Inaugural Edition, no. 1: Wanna hear in full the marches we heard in part during today's (pitch-perfect, I thought) inauguration?

Here, as I recall, is pretty much what we heard:
(1)

Concert Arts Symphonic Band, Felix Slatkin, cond. Capitol, recorded 1958
(2)

Morton Gould and His Symphonic Band. RCA, recorded October 1956
[Okay, I backed No. 2 up a bit to hear the lead-in, then let it run to the end.]

by Ken

What a difference two weeks makes! To give credit where it's due, while it's not an eventuality that any sane, decent person would have wished, did you notice how the national conversation changed on January 6 in the aftermath of the SwampMonster's failed coup?

I confess I had no little trepidation approaching the inauguration with its horrifying setting of security-first armed fortification. In the event, however, I could scarcely believe how well-manged it was, given the circumstances. Which was the whole point: The planners and executors took full and accurate account of those circumstances.


FOR NOW, I THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE WORTH SHARING
THE WHOLE OF THESE TWO WONDERFUL MARCHES . . .

. . . whose glorious "money sections" we heard. They're very different sorts of musical beast, but I love them both dearly. And while the Slatkin and Gould recordings date back to the Eisenhower administration (the latter to Ike's first term!), I also love the records they come from.

Slatkin's The Military Band, originally a Capitol LP, is one of my all-time favorite records, as I've noted here before when we heard these and other selections from it via the EMI CD reissue. Felix Slatkin, of course, was not only the father of the conductor Leonard Slatkin, and a much more interesting conductor at that, but the first violinist of the utterly splendid Hollywood String Quartet, whose terrific cellist was his wife (and Leonard's mum), Eleanor Aller.

(1) EDWIN E. BAGLEY: The National Emblem
[You can click on the title for a Wikipedia link.]


Concert Arts Symphonic Band, Felix Slatkin, cond. Capitol, recorded 1958

Morton Gould and His Symphonic Band. RCA, recorded October 1956

Yeah, Slatkin takes a repeat of the great culminating section -- starting it softly the first time through, then at full volume the second (very effective, don't you think?) -- which Gould doesn't. Oh, Morton! As far as I'm concerned, we can't hear this music often enough. Still, Morton (not just a great bandmaster, and a fine conductor generally, but a still-semi-famous composer) delivers a crackling performance. And through the magic of dummies-level digital editing, we could hear that section one more time, or two or three times, or more --

(2) JOHN PHILIP SOUSA: Stars and Stripes Forever
[Again, click on the title for a Wikipedia link.]


Morton Gould and His Symphonic Band. RCA, recorded October 1956

Concert Arts Symphonic Band, Felix Slatkin, cond. Capitol, recorded 1958

1929 radio speech by J.P.S. followed by Sousa Band performance


SOME MORE MUSICAL THOUGHTS-FOR-
THE-DAY THAT WE MAY YET GET TO

If I say The Magic Flute and Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, for the moment of relief from threatened imminent doom, you'll probably get it.

THE 2021 "INAUGURAL EDITION"
(SUCH AS IT IS, SO FAR)

No. 1: "Wanna hear in full the marches we heard in part during today's (pitch-perfect, I thought) inauguration?" [1/20]
No. 2: "Post tease: Sarastro sings a mouthful when he sings, 'The rays of the sun drive away the night'" [1/24]
No. 3: "While I toil away at this week's Inaugural-themed post, let's hear the end of The Magic Flute in our five performances -- plus a couple of 'new' ones" [1/27]
No. 4: "It's not just Sarastro who sings to us about the miraculous restorative powers of the sun's rays" [1/29]
No. 5: "Post tease: Has any operatic act begun more beautifully? (Not to mention suggestively?)" [1/31]

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