Today's Trooping the Colour Ceremony 2013

[MrGongGong]

Here in the UK we happen to do it better than most. .

You can do all all your marchin about
and stuff etc
but this simply is a bit of nonsense
if you want synchronisation and the like
then your average US college marching band is miles ahead
or
if you want grand spectacle then the North Korean mass games knock everything else into the long grass
(though the penalty for a mistake is your whole family in a gulag )

[Mr Pee]

You can do all all your marchin about
and stuff etc
but this simply is a bit of nonsense
if you want synchronisation and the like
then your average US college marching band is miles ahead
or
if you want grand spectacle then the North Korean mass games knock everything else into the long grass
(though the penalty for a mistake is your whole family in a gulag )

With all due respect, Mr GG, which admittedly isn't much, that's a load of nonsense. But then that is what I have come to expect from you.

[MrGongGong]

With all due respect, Mr GG, which admittedly isn't much, that's a load of nonsense. But then that is what I have come to expect from you.

Watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqd1uefshHA

or this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4USGnOlbnjw

Of course "we" do this "better"

Do your marchin about by all means
but don't pretend that somehow "we" have some kind of unique skill at this

[amateur51]

With all due respect, Mr GG, which admittedly isn't much, that's a load of nonsense. But then that is what I have come to expect from you.

That's not a rebuttal, it's not even a whinge

[Serial_Apologist]

Watch this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqd1uefshHA

I think we should offer to send Mr Pee over there to explain to them that if this is the best they can do, their nukes won't be much of a threat, obviously.

[Pabmusic]

this one

i did catch most of the ceremonies on the highlights yesterday evening; thought the quick ones were best .... splendid playing

I have used Florentiner in an orchestral version at least three times - it's a wonderful piece, though I can't imagine it would be good for marching! It would be good for the New Year's Day concert, though - because it's a 'Viennese' piece:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmyrGcHkCuw

[Mr Pee]

I have used Florentiner in an orchestral version at least three times - it's a wonderful piece, though I can't imagine it would be good for marching! It would be good for the New Year's Day concert, though - because it's a 'Viennese' piece:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmyrGcHkCuw

Florentiner is a great piece, but not ideal for marching, although a lot better than the Wengler Marsch:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxqyPyiStTM

When I was in the RAF our boss often suggested using it on a Ceremonial occasion with the Queen's Colour Squadron, just to see the ensuing chaos!! He never actually dared to do so unfortunately.

[amateur51]

I think we should offer to send Mr Pee over there to explain to them that if this is the best they can do, their nukes won't be much of a threat, obviously.

But would they let him in?

On second thoughts, probably a good idea S_A :

[BBMmk2]

I must admit, i have never marched playing the Florentiner march.

[Pabmusic]

I must admit, i have never marched playing the Florentiner march.

I really wouldn't try, BBM!

[ahinton]

I have to admit that the Trooping of the Colour ceremony, whilst it does nothing whatsoever for me and I'd have not the slightest desire to watch one either on television or live, probably doesn't cost a great deal of money that's not being spent already (and so, since it's relatively harmless, I see no real arguments against it), but with all the current and impending cutbacks to the armed forces and the police, I am inclined to question for how long this might remain the case. Yes, it is indeed a problem keeping armed forces in times of peace and justifying the taxpayers' expenditure on them (is that the real reason why some of them keep getting sent off to Afghanistan and elsewhere - just to give them something with which to occupy them and alleviate the boredom that might otherwise set in?), although the permanent and continuous requirement for a police force is another matter.

Does it matter whether or not the British do this kind of ceremonial thing better than they do it elsewhere? And all this stuff about music departments within the defence industry has always puzzled me; where is the conceivable connection between trying to gun down Taliban members in Afghanistan and trying to learn to play the clarinet that justifies each skill being taught by armed forces training personnel?

Merely citing Mahler in the context of military marches as has been done here seems to me to be disproportionate and misleading in that it rather ignores the reasons why Mahler did indeed explore such things in his symphonic writing (along with so much else). Continuing to appropriate music as a part of the panoply or war-mongering strikes me as worse even than the obsessive, irrelevant, inappropriate and grossly overused "background music" that invades certain television programmes and movies.

[Serial_Apologist]

Does it matter whether or not the British do this kind of ceremonial thing better than they do it elsewhere? And all this stuff about music departments within the defence industry has always puzzled me; where is the conceivable connection between trying to gun down Taliban members in Afghanistan and trying to learn to play the clarinet that justifies each skill being taught by armed forces training personnel?

Whether or not the situation has changed, a number of jazz musicians of my generation and before, whom I have met, nevertheless made great claims for having gained their musical skills at the hands of Her Majesty's Forces - a fact that made other aspects of conscription more bearable for them.

Merely citing Mahler in the context of military marches as has been done here seems to me to be disproportionate and misleading in that it rather ignores the reasons why Mahler did indeed explore such things in his symphonic writing (along with so much else). Continuing to appropriate music as a part of the panoply or war-mongering strikes me as worse even than the obsessive, irrelevant, inappropriate and grossly overused "background music" that invades certain television programmes and movies.

[ahinton]

Whether or not the situation has changed, a number of jazz musicians of my generation and before, whom I have met, nevertheless made great claims for having gained their musical skills at the hands of Her Majesty's Forces - a fact that made other aspects of conscription more bearable for them.

Well, that's a good point, of course, but it could almost be taken to mean that conscription into armed forces is generally accepted as being so unbearable that some degree of musical training might be considered necessary to alleviate the effects of some of its worst aspects, but I was thinking more of armed forces personnel other than conscripted ones when writing as I did about what seems to me to be the questionable validity of the rôle of music study and performance - and the place for it - within the armed forces industry.

[MrGongGong]

Does it matter whether or not the British do this kind of ceremonial thing better than they do it elsewhere? And all this stuff about music departments within the defence industry has always puzzled me; where is the conceivable connection between trying to gun down Taliban members in Afghanistan and trying to learn to play the clarinet that justifies each skill being taught by armed forces training personnel?
.

I think it DOES matter
I think it matters that the myths of how well "WE" do things are exploded
there are many fine musicians in the RAF et al and I have worked with many ex bandsmen in orchestras etc
BUT
there is an almost imperialist glee to the usual nonsense trotted out on these occasions

the truth is that if you want spectacle you are better off with a totalitarian regime
The British are all over the place in comparison

carrying on believing that "we" somehow do everything better is a delusion that it would be wise to grow out of IMV

[BBMmk2]

Other countries say we do though!