UW Marching Band
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The University of Wisconsin Marching Band (also known as Badger Band, and The Wisconsin Band) is the
marching band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who play while marching. Historically they were used in armed forces and many marching bands remain military bands. Others are still associated with military units or emulate a military sty ...
for the
University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...
. It was formed in the fall of 1885 to support the university military battalion. Today, it has grown to about 300 members and performs at all home
Badger Badgers are medium-sized short-legged omnivores in the superfamily Musteloidea. Badgers are a polyphyletic rather than a natural taxonomic grouping, being united by their squat bodies and adaptions for fossorial activity rather than by the ...
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
games. They are known for their intense and athletic high knee “stop at the top” marching style.


History

The University of Wisconsin Marching Band was created in 1885 as the Wisconsin Regimental Band. Previously, the University Military Battalion had marched to only a drum and the Battalion commandant, Major Chase, stressed in 1883 that there was a "need for a fife and drum corps to play for the Battalion drills." The first band consisted of 11 members, with two or three more joining before the year ended. It was not until 1894 that the 26 members of the University Band began playing at football games. In September 1928, it was announced that all football engagements would be handled by 100 men, to relieve the strain from concert performers. This was the beginning of the current band. Under Edson W. Morphy, the "Second Band" became more active with athletic department events. In 1934, the band gained a new director, Raymond F. Dvorak, a veteran of the Goldman and
John Philip Sousa John Philip Sousa ( , ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic music, Romantic era known primarily for American military March (music), marches. He is known as "The March King" or th ...
bands. Dvorak changed the band in many ways, including expanding it to 120 marchers, introducing new steps, creating the run-on entrance to the pre-game, and developing animated formations. He also introduced the arm-waving tradition during the singing of Wisconsin's alma mater, '' Varsity''. When the Badger football team qualified for the 1963
Rose Bowl Game The Rose Bowl Game is an annual American college football bowl game, traditionally played on January 1 (New Year's Day) at the Rose Bowl (stadium), Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on ...
, the band was still wearing uniforms based on
United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionar ...
Dress Blues, with a broad red stripe down the leg. Lacking time to order and manufacture new uniforms, the band wore white duck pants for the
Rose Parade The Rose Parade, also known as the Tournament of Roses Parade (or simply the Tournament of Roses), is an annual parade held mostly along Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena, California, United States, on New Year's Day (or on Monday, January 2 if New ...
, causing at least one wag to call them "Salvation Army milkmen". The fall of 1963 saw the introduction of cardinal and white uniforms that have characterized the band's look ever since. In 1969, the band hired a successor to Dvorak, Mike Leckrone. Leckrone expanded the marching band's membership and popularity during the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
era, a time when the band's connotative association with the military had become unpopular among some students. Women were first eligible to join the marching band in 1974, enabling a major expansion of membership. Leckrone introduced a physically demanding style of marching called “stop at the top,” which required much more athleticism and physical conditioning. He required every member to attend Registration Week fundamental drills to learn the new marching step, updated the pre-game "run-on" Dvorak had introduced, filmed every performance, and scheduled viewing sessions in which he provided feedback. Leckrone's band played a repertoire of Badger songs and tunes, creatively arranging and weaving them into field-show programming. During Leckrone's first decades, the Badger marching band was on the ascendancy as the football team was in decline, mired near the bottom of the
Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...
. Halftime shows maintained interest in the Saturday afternoon festivities, and the band's "fifth quarter" performances kept fans in the stands after the games ended. Leckrone, after 50 seasons as the band's director, retired upon the conclusion of the 2019 Spring Concert. Corey Pompey, former assistant director of bands at the University of Nevada-Reno and Pennsylvania State University, was selected to succeed Leckrone and began his tenure in the fall of 2019. He is lovingly referred to by the band as “Papa”. Darin Olson resigned from the band's assistant director position to take a head athletic band position at Kent State University. In the summer of 2020 Alexander Gonzalez was hired as his replacement.


Auditions and membership

At the end of August returning and prospective band members attend "Registration Week" (Reg Week), commonly known to band members as "Hell Week". Reg Week teaches prospective members the fundamentals of the band's marching style and serves as a period of physical conditioning. A highlight of Reg Week is countdown drills, where members march out and back across the field, decreasing at five yards at a time. Another highlight is the perimeter drill, where returning and prospective members march twice around the entire practice field. Every prospective member also must perform a short music-only audition for the director. Membership is guaranteed for returning members.


Instrumentation

The University of Wisconsin Marching Band is composed of about 300 members and divided into 26 ranks. On average, there are about 224 marchers on the field. Alternates remain on the side lines to replace injured members. The drum major is considered the primary student leader within the band. Each year, the director and graduate assistants select one drum major and one assistant drum major. All band members are issued silver instruments (with the exception of the school-issued clarinets that are made of white plastic). The Wisconsin Marching band consists of mainly brass instruments with percussion, saxophones, and clarinets. It does not include a color guard or a piccolo/flute section common among many traditional marching bands. Following is a list of instruments and the ranks they occupy. The Band will have more performing members on the field during halftime performances than pregame. *
Trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...
s – Ranks 1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 18, 20, 22, A, 25 *
Trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...
– Rank 3, 6, 9, 19, 21, 23 *
Drumline Marching percussion instruments are percussion instruments (usually drums, such as snare, bass, and tenor drums) specially designed to be played while moving. This is achieved by attaching the drum(s) to a special harness (also called a carrier ...
– Ranks 12 and 13 *
Tuba The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...
s – Ranks 14 and 15 *
Saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...
s – Rank 24 *
Clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...
s – Rank 2 *
Mellophone The mellophone is a brass instrument used in marching bands and drum and bugle corps in place of French horns. It is a middle-voiced instrument, typically pitched in the key of F, though models in E, D, C, and G (as a bugle) have also historica ...
s – Rank 7 *
Euphonium The euphonium ( ; ; ) is a tenor- and baritone-voiced valved brass instrument. The euphonium is a member of the large family of valved bugles, along with the tuba and flugelhorn, characterised by a wide conical bore. Most instruments have thr ...
s – Rank 17 *
Flügelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet, but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B♭, though s ...
s – Rank 16 *
Flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...
s – All drowned in Lake Mendota in 1924


Traditions


The 5th Quarter

In the University of Wisconsin Marching Band's "Fifth Quarter", the band marches onto the field and plays each team’s fight song. The band then plays songs such as "
On Wisconsin "On, Wisconsin!" is the fight song of the Wisconsin Badgers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. A version with modified lyrics is the official state song of Wisconsin. "On, Wisconsin!" was also the cry that Arthur MacArthur Jr. used in the ...
", "You’ve Said It All", "Space Badgers", "Dance Little Bird" (
The Chicken Dance The "Chicken Dance", also known and recorded as Der Ententanz, Tchip Tchip, Vogerltanz, the Bird Song, the Chicken Song, the Birdie Song, the Bird Dance, Danse des Canards, the Duck Dance, El Baile de los Pajaritos, O Baile dos Passarinhos, Il B ...
), "the
Beer Barrel Polka "Beer Barrel Polka", originally in Czech , also known as "The Barrel Polka", "Roll Out the Barrel", or "Rosamunde", is a 1927 polka composed by Czech musician Jaromír Vejvoda. Lyrics were added in 1934, subsequently gaining worldwide popularit ...
", "
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", "
Hey! Baby "Hey! Baby" is a song written by Margaret Cobb and Bruce Channel, first recorded at Clifford Herring Studios in Ft. Worth Tx, and recorded by Channel in 1961, first released on LeCam Records, a local Fort Worth, Texas label. After it hit, it wa ...
", “
Swingtown ''Swingtown'' is an American drama television series created by Mike Kelley as a summer replacement series for CBS aired from June 5 to September 5, 2008. The show is a historical relationship drama about the impact of sexual and social liber ...
” and “
Time Warp Time travel is a common theme in fiction, mainly since the late 19th century, and has been depicted in a variety of media, such as literature, television, and film. The concept of time travel by mechanical means was popularized in H. G. Wells' ...
”, among others. The band first played "You've Said It All", also known as the "Bud" song, at
hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...
games during the 1972 season. The song, by New York composer
Steve Karmen Steve Karmen (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer known for his jingles, including "I Love New York", " Call Nationwide, 'Cause Nationwide Is On Your Side", and " Here Comes the King." The King of Jingles, as he is informally known, has ...
, had become a
Budweiser Budweiser () is an American-style pale lager, a brand of Belgian company AB InBev. Introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, Budweiser has become a large selling beer company in the United States. Budweiser is a filte ...
advertising jingle in 1970. It became popular among Wisconsin fans when the band traveled to
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
for the 1973 NCAA men's hockey championship, where the song was played at games, on the street, and in hotel lobbies. When performed by the Wisconsin band, the advertising line at the end of the original beer ad is replaced by the line "When You Say WIS-CON-SIN, You've Said It All!" On Saturday, Nov. 24, 2018,
Michael Leckrone Michael “Mike” Leckrone (born July 30, 1936) was a John Bascom Professor of Music in the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Music and director of the University of Wisconsin Marching Band from 1969 to 2019. Leckrone also served as ...
directed his last "Fifth Quarter" performance after a 50-year career leading UW-Madison’s marching band. Leckrone and the band started the tradition in 1969 when he became the director of the band. Since assuming the directorship, Dr. Corey Pompey has added “Friends in Low Places” to the 5th Quarter Repertoire.


The “6th Quarter” and Dismissal

At the end of the Fifth Quarter, the band lines up once more to play "Varsity", while the spectators sing. The band then exits the field to the north entrance to perform the “6th Quarter” outside the stadium. Crowd favorites like “1812 Overture”, “The Horse”, “Rock and Roll #2”, and "It's Hard to Be Humble", a band tradition. The band then marches back to the George Mosse Humanities building on campus for dismissal. At Dismissal, the band skyrockets each TA, the Directors, the announcer, the Drum Major, and the adage: TEAM. FANS. BAND. They reflect on the day as the directors and the drum major give speeches. The band then sings Varsity a capella and is dismissed.


Band banquet

Begun during the 1927–1928 school year by then-band director, Edson W. Morphy, and traditionally held in late November or early December, the band banquet is a formal affair, with speakers and an awards ceremony. The percussion section performs
drum cadence In music, a drum cadence or street beat is a work played exclusively by the percussion section of a modern marching band (see marching percussion). It is stylistically descended from early military marches, and related to military cadences, as ...
s with plates and silverware. The night ends with a slide show and the singing of ''Varsity''.


On Wisconsin Finale

Beginning in 1974 the halftime show of the last home football game of the year is ended with ''On Wisconsin Finale''. While playing a
maestoso () is an Italian musical term and is used to direct performers to play a certain passage of music in a stately, dignified and majestic fashion (sometimes march-like) or, it is used to describe music as such. ''Maestoso'' also is associated ...
version of ''On Wisconsin'', the band forms vertical lines. At once, lines expand into the letters ''On Wis'' and the band marches towards the audience, ending the performance with the graduating members of the band being recognized as the rest of the band kneels.


Reversing the Caps

When the football team wins the game, the members of the band take their hats off and put them on backwards. This is an old tradition that signifies "looking back" at the victory that day.


Skyrockets

Skyrockets are a method the Wisconsin Band has used to call attention to something, such as in announcing a song or cheer, telling a joke, or greeting someone. The sound of a skyrocket is meant to mimic a real rocket by beginning in a low hiss, followed by a short, loud "boom", then an "ahhh", and finally ending in a whistle.


Tuba March

At the beginning of the fourth quarter the tubas line up single file and march around the stadium, weaving in and out of the stands and concourse, playing songs such as
Semper Fidelis ''Semper fidelis'' () is a Latin phrase that means "always faithful" or "always loyal" (Fidelis or Fidelity). It is the motto of the United States Marine Corps, usually shortened to Semper Fi. It is also in use as a motto for towns, families, ...
, ''Beer Barrel Polka'', and ''On Wisconsin''. This tradition began in the 1950s. When athletic director Elroy Hirsch banned the tuba march in 1971, the uproar was so great that the tuba march was reinstated the following year.


Union South

One hour before every home game, the Badger Band performs at Badger Bash, a pregame tailgate, at Union South. The band marches in to the drumline cadence, with the tubas playing the tuba march and following shortly after. The band plays ''On Wisconsin'' twice, an abbreviated version of the opposing school's song, the pop music piece selected for that week's pregame show, the halftime show, and finally "The Bud Song" and ''On Wisconsin'' one last time to fire up the fans. They then march to Camp Randall Stadium and performs their pre-game show shortly after.


Other performances

The band performs at other venues, such as local concerts and parades around the state of Wisconsin. The band has also performed at
NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...
games, often making the trip to
Lambeau Field Lambeau Field () is an outdoor athletic stadium in the East North Central states, north central United States, located in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The home field of the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL), it opened in 1957 Green ...
to play for the in-state
Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...
.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wisconsin Marching Band, University Of Big Ten Conference marching bands
Marching Band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who play while marching. Historically they were used in armed forces and many marching bands remain military bands. Others are still associated with military units or emulate a military sty ...
Musical groups established in 1885 1885 establishments in Wisconsin