Happy Semiquincentennial!
We start with an excerpt from a larger concert setting of William Billings' Revolutionary War hymn, Chester (1770/1778), as scored by Samuel Loboda. Here are the words:
When God inspir’d us for the fight,Their ranks were broke, their lines were forc’d,
Their ships were Shatter’d in our sight,
Or swiftly driven from our Coast.
Lord Halleluiahs let us Sing,
And praise his name on ev’ry Chord.
Then, Ferde Grofe's 1929 Over There Fantasie, as also performed by The United States Army Band under Samuel Loboda in 1975 or 1976, followed by a rousing 1961 rendition of Morton Gould's famous American Salute. Next, a lighter, joyous mood by way of Harry J. Lincoln's Midnight Fire Alarm (1900), as performed by the Medallion Concert Band on a Kapp label subsidiary.
The National Symphony Orch. returns with Hershy Kay's 1951 ballet suite, Cakewalk: Grand Walkaround, featuring themes by Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869), and then we move on to the second half of Reclamation's Golden Jubilee, a movement from Grofe's Valley of the Sun Suite--then, a street-organ performance of John Philip Sousa's Gladiator march, from 1959.
The National Symphony Orch. returns with Hershy Kay's 1951 ballet suite, Cakewalk: Grand Walkaround, featuring themes by Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869), and then we move on to the second half of Reclamation's Golden Jubilee, a movement from Grofe's Valley of the Sun Suite--then, a street-organ performance of John Philip Sousa's Gladiator march, from 1959.
The Rock Around the Clock Polka follows, and is in turn followed by Grofe's Desert Water Hole from his 1949 Death Valley Suite. We'll hear the main portion of that movement--lively variations on Oh! Susanna.
We stick with Stephen Foster for Ferrante and Teicher's 1952 novelty, Susanna's Last Stand, and then it's on to Budd McCoy's rocking The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (Longfellow-Davie, 1959). We close very ironically with an alternate take of The Five Satins' In the Still of the Night. Fourth of July fireworks celebrations, needless to note, make for anything but a still night.
DOWNLOAD: Fourth of July 2026.zip
Chester (Billings, Arr. Loboda)--The United States Army Band, c. Samuel Loboda
Over There Fantasie (Grofe)--The United States Army Band, c. Samuel Loboda
Over There Fantasie (Grofe)--The United States Army Band, c. Samuel Loboda
American Salute--National Symphony Orch., c. Howard Mitchell, 1961
The Midnight Fire Alarm (Lincoln)--Medallion Concert Band
Cakewalk: Grand Walkaround (Gottschalk, A: Hershy Kay)--National Symphony O., 1961
Reclamation's Golden Jubilee (Grofe)--Arizona State College (Tempe) Symph. O., c. Ferde Grofe
The Gladiator (Sousa)--The Thunderer, Netherland's Greatest Street Organ, 1959
Rock Around the Clock Polka--Adam Nowicki and His Polka Band
Desert Water Hole (Death Valley Suite; Grofe)--National Symphony Orch., c. Howard Mitchell, 1961
Susanna's Last Stand (A: F&T)--Ferrante and Teicher (1952)
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere (Bob Davie)--Budd McCoy, 1959
In the Still of the Night (Fred Paris; alt. take)--The Five Satins, 1956
Lee
