So I just stood there, watching the little horrific (but good intentioned) figurines crashing tiny cymbals and bouncing up and down aimlessly. My march music database (the one in my noggin) was pretty empty at that time, so I could not tell you the march that was playing. But soon enough, my friends started move on, which prompted me to say, “I just wanna hear the trio, and then we can leave”. My buddy Rich stared in disbelief for a moment, took out a recorder, and re-uttered my last innocent sentence for documentation.

I’d like to say I impressed people with what I said. I’d sure like to say that..

Check out the info section of the video for more information. Apparently, MAM is freeware, and can be downloaded at their website. There are plenty of march MIDI available online, so if you’re curious to see more Sousa represented in Atari-like glory, give it a try!

1. The Lieutenant Commander by Karl L. King – Written for John Philip Sousa (Sousa held this rank during his Navy stint)

2. King Karl King by Henry Fillmore – Written for Karl King

3. The Goldman Band by Karl L. King – Written for Edwin Franko Goldman

4. Brooke’s Chicago Marine Band by Roland F. Seitz – Written for Thomas P. Brooke

5. Tribute to Sousa by Edwin F. Goldman – Written for John Philip Sousa

Of course there are many others, but those are the ones that stuck out to me at the time of this posting. Honorable mentions will be added if I’m feeling feisty enough.  Post your favorites below!

Now, if you’re not all nubby elbows with the piano like I am, you can have some mighty good fun playing through these. I mostly get a composer’s use out of them. As you’ll find the left hand playing the bass line and block chords most of the time, it’s great for harmonic analysis. The cover sheets are neat to look at too, and you can find some mugs of composers you’ve yet to see.

And they allow image reproducing with proper citing, so feel free to paste in a concert program, or your own website.

http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/search/results?q=str_dc.subject.HASM_Subject_Content:%22Marches+and+Military+Music%22

What makes Jeff unique is that he has devoted an entire band to the performance and thus revival of Fulton’s music. “The New Fulton Band” meets every summer for a recording session, which as I am told, is completely sight read. Listening to a couple of his recordings, you can tell this feat is incredible. He inspired me to compose a march written for this great group. You can hear it in the video I have posted below.

While writing my final Ethnomusicology project, “March Music Traditions in Cultural Context”, I interviewed Mr. Yaeger, and he was able to provide some great insight. Here are his words:

EMAIL INTERVIEW WITH JEFF YAEGER

What was your first experience with the march?
As far I can remember, the first march I played was the Florentiner Marsch by Julius Fucik. I was in 8th grade playing Tuba in the Milpitas Community Concert Band (Milpitas CA).

Do you personally enjoy performing/directing/listening to marches?
I love nothing more than a good old fashioned march! As a tuba and trombone player, I love playing marches! As a conductor, I enjoy conducting marches for various reasons, from the sheer joy they instill in my as well as the appreciation for the rich music heritage they represent.

How do you think a casual listener values the march?For example, how does the average non-musical parent respond to a march performance at a  concert?
From my experience, The audience loves marches! They come to concerts expecting to hear them!!!!

How do your musicians value the march in terms of respect and  enjoyment? Do you know of anyone (musician or not) that absolutely hates marches? (IE French horn players). Why do you think they do?
This is a difficult question. I am the director of two bands, The New Fulton Band which is made up of really good players with the purpose of bringing band music of the past (of which the march is a huge %) back to life. With this group, we all appreciate it and value the project, I have had three horn players play for three years, and they keep coming back playing nothing but Eb Horn off beats! I am also the director of the Milpitas Community Concert Band which is a more causal youth and adult band. The goal of this band, like most community bands, is to provide a rewarding musical experience, for the members and the community. They enjoy the occasional march but do not vale it as much as I do. I believe that ever person is entitled to their own opinions when it comes to music, but I believe that their views on marches, are a result of a poor music education rather than a true hatred of the march. When I attended San Jose State University, the two band directors, Dr. Edward Harris, and Dr. Diana Hollinger, were not fans of the march. Dr. Hollinger’s opinion of band music was that if it did not have a full score, it was not worth playing. This eliminates a HUGE amount of literature for the wind band, and ALL marches from the Golden Age of American Band Music.

She even wrote an article in the “Teaching Music Through Performance; Marches” book where she admitted to B.S.-ing most of the work because she could not find any info. This article was more of an assignment than a passionate project! This really hurts the future musicians and music educators. This attitude really deprives students the proud heritage that encompasses the wind ensemble. Marches were such a HUGE part of band music for so long (I think it is safe to say that more marches were composed then of all other style of music (possibly combined)). To eliminate this vast heritage, is just horrible.

Needless to say, I hated that school, and transfer the next semester to California State University, East Bay (Hayward CA). The Band director there, Dr. Wesley J.

Broadnax, has a much healthier attitude to band music!

This was his first year at our university. He learned that the school had never performed a march. The only two marches in their library, was the Start and Stripe Forever, and the Fairest of the Fair. He immediately programmed the latter. He gave us a long speech on the important of the march in Band literature. He said that the march is the staple of band music. He told everyone who was an education major that we HAD to embrace marches, and that we had to teach them to our future students. He said EVERYTHING you teach in music, (Rhythm, Dynamics, Phrasing, Harmony, etc) can be incorporated in a march performance! Since then, he has been kind enough to allow the college band to perform my arrangement of James M. Fulton’s “The Aviator March.” I am glad to see that some of the San Francisco Bay Area music majors will have a healthier better band music education!!!

What are your own approaches or theories to march performance? Many  band directors will say they expect their musicians to be able to perform  marches effectively, and will spend minimal time at best (in comparison to  other programmed pieces) rehearsing them. Do you think this approach is  effective? Does it greatly depend on the band itself?

I believe that marches require equal rehearsal time (if not more) than other program works. Most of the time I hear live marches, they are performed badly.

This pains me so much!!! In my rehearsals I try to perfect marches. As I mentioned before, marches are probably going to be the best liked compositions on your concert by the audience, and thus should be performed as well as possible. I also try to spend time on marches because they are often misunderstood among band members and “less serious” works not worthy of substantial effort. I try to change this!

Do you believe the march still plays an important role in the band  setting? Do you feel we as band musicians have a so-called “responsibility” to perform marches? Do you believe the march will “die out”, or will  musicians carry on the heritage of performing marches?

The march defiantly still plays a huge role in band music. There are always new marches being composed, as well as the old ones continue to be programmed. My belief is that we should continue to support new music, after all without new music, our art form would die, but we also need to appreciate where we came from. We owe a lot to the music of the late 19th century and early 20th century, during which time, the concert band as we know it was being formed, with the help of the march! A band world without marches would be like an orchestra without symphonies, it just doesn’t make sense!!! Long live the March!

END INTERVIEW

Please have a look at Jeff Yaeger’s site: www.forgottenamericanmusic.com
Here you can find information on James Fulton, and listen to the great recordings of his music.

If you would like to take this interview, please please please, contact me. I will be happy to reproduce it on this site.

I must say, I believe the best section of the march is its first strain. I’ll say it once, and I’ll say it again, if you want a catchy melody, don’t neglect to utilize the true beauty of the IV chord. By placing that IV chord into Bar 6, you’ve got a sweet, uplifting feeling that still helps maintain a constant forward motion to the I and V in Bar 7, and back to I all in a single 4-bar phrase.

Seitz is no stranger to lovely melodies, and also has a penchant for writing intricate woodwind obbligatos that actually take center stage rather than the true melody. This is heard in the trio, where he makes use of the familiar song progression (a strong IV chord set and resolution after 4 bars) in the brass. The real action is happening above in the upper woodwinds. And Seitz doesn’t stop there. After a (great) breakstrain, he writes another obbligato in the same manner, which I must say is a tonguing nightmare at quicker tempos. While nothing chromatically flashy, I can’t think of the trio without it, and that’s the main point you have to think about when deciding if a counterpoint line is effective or not.

This march was of course written for Thomas P. Brooke (also a fantastic march composer who wrote another Schramm’s Choice) and his famous Chicago Naval Marine Band. I can safely say that marches written for/dedicated to other composers are usually top-notch quality. This march is no exception.

The recording I have attached is actually not the one that first stole my heart many years ago. It is the US Air Force Band’s, from the album Front & Center, a CD I highly recommend. It is on the Klavier label, known for it’s Klavier Wind Project, which puts out many fantastic band albums such as the North Texas Wind Symphony recordings, and is probably the best record label in terms of recording quality.