Municipal band to hold concert June 11

The concert will open with a recent addition to the band's repertoire, Fred Jewell's "High and Mighty" march.

"It seems ironic to say this is new to our library when the work is nearly a hundred years old," said director Kevin Lines. "However, many great works like this would be lost if it were not for the efforts of publishers who work so hard to preserve some of this great music from the early history of the modern concert band."

The band's first overture of the evening is Morton Gould's most popular and most performed work, "American Salute." In this work, Gould uses the popular song by Patrick Gilmore from the Civil War, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" as his only thematic material. Gould adapted the robust Civil War marching song and called the new composition "American Salute" for an all-American music concert broadcast over the Mutual Radio Network on Feb. 12, 1942.

The band will feature a Dixieland ensemble with the next work, titled "Dixieland Jamboree." This medley includes "Copenhagen," "Basin Street Blues" and "When The Saints Go Marching In." The ensemble will include Ray Prichard on clarinet, Alan Criswell on trumpet, Taylor Scarff on tenor saxophone, Dave Meyer on trombone, Dean Somerville on tuba and Lee Bailey on percussion.

"The music of Leroy Anderson is always popular and we will do one of his best-known works, 'Blue Tango.'" This work entered the best-seller chart in December 1951 and reached number one early the following year. It stayed on the chart for 38 weeks.

No concert would be complete without a John Philip Sousa march, and this week the band will perform "The Belle of Chicago."

"Sousa completed this work one week before his discharge from the Marine Corps to form his own civilian band, which was based in Chicago. So it is not surprising that he perhaps wanted to gain the immediate favor of the city by writing this march," Lines said.

"Let The Spirit Soar" by James Swearingen is a beautiful chorale prelude that stands in stark contrast to the Sousa march.

"While both works demand exceptional musicianship, this work requires beauty of tone and blending of instrumental voices as opposed to technical virtuosity in the march."

"Hollywood!" by Warren Barker is a medley of cinema classics that have retained their popularity through the years. This work includes "Thanks for the Memory," "Theme from 'Star Trek The Motion Picture,'" "Moon River," "Never on Sunday," "Over the Rainbow" and the march from "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

"Old Comrades" by Carl Teike was written when Teike was bandmaster to the 123rd Grenadier Regiment at Ulm, Germany.

"There is an interesting story behind this composition," said Lines. "Teike presented this work to his superior for approval and was told to 'throw this work in the oven.' Thankfully, he did not heed his superior's advice because this work has become one of the greatest marches of all times."

The band's closing trilogy will begin with a Fred Allen arrangement of "They Led My Lord Away." The hymn was written by Adoniram Judson Gordon and is an example of the call-and-response variety of hymn. The band setting maintains the dignity and plaintive searching quality of the original hymn.

The patriotic work for the evening will be "Star Spangled Spectacular, The Music of George M. Cohan." The John Cacavas arrangement includes "Mary's A Grand Old Name," "Give My Regards To Broadway," "Forty-Five Minutes From Broadway," "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "You're A Grand Old Flag."

"We invite everyone to come out to the concert," concluded Lines. "It's a great opportunity to see your friends and neighbors while enjoying an evening of fine music by the Marshall Municipal Band."