The Marshall Municipal Band has a pair of patriotic programs planned to celebrate Independence Day.

The first concert will be in the gazebo of the Marshall Habilitation Center on Thursday, July 3. The second concert will be take place on Friday, July 4, right inside the South entrance to Indian Foothills Park, near the playground area.

Both free concerts will begin at 8 p.m. and will be immediately followed by fireworks displays.

"The concerts will include a wide variety of music befitting the occasion," said director Kevin Lines. The band will open its performance with John Philip Sousa's "George Washington Bicentennial."

Additionally, the band will include Sousa's "Washington Post" and the ever-popular "Billboard March" by composer John Klohr.

The first overture for the concert will be Jay Bocook's "At Dawn They Slept (December 7, 1941)."

This 2002 composition begins softly and depicts the U. S. military presence at Pearl Harbor in the days preceding December 7, Lines said.

"The sounds of approaching planes and seven notes on the chimes representing the 7 a.m. attack break the tranquility and beauty of that Sunday morning," he said. "The work concludes with the main theme proudly returning, as it depicts the strength and resolve of our nation."

The second overture of the evening depicts another battle to protect our homeland, Lines said.

Clare Grundman's "The Spirit of '76" is based on songs from the time of George Washington.

The medley includes: "Washington's March At Trenton," "Yankee Doodle," the poignant "Norah, Dear Norah," "Girls and Boys," and concludes with "Chester."

The featured soloist for the evening will be Sara Malan on Herbert Clarke's "Sounds from the Hudson."

Malan graduated this spring from Central Methodist University in Fayette and is a graduate of Marshall High School.

She has been hired as the band director at Crystal City for the coming school year, Lines said.

"There's Something About A Soldier" is a descriptive patrol march that depicts a day in the life of a soldier. Included in this enjoyable work are the bugle calls a soldier might hear, including "Reveille," "Mess Call," "Assembly," "Adjutant's Call," "Retreat" and "Taps."

The band will honor all members of the armed forces both past and present with Bob Lowden's "Armed Forces Salute."

This work incorporates the themes from each branch of the military. The listener will hear "The Caisson Song," "Semper Paratus," "The Marines' Hymn," The U. S. Air Force," and "Anchors Aweigh."

"'America, The Beautiful,' is one of our country's best-loved songs, and the band will perform a 1963 arrangement by Carmen Dragon," Lines said.

As has been the long-standing tradition for the Marshall Municipal Band, the concert will conclude with a sacred work, a patriotic work and a closing march.

The sacred work will be David Holsinger's "On A Hymnsong of Philip Bliss." Holsinger, a Missouri native, bases his work on the hymn "It Is Well With My Soul."

The patriotic work will be the ever-popular John Philip Sousa march, "The Stars and Stripes Forever."

The concert's closing tune will be the band's signature march, "Uncle Sammy."