Band member composes march for band's 80th anniversary

The Washington Municipal Band received a special treat Thursday when it performed a piece of music composed by one of its own members. Ross Schumaker, who plays trumpet and percussion in the band, composed a march for the municipal band in honor of its 80

^th

anniversary.

Schumaker?s march is called ?Semper Victoriam,? which is Latin for ?always victorious.? Band director Tom McNamar stepped aside Thursday to allow Schumaker to conduct the piece. Schumaker said it took him 50 hours to write the music, which he did on a computer program called ?Sibelius.?

Schumaker said marches have a certain structure that they always follow, so writing a march is not quite like starting with a blank canvass. Marches usually start with a first strain, then a second strain, then experience a key change at the trio. He knew he wanted to feature certain long-serving members of the band such as Gary McCurdy on tuba and Wayne Brock on bass drum, so he wrote parts specifically for them.

?I started with the melody, and then I figured out what the harmonic structure would be,? he said. ?Being a trumpet player myself, I figured out the melody with the trumpets, which started the first strain.?

The low brass, such as the trombones, tuba and euphonium, led the second strain. The trio featured the tuba and the bugle the first time through and then the tuba and the piccolo the second time through. In all, Schumaker wrote 27 distinct pieces of sheet music to accommodate the wide variety of instruments and parts in the band.

Schumaker was far from a novice composer when he started this endeavor earlier this year. Schumaker teaches middle school band at Mid-Prairie, where he has arranged music for ensemble groups numerous times. He was familiar with music-making software and he wanted to honor the band, so he set out to compose a piece for it on the computer.

The software allows the composer to put notes and rests on a page through the click of a mouse. The composer can hear what he?s written by asking the computer to play it back to him. Inserting the notes for each part can be painstaking, but Schumaker said the software made that task easier by converting notes from one instrument to another. For instance, Schumaker could write a melody for trumpets, click a button, and those notes would be translated into the corresponding notes on a clarinet or a trombone.

Once Schumaker had written the piece, he asked his musical colleagues to critique it. Former Mid-Prairie band director Becky Curtis reviewed the music by playing portions of it on the piano.

?We figured out which spots needed a different part,? Schumaker said. ?She helped me find some things I wouldn?t have found otherwise.?

Schumaker has been a fan of marches since his first days in elementary band. He particularly likes marches by John Philip Sousa and Karl King. In fact, Schumaker was inspired to write ?Semper Victoriam? by Sousa?s march ?Semper Fidelis,? (the official song of the U.S. Marine Corps) and King?s march, ?Call to Victory.?

Schumaker hails from the town of Jewell in Hamilton County in central Iowa. He was involved in everything musical growing up in the South Hamilton school district.

?South Hamilton is known for its tradition of marches,? he said. ?Karl King was a famous march composer who lived in Fort Dodge the last half of his life. One of the things I tried to do with this march was write it in the same style as King and Sousa.?

Schumaker said he was pleased that his composition received a blessing from McNamar, who put it in the band?s lineup Thursday.

?The band was happy to have an original piece written for them,? Schumaker said. ?We joked that last night was the world premiere of Semper Victoriam. I greatly enjoy having the opportunity to play with people who also enjoy making music. I wanted to dedicate the march to the members of the municipal band, both past and present. Washington County has such a rich history of music, and I?m glad to be a part of it.?