US Marine Band on Tour- National Tours Began in 1892

Marine Band Tour to the Southeast

“What is the Marine Band of Washington? That everybody knows. It is the pride of the nation and of Washington official life.”

These words were printed in the Marine Band’s 1892 national tour program, dictated by tour manager Mr. David Blakely. In the program, Blakely went on to explain that the band was given permission to tour a portion of the country by the President, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Colonel Commandant of the Marine Corps. The tradition of the Marine Band tour began one year earlier under 17th Director John Philip Sousa when he obtained permission from President Benjamin Harrison to travel with the band to 32 cities and towns in New England and the Midwest.

Read Sousa’s account of obtaining permission

More than a hundred years later, “The President’s Own” continues to tour under the direction of 27th Director Colonel Michael J. Colburn. The band will depart Washington, D.C., Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011, for its annual fall concert tour, performing 29 concerts in 31 days throughout Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.

On its first tour in 1891, the band performed two different programs: one for matinees and another for evening concerts. Both included virtuoso soloists and Sousa’s unique blend of popular music and orchestral transcriptions, as well as his own compositions. Although the audiences clamored for Sousa’s marches, he included them only as encores, offering his audiences what he called the “solid fare” of Richard Wagner, Georges Bizet, Carl Maria von Weber, Edvard Grieg, and others. This year’s “solid fare” will also include music by von Weber and Bizet as well as selections by Gustav Holst, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and American contemporary composers Adam Gorb and Michael Gandolfi.

Col. Colburn has compiled three rotating programs that will highlight a variety of soloists including pianist Gunnery Sgt. Russell Wilson performing Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Opus 16; cornetist Gunnery Sgt. Brian Turnmire playing Herbert L. Clarke’s “The Southern Cross;” and percussionist Staff Sgt. Jonathan Bisesi performing Pablo de Sarasate’s challenging Zigeunerweisen, Opus 20, transcribed for xylophone by former Marine Band arranger Thomas Knox. Concert moderator and mezzo-soprano Staff Sgt. Sara Dell’Omo will offer the vocal medley Sentimental Journey: A World War II Hit Parade, arranged by Marine Band staff arranger Staff Sgt. Ryan Nowlin. The medley includes popular World War II songs such as “Sentimental Journey,” “Accentuate the Positive,” “Stormy Weather,” and “That Old Black Magic.”

A Marine Band concert would certainly not be complete without a Sousa march. So patrons in every tour city will hear “The March King’s” stirring “Semper Fidelis” and the national march of the United States, “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” Each concert will end with a Salute to the Armed Forces of the United States, featuring all of the military service songs.

The 1892 printed tour program stated that the Marine Band is “the band of the White House, of Congress, and … the band which beguiles the guests of the President at all of the White House receptions;” that it “charms them with its delightful strains.” And while the Marine Band mission is to provide music for the President of the United States and the Commandant of the Marine Corps, Sousa once said, “The Marine Band is the national band … as great among bands as America is among nations.” President George W. Bush declared the band “our nation’s treasure.” General Michael W. Hagee, 33rd Commandant of the Marine Corps said, “Whether in White House performances, public concerts, or national tours, the music of the Marine Band is the music of America.”

And so it will remain. This fall the music of the Marine Band will be heard by thousands of Americans, delightful strains charming concert attendees in concert halls, auditoriums, and arts centers. The very musicians that ‘beguile the guests of the President’ will offer that same musical precision and level of excellence to patrons throughout the Southeast, for the Marine Band is as Sousa put it, ‘the national band.’

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Tags: marine tours
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Taps

The story of TAPS still continues to be bandied around. We once again draw attention to the only validated and accepted version of the events which led to the origins of TAPS(see below). It is not Italian or Canadian , it is not LAST POST.

The following is an update on the Legislation regarding TAPS:

REED TAPS LEGISLATION MOVES ON TO SENATE

Congressman Tom Reed’s legislation which would designate the bugle call “Taps” as the National Song of Remembrance today passed the full House and moves on to the Senate for consideration. The designation is included in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.

Now the legislation must be passed by the Senate and signed by President Obama to become law.
“We’re one step closer to our goal of winning this recognition for Taps,” Reed said. “It is a fitting gesture, and one which appropriately coincides with Memorial Day when we honor the heroes who have fallen in defense of our nation.”

 www.tapsbugler.com

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Four Score and Sixty-Seven Years Ago…

Four Score and Sixty-Seven Years Ago…

On Nov. 19, 1863, 147 years ago, the United States Marine Band accompanied President Abraham Lincoln to Gettysburg, Pa., for the dedication of the new Soldiers’ National Cemetery. It was during this dedication that President Lincoln uttered one of his shortest—and one of his most famous—speeches, now known as the Gettysburg Address.

During a special Marine Band Living History concert in 2008, Dr. Allen Guelzo, the Henry R. Luce Professor of the Civil War Era and a professor of history at Gettysburg College, spoke about the Marine Band’s visit to Gettysburg in 1863

Listen to remarks by Dr. Allen Guelzo about the Gettysburg visit

Tags: lincolnaddress, Marine band, Scala
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Taps

In the interest of accuracy  regarding TAPS we wish to direct everyone  to the web site of JARI VILLANEUVA. There are many versions of the genesis of TAPS . JARI has made a  in-depth research of   the background and history of the sacred trumpet and bugle call and this is acclaimed as the only authentic and true account of how the call evolved.Thank you for your continued interest in our site.Please link to the web site  seen below.(editor)

http://www.west-point.org/taps/Taps.html

Tags: accurate account, Taps
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Military Music-George Henry Farmer

Military Music And Its Story – The Rise & Development Of Military Music

 By Henry George Farmer Author Of “Memoirs Of The Royal Artillery Band:

An Account Of Military Music In England”

Published By WM. REEVES, London, Circa 1912

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