Music
Music has been a popular elective at Fort Dodge Senior High since the beginning of the 20th century. The famous march composer Karl L. King wrote and conducted the majority of his music in Fort Dodge from 1920 to 1971, making marching band a popular activity for students and the community. The All-American Dodger Marching Band performs at all varsity home football games and competes in several regional field marching competitions throughout the year. The marching band also performed during halftime of the 2010 Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, TX.
In addition to marching band, FDSH offers pep band, two jazz bands, and two concert bands for students to participate in. The Wind Ensemble has received several awards and recognitions for excellence in concert music, often performing college-level pieces.
Choir has also been popular with FDSH students. In 1930, director Howard Orth founded The A Cappella Choir, a concert choir consisting of 45 mixed voices, for the purpose of singing more challenging sacred and secular choral literature. Today the choir program offers four curricular choirs, two extra-curricular choirs, independent study in composition, and music appreciation.
Every Spring, FDSH's A Cappella Choir performs a Broadway musical. These musical theater productions have taken place every year since 1927, making it the longest consecutively running high school musical tradition in the United States. The Spring of 2012 marked the 85th annual Spring musical with the performance of Fiddler on the Roof. In 1990, The A Cappella Choir, under the direction of Larry Mitchell, debuted Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. This was the national amateur debut performance of the show.
In 2010 The A Cappella Choir was invited to perform at the Dorian Invitational Choral Festival at Luther College.
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Famous quotes containing the word music:
“Truly fertile Music, the only kind that will move us, that we shall truly appreciate, will be a Music conducive to Dream, which banishes all reason and analysis. One must not wish first to understand and then to feel. Art does not tolerate Reason.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Morning work! By the blushes of Aurora and the music of Memnon, what should be man’s morning work in this world?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“My love shall hear the music of my hounds.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)