Klarinet Archive - Posting 000360.txt from 1996/06

From: "Joie Canada , Jcanada713@-----.COM>
Subj: Stars and Stripes words
Date: Sun, 23 Jun 1996 10:41:00 -0400

This is a Frankenstein monster. I woke up this morning and remembered the
verse to this--without wanting to and from 40 years ago. Our band director
was an ex-marine and sang this verse to a solfage sort of tune (details on
request) leading into the web-footed friends chorus:

It was midnight on the ocean
Not a streetcar was in sight,
The sun was shining brightly
In the middle of the night.
A barefoot boy with shoes on
Sat there standing in a tree.
I put my glasses on my nose
And heard this melody:

Oh, be kind to your web-footed friends
etc.

We used to sing this out on the marching field to warm up our lungs and
become aware of pitches. After singing it, we would play the tune by ear on
our instruments in unison (the band did a lot of singing for ear training) We
were supposed to visualize the pitch on the staff while singing silly words
and maintaining proper parade rest with our eyes shut and the director
prowling around inspecting our uniforms and posture. Believe it or not, this
was fun! I guess it is one of the reasons band people were regarded as the
ultimate nerds of the school. I can give you the pitches, again, if you want.
I had forgotten the whole business until this discussion turned up on the
list, and I will go into this years Fourth of July concert (where, once a
year, I dust off the piccolo and play the Stars and Stripes again--it is
surprising how few of the flute players we get now have played this in high
school and the solo piccolo part scares them. We did it in junior high,
although never in public--that was reserved for the high school out of
respect for the music, the listeners and the composer--we butchered it in jr.
high) Still, it was considered, like the rest of Sousa, to be well within
the duties of the high school band to play any of Sousa's marches on request
at any time and we did them regularly and had most of the common ones
memorized--tests for seating could require playing any one of them by memory
on demand. I admit that having a marine-conductor-sergeant-retired-SIR! was
conducive to a highly disciplined band but we had a blast and went all over
the place--not competing, but by request from institutions like Lions Club
and Rotary to entertain conventions with our drill and playing (simultaneous)
We did it because it was expected of us and nobody told us that what we were
doing was hard or special. And we were proud of our achievements since they
were respected by the adults in the community. Thats a good feeling for any
student to have--there isn't much else in school that kids can do that can
impress the citizens but Marine Band style entertainment is one of them!

Thanks for setting off the grey cells to help me remember this!

Joie