[PW] 76 Trombones?

[Douglas Anderson]

Per Guinness, under Largest Band: "On June 28, 1964, a total of 20,100
bandsmen from Norges Musikkorps Forbund assembled at the Ulevaal
Stadium in Oslo, Norway."  It doesn't give a breakdown as to
instruments.

Also per Guinness, under Largest Orchestra: "A total of 6,452
musicians -- made up of the Vancouver symphony Orchestra and music
students from British Columbia, Canada -- played 'Ten Minutes of Nine'
for 9 min. 44 sec. at Place Stadium, Vancouver, Canada, on May 15,
2000."  Again, no breakdown as to instruments.

Also, a minor correction: at least in the version of The Music Man in
which I played Harold Hill, there was no mention of a Sousaphone in
the song.  There were, however, in addition to those mentioned by Tom,
"double-belled euphoniums and big bassoons", "copper-bottomed tympany
in horse platoons", "clarinets of every size", "trumpeters", and
"horns of every shape and kind".  (There have been revisions to the
book and score over the years, so some prior or later version may
indeed have mentioned a Sousaphone.)

-- Doug A.


On Feb 4, 2008 5:04 PM, Fuller, Thomas (US - Washington D.C.)
<tfuller at deloitte.com> wrote:
> Happy Monday.  This is for me, so no intemperate haste or burning-out of
> neurons is required.  (Temperate haste, though, is fine.)
>
> A bunch of us music nerds were talking about Meredith Willson's THE
> MUSIC MAN (1957), and the question arose whether there has ever been a
> band of the size described in the song "76 Trombones".  In addition to
> the 'bones, the song mentions 110 cornets, "more than a thousand" reeds,
> one Sousaphone, "fifty mounted cannon", and presumably other instruments
> like euphoniums and percussion.
>
> That has always sounded to me like a complete fantasy, an illustration
> of Harold Hill's snake-oil exaggeration.  But others in the group were
> skeptical, and thought that such a gathering might have been held
> somewhere.  Even the American premiere of Mahler's "Symphony of a
> Thousand" used "only" 1,068 musicians, and that included a massive
> string section, three choirs, and several vocal soloists.  (These days
> the work is usually performed with about half that number.)  And it's
> true that in the 19th century they tended to do these things in a big
> way.  But -- that big?
>
> There have been novelty events where, just for the fun of it, musicians
> marshalled 76 trombones to play a version of the song, but none, to my
> knowledge, that matched the other criteria (particularly the cannons!).
>
> So -- the "76 Trombones Band" -- historical, or fictional?  Any and all
> thoughts, speculations, etc. are appreciated.
>
> -- Tom
>
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-- 
Douglas E. Anderson, Reference Coordinator
Ashtabula County District Library
335 W. 44th St.
Ashtabula, OH 44004 USA
440/997-9341
http://www.acdl.info/