Dimitri Shostakovich, Festive Overture, Opus 96 All my WHS band classmates have this number permanently tattooed on their brains - unless stroke has caught up to them. M. Frang wanted to score big with this against the bigger Muskegon schools, and all that happened is we beat Montague, the archrival across the river. The Montague director, Mr. Flahive, said our lead trumpet in '69 sounded like brushing with Vote toothpaste (geez, does that admission age me). So when we returned from area band/orchestra festival, that lead trumpet, son of the Methodist minister, wrote an endorsement for Vote toothpaste all over the bandroom blackboard.
In 1975 the San Diego classical radio station played this to mark Shostakovich's death. Boy did we have some phrases wrong.
I took a music appreciation course at Saddleback College back when I only had one kid, and wrote a compare and contrast essay on this piece and Rimsky-Korsakov's Russian Easter Overture. Scored an A.
Later I taped the LP that WHS Band cut in order to play the opening fanfare (repetitiously, if necessary) to blow my teenage son out of bed.
About 2000 I was substituting at Mission Viejo High School and examined the teacher's CD collection in a free period. I literally screamed when I saw the contents of one: The Eastman Wind Orchestra conducted by Donald Hunsburger, featuring Opus you-know-what. Hunsburger was the arranger who transcribed the work for bands. Of course I went out and bought it!
Last, but not least, while hunting for links I came upon this commentary/program notes. Everyone at whom Mr. Frang threw a baton should read this. After all that miserable practice someone should get a good belly laugh!!
PS. Always thought as much. I had suggested it in my essay.
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Just a quick aside here...I cannot hear the name of Shostakovich without hearing Victor Borge's line: "Shostakovich? Just a moment." Ahhh. Memories.
ReplyDeleteSeems I must have had my head in my homework in the late 60s (high school) and 70s (college, almost no TV access) to have seen that Borge sit-down line.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping to get feedback from Dan, as to what music he used to play. Or did he do trombone in band? That surprised me.
Nikki-some more memories: the summer before I took driver's ed, 1969, my dad and his brother decided we should vacation together and we went to Yellowstone. Upon seeing, or rather smelling, the sulfur of Dragon's Mouth geyser, either Dad or Uncle Dennis suggested they should throw in a case of Vote Toothpaste, since the TV commercials suggested that Vote cured dragon's mouth morning halitosis.
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