It's got a beat to it.

Do you like marching bands? Or do you prefer that they stand in the gazebo, making an easier target for the flying fruit?

In the 19th and early 20 centuries, bands were all the rage. Now, they're associated with parades. In the UK, some people enjoy tattoos. In the US, bands liven up halftime shows at matches with those funny egg-shaped balls. From the tuba to the piccolo, they all seem to be having a good time. Especially that fellow with the big bass drum.

Can you answer these questions about famous marching band songs?

1. In 'Alexander's Ragtime Band', Irving Berlin claims their bugle call is 'so natural that you wanna…' What?
2. When it comes to the 'New Ashmolean Marching Society and Students' Conservatory Band', the 'analytical, sensitive or critical' will like them more… What?
3. What US Army marching song starts, according to schoolboys, with, 'Oh, the monkey wrapped his tail around the flagpole…'?
4. John Philip Sousa was a great march composer. Which one is John Cleese's favourite?
5. According to Harold Hill, the Music Man, when the 76 trombones played, he played…what instrument?
6. Who composed the song that goes, again according to schoolboy scholars, 'Pray for the dead, and the dead will pray for you?'
7. What British march was made popular worldwide by the film Bridge Over the River Kwai?
8. Recite the chorus to 'Mademoiselle from Armentieres’. You know you want to.
9. What famous marching song had to be excised from the recording of the World War II North Africa victory revue, even though Winston Churchill loved it?
10. What Johann Strauss march is popular with the US Marine Corps?

Think you got them all? March over to the answer page, by clicking on the pic below.

Dmitri Gheorgheni

10.03.14 Front Page

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