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There's a difference between traditions and rules, as traditions are only strong suggestions and are not always followed. They may not necessarily be expected to be followed much more than half the time.

"Traditionally", symphony orchestra concerts begin with some sort of overture... so what about bands?

When you attend band concerts - whether as a player, a patron, or a supporting parent, and whether they refer to themselves bands, wind bands, wind ensembles, or wind symphonies - would it make you smile, and would you like/prefer to hear band concerts "traditionally" open with a march... and perhaps end with an unprogrammed encore march as well...(??)

Marches are pretty classic. This concert I'm having next week, my band is actually opening with "Suite Francaise." I think the most important thing is that openers be tuneful and engaging.

I like the idea of a zippy circus march encore. But if it's the end of an outdoor summer concert, you better bet it'll be "Stars and Stripes Forever."

SSB

We have played Prismatic Light by Alan Fernie as opener a few times. The subtitle is "Concert Opener" so i guess that fits

For the community band I'm currently playing with, the Spring concert is going to open with a galop and end with a patriotic march medley. I hate medleys. Hate, hate, hate. The galop is fun, though.

arpthark wrote: ↑Wed Apr 02, 2025 9:34 am Marches are pretty classic. This concert I'm having next week, my band is actually opening with "Suite Francaise." I think the most important thing is that openers be tuneful and engaging.

I like the idea of a zippy circus march encore. But if it's the end of an outdoor summer concert, you better bet it'll be "Stars and Stripes Forever."

I'm not going to re-link (it's on youtube) when Fennell was brought in to do a concert with the KU band (the one year that I taught there, but left - as there was just too much work in Memphis - at that time - to turn down), which ended (not listed on the program - ie. an encore) with Fillmore's "His Honor" March...probably not a "circus" march, but right at a "circus march" tempo (with a subtle accelerando at the end).

ie...I AGREE WITH YOU, BLAKE.

bloke "He had fun with that band, as he didn't have to 'fix' anything, but - only at his tastes/whims - changed some things."

Funny, I guess I don't pay much attention, but my impression is that things commonly start off with a triumphant, celebratory or energetic kicker to launch the program, vis. paso doble, Festive Overture-type, Copland Fanfare-type, and my preference would be for a burst of concert-ending energy or spirit, like a march or something hummable/singable.

Way in the wayback, the high school choral director always ended concerts with his beautiful arrangement of the Irish blessing (and I haven't heard that arrangement since), and it was a very nice closing transition out of the concert environment. We'd walk out into the night humming that lovely song - was nice.

SSB

but since you asked for a poll

I'm a march guy. An opening and closing march is always appropriate to me, maybe even a fanfare-ish opening march and a galop to end. But I'm a traditional guy who gets annoyed when young band directors ask "why do we have to play a march for competition/evaluation?", and even more so when an otherwise very fine high school band plays a beginner level march just to "satisfy the requirement". We need to do a better job of educating our students on the history of bands. I got to go to a concert one year by the Dallas Wind Symphony ,with Fennell as guest conductor, and it was all marches. I almost had a sensory overload.

When people went to Sousa band concerts (such as my father as a boy), what did they go to hear...??

marches, or operetta aria accompaniment transcriptions?

Maybe some of both- see: Erik Leidzen's transcriptions for the Goldman Band, etc. These transcriptions brought this music to folks who might not have heard it otherwise.

Chorale and Alleluia, Howard Hanson. 6th grader playing King baritone. Gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

Depends on the type of concert and if we are inside or outside. We have indeed opened with a lot of overtures though. Also opened with stuff like Nubucco. Seems to go over really well with audiences. I got no Cimbasso however. So it’s make do with what ya got time and interestingly out of my various tubas the horn that works best at blending and sounding like a bone is my old Besson New Standard BBb. Those old Bessons make great concert band horns, not what I typically use since upright valves no longer play nicely with the carpal tunnel in my right hand. But for Nubucco I endure. Funny how neither my rotary nor my front action horns bother my carpal tunnel at all. Pounding a hammer for 10 minutes or painting or even writing will set it on fire, but not the front action tubas.

Where/when I grew up, the traditional concert opener was a Paso Doble.

I voted "No".
I certainly enjoy well-played marches, especially more elaborate ones.
(In our tradition, we differenciate between "Straßenmarsch" and "Konzertmarsch".
The former are fine for use during parades, most of them even up-hill.
The latter may or may be too (aerobically, musically, or both) challenging for "Musik in Bewegung", which may include dodging landmines left by horses leading the parade, or rough terrain due to bad pavement.

The former type will fit (and, of course, be printed on) ONE landscape-oriented page.
The latter will be printed on TWO pages, in portrait orientation.

Of course, considerations like these likely won´t make a lot of sense in US-American marching band culture where it´s common practise to use concert pieces during half-time shows.

But I digress...
A cool, preferrably unusual march is an AWESOME opener of a concert, but it won´t induce MORE smiling on my part than any other, well-chosen and well-executed first piece.

As an old school American - though I'm sure Europeans don't consider any Americans "old school"...

...I just like to see a music director walk on stage, get the band to stand up, bow for the band, turn around (certainly don't screw around with some stupid tuning crap or saying anything to the band) and immediately start some familiar century old American march to kick off a concert...

... and I'm not a super fan of Sousa, just to throw that out there.
Quite a few European marches are pretty cool. Even though it's too long and repetitive - as he wrote it for specific occasion, I even like William Walton's "Crown Imperial", and a whole bunch of continental European marches are quite nice, but - to start off an American band concert - it needs to begin with a traditional American march (and - by the way - not a John Williams march).

=====================

When I work with some of these symphony orchestras around here, I consider the time that I put in with them to be as much of a donation as any of the big donors, because I have much less money than they do and I've put in a hell of a lot more time than they have for very low remuneration per hour (considering all the practice time, the money I had to earn to buy my instruments, and the time I spend in the car - as well as hours wasted between rehearsals when I can't be at home doing work).
The thing that pisses me off about the way that symphony orchestra concerts begin these days is that the big fat executive director walks out on stage, runs their mouth for about 5 or 8 minutes (even though supposedly the concert starts at X o'clock, and "executive director blather" is not listed on the program), after all of that jawboning, the next anti-climactic thing that occurs is the stupid oboe sounding the absolutely pointless A, and then finally the music director walks out and begins - typically - an overture.

By then, the audience is totally disengaged, and I guess what I'm trying to say is that these people have absolutely NO idea how to run a show and how to entertain people. They are clueless...

If an executive director needs to pontificate and politick, please stick them at the end of the intermission, rather than at the beginning of the concert. Symphony orchestra concerts do not need "presenters".

dp wrote: ↑Wed Apr 02, 2025 4:44 pm SSB

but since you asked for a poll

(I appreciate the reference, but have mixed feelings, being more familiar with the source material in its original form)

bloke wrote: ↑Wed Apr 02, 2025 10:22 pm When people went to Sousa band concerts (such as my father as a boy), what did they go to hear...??

marches, or operetta aria accompaniment transcriptions?

I think both, plus the inevitable soloist playing a theme and variations, but they primarily looked forward to the marches.

bloke wrote: ↑Wed Apr 02, 2025 10:22 pmWhen people went to Sousa band concerts (such as my father as a boy), what did they go to hear...??
marches, or operetta aria accompaniment transcriptions?

I’ll contend (not to be contentious, heh, heh…) that they went for both. It was a different day. Sousa actually premiered some orchestral (transcribed… ) pieces in the US before any orchestra here had played them.

Sousa was known to say something to the effect that ‘if the audience wants “Turkey in the Straw, we'll give them Turkey in the Straw,’ so he knew that had to program for a broad spectrum.

“But, yes, marches. They ALWAYS wanted the marches.”

Based on the impression my father left with me, marches during that time were sort of like rock music from the fifties to the present - except that they weren't considered countercultural or protest or any of that sort of thing.