Thanks for posting this special performance of American Civil War Fantasy. Like most of those who have commented, I experienced the joy of performing this work in high school in 1963. It was thrilling and brought the house down, by far the most applause we received for any other performance. What a fantastic arrangement. Great memories for this old dude.
We played this in high school band, Forest Mississippi back about 1972. I was a trombonist. Great parts in 3 part harmony for trombones. One thing we did was to simulate a cannon firing when the "war" starts. We had a dad backstage firing a double barreled shotgun (no shot in shell) into a 55 gallon drum. You should have seen the people in the audience jump practically out of their chairs. All superior honors at every competition we entered. Great memories!
Okay. I was the assistant director of the band you mentioned. Is this Mark? I remember that performance rather well. I can still picture that dad walking across the campus carrying that shot gun. I'm sure that he wouldn't have been allowed to do that today! Hard to believe that was over 50 years ago!
I have the album "University of Michigan Band on Tour" which includes this. I was the director of one of the participating schools that played this at District Band in Northwestern Pa in 1969 in my first year of teaching. A few of us young directors were thrilled to have lunch and conversation with George Cavender, who was the guest conductor and assistant to Dr. Revelli. One thing that wouldn't happen in a school anymore was at the high point of CWF when the host director stepped in a side door and fired off a rifle! A couple years later I had the privilege of participating in a week-long, 6 hour per day, Band Conducting seminar at Duquesne University, with Dr. Revelli as guest teacher.
I was fortunate to have Professor Bilik for an instructor. He was a genius in his field of music arranging. I also played under Dr. Revelli, whose leadship in building the University of Michigan music program is legendary.
I had the honor of having Mr Bilik conduct us at Taft Jr high School in 1963 at a concert featuring his American Civil War Fantasy. It was great to hear it again. This was a high point in my school years..
One of the great experiences of my childhood was getting to play with our high school marching band as an 8th grader in 1988 and this song was basically the whole show. We got 2nd place the State Championships to a band playing Phantom of the Opera (stealing most of SCV's show at the time), but we won prelims and felt we had the better show, because duh, this arrangement brings chills every time, especially right around 7:00 minute mark when that build up starts, WOO!
Of all the Civil War compositions for band that came out in the early 1960s (100th anniversary of the war), this one was by far the best. Nothing else comes close. And you will never find a better performance on record. I have the open reel tape and it sounds fantastic.
We always play this every year for graduation. The horns have some interesting parts, it's always nice to see a piece really use the French Horn to it's full potential.
Those were great years at Michigan. Many of us were fortunate to study there when WDR, Jerry Bilik, George Cavender, Eliz. Green, and many other notables were on the faculty. This is one of Jerry's masterpieces.
I was playing 1st chair tuba for the Ms state band clinic at Biloxi, Ms, 1952, with Dr Revelli conducting. Another bass stood to challenge me and Dr Revelli said, "Sit down, he has ten times the tone you have".
We got this piece for our band to play when we went to Tennessee and the director of a college we were at gave us it to sight read and he let us keep it to play back in Missouri and it’s one of the greatest pieces I’ve heard in my life
We played this in HS in 1969. So this is what it was supposed to sound like. I played tuba. One of my favorite pieces ever. I'm wondering if there are different difficulties in scoring for this.
