We Celebrate America

We're very proud of this great patriotic piece. In fact, we were so excited about it, we hired extra players to make sure we had an appropriately huge symphonic extravaganza. That, plus the fireworks at the end, and we logged the most recording tracks we've ever had in our history for one piece of music - almost one hundred! And boy, was it fun.

We hope that you will take the time to listen and share the instrumental tracks on the Performance/Accompaniment CD with your students. The arrangement and orchestration are really nice. Once the kids are singing along, some of the nuances of the orchestra are upstaged a bit. As they should be, of course. Even so, we are quite pleased with this accompaniment. So much so, that we're doing something we've never done before - we're actually offering the score and parts for the orchestra to schools/communities who wish to perform this piece with their local professional symphony orchestra. (A school orchestra would not be able to play this in all likelihood. Our professional players were even challenged by this one.) We were inspired by videos we have received from many of you over the years showing your students performing our works with orchestras (including the Boston Pops!). We thought this tune would be a natural for this type of community celebration. It would also be especially grand if multiple schools combined forces to present it, such as at a music festival or a Fourth of July celebration. The possibilities are quite exciting! For more details about our unique offer, visit Quodlibet on page 78 of this issue.

The melody and lyrics of the piece are easy and repetitious enough for most students to learn and remember. And since the second part and the divisi part at the end are optional, it is quite usable as a unison piece. The second part does add a lot however, so we encourage you to use it if at all possible. Perhaps enlist the assistance of another older class, group of students, or even adults. This can also be a good plan of action regarding the solos, which begin at the pick-ups to measure 22. If you have the talent in your midst, go for it. If not, either have students sing in unison, or tap that assistance we mentioned above. We chose to use four different soloists for this section on our recording (Holly McDaniel, Megan Byers, Grace Morgan, and Celia Ellsworth). But you can split it differently, using two soloists, for example. Or just one. Or even a soli group, for a little extra reinforcement with shy singers.

If you do use part 2, you may find the rehearsal tracks useful. We have separated them and put them on our web site at MusicK8.com where you and your students can download them for free. See details following.

One other note about the recording: You will see that there are two versions of the accompaniment tracks. The second one is labeled "no SFX," which means there are no fireworks on it. This is so you will have the option to use it either way. Especially if you wish to provide your own fireworks, as in a community celebration, ours won't be in the way. But the ones we provide are very cool.

Online extras - The free, downloadable tracks mentioned can be found under the "Graphics and Extras" for Volume 17, No. 5 at MusicK8.com