Strike Up the Band is a musical with a book by Morrie Ryskind, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and music by George Gershwin. The musical ran on Broadway in 1930 after the original book by George S. Kaufman was revised. The story satirizes America's taste for war: America declares war on Switzerland over a trivial trade issue.
Aside from the title tune, the 1940 Judy Garland-Mickey Rooney musical film Strike Up the Band had no relation to the stage production.
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The original book by George S. Kaufman centered on Horace J. Fletcher, a Babbitt-like cheese tycoon who tries to maintain his monopoly on the American market by convincing the United States government to declare war on Switzerland. The story ended darkly.
The 1930 plot by Ryskind, softened the political overtones, increased the emphasis on romance and added a happy ending. It relegated the war plot to a dream sequence. The incident that incites war concerned chocolate instead of cheese.[1]
During its original 1927 pre-Broadway tryouts, the political satire closed in Philadelphia, fulfilling original librettist's George S. Kaufman's definition of satire as "what closes on Saturday night."[2][3] The original is heavily influenced by Gilbert and Sullivan.[1]
The Gershwins revised the story with Ryskind for the 1930 Broadway run; they also removed the song The Man I Love, now a Gershwin standard, from the show. They added a dozen new songs and rewrote the lyrics or even changed the melodies of many of the 1927 songs. The new score is less Gilbert-and-Sullivan and more swing-influenced.[1] Directed by Alexander Leftwich and choreographed by George Hale, the revised production opened on Broadway at the Times Square Theatre on January 14, 1930 and closed on June 28, 1930 after a moderately successful run of 191 performances. The cast included Dudley Clements and Blanche Ring.[3]
The Gershwins' first fully integrated score for a book musical was influenced by the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan.[4] It was performed by the Red Nichols Orchestra, which included Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, Jimmy Dorsey, and Jack Teagarden.
The overture is noted for its atonal development and length, and can stand alone as a concert performance work.
The title song, "Strike Up the Band", was given to the University of California, Los Angeles by the Gershwins in 1936 as "Strike Up the Band for UCLA" and has become one of the school songs.
In 1990, a studio cast recording of the original 1927 score (and some of the 1930 songs), featuring Rebecca Luker, Brent Barrett, Beth Fowler and Don Chastain, was released on the Nonesuch label.[5] At the same time, the 1930 version was recorded with the same cast but not released. This recording was finally released in 2011 by PS Classics.[1]
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Overture
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Overture
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Many composers and arrangers are interested in the entire work or excerpts. Luther Henderson[6] and Sammy Nestico[7] created arrangement for Brass ensemble. Désiré Dondeyne[8] made an arrangement for wind Orchestra, Warren Barker[9] for Concert band. Martin Caron,[10] member of Duo Caron did a transcription for formation four pianists-eight hands. Also note Gerry Mulligan,[11] Mark Hayes[12] (Choir arrangement) and Carl Strommen[13] (Arrangement for wind instruments).