Thin Red Line, The

Kenneth J. Alford

Kenneth J Alford

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General Info

Year:1908 / 1925
Duration: c. 2:45
Difficulty: IV (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Pender Music
Cost: Score and Parts - $45.00   |   Score Only - $5.00

Instrumentation

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Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

Although not published until 1925, this march was composed in 1908, Alford's first year as bandmaster of the Second Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlands -- it later became their official regimental march. The composer dedicated the work to the unit's forebears, the 93th Highlanders, who had formed a "thin red line" in a victory over the Russians at Balaklava in 1854.

Included in the London Times of that period was a quotation attributed to Sir William Howard Russell describing the British Infantry: "The Russians dashed on towards that thin red-line streak tipped with a line of steel." Four decades earlier British troops commanded by the Duke of Wellington used the same battle formation to defeat Napoleon, whose solders fought in a thick block-style configuration.

- Program Note from Program Notes for Band

Commercial Discography

• Audio CD: The Music of Kenneth Alford. The Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines (Captain JR Mason, conductor)

State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Performances

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• Band of the Life Guards (W. Jackson, conductor)
• Northwest Missouri State University (Maryville) Wind Symphony (John Bell, conductor) – 11 February 2016

Works for Winds by this Composer

• Army of the Nile (1941)
• By Land and Sea (1941)
• Cavalry of the Clouds (1923)
• Colonel Bogey (1914)
• Colonel Bogey (ed. Fennell) (1914/1982)
• Colonel Bogey on Parade (1934)
• Dunedin (1928)
• Eagle Squadron (1942)
• Eagle Squadron (arr. Rogers) (1942/2016)
• Great Little Army, The (1916)
• HM Jollies (1929)
• Holyrood (1912)
• Lightning Switch Fantasia, The (1924)
• The Mad Major (ed. Fennell) (1921/1983)
• Middy, The (arr. Gore) (1917)
• Musical Switch, A (1921)
• Old Panama (1929)
• On the Quarter Deck (1917)
• Standard of St George, The (1930)
• Thin Red Line, The (1908/1925)
• Vanished Army, The (1918)
• The Vanished Army (ed. Fennell) (1919/1986)
• Vedette, The (1913)
• Voice of the Guns, The (1917)

References

• Alford, K. (1925). Thin Red Line, The: March [score]. Hawkes & Son: London.
• Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. "The Thin Red Line." Accessed 5 June 2014. https://hebm.info/SearchResults.aspx?ID=19337
• Smith, Norman E. (2002). Program Notes for Band. Chicago: GIA Publications, pp. 505.