Schoenberg & Shostakovich for Marching Band

Where would you expect to find this musical program?

"Piano Concerto No 2" by Shostakovich
"Transfigured Night" by Schoenberg
"Symphony No.10" by Shostakovich

Yes, it's music for a marching band competition. Here's an 8-minute Youtube video of SFA Bulldog Marching Band and Angels Dance Team performing "The Fire Within" at the State UIL competition in San Antonio, Texas Tuesday November 7, 2006

Listen for the What Do You Do With A Drunken Sailor? theme in the Shostakovich concerto. Watch for the nymph-like scampering during Verklarte Nacht. Apparently this performance came in 24th.

Yesterday I linked to this study about the effectiveness of programs to develop paying orchestra audiences. Here's a quote:

The research showed that predicting who will buy tickets is difficult, except for one variable: 74% of ticket-buyers had played an instrument or sung in a chorus somewhere, sometime, in their lives. Rather than large-scale concert programs for schoolchildren, it seems to be the active, participatory educational efforts that produce concertgoers.

In other words, the kids marching around in this video are the classical music audience of tomorrow - or rather of 20 or 30 years from now.

Did you know that "ORGAN BELCH DRONES" is an anagram for "Arnold Schoenberg"? No? Click here for lots more.

Scans of the manuscript to Verklarte Nacht are viewable at the Arnold Schoenberg Center website.

As a painter, what was Arnold Schoenberg's favorite subject? (Click here to find out.)I learned about this video at the Soho the Dog blog.

Tags and Tone Rows: Marching Band. . . Schoenberg. . . Shostakovich. . . Transfigured Night. . . Verklarte Nacht. . .Classical Music. . . Concert Tickets . . . New Music