College Marching Bands
John Philip Sousa was a benefactor of the University of Illinois music program and a friend of the university's Director of Bands Albert Austin Harding. The Marching Illini became the first band to march and play at the same time, and were the first band to use sousaphones on the field.
The sousaphone sections of some marching bands have developed specialized performance traditions. The University of California Marching Band Bass section traditionally "struts" during the band's pregame show. During the "strut" the section separates from the rest of the band, circles the North goal post, and rejoins the band to complete the Script Cal. The University of Southern California Trojan Marching Band sousaphones play John Williams' "Imperial March" from Star Wars when crossing streets on their way to and from performances on the USC campus. When The Ohio State University Marching Band performs its traditional Script Ohio formation, a senior sousaphone player dots the "i". Four sousaphone players perform the dance routine to "Long Train Runnin'" at every post-game performance by The Ohio University Marching 110.
The University of Delaware Fightin' Blue Hen Marching Band has several traditions involving sousaphone players. During pre-game, they branch off from the rest of the band. From here, the sousaphone players run in a snake around the field jumping to drum line cadence. At most pre-games they act out a skit as well. At post game, "In My Life" by The Beatles is played featuring a sousaphone solo while the band sings.
After every pre-game show at Florida State University when the section (known by all the marching band members as "Flush") run in a circle around the Seminole head on the field with the head drum major in the center of the circle. This is called "Flushing the field," hence the nickname, "Flush."
The Virginia Tech Marching Virginians perform a version of the Hokie Pokie featuring the sousaphone section putting their sousaphones in, taking their sousaphones out, putting their sousaphones in, and shaking them all about – followed by an all-sousaphone kick line.
For the last 20 years The University of Idaho Vandals Marching Band Sousaphone section all wear long skirts that were originally used by the 1948 University Women's Chorus. University of Idaho Vandals Sousaphone Section
Read more about this topic: Sousaphone
Famous quotes containing the words college, marching and/or bands:
“A whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“What if there’s nothing up there at the top?
Where are the captains that govern mankind?
What tears down a tree that has nothing within it?
A blast of wind, O a marching wind,
March wind, and any old tune,
March march and how does it run.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)