airmanjerm

It's more about being unable to get past ridiculous Air Force spending limits on services. Ugh. I'm excited for a new USMB concert though!

Aww dang it, you beat me to it by one minute!

Well, it turned out at least. I've done this medley for so many groups, it's crazy. But if this is what they pay me to do, I guess it beats digging ditches. LOL You can hear Semper Paratus (the Coast Guard Song) at around 1:45 in the attached MIDI render. Those Schoenfeld elements are so engrained into the tune that I even use them for clarinet trio writing. Ha. 295689746_ArmedServicesMedley-ClarinetTrio.mp3

I wrote my last post at a really crazy hour while working on (believe it or not) and armed services medley for our Clarinet Trio at the Air Force Academy Band. I'm afraid my last message sounded a little jerk-ish. Apologies - it wasn't meant that way. But yes - the drums would have been an incredibly easy thing to ask a few percussionists to make up on the fly, if he (or somebody else) didn't write it out in some form.

I'm not sure what you're hearing, but that "Marching Band no. 2" is 100% the Schoenfeld arrangement. It's not even a "maybe" situation, or a "guess." There's a bit of added drum cadence in the Jaws track, but that's about it. The rest is literally the same exact tune and the same exact arrangement, albeit played by a "ragtag" sounding group.

There's a good chance that came from me, although it would have only been partially accurate. Cray did an arrangement of the Armed Services medley that most of us have used off and on for decades (we occasionally have to switch versions because the "official" order of songs changes from time to time). Cray's version naturally includes the Coast Guard Song, but his treatment borrows heavily from the Schoenfeld version (which most people had become accustomed to hearing). I couldn't find a good YouTube recording of the Cray medley so I'm attaching it as a track from one of our albums (properly licensed for distribution, of course). You can hear Semper Paratus around 1:35" or so. 350137343_ArmedServicesMedley.m4a

That one doesn't sound familiar, so it may be a JW original. It's not very good......not a slam on JW of course, but for the idea of "write a decent-sounding source-music march," it sounds pretty on-point.

Yes, "Marching Band #2" is the official Coast Guard song (reference that video I posted earlier - it's literally the same tune, albeit a different recording). At the very end of the liner notes (right before the final paragraph begins), the notes say "Four 'beach band' pieces heard in the film are followed by two marches composed by John Williams. Be sure to listen for the director on clarinet!" You know I love the release and the folks who made it happen, this is just an odd (and exceptionally RARE) inaccuracy.

I've always noted that the kids are not playing "Semper Fidelis," they are playing "Semper Paratus," which is the Coast Guard Song. Additionally, the arrangement they are playing is not even remotely by Williams, it is the official version as written by composer Francis van Boskerck and arranged for band by William Schoenfield. The liner notes say "two marches composed by John Williams," which is not accurate. Not slighting Williams' score of course (and of course I LOVE Mike's notes and the whole packaging), but credit should go where it's due. Also: I've always been troubled that this tune was not mentioned remotely in the liner credits. "Semper Paratus" is NOT public domain, and remains under copyright by Sam Fox. I would think they would get a mention in the liner note credits, but there's nothing. I do hope the Intrada folks realized this was not a JW march or some public domain thing and that they didn't just overlook it in licensing. Sam Fox is notoriously very litigious, and if they caught wind of a big release without the proper permissions they would not be happy about it. :-/

Ordered! Glad that I saw it was live already, or I would have been waiting til tomorrow. 😊👍

My jewel case broke while unwrapping also....dang, it's like that stuff was hot-glued onto there.

Just a note about your note on these notes (haha): The new Sony actually goes on longer than the Varese, though not much. That little ostinato ("repeated doodad") fades out ten bars after the clarinets drop out at 1:19. In the Varese we get to the 9th bar and it stops after the first beat. I kinda like that better (it's definitely more of a proper ending as Frank said), but the Sony doesn't fade out early. We just hear the fade out. Edited to add a P.S.: that spreadsheet is awesome! I missed the Varese but picked up the Sony. It arrived yesterday and I've enjoyed reading the spreadsheet and this thread. Good stuff and a lot of work!

One thing I know we can agree on, Thor: it's incredibly frustrating that JW couldn't recall his exact enlistment date in the interview he did with Col. Lang a few years ago. I wanted to pull my hair out over that! haha

No, the enlistment periods were for four years. We didn't have three-year enlistments then. The reason someone would have signed up voluntarily (instead of being drafted) would be to have more control over the career field ("job") you would do. The AF Bands were a hot ticket at the time because so many musicians from LA and NY were joining it to beat the draft - therefore, you would be in a band with a lot of talented folks. This stemmed from the decade before when Glenn Miller took his act into the Air Force and became Captain (later Major) Glenn Miller; this created an incredibly talented pool of musicians in the AF Bands and the reputation still persists even now - it certainly would have in the early 1950s. Also, the audition process at the time wasn't like it is now (which is highly competitive), but it WAS somewhat political. You often had to know somebody who knew somebody to get a spot you wanted in the career field. You can hear Sandy Courage talk about this in an interview he did with Jon Burlingame years ago. (I'd have to dig up that link, but it was rather comical how he had to know-people-who-knew-people to get into an AF Band - when they were still the Army Air Force Bands.)

I can't check his S/N specifically because he is still alive and I'm not a next-of-kin; the Privacy Act of 1974 prevents looking someone up specifically. But I do have records (old regulations and historical data) of how the serial numbers were assigned (see the info I included above).