As we have gotten back to marching, dancing, and playing together after our 17-month hiatus, each of our sections has been hard at work to make everyone’s band experience as enjoyable as possible. Our section leaders have put together short blurbs to update everyone on the state of the band from the bottom up:
Guard: This has been a very special semester, as guard has been able to make a comeback from the COVID year and spin on the field once again! We performed 4 shows total with one of the themes being “The Precedented Circumstances Show” to celebrate our return to semi- normalcy. Though we were only able to go on two away trips total this year, we made history by traveling to Dartmouth College for the first time. We first stopped in Boston to deliver a dazzling performance at Faneuil Marketplace, then went to New Hampshire where we became friends with the lovely Dartmouth band. Despite having almost no members who had ever seen a full normal year of band, we did our best to remember and maintain some of our classic traditions such as a strong dedication to Mac and Cheese, delicious guard snack, and pineapples. This year we even brought in a new mascot, a stuffed pineapple cat named Catnapple, to accompany us on trips and be our emotional support animal. We’re looking forward to spinning in the spring and continuing to revive the original passion and traditions of the Big Red Color Guard!
Flutes: Mamma Mia, what a year! Despite COVID, the Flutes have continued to thrive. In February of 2020, the new tradition of a Valentine’s Day concert was born, called Flalentine’s. This past February, we continued the tradition with a virtual concert. We also held a virtual wedding with the Clarinets, sent each other letters, and had many a game night on Zoom. This fall, it was really exciting to be back in-person and welcome a lot of awesome new members to the section. We donned some snazzy masks, bagged our instruments, and got to step out in cool new uniforms. We continued our beloved traditions, like stealing the Tubas’ hats during Power, flute-upping, and boxers, and returned to Faneuil Hall to dance the Time Warp. We really missed having our alumni on the field with us this year, but are greatly looking forward to seeing you all next year! Flove <3
Clarinets: This fall, the Clarinets have had an amazing semester getting back on the field. We welcomed an absolutely incredible group of new members who have contributed greatly to the energy and enthusiasm of the section. We won the scavenger hunt yet again this year maintaining our winning streak. Many of our old traditions continued this year even after last year’s hiatus and shattered many pelvises during Everybody’s Everything. We continued some new traditions this year as well including Taylor Swift night and chill game nights. As we wrap up the semester, we are about to hold our annual gift exchange and send off our beloved seniors with a toast. We hope to see you all soon, and hope you can join us parading and during halftime at homecoming next fall.
Saxes: The saxes are a quirky bunch of people new and old who have really come together this semester to create a tightnight community full of friendship, inside jokes, and memorable traditions. From sax pyramids between sets to drinking minty cocoa on cold nights, rehearsals have been a blast and full of all the chaos and fun that is indicative of sax culture. Outside of rehearsals, we’ve spent our time together watching the Bachelorette, having “productive” nights during work Wednesdays (who said board games aren’t productive?), and some great food at our seasonal potlucks. Through this all, we’ve really come together as a group, and we are so happy to have had so many amazing new members from all grades who have really added so much to our section. It is amazing seeing our crazy family grow with people with all sorts of interests and talents, all of whom have really left their mark on the sax section. Having gotten to come back to the band after a year of uncertainty, we are so happy to see the sax section thrive, and we know that we are watching friendships form that will last for years to come!
Horns: After an all-around rough 2020, the horns are making a great comeback! Although instrument covers make it hard to prank each other with chicken wings, we’ve loved playing in-person at all the football games this season. We held our annual practice once again, and have continued our love for Waluigi (to a sometimes unhealthy level). We loved meeting up again with many of our alumni at Penn and Dartmouth, and can’t wait to (hopefully) welcome everyone back next fall for homecoming!
Trumpets: There was a lot of uncertainty coming into this semester, but with a fleet of amazing new members, the trumpets have remained the most powerful section in the band. It’s been a little funky getting back to in-person events. Scheduling concerns, instrument mask shortages, and just your general band-related chaos (i.e., Cups ‘22) kept us on our toes. Trumpet attendance has been through the roof at pretty much every event and we’ve been sounding amazing! A few new songs have been added to trumpet cheers, with a number of arrangements from Pony ‘20 and Eric ‘22. We continued the Over the Garden Wall tradition this year with a full Thanksgiving meal organized by Iceman ‘23, and we just celebrated Trumpet Christmas with a taco bar. It’s been an amazing season and we couldn’t be happier or prouder with how the section has evolved and persisted through this wild time, and we can’t wait to see what happens next!
Drumline: Drumline has been absolutely boolin’ this semester. There was the excitement of having our first in-person season since COVID. While it was definitely a challenge, we spent the spring semester building our chops with Cadence “Weekly Bars” to encourage members, new and old, to learn each section of the Parade Cadence. This definitely helped when we got back to marching in September. It made us happy to see members who joined their freshman year have their first ever marching season this fall as sophomores. We also had the privilege of welcoming new freshman, sophomores, and masters students to the Drumline during auditions in August, and they are just as talented and as quirky as you’d expect. They are super active and some of them were even recently elected to Bandstaph! We made a lot of great memories this year: from go-karting, to apple picking at Indian Creek Farm, to cheating at a corn maze at Stoughton Farm. With our first in-person season since 2019, we also had a first-time away trip to Dartmouth! We had a great time playing with the Dartmouth marching band and getting told not to say “Dartmouth sucks” in record time. We stopped at Boston on our way to Dartmouth (don’t think about it too much) and got to parade at Faneuil Hall. Even though they didn’t have t-shirts at UPenn and we got yelled at by their band director yet again, that was such a fun trip since we got to see some alums! We really wanted to focus on fostering an inclusive community and giving our new members the freshman fall that we had, and we are so excited to have accomplished that!
Bones: Da Bones have been chugging merrily along in most ossiferous comportment this year. We picked up a number of jolly frosh to bolster our RanKS, with so many tones that we had to even use Academic/Integrity every now and then (yeahhh tonarchy!!!). We went on our first away trips in 2 years to Penn and Dartmouth and attempted to sell many a duck and gravy boat on the Happy Bus. We’ve also added a few new bone cheers to the repertoire, including a reworking of Underbones. Whether making and playing Jeopardy boards, collaging, watching Evangelion, or getting up to our trademark cantankerous silliness at rehearsals or game days, da Bones have had a rather hearty return to marching. Can’t wait to continue that spirit with pep next semester, and we look forward to seeing y’all next year for Grand Bonecoming!!!
Tubas: The Tubae have declined to comment. They are too busy with confidential business, evidently.
