Overture and March "1776"

Charles Ives

Charles Ives (trans. James B. Sinclair)

General Info

Year: 1904, rev. 1910 / 1975
Duration: c. 3:00
Difficulty:
Original Medium: Theater Orchestra
Publisher: Theodore Presser Co.
Cost: Score and Parts - $40.00 | Score Only - $4.50

Instrumentation

Full Score
Piccolo I-II
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
Bassoon I-II
Contrabassoon
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
E-flat Alto Clarinet
B-flat Bass Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Saxophone (I doubling Alto Saxophone)
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone I-II
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Cornet I-II-III
B-flat Trumpet I (doubling Flugelhorn)
B-flat Trumpet II
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Euphonium
Tuba
Timpani
Percussion I-II-III, including:

Bass Drum
Bells
Celesta
Crash Cymbals
Snare Drum
Tam-Tam
Triangle
Xylophone

Errata

None discovered thus far.

Program Notes

Ives composed this overture to begin his never-realized opera on his uncle Lyman Brewster's verse play Major John Andre (a British soldier hanged by the Revolutionists for his complicity with Benedict Arnold). By now in his twenty-ninth year and at last free from the strictures of professional music, one of Ives's basic tenets had become the equation of dissonance with physical, intellectual, and moral toughness -- national as well as individual. Unconstrained, he lets loose a barrage of patriotic songs from both sides of the struggle (though a few, like the Star Spangled Banner fragment signaling the final "Fourth of July" rocket, are anachronistic). The idea of conflict is intensified further by some ear-stretching "band stuff" -- like the mixed-up cornet shanks in B-flat and A, and the methodical skewing of the martial beat. Some years later, Ives would combine "1776" with Country Band March to form the fantasia Putnam's Camp in his orchestral set Three Places in New England.

- Program Note by Jonathan Elkus

Media

Audio: United States Marine Band (Timothy Foley, conductor)
Audio CD: "The President's Own" United States Marine Band (Timothy W. Foley, conductor)

State Ratings

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

Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

University of Maryland (College Park) Wind Ensemble (Brian Coffill, conductor) – 29 April 2016

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

Ives, C.; Sinclair, J. [1975]. Overture & March 1776. Arr. for Concert Band [score]. Merion Music: Bryn Mawr, Penn.
"Charles Ives's America." "The President's Own" United States Marine Band. Web. Accessed 28 February 2022