Music

1. The Klaxon

   Composer Henry Fillmore's career spanned more than 50 years, and he probably wrote and arranged more band music than anyone in the history of the art. It is estimated that he wrote 250 original compositions for band and arranged another 750. This piece reportedly was written to honor the klaxon automobile horn. It was arranged by Frederick Fennell, an internationally-acclaimed conductor who is widely regarded as the leader of the wind ensemble movement in this country.

2. Emperata Overture

   "Emperata Overture" was Claude Smith's first composition, published in 1964. Smith, a Missouri native, composed instrumental and choral music extensively, and his works have been performed by leading musical organizations throughout the world. He has more than 110 band works, 12 orchestral works, and 15 choral works to his credit, along with solos for artists such as Doc Severinsen, Dale Underwood, Brian Bowman, Warren Covington, Gary Foster, Rich Matteson, and Steve Seward.
   
   He received numerous commissions, including works for the U.S. Air Force Band, the U.S. Marine Band, the U.S. Navy Band, and the Army Field Band. His composition "Flight" was adopted as the official march of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

3. The Conqueror

   Carl Teike was the fourth child of 14 born to a blacksmith. He began his musical education at the age of 14 and played many instruments, including French horn, bass violin, and percussion. At 19, he joined the 123rd Konig Karl Regiment as a musician. Stationed in Ulm, he supplemented his pay by playing French horn and percussion with local theater orchestras. He also composed and earned respect as a composer of marches. When he departed from military service, he became a policeman in Ulm and married the daughter of his landlord. In 1895, he moved his family to Potsdam, a suburb of Berlin, where he served with the Royal Police until 1908. At that time, serious illness forced his resignation, and after recovering, he took a position with the Landsberg post office. The people of Landsberg erected a beautiful monument in his memory. Teike wrote more than 100 marches and at least 20 concert works.

4. Malague

   Composer Ernesto Lecuona is a major, if not well-known, figure in popular music of this century. He brought the first successful Latin orchestra to the United States, fostered the careers of many of the most influential artists in Latin music, and composed many of its most enduring songs. He achieved the rare distinction of both popular and critical success, competing with the best of Tin Pan Alley as a songwriter while at the same time making his mark as a contemporary classical composer. Malagueña, his first major composition, was introduced by Lecuona at New York's Roxy Theatre in 1927.

5. March of the Belgian Paratroopers (Marche des Parachutistes Belges)

   Born in Schaarbeek, Belgium, in 1897, Pierre Leemans studied piano, harmony, orchestration, and composition and began his teaching career in 1917 at the Etterbeek Music Academy. At 22, he served his year of military duty and then returned to teach music until 1932, when he became the pianist- conductor-program director for the official broadcasting company, N.I.R. In 1934, he won the composition contest for the official march of the 1935 Brussels World Exposition. He founded the Schaarbeek High School Choir in 1940 and won a composition contest for school songs three years later. From entries by 109 anonymous composers, works by Leemans were selected for first and second prize for the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. After a lifetime of composing, teaching, performing, and conducting, he died in 1980 at the age of eighty-two.
   
   While he was serving his year of military duty at the end of World War I, Leemans' regimental commander asked him to compose a march; it was begun, but never finished. Near the end of World War II, he was having dinner with a group of paratroopers and was again asked to compose a march. As the group commander drove him home that night, the march theme came back to his mind, and he wrote out all of the parts for the official "March of the Belgian Paratroopers" after reaching home. A quiet, unaggressive essay in the easy-paced European style, it is set in the form of a "patrol," in which the music marches on from the distance, plays, and passes. This arrangement was made by Charles Wiley at the request of his Lamar (Texas) University Band students for the first U.S. performance of the march.

6. Gillette Look Sharp March

   Hailing from Centralia, Washington, Mahlon Merrick was graduated from Washington State University in 1923 with bachelors' degrees in both education and music. After a brief teaching experience in schools in Redmond, Washington, Merrick devoted himself to a career in music.
   
   His career led him to Hollywood, where he was associated with a number of popular television series including The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show and The Bob Cummings Show. For 30 years, he was musical director for comedian Jack Benny. The "Gillette Look Sharp March" and the "Washington State University Cougar Marching Song" are among Merrick's best-known compositions. Merrick also composed music used in NFL for many years into the early 1990s.
   
   If the melody of this song sounds familiar, it may be because of the many places it has been used. Originally conceived as an advertising jingle for the Gillette company for "The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports" on NBC in the mid-1940s, it was later used as the theme song for "The Friday Night Fights." Expanded to the full march version recorded here, it has become a popular tune among marching bands and even pops orchestras. Various other uses have been made of the melody, including a Cub Scout song and the main theme to a boxing video game called "Punch Out!!"

7. The Light Eternal/Amazing Grace

   One of James Swearingen's best-known works is "The Light Eternal." Based on the hymn "God Of Our Fathers," this moving piece tells the story of the S.S. Dorchester that sank off the coast of Greenland, killing more than 600 passengers. Four chaplains of various faiths gave their life jackets to others and then went down with the ship, standing on the deck with their arms linked. Those chaplains were Lt. George L. Fox, Methodist; Lt. Alexander D. Goode, Jewish; Lt. John P. Washington, Roman Catholic; and Lt. Clark V. Poling, Dutch Reformed. This dramatic and emotional work tells a story of tragedy and then of tribute to the heroes that gave up their own lives to help others.
   
   We've made it into a medley with the popular folk hymn "Amazing Grace," credited to John Newton. Newton was born in London, England, in 1725, began sailing with his father at age 11, and became a captain of a slave ship as an adult. Although Newton had had some early religious instruction from his mother, who had died when he was a child, he had long since given up any religious convictions. However, on a homeward voyage, while he was attempting to steer the ship through a violent storm, he experienced what he was to refer to later as his "great deliverance." He recorded in his journal that when all seemed lost and the ship would surely sink, he exclaimed, "Lord, have mercy upon us."
   
   Later in his cabin he reflected on what he had said and began to believe that God had addressed him through the storm and that grace had begun to work for him. Newton remained a slave captain for a while after the date that he celebrated each year as his conversion, but he saw to it that the slaves were treated humanely. He later became a minister and wrote many hymns and songs for his weekly services.
   
   For more information on the story of The Four Chaplains, visit the following links:
   The Story of the Four Chaplains Stamp
   The Chapel of the Four Chaplains
   The Immortal Chaplains

8. Fanfare, Hymn, and Dedication

   Critics say that "Fanfare, Hymn, and Dedication," a dynamic concert piece by composer Ed Huckeby, is destined to become a staple for leading concert bands and wind ensembles. The three contrasting sections contain the exceptional writing and scoring that people have come to expect from this composer.
   
   Huckeby is associate vice president for academic affairs at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma. He has been administrator for Tulsa Ballet Theater and is emeritus professor of music at Northeastern State University, where he was music department chairman and dean of the graduate school for 22 years. Before coming to Northeastern, Huckeby taught instrumental music for eight years in the Oklahoma public schools. He has been recognized internationally as an outstanding music educator and composer of nearly 100 published works for concert and marching bands.

9. Amparito Roca

   Jaime Texidor Dalmau was a composer, conductor, and publisher who lived most of his life in Baracaldo, a city in northern Spain. He was born in Barcelona in 1885, and it is said that he played saxophone in a military band for several years. In 1927, he became the conductor of the Baracaldo municipal band, a position he held until 1936. Over this period, he composed so much band music that he established his own publishing company. Many of his compositions were in the Paso Doble genre, including "Amparito Roca," which is one of the most well known of its kind in the North American band repertoire.
   
   There is some mystery attached to "Amparito Roca:" although Texidor's name is on this edition, the music reportedly was written by British bandmaster Reginald Ridewood. Texidor arranged the piece for publication by Musica Moderna in Madrid in 1936, but the original score by Ridewood -- under another name -- was performed in England before the copyright date. It is assumed that Ridewood wrote the music but failed to apply for a copyright and Texidor rearranged the piece for Spanish bands and reissued it under copyright as his composition.

10. New York: 1927

    It's 1927 in New York City. The Holland Tunnel has just opened, connecting Manhattan with Jersey City, New Jersey, allowing cars to travel under the Hudson River instead of relying solely on ferry boats. Charles Lindbergh makes his first solo nonstop trans-Atlantic flight from New York to Paris, and Al Jolson is entertaining in the first full-length talking motion picture, "The Jazz Singer."
    
    "New York: 1927," by composer Warren Barker, re-creates the sounds of New York in 1927, with its ragtime and blues themes and its sounds of the city. Pay special attention to the sounds of police whistles and car horns as people race out of the Holland Tunnel onto the streets of Manhattan.
    
    Barker was born in Oakland, California, in 1923. At age 24 he was appointed chief arranger for The Railroad Hour, NBC's prime musical program. He also was associated with 20th Century Fox, Columbia, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios as composer/conductor for motion pictures and television.

11. Themes Like Old Times

    Another piece by Warren Barker, this one is an arrangement of several old-time tunes in a medley he calls "Themes Like Old Times." You'll hear "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "Peg O' My Heart," "I Want A Girl," "By the Light of the Silvery Moon," and "12th Street Rag."

12. National Emblem

    Famed bandmaster Frederick Fennell said "National Emblem" is as perfect as a march can be. It was written in the early 1900s by E. E. Bagley, an obscure New England composer of patriotic tunes, and has been a standard American march ever since.

13. America, the Beautiful

    Teacher Katherine Bates wrote the original words to "America, the Beautiful" in 1893 after a trip to 14,000-foot-high Pikes Peak. She revised the words twice. More than 60 different musical settings have been written for Bates' words, but this one by Samuel Augustus Ward is the most popular. The arrangement is by Carmen Dragon, an Oscar- and Emmy-award-winning composer and orchestrator known for his rich, lush arrangements that convey the emotion of the music to audiences.

14. American Patrol

    F. W. Meachem usually worked as an arranger, rather than a composer, producing arrangements for Victor Herbert musicals and Stephen Foster songs. Written in 1885, "American Patrol" was very popular before World War I. The first recording of it was a two-minute Edison cylinder in 1903. It retained its popularity during both world wars. In World War II, the arrangement by dance band leader Glenn Miller was especially significant.

15. Stars and Stripes Forever

    This John Philip Sousa classic has been designated America's official march by the Congress of the United States. Sousa believed that the piece was divinely inspired. It came to him as he sailed home from vacationing in Europe after learning of his manager's death. When he reached shore, he wrote "down the measures that my brain-band had been playing for me, and not a note of it has ever been changed." The original manuscript is in the Library of Congress and bears the inscription "J.P.S., Xmas, 1896."

Program Notes compiled by John Hope and Steve James; edited by Amy and Hank Lerner, December 2004.