This Week's Concert -- Burlington Iowa Municipal Band

Note from the webmaster: We update this web site at least once a week during our summer concert season. Since the program for each Sunday concert is finalized at our rehearsal on Monday evening, we generally post the week's update sometime on Tuesday. Unfortunately, if you are viewing this page on a summer Monday, what follows will undoubtedly be the information for YESTERDAY'S concert.

For those specifically SEEKING web pages from past concerts, our recent concert archives are now available online.

Links which may be of interest to members of our audience:

Sir Edward German, composer of Three Dances from "Henry VIII" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_German

Arthur Pryor, arranger of Bluebells of Scotland - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Pryor

Percy Grainger, composer of Ye Banks and Braes O' Bonnie Doon - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Grainger

Louis Moreau Gottschalk, composer of Night in the Tropics - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Moreau_Gottschalk

Our next concert will be on July 13 and our conductor will be Jacob Yochum, a man of many talents! When not conducting, Jacob plays the alto saxophone in the band - those who attended our last concert heard his beautiful solo in Ashokan Farewell. Jacob is the pastor of the Danville Methodist Church, is a real estate agent, a talented vocalist, and the conductor of Burlington's premiere vocal ensemble, the Bel Canto Chorale.

Jacob's soloist will be Dr. Jett Walker, the professor of Western Illinois University's trombone studio. Jett will perform the classic trombone solo Bluebells of Scotland, written by the Sousa Band's trombone soloist Arthur Pryor. Dr. Walker is a fabulous trombonist and you will not want to miss his performance!

So we hope you'll join us for Jacob's "grand tour!" His selections include: Sir Galahad March by Karl King; Three Dances from "Henry VIII" by Edward German, arranged by L.P. Laurendeau, including Morris Dance, Shepherds' Dance, and Torch Dance; Ye Banks and Braes O' Bonnie Doon by Percy Grainger; Bluebells of Scotland by Arthur Pryor arranged by E.M. Pearson; The Girl I Left Behind Me from the Irish Suite by Leroy Anderson; Night in the Tropics by Louis Moreau Gottschalk arranged by Mark Williams; Beguine for Band by Glenn Osser; Soundtrack Highlights from Pirates of the Caribbean by Klaus Badelt, arranged by Ted Ricketts including Fog Bound, The Medallion Calls, To The Pirate's Cave, The Black Pearl, One Last Shot, and He's a Pirate; Selections from South Pacific by Richard Rodgers; and our traditional closing march, The Stars and Stripes Forever by John Philip Sousa.

Jacob says that he's "not very good at picking 'themes' for concerts," preferring to just select music that he likes but, as he was selecting music, a theme emerged and he is calling this concert, "Isles and Islands." He explains that the music could describe a trip from Iowa to the British Isles to the south seas.

Perhaps it is of no interest to anyone but us, but the printed music we have for Sir Edward German's Three Dances from "Henry VIII" has been in our music library for many years. The piece was published in 1901 and it was purchased for our band by its first conductor J. Henri Fischer who directed Burlington's Fischer's Band before the Muni Band was formed in 1927. We can tell that this music was purchased by Fischer because the corners of the pages are cut off. Fischer evidently believed that music would last longer if the corners were trimmed. As evidenced by the fact that we are playing from music printed more than one hundred years ago, maybe he was right!