Circus Band, The

Charles Ives

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Subtitle: For mixed chorus and band

General Info

Year: c. 1894 / 1953/ 1971
Duration: c. 2:30
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Peer Music Classical
Cost: Score and Parts - $50.00 | Score Only - $8.00

Instrumentation

(Needed - please join the WRP if you can help.)

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

Composed as a march possibly as early as 1894 but worked over several times in the next 40 years, Ives's verses to this thoroughbred quickstep's printing in his 114 Songs are at once witty and wistful:

All summer long, we boys dreamed 'bout big circus joys!
Down Main Street, comes the band, Oh! "Ain't it a grand and a glorious noise!"[Repeat]
Horses are prancing, Knights advancing, Helmet's gleaming, Pennants streaming,
Cleopatra's on her throne! That Golden hair is all her own [Repeat][Trio]
Where is the lady all in pink? Last year she waved to me I think,
Can she have died? Can! that! rot! SHe is passing but she sees me not. [Last time patchwork-overlay of college songs from Version 3]
Riding down from Bangor on the midnight train,
Rip, slam, bang we go, Sir, right in thro' the rain,
I had a horse we'd called Napoleon,
All on account of his "Bony parts."
When in after years we take our children on our knee,
We'll teach them that the alphabet begins with D.K.E.

- Program Note by Jonathan Elkus

Arranged by Jonathan Elkus for symphonic band with opt mixed chorus from orchestration by George F. Roberts

- Program note from Charles Ives Society

The Circus Band, from the 1890s, rivals some of Sousa's as a classic march of the era, enlivened with Ives's characteristic rhythmic quirks.

- Program Note by Jan Swafford

Media

Audio: Reference recording. University of Florida Wind Symphony (David Waybright, conductor)
Audio CD: "The President's Own" United States Marine Band (Col. Timothy W. Foley, Director)

State Ratings

None discovered thus far.

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

University of Southern Maine (Gorham) Concert Band (Liz Park, conductor) – 31 March 2019
University of Florida (Gainesville) Wind Symphony (David Waybright, conductor) – 19 January 2015
California State University Long Beach Symphonic Band (Jermie Arnold, conductor) - March 2013

Works for Winds by This Composer

The Alcotts (tr. Elkus) (1920/1947)
The Alcotts (tr. Thurston) (1920/1972)
Charlie Rutlage (tr. Sinclair)
A Christmas Carol (tr. Paxton) (1922/2016)
The Circus Band (tr. Elkus)
A Concord Symphony (tr. Patterson) (1920/2010)
"Country Band" March (tr. Sinclair) (1903/1974)
Decoration Day (tr. Elkus)
Fantasia on "Jerusalem the Golden" (1888)
Finale from "Symphony No. 2" (tr. Elkus) (1907/1974)
Four Eccentric Songs (tr. Paxton) (1922/2016)
Fugue in C (arr. Sinclair) (1900/1992)
Here's to Good Ol' Yale: See: March 6: Here's to Good Ol' Yale
In the Mornin' (arr. Singleton) (1929)
Lento Maestoso and Finale from "Symphony No. 2" (tr. Elkus) (1907/1974/2001)
March 6: Here's to Good Ol' Yale (tr. Elkus) (1897/2003)
March Intercollegiate (ed. Brion) (1892(?)/1973)
Memories, Very Pleasant and and Rather Sad (arr. Elkus) (1922/2011?)
Old Fashioned Hymns (tr. Paxton) (1922/2016)
Old Home Days (arr. Elkus) (1954)
Omega Lambda Chi (ed. Brion) (1896/1974)
Overture and March "1776" (tr. Sinclair) (1904/1910)
Postlude in F (tr. Singleton) (1890-92/1991)
Ragtime Dance No. 4 (trans. Sinclair) (?/1990)
Runaway Horse on Main Street (1908)
A Son of a Gambolier (arr. Elkus) (1892/1962)
Symphony No. 2. See: Lento Maestoso and Finale from "Symphony No. 2" and Finale from "Symphony No. 2"
They are There! (arr. Sinclair)
The Unanswered Question (1908/1935/1989)
Variations on "America" (orch. Schuman, tr. Rhoads) (1891/1968)
Variations on "Jerusalem the Golden" (tr. Brion) (1900/1974)

Resources

Charles Ives Society
Ives, C.; Elkus, J. (1971). Circus Band [score]. Peer International: [New York[.
"The President's Own" United States Marine Band program notes
Swafford, Jan. "Essay." Peer Music Classical. Web. Accessed 24 March 2019