It’s now 97 years since the end of World War I, which means it’s Remembrance Day / Veterans’ Day, depending on your nationality. In honor of the holiday veterans everywhere, I’m reposting a blog from earlier in the year. This post originally appeared on Memorial Day, 2014.
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As regular readers of Mr Valentine‘s blog will know, I’m not just a writer, I also play the oboe. A few years ago — nearly 20, actually; how time flies — I recorded a concert with the Sirocco Woodwind Quintet, based in Tucson. The occasion was the commissioning of a new submarine, the USS Tucson.
Appropriately enough, the son of the quintet’s bassoonist was the Tucson’s executive officer, and the quintet was to perform a concert as part of the commissioning ceremonies. Alas, Hurricane Felix scuttled the commissioning ceremony — but the quintet recorded the concert that never was.
Some of the music is appropriate for Memorial Day, so here are two selections from a doomed concert. First the Star Spangled Banner, and then Washington Post March.