Yale Precision Marching Band
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The Yale Precision Marching Band is the official marching band of Yale University. It is a scatter band (what some peers might call a "scramble band"), not to be confused with other types of university marching bands that emphasize precise movements and geometric field formations. It is affectionately known as the YPMB. Band members refer to themselves as "The Members Of", which is derived from their introduction at Yale events.
The repertoire of the YPMB is constantly evolving, driven by student arrangers and pop music trends. Besides standard types of band instruments, the YPMB includes violins, bagpipes, accordians, and air guitars, and was the first scatter band to incorporate electric guitars.
The YPMB's "Squids" section creates large cardboard props for halftime shows. The Squids evolved from the "Appoges" (pronounced "əˌpʰodʒəz", after "appogiatura", a grace note) of the 1980s and 1990s, who handled props but also carried their own "instruments" (frisbees, stuffed giraffes, lounge chairs).
The band is largely student-run. The Drum Major conducts the band during rehearsals and games. The Manager works closely with the Drum Major, organizes performances and events on and off campus, and ensures the well-being of the group. The Announcer and head Script Writer guide a script team that writes each week's show. The Student Arranger heads the Musicological Junta, the student team that arranges music for the shows. Ten section leaders assist the Drum Major and Manager, lead section rehearsals, etc.
YPMB uniforms consist of white pants and dark blue blazers with the University emblem for football games; signature t-shirts for basketball and volleyball games; and hockey jerseys for hockey, lacrosse, and most other sports.
The band performs at most Yale football, basketball, and hockey events, and travels with Yale athletic teams across the country. It makes regular appearances in New York's Village Halloween Parade. It has been featured on Good Morning America and in many newspapers.
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[edit] The Game
For the annual Harvard-Yale game - The Game - the YPMB puts on its largest halftime show of the year, featuring enormous three-dimensional props. Known as "Überprops", these typically serve as a means of destroying John Harvard. An Ünterprop was used for the first time in 2001.
[edit] Überprops
- 2006: "Peggy," a giant pegasus with a 40-foot wingspan.
- 2005: "WWI Tank," with a turret, treads, and 15-foot-long PVC pipe gun that shot out smoke as it destroyed the Harvard observation balloon
- 2004: "Alain," a giant blue dodecapus with 70-foot tentacles
- 2003: "The Spider," a 30-foot-long, 20-foot-tall spider with independently moving legs and bloody mandibles, accompanied onto the field by a roughly 300-square-yard web
- 2002: "The Snake," a snake that was 105 feet long and 10 feet wide
- 2001: "Peaches," an enormous fire-breathing blue dragon
- 2000: "The Booty Hunter," a two-story pirate ship with simulated cannon fire
- 1999: "The Train," a 40-foot train with several boxcars
- 1998: "The Tank," a tank with gun turret
- 1997: "Nessie," the Loch Ness monster
- 1996: "The Shark"
- 1995: "The Gallows", a hangman-style noose erected to tear the tab off of a large soda can
- 1994: "The Volcano", a 12-foot smoke-belching volcano into which a harvard student was sacrificed (the student was spit out by the volcano)
- 1989: "The Drum", a drum twice the diameter of the Harvard drum, out of which the Yale Bulldog Mascot jumped after the drum exploded
- 1988: "The Guillotine", a giant guillotine that spanned half the width of the field
[edit] Ünterprops
- 2006: A hydra that sprouted two heads when one was cut off.
- 2005: A Helium-filled observation balloon (the first ever flying ünterprop), Yale biplanes (Allies) and Harvard triplanes (German).
- 2004: The "HSS Compensation," a 30-foot long ship operated by John Harvard and commandeered by "Alain."
- 2001: The Harvard Castle, attacked by "Peaches" the dragon.
[edit] Notable Stunts
In September 1977, at the conclusion of the halftime show at the Yale-Brown game, the YPMB formed a giant diaper on the field. The members of the YPMB dropped their pants en masse to reveal that all members were wearing diapers. (The band marched "Down the Field" with their pants around their ankles.) This became known as one of its more infamous stunts; the band parodied that stunt at the Princeton game in 1983, where the band dropped its pants en masse again, this time to reveal that all members were wearing sweat pants underneath their white uniform pants.
In October 1985, six YPMB members were suspended after dropping their pants at halftime during the Yale-Holy Cross game (New York Times, October 20, 1985, 11CN p. 17). Only one week earlier, the band was forbidden by West Point officials from performing its halftime show during the Army-Yale game for the script's insinuation that certain government officials were communists. The following season, in the Yale-Army game at New Haven, the YPMB took the unusual step of marching in straight lines for several minutes before breaking into its usual scatter formations. (NYT 10/7/86, B4) Before the band left the field, members removed their blue blazers on the field, spelling out "USA."
In 1992, before the combined playing of the "Star-Spangled Banner", the Harvard marching band attempted to "X-out" the Yale Precision Marching Band while the Yale band stood in its traditional Y formation; however, the Yale band caught wind of this plan and, as the harvard band marched onto the field, shifted its formation into a large H, thus making harvard X itself out.
In 1992, the Yale-Fordham halftime featured the marriage of two former band members. ("At Yale, Wedding Band Takes On a New Meaning", New York Times, October 10, 1992.) During the ceremony, the band formed a three-tiered wedding cake; at each corner of the cake, serving as a candle, was a sousaphone that was on fire.
In 1993, the Yale-Harvard halftime show included the "assassination" of the Energizer Bunny(a bass drum player) -- the band formed a forty-yard bow and arrow, and "shot" the arrow at the Bunny. After they missed, the drum major took out a shotgun and blew the Bunny away. He was carried off by band members dressed as dining hall workers.
