Seventy-Six Trombones

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"Seventy-Six Trombones" is a show tune and the signature song from the 1957 musical The Music Man , by Meredith Willson, a film of the same name in 1962 and a made-for-TV movie in 2003. The piece is commonly played by marching bands, military bands, and orchestras. [1] [2]

Contents

In The Music Man

In the musical, it is the primary sales pitch for a boy's band, sung by "Professor" Harold Hill. [3] Hill uses the song to help the townspeople of River City, Iowa visualize their children playing in a marching band by claiming to recall a time when he saw several famous bandleaders' bands in a combined performance. While an average-sized high school marching band might have about 10 musicians playing the trombone, and a large college marching band seldom has more than 30 trombonists, the band that Harold Hill describes to the citizens includes 76 trombones, 110 cornets, "more than a thousand reeds", double bell euphoniums, and "fifty mounted cannon" (which were popular in bands of the late 19th century). The song's opening lines are:

Seventy-six trombones led the big parade
With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand ...

The love ballad "Goodnight My Someone", which immediately precedes "Seventy-Six Trombones" in the musical, has the same tune but is played in 3/4 time at a slower tempo. At the end of the musical, lines from "Seventy-Six Trombones" and "Goodnight My Someone" are sung in alternation with each other. [3] This technique is used in opera, but was unknown in Broadway musicals. [3]

Notable performances

Homages

In Willson's hometown of Mason City, Iowa, the song is honored (along with the whole plot of The Music Man) in a building called "Music Man Square", which is located next to Willson's boyhood home. [9] In one large room, there are 76 donated trombones hanging from the ceiling.

In Chile, the instrumental march version (with Leroy Anderson's orchestration) was used as a theme song for radio Portales news show La Revista de Portales. It was used because of an earlier use on the news show La bitácora en Portales. [10]

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References

  1. ↑ Allen, Ira R. - '76 Trombones' for (Ronald) Reagan, 76 February 6, 1987
  2. ↑ McNary, Sharon - The Big Challenges Facing What May Be This Rose Parade's Most Unusual Marching Band. LAist- Southern California Public Radio (SCPR), December 30, 2021
  3. 1 2 3 Nachman, Gerald. Showstoppers! The Surprising Backstage Stories of Broadway's Most Remarkable Songs. United States: Chicago Review Press, 2016.
  4. ↑ Gramophone. United Kingdom: General Gramophone Publications Limited, 1981.
  5. ↑ Marches in Hi-Fi at AllMusic
  6. ↑ Our Man in Hollywood at AllMusic
  7. ↑ Radio Times 14 November 1982
  8. ↑ Juregensen, John - A Maestro for the Masses. Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2010
  9. ↑ Mergen, Melanie - Mason City's Music Man Square to throw birthday bash for Meredith Willson. Globe-Gazette, May 11, 2021
  10. ↑ Radio Portales de Santiago. Spanish Language Wikipedia
  11. ↑ Dik Voormekaar – De Dik Voormekaar Show, Label: CNR – 540.019 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Stereo Country: Netherlands Released: 1975 Genre: Non-Music, Pop Style: Comedy
  12. ↑ Jones, Kent - Review: Bernie. Filmcomment, April 26, 2012
  13. ↑ Coyle, Jake - Movie Review:Bernie Delco Times, April 26, 2012
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