March Of The Droids

OK... We don't have rights to the music from Star Wars™, nor can we afford to get it. But despite the fact that John Williams is a great composer (one of the greatest, in our opinions), has he written any themes that can be performed by beginning recorder players? Probably not. Lucky for us, we can fill the void with this cybernetic arrangement for young droids everywhere to play and/or march to.

But droids, you ask? Haven't we heard about droids in our recorder repertoire before? Indeed! We started the school year in Volume 27, Number 1 with an homage to Stars Wars' 40th anniversary (which happens in 2017). But we wanted to tip our hats to honor one of our favorite movie series with bookends of two recorder tributes, so we decided to include this "Flashback" song from our earlier days as well. You can play one or both pieces, comparing and contrasting as you like.

The first piece, "Bad Day At The Droid Works," used only G, A, and B, while "March Of The Droids" uses D, E, G, A, and B. But, this is the simplest of DEGAB tunes. Nothing harder than a quarter note, though for best effect, D and E are played together at times. Even so, you can just have your players play the Es, thereby reducing this to the use of E, G, A, and B. At the beginning, you will hear about 30 seconds or so of spacey sounds and droid-like effects before the orchestra takes over. The basic song is played twice, the second time against a scherzo-like counter melody. At the very end, the players are allowed to improvise in a droidly manner using the notes they have learned. Droid movement options are up to you.

If you'd like to follow along with the piano/recorder score, you can download it at our web site.