orchestra. He wasa n instructor at the United States Army School of Music during World War I. He owned and operated his own publishing firm for much of his adult life. He wrote Warrior Bold in 1909, and is well remembered for his march On the Square which was written in 1916. The Warrior Bold Ethos is  that  every warrior quality  proceeds with  the virtues of courage, selflessness, love of and loyalty to one’s comrades, patience, self-command, the will to endure adversity.

Bombasto-Orion R Farrar(1866-1925) Orion R Farrar was a marching band director and composer. Farrar was born in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1866, son of an English shoemaker and an Indiana woman. Soon after his birth, his family moved to Warren, Ohio. At the age of 19, Farrar enrolled in the famous Dana Musical Institute in Warren, studying theory, composition, and cornet playing. Following graduation, he taught brass instruments and conducted the Institute band for 7 years. He resigned from Dana in 1896 to organize the Indiana State Band, which he led for two years. He then returned to Ohio to form the Ohio State Band (unrelated to Ohio State University). He moved to Youngstown, Ohio in 1901, where he led the Youngstown Military Band. In 1915, he conducted the Lima, Ohio Municipal Band. He became a member of Old Erie Masonic Lodge No 3 in 1894 and was active until 1904, when he was expelled for non-payment of dues. The final years of Farrar’s life remain a mystery. He was purported to have died in California in 1929, but this is undocumented. As a march composer, Orion R Farrar is most remembered for  Bombasto march which  found an enduring place in the circus band repertoire, as well as in the concert band libraries of the world. It was used as an entry and exit music for vaudeville and in silent movies .Like many of Farrar’s marches it was dedicated to a military unit .In this case the 7^th Ward Military band of Omaha Nebraska.

Coronation March “Crown Imperial”-William Walton(1902-1983) Sir William Turner Walton OM (29 March 1902 – 8 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include Façade, the cantata Belshazzar’s Feast, the Viola Concerto, and the First Symphony. Born in Lancashire, the son of a musician, Walton was a chorister and then an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford. On leaving the university, he was taken up by the literary Sitwell siblings, who provided him with a home and a cultural education. His earliest work of note was a collaboration with Edith Sitwell, Façade, which at first brought him notoriety as a modernist, but later became a popular ballet score.In middle age, Walton left Britain and set up home with his young wife on the Italian island of Ischia. By this time, he had ceased to be regarded as a modernist, and some of his compositions of the 1950s were criticised as old-fashioned. His only full-length opera, Troilus and Cressida, was among the works to be so labelled and has made little impact in opera houses. In his last years, his works came back into critical fashion; his later compositions, dismissed by critics at the time of their premieres, were revalued and regarded alongside his earlier works.Walton was a slow worker, painstakingly perfectionist, and his complete body of work across his long career is not large. His most popular compositions continue to be frequently performed in the 21st century, and by 2010 almost all his works had been released on CD. Crown Imperial is an orchestral march by  Walton. It was first performed at the coronation of King George VI in 1937, and substantially revised in 1953. Walton composed the march originally for performance at the coronation of King Edward VIII, which was scheduled for 12 May 1937. However, Edward abdicated in 1936. The coronation was held on the scheduled day, with Edward’s brother George VI being crowned instead. Crown Imperial was also performed at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, along with another Coronation March written by Walton, Orb and Sceptre.  Crown Imperial is now one of the most popular of Walton’s orchestral compositions. It was performed again as a recessional piece to the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on 29 April 2011.Walton derived the march’s title from modernisation of a phrase from William Dunbar’s poem “In Honour of the City of London”-In Beauty Bearing the Crown Imperial.

The Marines Hymn-Jacques Offenbach(1819-1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario of the romantic period. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr. and Arthur Sullivan. His best-known works were continually revived during the 20th century, and many of his operettas continue to be staged in the 21st. The Tales of Hoffman remains part of the standard opera repertory. Born in Cologne, the son of a synagogue cantor, Offenbach showed early musical talent. At the age of 14, he was accepted as a student at the Paris Conservatoire but found academic study unfulfilling and left after a year. From 1835 to 1855 he earned his living as a cellist, achieving international fame, and as a conductor. His ambition, however, was to compose comic pieces for the musical theatre. Finding the management of Paris’s Opéra-Comique company uninterested in staging his works, in 1855 he leased a small theatre in the Champs-Élysées. There he presented a series of his own small-scale pieces, many of which became popular .In 1858, Offenbach produced his first full-length operetta, Orphée aux enfers (“Orpheus in the Underworld”), which was exceptionally well received and has remained one of his most played works. During the 1860s, he produced at least 18 full-length operettas, as well as more one-act pieces. His works from this period included La belle Hélène (1864), La vie parisienne (1866), La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (1867) and La Périchole (1868). The risqué humor (often about sexual intrigue) and mostly gentle satiric barbs in these pieces, together with Offenbach’s facility for melody, made them internationally known, and translated versions were successful in Vienna, London and elsewhere in Europe. Offenbach became associated with the Second French Empire of Napoleon III; the emperor and his court were genially satirized in many of Offenbach’s operettas. Napoleon personally granted him French citizenship and the Légion d’Honneur. With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, Offenbach found himself out of favour in Paris because of his imperial connections and his German birth. He remained successful in Vienna and London, however. He re-established himself in Paris during the 1870s, with revivals of some of his earlier favorites and a series of new works, and undertook a popular U.S. tour. The music of the Marines Hymn is from the Gendarmes’ Duet from an 1867 revision of the 1859 opera Geneviève de Brabant by Jacques Offenbach, which debuted in Paris in 1859.  John Philip Sousa once wrote:“The melody of the ‘Halls of Montezuma’ is taken from Offenbach’s comic opera, ‘Genevieve de Brabant’ and is sung by two gendarmes.

The copyright was vested on 18 August 1919. In 1929, the Commandant of the Marine Corps authorized the three verses of the Marines’ Hymn as the official version, but changed the third and fourth lines.

The Thunderer-John Philip Sousa(1854-1932) The Thunderer” is one of John Philip Sousa’s  finest marches. It was written in 1889. The origin of the name is not officially known, though it is speculated that it gets its name from the pyrotechnic effects of the drum and bugle which he scored. It is also one of his most famous, and easy to perform. It was also the election theme for ABC News from 1968 to 1972.The piece has the same character as most of Sousa’s music; however, it is one of his first “distinctly American-sounding marches.”. The march follows the standard form (IAABBCDCDC) that is used in many of his other works. As is common, his themes are contrasting. During the repeat of the B section, Sousa introduces new counter melodic ideas. The trio is songlike. There is a ritardando(slowing) leading into the repeat of the final theme, seguing to the piece’s conclusion.

Seventy–Six Trombones-Meredith Willson(1902-1984) Robert Meredith Willson (May 18, 1902 – June 15, 1984) was an American composer, songwriter, conductor and playwright, best known for writing the book, music and lyrics for the hit Broadway musical The Music Man. He wrote three other Broadway musicals, composed symphonies and popular songs, and his film scores were twice nominated for Academy Awards. He was born in Mason City, Iowa. He attended Frank Damrosch’s Institute of Musical Art (later The Juilliard School) in New York City.  A flute and piccolo player, Willson was a member of John Philip Sousa’s band (1921–1923), and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini (1924–1929). Willson then moved to San Francisco, California as the concert director for radio station KFRC, and then as a musical director for the NBC radio network in Hollywood. His work in films included composing the score for Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator (1940), (Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score), and arranging music for the score of William Wyler’s The Little Foxes (1941), (Academy Award nomination for Best Music Score of a Dramatic Picture).During World War II, he worked for the United States’ Armed Forces Radio Service. His work with the AFRS teamed him with George Burns, Gracie Allen and Bill Goodwin. He would work with all three as the bandleader, and a regular character, on the Burns and Allen radio program. He played a shy man, always trying to get advice on women. His character was dizzy as well, basically a male version of Gracie Allen’s character.

Willson’s most famous work, The Music Man, premiered on Broadway in 1957, and was adapted twice for film (in 1962 and 2003). He referred to the show as “an Iowan’s attempt to pay tribute to his home state”. It took Willson some eight years and thirty revisions to complete the musical, for which he wrote more than forty songs. The cast recording of The Music Man won the first Grammy Award for Best Original Cast Album (Broadway or TV). Seventy-six Trombones is the signature song from the musical play The Music Man (1957), which was written by Meredith Willson. This song also appeared in the film The Music Man (1962), and in the made-for-TV movie adaptation in 2003. It is also a piece commonly played by marching and military bands. It begins:

Seventy-six trombones led the big parade

 With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand …

In one of Willson’s arrangements of the song, it seamlessly integrates with other popular marches at the time, such as Stars and Stripes Forever and The Washington Post March by John Philip Sousa (in whose band Willson had played), the The National Emblem March by Edwin Eugene Bagley, the Swedish song Under the Blue and Yellow Flag by Viktor Widqvist, and the song the Second Regiment, Connecticut National Guard by D.W. Reeves.

In the dramas, “Professor” Harold Hill uses the song Seventy-six Trombones to help the townspeople of the fictional town of River City, Iowa, visualize their children playing in a marching band by harkening back to a time when he saw several famous bandleaders’ bands in a combined performance. Whereas an average-sized high school marching band might have about 10 musicians playing the trombone, and a large college marching band seldom has more than 30 trombonists, the band that Harold describes to the villagers included 76 trombones, 110 cornets, “over a thousand reeds”, double bell euphoniums, and “fifty mounted cannon” (which were popular in bands of the time)

Under The Double Eagle-Joseph Franz Wagner(1856-1908) Wagner was an Austrian military bandmaster and composer. He is sometimes known by the nickname ‘The Austrian March King’. He is best known for his 1902 march Unter dem Doppeladler or Under the Double Eagle, referring to the double eagle in the coat of arms of Austria-Hungary. The march became a favorite part of the repertoire of American composer and bandleader John Philip Sousa, whose band recorded it three times. The piece was the official regimental march of the Austrian Artillery Regiment Number 2 till its dissolution in 2007. The first one-third part of the march song is featured in the 1992 computer game Great Naval Battles: North Atlantic 1939-1943 when Germany is being selected in the gameplay.

The Big Cage- Karl L King(1891-1971)King gave up touring with circus bands in 1918, but he continued to write marches and gallops with circus themes for many years after. One example is the Atta-Boy March which was published in 1926. The Big Cage-Circus March was written in 1934 and dedicated to Clyde Beatty, a lion tamer who was famous for several years with various circuses and later seen on early Television. The gallop had an eastern European origin but the tempi was considerably faster than the dance which was fashionable in ball rooms and made famous by the Strauss Family.

Brookes Chicago Marine-Roland  F Seitz(1867-1946) He composed a number of concert works for band  and became known for his stirring melodic marches.  It was during the 1850s that Chicago bands, organized principally to accompany militia units, became a more permanent fixture of the city’s landscape. The Garden City Guards established the Garden City Band in 1853 to perform for drills and parades. Similarly, the Light Guard Band in 1854 and the National Guard Band in 1855 performed for their respective units. By 1860, Chicago had five resident militia bands. Like their predecessors, they relied on private contributions, often solicited at special promenade concerts. The band musicians were predominantly of German descent, and, borrowing from the German Verein tradition, they operated the bands as cooperatives.

After the Civil War, a few street bands, such as the ones led by Billy Nevans and Silas Dean, added to the number of local groups. With midcentury refinements to brass and wind instruments, the military/brass band became more versatile in sound and function. The most accomplished in the city, formed in 1866, was the Great Western Light Guard Band, which, with as many as 100 players at times, was capable of hosting concerts of popular and even, when some members doubled on string instruments, symphonic music.

In the wake of the Great Fire of 1871 and a devastating depression, musical performance and band organization suffered. Toward the end of the 1870s, cooperative ensembles disappeared, and gradually successful business bands began to emerge, such as those led by Johnny Hand, Adolph Liesegang, Johnny Meinken, and the Frieburg brothers. The larger bands nonetheless could not exist without a subsidy. Some, such as Austin’s First Regiment Band, continued to seek affiliation with a militia. Others, like the Lyon & Healy Music Store Band and the Pullman Band, had commercial sponsors.

Still, as the nation entered the Golden Age of Bands in 1880, Chicago bands were not numerous. Within the next 10 years, however, the city witnessed a virtual explosion in band music. Outdoor concerts were a summer staple at city parks, while military-uniformed bands performed throughout the year at theaters, saloons, museums, ballparks, and dances. By 1890, there were over 80 resident professional bands and countless ethnic and amateur ensembles. Finally, under the impetus of the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, Chicago came to possess its own renowned touring wind concert bands. Most notable were Phinney’s United States Band, A. F. Weldon’s Second Regiment Band, and the legendary Thomas P. Brooke’s Chicago Naval Marine Band, which rivaled the nation’s best before its demise in 1906. Although the number of bands continued to increase, after 1910 Chicago produced only one more concert band, Bohumir Kryl’s Chicago Band. By 1920, the Golden Age of Bands was over, giving way to modern influences in the culture.

On the Campus-Edwin Franko Goldman(1878-1956) This march was part of the 13 marches that Golman wrote with the preposition “On the”. The campus is not specified but the assumption is that he refers to College campuses on the Hudson such as Vassar College and Annandale College on Hudson. The march  was first recorded by the Goldman band  June 21^st 1925 at he the Victor Recording Studio in New York City and the band accompanied a male voice quartet as there lyrics for the march.

The Gladiators Farewell-Herman Ludwig Blankenburg(1876-1956) Hermann Ludwig Blankenburg (born 14 November 1876 in Thamsbrück and died 15 May 1956 in Wesel) was a German composer of military marches.Blankenburg was the only son of three children of Johann Heinrich and Ernestine Friederike Koch Blankenburg. He was born with the middle name Louis but changed it to Ludwig later in life perhaps as a connection to Beethoven. Raised on a sheep farm in Thamsbrücke, he was expected to someday manage the farm. However, he showed a propensity for music starting with performing on the piccolo – a favorite instrument his entire life. His family agreed on his studying music as long as he promised to serve in the army for twelve years. Blankenburg taught himself to play various instruments including bassoon, tuba, and violin and he conducted his school orchestra at the age of ten. He served actively in the military for two years 1896-1898, performing tuba in the band of the 6th Field Artillery Regiment in Breslau. After that his only service was prior to and during the early years of World War I in reserve bands. In 1913 he performed tuba in Field Artillery Regiment No. 43 in Wesel until 1915 when he got a medical discharge. He remained in Wesel for the rest of his life. Blankenburg played in and conducted community bands as well as performing in the orchestras in Dortmund, Wuppertal and Duisburg. A march he wrote when he was eighteen was submitted years later, in 1904, to Hawkes & Son for a march competition. Hawkes selected his march from over 500 submitted as first prize with the proviso the title could be changed from “Deutschlands Fürsten” (Germany’s Princes) to “The Gladiators’ Farewell” (Abschied der Gladiatoren). The march became popular, and Hawkes (also Boosey & Hawkes) would publish several more including “Adlerflug”, “Festjubel”, “Territorial”, and “Mein Regiment” (the latter said to be the composer’s own favorite march).

American Patrol– Frank  W Meacham(1856-1909)He is mostly remembered for his march American Patrol. Frank W. Meacham  was an American composer and arranger of Tin Pan Alley.Meacham was born in Buffalo, New York. His most famous work is “American Patrol” (1885), a popular march was  written originally for piano, it was then arranged for wind band and published by Carl Fischer in 1891. It was later arranged for Glenn Miller’s swing band by Jerry Gray, and was also arranged by composer Morton Gould.Meacham lived in New York City for much of his life. Many of his works were military marches, tribute pieces, and early ragtime works. He died in New York City. The concert band edition isa superb rendition of the approach of a military patrol gradually increasing in intensity and then eventually fading away. The band edition was published in 1891 . There are several arrangements of the original work including Carl Fisher editions and one by Edwin F Kalmus.

The Stars and Stripes Forever-John Philip Sousa(1854-1932) “The Stars and Stripes Forever” is a patriotic American march widely considered to be the magnum opus of composer John Philip Sousa. By act of Congress, it is the National March of the United States of America. In his autobiography, Marching Along, Sousa wrote that he composed the march on Christmas Day 1896. He was on an ocean liner on his way home from a vacation with his wife in Europe and had just learned of the recent death of David Blakely, the manager of the Sousa Band. He composed the march in his head and committed the notes to paper on arrival in the United States. It was first performed in Philadelphia on May 14, 1897, and was immediately greeted with enthusiasm.Undoubtably it has been recorded and played more than any march in history. There are several arrangements of the march where efforts have been made to tinker with the perfection of Sousa, but the United States Marine band continue to play the original version which is a superb rendition of this march masterpice.