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Sousa song
Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 2:04 am
by Benjamin
My director was telling my of a Sousa song that in the middle of the song it breaks into Auld Lang Syne (or the Good Old Song of UVA for you Wahoo fans) and it is supposed to be like a dedication thing to UVA or somthing. Do any of you guys know what I'm talking about, or know if it is by a different composer or somthing. Thanks, Benjamin.
Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 8:30 am
by LoyalTubist
Songs are sung. Sousa did write songs with words.
You are thinking of a march called Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company. Auld Lang Syne is not in the middle but at the end of the trio. It's a good march.
Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:12 pm
by Benjamin
Way to get technical, lol, thanks bro.
Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:24 pm
by Alex F
While LT is quite correct in his reply regarding the Sousa march Benjamin asked about, Sousa did, in fact, compose 15 operettas, 70 songs, and 7 other vocal works. Most of these vocal works have been forgotten. The theme found in the march "El Capitan" was originally used in a love song contained in the opera of the same name from 1895.
http://www.dws.org/sousa/content/view/22/30/
Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 1:10 pm
by Chuck(G)
Alex is right--there are some wonderful Sousa compositions that are almost never heard.
Try "The Gilding Girl", "Presidential Polonaise" or his "Sandalphon Waltzes" for something that doesn't sound like a march.
Personally, I don't care much for his songs, however. As a lyricist, he just didn't seem to have the knack.
Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 3:38 am
by LoyalTubist
Actually, the entire trio of the march is "Auld Lang Syne." I have played the snot out of that thing hundreds of times. When I wrote my reply I was thinking about the part at the end with the low brass obligato (lots of fun).
And, yeah, I did get technical. We are musicians. We should know the difference between a song and a march. I was corrected on this when I was younger. (They aren't teaching these words anymore?)
Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 11:57 am
by pgiampi1
you should also mention it's highly unlikely that you are, in fact, his "bro"

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 12:16 pm
by The Big Ben
LoyalTubist wrote:Actually, the entire trio of the march is "Auld Lang Syne." I have played the snot out of that thing hundreds of times.
That's good. Audiences appreciate music that is snot-free.
Jeff "Hand me a tissue, will ya, bro?" Benedict
Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 12:23 pm
by Chuck(G)
...then there are the odd works that are usually played as instrumental pieces, but have lyrics as a song. " The Stars and Stripes Forever" is one, however execrable the lyrics might be.
Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 12:37 pm
by Eupher6
LoyalTubist wrote:Actually, the entire trio of the march is "Auld Lang Syne." I have played the snot out of that thing hundreds of times. When I wrote my reply I was thinking about the part at the end with the low brass obligato (lots of fun).
And, yeah, I did get technical. We are musicians. We should know the difference between a song and a march. I was corrected on this when I was younger. (They aren't teaching these words anymore?)
Nicely put, LT. You are quite right and I hope young Benjamin now knows the difference between a song and a march.

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 1:10 pm
by Eupher6
the elephant
...When the Base Closure Act shut down Fort Hamilton, the band was deactivated and dispersed. The bulk of the equipment and personnel went to Fort Drum and became (gulp!) the 10th Mountain Division Band. No one seems to know what happened to that excellent library. It either got tossed into the trash or is sitting in boxes in some giant warehouse. Either way, it will probably never see the light of day again.
It seems that this practice has some history.
When the 298th Army Band in Berlin was deactivated in September, 1994, after 49 years' service in that city, band Soldiers knocked themselves out trying to turn in dozens of file cabinets' worth of sheet music.
Much of it dated from the band's origin as a band within the Louisiana Army National Guard, dating from the mid-Thirties.
All the stuff was dutifully catalogued, documented, and submitted for turn-in on appropriate forms.
The pukes at the turn-in point signed off on all that, then turned right around and dumped it all in a huge dumpster in the back.
They conveniently dumped the turn-in documentation as well.
Fraud, waste, and abuse in living color.
Much of that material could never be replaced, being POP.
Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 1:18 pm
by Chuck Jackson
Sousa wrote a song that I have seen played by Euphers and trumpet players called "I've Made My Plans for the Summer". I remember playing it on the Gazebo at Fort Monroe as an encore to one theme and variations solos or another and think that Sousa intended it to be done like that. Nice little tune with a neat accompianment.
Chuck
Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 6:29 pm
by Benjamin
LOL, all you guys picking on me cause of the way us young folks talk. LOL My dad used to sing the duck thing with Stars and Stripes, he was in the Army. Must be a military thing.
Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 10:48 pm
by Eupher6
I spent 20 years in the Army and I don't recall any kind of "duck thing" with S&S. But then again, I was too busy playing that very demanding piece of music that it is.
Now Jody Calls, that's something else.
Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 12:10 pm
by Chuck(G)
Benjamin wrote:LOL, all you guys picking on me cause of the way us young folks talk. LOL My dad used to sing the duck thing with Stars and Stripes, he was in the Army. Must be a military thing.
Nope, more likely a summer camp song. There were lots of these. Of course, this comes from a time when people would actually sing...
Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 2:50 pm
by Chuck Jackson
My Mom, a very erudite musician, had some VERY raunchy lyrics to the Trio of S&S. To honor her memory as a classy woman, I won't (and probably can't due to some obscure TubeNet law about tarnishing the image of ones Mom) post them here, but suffcie it to say when she sang them to us as a teen, I was MORTIFIED at what was being sung. I'm sure one of the more seasoned guys here know them and may chose to share them, but I still laugh out loud when conducting this piece thinking of my 5'2" 100LB mother singing in the car at the top of her lungs. Hard to believe she birthed a 6'2" 210 lumox like me.
Chuck