Quiz #25: Drumroll Please
Midnight EST has come and gone, so it’s time reveal the details of this week’s mystery piece. It is……Lassus Trombone by Henry Fillmore, written in 1915. Some of his other tunes include Americans We and The President’s March. Fillmore was one of America’s greatest bandmasters and is thought by many to have been better than the more well-connected John Phillips Sousa.
Reader Daniel passed along this news clip:
Daniel also drew Miss Mussel’s attention to a bit of marching band humour courtesy of the Mr Show.
In high school, Miss Mussel’s music teacher was obsessed with marches despite the fact that in Canada we don’t march. Ever. For any reason. So we played them all the time. Army of the Nile, Colonel Bogey, Blaze Away, you name it, we played it. It was during this time that Miss Mussel developed a pathological hatred of the euphonium and its countermelody stardom while the lowly horns were stuck on off-beats and doubled by the alto saxophones. Ugh.
About 15 years ago, a 3 cd set of 100 Greatest Marches or similar ended up in Miss Mussel’s possession, most likely due to the fact that you could get 100 SONGS FOR $6.99!!! and that’s how Lassus Trombone got on the radar.
While we’re on the topic of marching bands, this little video is absolutely hilarious. Yes, it has been posted before here but it never fails to amuse.
