Does anyone know the name of the march played during graduation and then again in the coda? It's the one where the band goes to the half-step (slow march) at the bridge and then returns to the quickstep (quick march).
The damned thing has been stuck in my head for days.
Can't recall the name of the march, but VFMAC holds parades every Sunday during the parade season (weather permitting) and the slow step march takes place during each and every one. Its not just restricted to the graduation parade.
I attended VFMAC (where the movie was filmed) and its crazy to watch this flick because EVERYTHING is the same. The uniforms, marches, parades... everything.
The only differences that I noticed were:
1) The front gate for the movie was constructed for just the movie.
2) VFMAC has no cadet officer rank above Captain (there are varying levels of captain, however)
3) Our officers use pips instead of bars. A 1st Lt. Would have two pips as opposed to a gold bar etc.
I attended VFMAC (where the movie was filmed) and its crazy to watch this flick because EVERYTHING is the same. The uniforms, marches, parades... everything.
well, as a former member of the Regimental Band at VMI, I can offer you some help:
The section you are talking about is actually 3 marches. I can't help you with the march they play while they are half-stepping, but on either side of it they are play:
1) Black Jack March (before the half-step reprieved in the final scene)
2) Semper Fidelis (after the half-step)
hi,
my high school band played Semper Fidelis for all of first semester as warm up. after i saw the graduation scene, i knew i recognized the song but could not think of the name. next day in band, i remembered.
so yeah, it's one of Sousa's marches, most of which is in 6/8 time (which i believe is the quick step referred to earlier)
just some interesting trivia- Sousa tried all his life to compose songs that weren't marches, but all he could come up with were these incredible march tunes that the military (all branches) still uses, Semper Fi is one of the most common so it's not unlikely that many military schools play it at parades.
hope that helps.
The first march- "Blackjack" was composed by F.K. Huffer
Then they go into the half step.
The second march is "Semper Fi" by Sousa.
"Every Warrior hopes a Good Death will find him."
And the half step march or what the Commonwealth calls a Slow March is undoubtedly.... The Slow (official) March of the Preobrazhensky Life Guard Regiment of the Russian Imperial Guards, Imperial Russian Army, played by the Regimental Band of Valley Forge Military Academy and College in the film. It was raised in 1683 as the first infantry regiment of the Russian Army by no less by Tsar Peter I the Great himself and soon became the senior regiment of the Imperial Guards. The regimental slow march was composed in 1709 by Stanislav Samokhin. This march for a long time became the state military honors and inspection march of the Imperial Russian Army until its dissolution in 1917, and was revived in full during the 2003 Victory Day Parade on Moscows Red Square as a honors march to the Victory Banner (the Soviet flag raised on the Reichstag in May 1945) and soon the Flag of Russia from 2006.
I know that march by watching the Victory Day Parades on the Red Square in Moscow, Russia on May 9 every year, when the Flag of Russia and the Victory Banner are being paraded and marched towards their position on the parade. Since the 2010 parade in Moscow it has been replaced by The Sacred War, but this march is played on the Victory Day Parade in the Hero City of Novorossiysk yearly. I've seen that parade in Youtube several times.