The Candidates’ March

Grade 4

3.5 minutes

Premiered by the US Infantry Center Band, Fort Benning, Georgia, June 21, 2001.

Excellent computer mockup by NotePerformer

This march was written for my graduating class of Officer Candidate School and premiered the day we were all commissioned second lieutenants in the US Army.  It is also a tribute to one of my favorite march composers, Henry Fillmore, whose music funneled out of the post’s sound system every morning during physical training.  Marked “Tempo di Fillmore,” this march is played somewhere between typical American Sousa and circus tempo.  Near the end, the mood becomes nearly circus-like with trombone glissandi, another nod to Fillmore.  There is an optional drum break preceding the trio that commemorates my time as the official drummer of Charlie Company (well, somebody had to keep a beat between the barracks and Building 4; might as well be the band guy).