July 26

Jive For Five, the popular Fort Dodge area Brass Quintet, provided their own special type of music before the start of this concert.  Members of this group are also members of the King Band and include Tim Miller, Humboldt, trumpet; David Swaroff, Dayton, trumpet; Kathy Yoakam, Humboldt, French Horn; Dan Cassady, Fort Dodge, trombone; and Paul Bloomquist, Dayton, tuba.  All the members teach in area schools, and have been performing together for the past several years.

The Karl L. King Municipal Band featured a variety of marches, classical works, and popular selections during this concert.  Selections by King are always on the program, and this week audiences heard The New Corn Palace March and Prestissimo Galop.  In addition, the Band performed an exciting Spanish march, Amparito Roca, along with Fred Jewell’s lively circus march, The Screamer.

The evening’s overture was one of the most dramatic ever arranged for Band.  Based upon the life of a French poet and set in Paris during the time of the Revolution, the excerpts from the opera Andrea Chenier were written by Italian composer Umberto Giordano.  This opera was first performed in Milan, Italy in 1896, and made Giordano a world figure in grand opera.

The Brass Quintet, Jive For Five, joined the King Band in playing two compositions of contrasting styles.  The first selection was Variations on “Jerusalem The Golden” by American composer Charles Ives.  This music, thought to have first been composed in the late 1800’s, was contrasted with a contemporary selection, An Epic Expedition.  That selection was written for the Boston Brass and Band, and premiered at the Midwest Band Clinic in Chicago in December of 2008.

Lighter selections on the program included Glenn Osser’s Beguine For Band, Tony Bennett’s memorable ballad, I Left My Heart in San Francisco, and a medley of songs written by one of America’s greatest composers, simply titled Gershwin!
 

This concert closed in the traditional circus way, with the playing of Karl King’s march, Auld Lang Syne, following by our national anthem, The Star-spangled Banner.