obbligato=extraordinarily important music
August 6, 2008 (Wednesday)
A favorite sermon illustration of many preachers (including me) is a story about the piccolo. The piccolo player decided not to play during a rehearsal, because he didn’t feel he would be missed amid the grand finale of full orchestra and voices. The conductor, Sir Michael Costa, abruptly stopped the music, and, exasperated, called to his orchestra, “Where is the piccolo?”
The story’s truth is doubtful, because the piccolo, though very small, is very important. Only the first chair of the flute section is allowed to play it. One thus honored is not likely to forego the opportunity. One of the best known piccolo parts is heard in Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” This march is best known for the music itself, but Sousa wrote lyrics for it as well. The part that includes the piccolo obbligato nearly always brings the audience to its feet and stirs it to applause and cheers. Here are the words to that part, seldom heard:
Hurrah for the flag of the free.
May it wave as our standard forever
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with might endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray,
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.
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Listen to the March, and/or read more:
http://www.dws.org/sousa/articles/stars-and-stripes-forever.htm
(Website of David Lovrien)
p.s.-Edouard was just a rainy day here in the Houston Heights. A little wind, no flooding.