Pride and Patriotism

Grade 4

3.5 minutes

Composed for and premiered by the Hagerstown (MD) Municipal Band, July 1995, Mr. Lynn Larew, conducting

A first-rate performance recorded by an old boom box on cassette; makes it sound like it’s a march that has been played for a hundred years, which was actually the point in composing it.

My first march, composed for the Hagerstown Municipal Band.  This terrific group made up of mostly band directors and college students presents a concert series in Hagerstown City Park every summer.  I was a guest conductor in the summer of 1994, and I had such a wonderful time, I “invited myself back” by composing this march for them.  It’s a very straightforward march, but with a few surprises at the trio–horns and trombones switch traditional roles, and there’s some unexpected orchestration and a key change in the grandioso strain.  Dedicated to my Grandma “Charlie” (Shirley Hauk, sworn into the US Coast Guard on her 20th birthday during World War II), one of the most patriotic people I ever knew!  (She loved this march.)