My son's HS marching band went to an "invitational" recently,
and we tagged along.  I was surprised by some of the other
bands' choice of music.  Lake Orion, for example, had an elaborate
program on the theme of death.  The color guard were dressed in
creepy black-hooded costumes, and the music consisted of Moussorgsky's
Night on Bald Mountain, Saint-Saens' Danse Macabre, the "March to
the Scaffold" from Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique and Chopin's
Funeral March.  Plymouth-Canton did Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait,
a medley of spirituals, and the finale of Copland's Organ Symphony,
complete with organ.  This last piece is from Copland's youthful
modernist phase, and is excruciatingly dissonant.  They took first
place with it.

How long has this sort of thing been going on?  Has anyone else seen
any interesting HS marching band productions?

9 responses total.

Plymouth has done many more "mainstream" themes in recent years. 
Unfortunately, right now I can't list 'em.  Start with "Cats" by ALWebber...

Injunior high (girls' only) the band had a surplus of clarinets but hardly
any brass instruments, so I got to play the cornet part, which I recall having
to transpose for the clarinet.  I got pretty good at reading one line above,
or maybe it was below, the printed notes, in the Mikado.  I don't think the
other clarinets could handle the transposing, so I got to play melodies.
Another high point in my musical career was singing second tenor in a Russian
liturgical choir because none of the men tenors could read music so had to
sing first tenor.  It did not matter all that much if the lower notes on my
part could not be heard, as the basses were the important people anyway.  

Is any church music written in march form?

You recall incorrectly:  Both clarinet and cornet are Bb instruments, so there
would be no transposing required.  Flute and Oboe are C instruments, so
playing those parts would require you to transpose up an entire step on a Bb
instrument, and the reverse for the other case.

If by "church music" you mean hymns, then no, they don't really resemble
marches in form.

I doubt that she meant hymns, or primarily so, but ... "Onward Christian
Soldiers".    8-{)]

What key is trumpet?  The clarinets also played that.

Trumpet as you'll find in a band is also Bb (same as cornet).  However, there
are trumpets pitched otherwise, and in professional orchestras you may find
C trumpets.

Would The Mikado be old enough to have used valveless trumpets, or the old
valved trumpets in F?  I know both were once in use, but I have no idea when
they went out.

Valveless trumpets in the Mikado?  Highly doubt it.

Oh well, there goes that guess....

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