US Army Herald Trumpets Will Add Splendor to AU Bands (2017-Oct-4, 7)

The U.S. Army Herald Trumpets (website) will join the Auburn University Symphonic Winds for a fall concert on Wednesday, Oct. 4, and for a Military Appreciation Patriotic Halftime Show with the AU Marching Band on Saturday, Oct. 7, at Jordan Hare Stadium.

A handful of the Herald Trumpets will lead a masterclass at Goodwin Music Building Band/Choir Room on Wednesday, Oct. 4, from 2-3 pm. This is free and open to the public. [UPDATE: They'll also do a masterclass at Columbus State University on Friday 10/6 (event page).]

The fall concert on Oct. 4 will also feature the Chamber Winds and will take place in Telfair Peet Theatre (350 W. Samford Ave.) beginning at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15/$10. Click here for the event page, which says the Chamber Winds are on the bill, but they won't be. After 5pm, we can park in the university lots and street spaces marked A or B or in most of the Stadium Deck off of Heisman Dr. Link to parking map here.

The Band & Choir Room where the masterclass will be is inside Goodwin Music Building (320 W. Samford Ave.). That time of day, we can really only park in visitor spaces like the top floor of the Stadium Deck.

Saturday's performance will be bookended by a football game. Tickets for that are $75 apiece at aubtix.com or StubHub has them from $45 to around $600. You can just park in the bike lane on the street out in front of my house.

Of course there's lots of music on the Symphonic and Chamber Winds fall concert. The Army group are guest artists. I'll post more about the program if I can get it.

UPDATE: As you might expect, the program will feature lots of American patriotic music and rousing Herald Trumpets standbys. Composers represented will include John Stafford Smith, John Phillip Sousa, and of course John Williams. The American (Mr.) Clare Grundman's (wiki) A Copland Portrait is on the program as well as music by the very English Gustav Holst.

A timely addition to the program will be the Hunsberger transcription of Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich's Festive Overture. Featuring the US Army Herald Trumpets no less, the piece was "premiered in 1954 at a concert held at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the October Revolution" (cited on Wikipedia). Anyone offended (please, please don't be) might be comforted by the fact that, according to recent A Little Lunch Music performer Laura Usiskin (article), the composer was at no fewer than three times in his life in jeopardy of imprisonment (or worse) based on music he wrote that was deemed inappropriate, if not subversive, and contrary to the mission of the ruling Communist Party.

The Herald Trumpets

Herald trumpets

This is *the* US Army Herald Trumpets, founded in 1959 "to add splendor to official military ceremonies" according to the website. They are the official fanfare ensemble for the President of the United States. There aren't like seven bands that split up the work around the country. Instrumentation is fourteen trumpets and two drummers. The full roster lists 17 members with two, btw, Jason Sanders and Dale Moore, from Alabama.

The term "herald trumpet" signifies a particular kind of trumpet family. The website has a lot of cool info, but here's what it says about the horns themselves.

"Four different types of trumpets combine to create a family encompassing the full range of musical voices. They include the E-flat soprano, B-flat mezzo-soprano or melody, B-flat tenor, and Bb or G bass trumpets. Trumpet players play the Eb soprano and Bb melody trumpets while the tenor trumpets are played by trombone players. Euphonium players play the bass trumpets...The group currently uses a complete custom set."

The website also says they use two hand-crafted rope drums that provide the rolls used for timing the placement of fanfares. There's actually more written on the site about the drums than about the trumpets. Check it out because it's interesting.

For more information about these events, call the AU Music Department at 334-844-4166.