A little off the topic of autism here...part of the long life I had before living with autism and all the other things I deal with these days.
Free time in my late summer and autumn days between the age of 19 and 22 was consumed by my participation in the marching band at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (located in the town of Indiana, Pennsylvania). I was priveleged to be a piccolo player in this great marching band.
Our season started in late August at a week long camp. Then, we practised for two hours 3 nights each week. We had an amazing amount of music and drill work to memorize! We played at IUP football games and various exhibitions in Pennsylvania throughout the fall. During my last years we travelled to eastern Pennsylvania and also to Maryland. The ending of the season depended upon how far the football team went in the division playoffs, usually some time around Thanksgiving (end of November for those of you not in the U.S.).
When I started at IUP in the fall of 1982. I had no idea what I was in for by joining the band. I did not grow up in Pennsylvania, and my knowledge of marching bands was quite limited, having gone to high school for two years over in Europe and then attending my last 2 years at a school in a small town in Rhode Island. I was blown away, this wasn't the typical marching up and down the football field which had been my only knowledge of marching bands up to this point!
This first video clip was one of my favorites of all the excellent numbers we did. This was our opening number the last year I participated: Camille Saint -Saen's Symphony No. 3 in C Minor (Organ Symphony). I was a drill instructor in the band by this point and I remember how amazed we were in reviewing the drill sheets for this number at the beginning of the season. It took LOTS of hard work for us to pull it together!
This marching band went on to do some cool things after I left IUP:
In 1987, the ensemble was the official band at the US Constitution bicentennial
celebration. The attention IUP received there led to an invitation from Jacques
Chirac, the mayor of Paris, to perform at the America's day celebration of the
French Bicentennial in the summer of 1989. In September of that same year The
Legend toured Washington, D.C., with performances on the steps of the Lincoln
Memorial and the Soldiers and Airmen's Home. In 1996 IUP made it's debut
performance at the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City,
performing not only in the parade but also putting on a show in front of the
Statue of Liberty. ..from the IUP Marching Band website
This second video clip is of the band playing what I believe is still its signature song to this day, Amazing Grace, while they were in Paris. Later versions of this (which I found on You Tube) just don't sound the same as how we played it back in my day, but as of the Paris trip it still sounds what I remember it sounding like.
We had a terrific percussion section in this band and they usually had some kind of feature each year, with some amazing drill work for the rest of the band (it was interesting learning to march to Ravel's Bolero!). Listen for some popular Classical music themes in this next clip, from 1983 .
Keep in mind while viewing these videos that they were recorded back in the days before digital technology was widely available!
This is all so far removed from my life now, but I'm grateful to Jared, my fellow band member who did the recording and posting of these video clips to You Tube. It's great to be able to see video of the band again after so many years of not having any access to it. Like I already said, this was before the age of digital recording, and was even before the age where too many people had camcorders.
I'm also grateful to Dr. Charles Casavant, who gave so many IUP alumni the wonderful experience we had in the marching band under his direction. This band is now called "The Legend", "The Pride of Pennsylvania," and "The Beast of the East," all names well deserved!
I'd love to hear about what you all did in your younger days!
8 comments:
Oh what memories! I did marching band in high school but didn't continue in college since my main instruments were piano and oboe.
My in-laws just visited Shenendoah Valley and stayed in the same place my family did 4 years ago. SO beautiful !!!
oops- I mean Shenandoah!
What, your band didn't have marching oboes or pianos? (Tee hee, can you even imagine such a thing!?) Were you a music major in college?
Well done Jared for doing these clips and bringing back so many wonderful memories for you.
One of the thing i did in my life before autism, i was in a Dragon Boat team and toured the country doing competitions. I was young and fit then!!
yep- music therapy. I don't know that I'll ever get back into it as I would have to take classes and get re-certified but it was a fun major to take :-)
Casdok - I finally looked up "Dragon Boats" are, I had never heard of them! You learn something new every day! I bet that was lots of fun, did you ever travel to any other countries to race? It sounds like this is a very popular sport in China. I wonder how it compares with rowing races we have in the U.S. that are called "crew" racing?
Mama Green - I remember that "Music Therapy" was a relatively new field, or major, my last few years at school. If only I knew then what I have since learned.. I think I would have given it a try instead of music education (which I didn't stick with).
Just popped in, while googling Charles Casavant. I am a '94 grad, and wanted to chime in about how amazing the band is and was for me. Charles was one of my best mentors when I was in college.
I enjoyed reading several entries from your blog, and plan to share it with some friends.
Thanks for "visiting" and commenting, "Mrs. Granite!" It's always nice to hear from a fellow band alumni. I wonder how exactly many of us there are out there, thousands and thousands I bet.
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