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Aces High
Ron Goodwin (arr. Larry Daehn)
General Info
Year: 1969 / 2012
Duration: c. 3:35
Difficulty: IV (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Daehn Publications
Cost: Score and Parts - Out of print.
Instrumentation
Full Score
C Piccolo/Flute
Oboe I-II
Bassoon I-II
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Euphonium
Tuba
Timpani
Percussion, including:
- Bass Drum
- Crash Cymbals
- Orchestra Bells
- Snare Drum
Errata
None discovered thus far.
Program Notes
Originally written as the main theme for the movie Battle of Britain, this thrilling march is now available for concert bands everywhere. The glorious and riveting main theme was hailed as one of the best pieces of martial music ever written for a movie and can now be enjoyed by a new generation of audiences.
- Program Note from publisher
Ron Goodwin's score opens with the Luftwaffe March, later retitled Aces High, in the style of a traditional German military march in 6/8 time. The march places heavy emphasis on the "oom-pah" sound of tubas and lower-pitched horns on the first and second beats and has the glockenspiel double the horns in the melody. Because of the great length of this sequence, which shows a Luftwaffe general's inspection of a Heinkel squadron in occupied France, the Aces High has three separate bridges between choruses of the main theme, one of which recurs several times in a gently sentimental variation.
Despite its origin in a representation of a tyrannical threat to democracy, the march has become a popular British march tune, like the Dambusters March; an adaptation was first played by a British military band in 1974 by the Corps of Drums of the Royal Pioneer Corps and is now] frequently played at military parades and by marching bands in Northern Ireland. American radio personality and convicted Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy has used the march as bumper music on his syndicated radio programme.
- Program Note from Wikipedia
Media
State Ratings
None discovered thus far.
Performances
To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project
- Suncoast Concert Band (Sarasota, Fla.) (Robert Stoll, conductor) – 4 May 2017 (ACB 2017 Annual Convention (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.))
- Lake Country Symphonic Band (Mike Holbrook, conductor) – 6 March 2018
Works for Winds by This Composer
- 633 Squadron (arr. Daehn) (1964/2003)
- Aces High (arr. Daehn) (1969/2012)
- Freefall
- Luftwaffe March. See: Aces High
- Tall Ships
- Those Magnificent Airmen in Their Flying Machines (arr. MacTaggart) (1965/<2001)
- Time Traveller Suite
- Where Eagles Dare (arr. Daehn) (1968/2011)
Resources
- Andrew Glover, personal correspondence re: publication status, March 2020
- Battle of Britain (film), Wikipedia Accessed 31 March 2020
- Goodwin, R.; Daehn, L. (2012). Aces High: March [score]. Daehn Publications: New Glarus, Wisc.