Purchasing information Notice for leaders/bass players
Length: approx. 4¾ mins. Sounds best if the 1st tenor is doubled
American Patrol is a bright-and-breezy programmatic march played the world over by all manner of bands, orchestras and ensembles. The piece describes the approach of a brass band pianissimo (
pppp) with its gradual arrival that climaxes in a fortissimo (
fff) quotation of the patriotic hymn Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean. It then winds down returning to the march tune that fades decrescendo all the way down to pianissimo (
ppppp). The final bar is cryptically scored
Gone!
Great stuff indeed!
American Patrol was recorded on a two-minute Edison cylinder in 1903 becoming one of the first recorded hits. Predictably the march was used in both world wars for propaganda/patriotic purposes. The Glenn Miller Orchestra revived it during the World war II as a jitterbug march so successfully that the names of both remain inextricably linked.
A tempo of 90 crotchets/min. is suggested.
