Pomp & Circumstance is covered
June 6, 2018 3:55 PM Subscribe
Someone misplaced last year's CD, so I need a sprightly, cheerful, not-too-fast piece of classical music for a university graduation ceremony. It will be used during the recessional (i.e., when the faculty and students line up and leave the auditorium). Needs to be available for download on Amazon (preferably) or iTunes (which I hate, but I'll use it if I'm forced to). What can you recommend?
Note: Yes, we already use Pomp & Circumstance for the processional. No need to recommend it. Elgar will get his due.
Note: Yes, we already use Pomp & Circumstance for the processional. No need to recommend it. Elgar will get his due.
Shostakovich Symphony No. 7 (Leningrad) (the first movement)
Brahms - Academic Festival Overture
posted by dilaudid at 4:32 PM on June 6, 2018
Brahms - Academic Festival Overture
posted by dilaudid at 4:32 PM on June 6, 2018
Mouret- Rondeau. Recognizable, unexciting, extremely available in the instrumentation of your choice.
posted by charmedimsure at 4:42 PM on June 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by charmedimsure at 4:42 PM on June 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Saint-Saens, Finale from Organ Symphony
Copland, Fanfare for the Common Man
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:46 PM on June 6, 2018
Copland, Fanfare for the Common Man
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:46 PM on June 6, 2018
I'm assuming you don't need CLASSICAL-classical music?
Liberty Bell March or Col. Bogey March.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:49 PM on June 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Liberty Bell March or Col. Bogey March.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:49 PM on June 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Ottorino Respighi — "Bergamasca" from "Suite of Ancient Airs & Dances No. 2"
Camille Saint-Saëns — "Marche Militaire Française" from "Suite Algerienne"
The Finale of Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 (the "Organ" symphony) might work well too, so long as you can count on the students & faculty not to get weepy from remembering the end of "Babe".
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:56 PM on June 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
Camille Saint-Saëns — "Marche Militaire Française" from "Suite Algerienne"
The Finale of Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 (the "Organ" symphony) might work well too, so long as you can count on the students & faculty not to get weepy from remembering the end of "Babe".
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:56 PM on June 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
Allegro from Bach's Brandenberg Concerto No. 3? Some versions are livelier than others.
posted by Funeral march of an old jawbone at 6:53 PM on June 6, 2018
posted by Funeral march of an old jawbone at 6:53 PM on June 6, 2018
The Triumphal March from Aida. I actually always wanted to march down some aisle to that song.
posted by holborne at 6:57 PM on June 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by holborne at 6:57 PM on June 6, 2018 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks all. I should have specified that as the person who gets to pick the music, I wanted to steer away from recognizable songs that bore this former band nerd (Air on a G string, Pachabel's Canon, anything Sousa, Fanfare for the Common Man), or anything that sounds too ominous, or is in a minor key.
One of the YouTube videos linked above led me to La Bergamasca, which I am currently leaning toward.
Except, on preview, holborne's Triumphal March, although recognizable, might be just the thing. (Except, on continuing preview, it gets pretty frenetic just under two minutes in, so....)
Additional suggestions welcome!
posted by mudpuppie at 7:02 PM on June 6, 2018
One of the YouTube videos linked above led me to La Bergamasca, which I am currently leaning toward.
Except, on preview, holborne's Triumphal March, although recognizable, might be just the thing. (Except, on continuing preview, it gets pretty frenetic just under two minutes in, so....)
Additional suggestions welcome!
posted by mudpuppie at 7:02 PM on June 6, 2018
If you're going to use Elgar, why not follow it up with some Walton? Crown Imperial is a standard recessional choice, but Spitfire Prelude and Fugue would probably work too. I'd suggest Holst, but as a fellow former band nerd that's just mean.
posted by blerghamot at 7:11 PM on June 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by blerghamot at 7:11 PM on June 6, 2018 [3 favorites]
I remember playing the Triumphal March from Aida at a school graduation where we'd just keep taking a repeat over and over. You might be able to find a version that repeats only part of it.
(I feel obliged to say that the cello part of Pomp and Circumstance is really boring. Or at least the arrangement we had was.)
posted by hoyland at 7:19 PM on June 6, 2018
(I feel obliged to say that the cello part of Pomp and Circumstance is really boring. Or at least the arrangement we had was.)
posted by hoyland at 7:19 PM on June 6, 2018
Response by poster: (I feel obliged to say that the cello part of Pomp and Circumstance is really boring. Or at least the arrangement we had was.)
The whole thing is boring, except the intro that no one ever hears. But people expect it, and we get complaints when we don't play it, so there you go. This year I'm being subversive and slipping the sound engineer the Leonard Bernstein arrangement, even though the printed-weeks-in-advance program says it's the John Phillip Sousa arrangement.
FIGHT THE POWER.
posted by mudpuppie at 7:22 PM on June 6, 2018 [7 favorites]
The whole thing is boring, except the intro that no one ever hears. But people expect it, and we get complaints when we don't play it, so there you go. This year I'm being subversive and slipping the sound engineer the Leonard Bernstein arrangement, even though the printed-weeks-in-advance program says it's the John Phillip Sousa arrangement.
FIGHT THE POWER.
posted by mudpuppie at 7:22 PM on June 6, 2018 [7 favorites]
How about Ronald Binge's Sailing By - vaguely recognizable, light as air, endlessly repeatable...
posted by gyusan at 7:23 PM on June 6, 2018
posted by gyusan at 7:23 PM on June 6, 2018
Best answer: Is Handel's Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (from Solomon) too fast-paced?
posted by praemunire at 9:20 PM on June 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 9:20 PM on June 6, 2018 [2 favorites]
Only those two sources? The Library of Congress has many recordings, including lots of marches; Sousa in quantity, Verdi ert., and also, for instance,
posted by clew at 10:02 PM on June 6, 2018
Armenian soldier's marchMostly mono, though.
Yellow song check-list notes: Opening solo on oud. Jack Aslanian, violin; Bedros Haroutunian, qanun; Archie Krotlian, oud; Mesrout Takakjian, clarinet. Recorded by Sidney Robertson Cowell in Fresno, California on April 23, 1939. Forms part of a group of field materials documenting Aslanian's Armenian Orchestra performing Armenian and Armeno-Turkish dance music on April 23, 1939, collected by Sidney Robertson Cowell in Fresno, California.
posted by clew at 10:02 PM on June 6, 2018
I wanted to steer away from recognizable songs that bore this former band nerd (Air on a G string, Pachabel's Canon, anything Sousa, Fanfare for the Common Man), or anything that sounds too ominous, or is in a minor key.
Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello managed to drag quite sprightly amounts of cheer out of E minor and, unless your audience contains the odd Gladdie or Poddie, will be reliably misrecognized by all listeners.
posted by flabdablet at 10:19 PM on June 6, 2018
Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello managed to drag quite sprightly amounts of cheer out of E minor and, unless your audience contains the odd Gladdie or Poddie, will be reliably misrecognized by all listeners.
posted by flabdablet at 10:19 PM on June 6, 2018
La Marche des soldats de Robert Bruce - as played by the soldiers who escorted Joan of Arc. The tune has special connotations here in Scotland - and even more so in France - but does not go full on Scottish (unless you want the version with bagpipes at the end (which you should!)). Triumphant certainly, however.
posted by rongorongo at 12:27 AM on June 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by rongorongo at 12:27 AM on June 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
Does it need to be a march, or indeed anything like a march? Assuming that your faculty and students are capable of walking normally without being distracted by the music, then maybe you could have something a lot lighter, and, well, less pompous? A selection from Brahms' Hungarian Dances, maybe?
posted by vincebowdren at 2:04 AM on June 7, 2018
posted by vincebowdren at 2:04 AM on June 7, 2018
Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks? It was written to be pleasant background music for spectacle.
posted by tchemgrrl at 3:37 AM on June 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by tchemgrrl at 3:37 AM on June 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
March Of The Peers from Iolanthe. By Sir Arthur Sullivan, of course.
posted by SemiSalt at 4:21 AM on June 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by SemiSalt at 4:21 AM on June 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
We use the Overture from Monteverdi's L'Orfeo.
posted by Jabberwocky at 4:50 AM on June 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Jabberwocky at 4:50 AM on June 7, 2018 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Trumpets in C major
posted by rollick at 5:25 AM on June 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by rollick at 5:25 AM on June 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
My band director in college refused to play Pomp and Circumstance at graduation. Instead, we played:
Procession of the Nobles by Rimsky-Korsakov
Konigsmarch by R. Strauss
posted by damayanti at 5:38 AM on June 7, 2018
Procession of the Nobles by Rimsky-Korsakov
Konigsmarch by R. Strauss
posted by damayanti at 5:38 AM on June 7, 2018
John Williams' theme from Jurassic Park.
I'm serious. You know the one, the really pretty one with the soaring strings that plays the first time when they see the brontosaurus. It's triumphant-sounding and lovely and orchestral and the pop culture reference makes it fun. It's been arranged various ways for the different JP films so you can find the one that works best and/or cue the track up to the point where the main theme starts.
We wanted to use it as our wedding recessional but the organist didn't know it, alas.
posted by oblique red at 7:52 AM on June 7, 2018
I'm serious. You know the one, the really pretty one with the soaring strings that plays the first time when they see the brontosaurus. It's triumphant-sounding and lovely and orchestral and the pop culture reference makes it fun. It's been arranged various ways for the different JP films so you can find the one that works best and/or cue the track up to the point where the main theme starts.
We wanted to use it as our wedding recessional but the organist didn't know it, alas.
posted by oblique red at 7:52 AM on June 7, 2018
Berlioz's Grande Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale: Apotheose might work (surprise choir entrance a little after the six minute mark, though).
posted by castlebravo at 8:02 AM on June 7, 2018
posted by castlebravo at 8:02 AM on June 7, 2018
It might be a bit too lively, but Le Grand Choral by Georges Delerue has a great energy (amazon)
posted by rollick at 10:27 AM on June 7, 2018
posted by rollick at 10:27 AM on June 7, 2018
Hope it's not too fast, but Wedding Day at Trollhagen by Edvard Grieg. I've loved this since high school.
posted by DandyRandy at 10:58 AM on June 7, 2018
posted by DandyRandy at 10:58 AM on June 7, 2018
When I recieved my Master's, they played John Williams' Raider's March as we left. Yes, the one from Indiana Jones. I thought it set quite a tone for sending new graduates out into the world.
posted by peppermind at 5:04 AM on June 8, 2018
posted by peppermind at 5:04 AM on June 8, 2018
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posted by Query at 4:32 PM on June 6, 2018 [1 favorite]