True, it is the final day of Early Voting in Texas, and so glad I was able to take advantage of that option on my in-service day. It was pretty busy at the polling place.
Alas, I missed most of my chances to place daily votes in the March 2008 March Countdown at WRR Classical FM. I try to get out the door and into the Buick every work morning in time to hear the March of the Day at 7:35 on the radio. It's a fun, energizing start to the day.
The "Six Sousa Marches" was one of my favorite Little Golden Records as a child. Little Golden Records were orchestrated by Mitch Miller and featured the Sand Piper Singers. I can never quite catch the wisp of lyrics in my memory, but the Sand Pipers sang on several of the Sousa marches. This particular record, EP 489, was released in 1958, about the same time as the motion picture, "Bridge On the River Kwai".
My former mother-in-law once told me that she really wanted a doorbell that played the theme song from "Bridge On the River Kwai". Did she want POWs to march over and open the door? What was that march the POWs were whistling?
Buzz! Our contestant knows. It's the "Colonel Bogey March". But who was Colonel Bogey?
I'm particularly fond of Prokofiev's march from "The Love of Three Oranges". You can hear Prokofiev play the march on YouTube.
Just in case you are finding your piece of Trivial Pursuit quiche just out of reach at the moment, General Custer's favorite marching music was the Irish drinking song "Garryowen".
What was the Monty Python theme march? Sousa's "Liberty Bell".
These were the results of the 2007 voting for favorite marches:
- Stars and Stripes Forever (Sousa)
- Imperial March (Williams)
- Colonel Bogey March (Alford)
- Aida Grand March (Verdi)
- Washington Post (Sousa)
- Liberty Bell (Sousa)
- Seventy Six Trombones (Willson)
- Marche Slave (Tchaikovsky)
- Radetzky (J Strauss I)
- Pomp and Circumstance March #1 (Elgar) *
- Semper Fidelis (Sousa)
- Grandioso (Seitz)
- Raiders March from Raiders of the Lost Ark (Williams)
- Procession of the Nobles (Rimsky-Korsakov)
- Under the Double Eagle (JF Wagner)
- Symphonic Metamorphosis March (Hindemith)
- March of the Toreadors (Bizet)
- Entry of the Gladiators (Fucik)
- National Emblem (Bagley)
- Barnum and Bailey's Favorite (King)
"Colonel Bogey" may have been the nickname of an eccentric British colonel and golfer in WWI. Some say the colonel whistled instead of shouting, "Fore!" at Inverness.
This colonel in plus-fours is not to be confused with General William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. Charles Ives' "General William Booth Enters Into Heaven" celebrates a struggle between two marching bands approaching and passing each other. Ives never forgot his boyhood experience of hearing multiple brass bands march by, their different tunes advancing, mixing and receding. I will never forget my experience hearing Andrew Litton conduct the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for a live recording of Ives' cacophonous piece while watching from nearly overhead.
"Battle of the Bands" and "March Madness" are common phrases. March came in like a lion, and tuned the radio to 101.1 FM. Enjoy your memory's Battle of the Marches.
© 2008 Nancy L. Ruder
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