312: That by their might and by their right, It waves forever

Tonight I went across the street to the Ferguson Center for the Arts Music & Theater Hall for the "Polished Brass" concert which featured performances by brass players from the Army TRADOC Band and CNU's School of Music. It was a great concert and reminded me how much I appreciate being able to take part in so many neat events right here where I live and work on campus.



You might remember Tuba Tim from a few different Photos of the Day. He is taking a new post in Germany next week so this was his last performance with the TRADOC band. It was also the last performance of one of the euphonium players. As a special "farewell" the two of them played the piccolo solo part on their instruments with the rest of the group playing too. It was awesome.

And because I love fun facts and I know some of you readers out there do too, I give you:

Trivia About the Stars and Stripes Forever March (courtesy of my friend wikipedia):

**In show business, particularly theater and the circus, this piece is called the Disaster March. It is traditional code signaling a life-threatening emergency. This helps theater personnel to handle events and organize the audience's exit without panic. Circus bands never play it under any other circumstances. One example of its use was at the Hartford Circus Fire in July 1944.

**In his autobiography, Marching Along, Sousa writes that he composed the march on Christmas Day 1896. He had just learned of the recent death of David Blakely, then manager of the Sousa Band. Sousa was on a ferry in Europe at the time, and he composed the march in his head. He committed the notes to paper on arrival in America. Although he would conduct performances of it at virtually every concert until his death, only one recording, made in 1909, is known to survive today.

**The student band Strindens Promenade Orchester in Trondheim, Norway, has the world record in "speed playing" of Stars and Stripes (absolutely all notes must be played). The band calls their speedy rendering of the march Stars and Stribes, and performs the march at all Saturday parties at the Trondheim Student Society. Set during the fall term of 1999, the record time is 50.9 seconds (nominal time is 3 minutes 50 seconds). For this, the band is noted in the Norwegian edition of the Guinness Book of Records.