March 11th, 2020 to me, felt a lot September 11th. Thousands of people didn’t die in one fell swoop, but it was when Coronavirus shifted from concern to cancellation. What once seemed far away was at our doorstep. A grim reaper coming that would rack up a worldwide death toll two orders of magnitude greater than September 11th.
As trivial as it sounds, WGI was cancelled on March 11th. With units traveling to Ohio from several countries (including Japan) and all over the US, it made sense to cancel it. Should we all be sitting in close quarters in a poorly ventilated arena? Probably not. Sites like is it canceled yet? had been tracking canceled events, and this was just another notch on the bedpost.
Maybe I could still enjoy some local live music? I had tickets for the orchestra that Friday, March 13th. It was to be canceled too, but not entirely. The orchestra would play – without a hall audience, and they would broadcast it on Minnesota Public Radio. The repertoire? Shostakovich’s 7th – The Leningrad Symphony.
Music is one of those things that gives people hope that there will be better days, no matter how bad things get. Shostakovich’s 7th was no stranger to tough times, having been both composed and premiered under dire circumstances.
Connection to Drum Corps
My love of classical music was reinforced through my 4 years marching in the Phantom Regiment Drum & Bugle Corps. I loved playing music that was new (to me), then researching a composer’s other works. I relished finding great recordings, which would further fuel my curiosity.
The obvious connection from Shostakovich’s 7th to my corps, is their 2002 program entitled Heroic Sketches – but long before that program ever took the field, I heard a piece that begged to be performed by a strong hornline. One that wound up being a cornerstone of 2002 show…
Back in the day…
The 1996 Phantom Regiment show Defiant Heart opened with a different piece by Shostakovich called the 4th Ballet Suite. As always, I would find recordings of the music we were playing to hear the original, and to hopefully hear something new.
I bought a recording of the Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Neeme Jarvi on the Chandos Label. It also included Symphony No. 10 – boy was I in for a surprise. I had never heard that Symphony, let alone the second movement Allegro, and it is a thrilling performance.
One of my favorite things about classical compact disc recordings (if they’re included) is the liner notes. Sometimes they have a history of the composer and the piece, and I would often use that as a basis for more research, or just to simply help paint a picture of what the music was about. From this CD the liner notes read:
The second part, the scherzo, is a musical portrait of Stalin
And here is the Phantom Regiment hornline playing an excerpt during their finals warm-up in 2002:
Simply amazing.
Symphony No. 7
That same 2002 program closes out with Shostakovich’s 7th. While researching that piece in 2020 during quarantine, I came across this recording which is stupendous.
I don’t have the CD liner notes to reference, but the comments on the YouTube video are worth reading. This one is my favorite of the bunch. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but I choose to believe it is.
The story goes, Leonard Bernstein was in failing health and he knew he was never going to stand in front of the Chicago Symphony ever again. Apparently there has been a long standing tradition of never encouraging the brass section of the CSO; not even looking at them or else they’ll blow you off the stage. During the end of this concert, and being a helpless romantic himself, good ol’ Lenny not only looked at the Chicago Brass, but he asked for everything they had. And the rest is history!
After graduating from Irondale High School in 1995 I went on my first tour with the Phantom Regiment Drum & Bugle Corps. I wasn’t just a band geek I was an audio geek as well. I purchased a MiniDisc recorder in 1994 and I brought it on tour in 1995. Even though I was playing Euphonium with the corps, my friend and Irondale alumnus Aaron Fisher (who was on staff) was able to set things up and record a couple rehearsals and performances. Continue reading →
Winter Camps
I think most of these recordings were from the March camp, because we went outside for the April camp and these are definitely indoor recordings.
One of the concert pieces we played during camp was an irish traditional called The Minstrel Boy
Here is the hornline singing The Minstrel Boy
The 1995 Program – Adventures Under a Darkened Sky
About the tracks on this early recording of the 1995 program:
1. The capriccio introduction and Symphonic Dances remained relatively unchanged throughout the season (minus tempo changes).
2. The ballad – Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, 18th Variation remained relatively unchanged throughout the season.
3. This introduction to the 2nd Piano Concerto remained relatively unchanged, except by the time we got to DCI finals, the last note was a whopping 24 counts 😁
4. Jeff Prosperie, our percussion arranger at the time, is a visionary. Phantom Regiment was doing very innovative (and sometimes crazy) things with percussion design in the 90s during his reign. One of the things I had almost forgotten about was the “pots and pans” tenors. Jeff had a set of tenor drums made with what I can only describe as pots in place of the drums. It was a wild idea that never made it to the field, but you can hear them in this recording.
Also this version of the closer has the longer original arrangement of Caprice Bohemian. Later in the season it was shortened and the Allego from the 3rd Symphony was inserted as the new percussion feature.
Summer Tour
We did a fairly extensive east-coast tour in 1995 and participated in some sort of concert-in-the-park standstill performance with the Cadets.
1995 Phantom Regiment Cadence
1995 Phantom Regiment East Coast Standstill – this show has an earlier arrangement of Rachmaninov’s 3rd Symphony – before the notes got watered down on the road to finals.
1995 Cadets Cadence
DCI Finals
At finals in Buffalo we recorded the Blue Devils on-field warm-up. It was a variation on their “west coast warm-up” to reflect their Carpe Noctem show:
And also America / O Canada – led by the Cavaliers who had been crowned champions that night.
Do you remember?
If you remember any more of the details of this stuff let me know in the comments and I’ll update it. Otherwise, enjoy!
Extras
Here’s another post about Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony. I have a CD that I bought in 1996 of the 4th Ballet Suite (which we played that year), and it also included Shostakovich 10. My regular jam was to gather original recordings of all the music we played in the summer – including concert pieces, etc. I’d listen to those recordings before and during tour to get to know the composer or the piece a little better. Check out that recording and an interesting comment from the CD liner notes.