Added: 4 years ago
From: mechwar91
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  • Good! Definitely a little faster than most bands would play it, I think but it's all up to the conductor. The mourning/ reflection part of this could have been slower, especially the flute solo, but it was very well done. My band is playing this for a national competition this year and the song is lovely!

  • my band is playing that piece this year

  • I've been checking the tempos on a metronome the entire time. According to the score specifications they did not rush this piece. Granted, they approached the limit several times, but they were within the tempo range for at least 98-99% of the time.

  • playing this now in middle school....ya i think you know you rushed :)

  • you guys were a tad bit fast, but otherwise it was a great performance, you could really feel the emotion through the music, great solos!

  • you guys did very well with dynamics. good job in the flute/clarinet solo. I thought u guys went a little too fast at times. but very good tho. my school also played this song. I give u guys a thumbs up.

  • Haha I played saxamaphone in highschool and we played this but there was an airraid siren and the saibian scared the shit out of everyone. Those poor chaperones giving up their lives for those soldiers.

  • too fast. no siren? really? that was supposed to be the coolest part! and the low brass was too quiet.

  • I played this my freshman year and thought it was the best song ever.

  • @lukycharms9 I'm a freshmen right now, and we are playing this:) I love it, and bass clarinet!

  • You guys went to fast! :( Flutes rock though! :)

  • @1:50

    That is Rushed.

    Everything else seems okay.

  • Rushing it kind of ruined the feeling of this song.

  • it's rushed. a little too fast.

  • its a little rushed..but its nice

  • we played this my freshman year and loved it in band class! had a hard time finding an alarm/horn for the middle but it was worth it...

  • you guys are going kinda too fast

  • @THEANnetWork this is actually the original tempo, everybody tends to not play it this way though

  • James Swearingen is one of my favorite composers when it come to concert band literature. His music is not too difficult but very energetic and serene. I'm not sure how I would feel about performing in a gymnasium but you all sounded nice! Great job Glen A. Wilson!!!

  • wow watching vids for this song makes me think how crazy must my band teacher be if she thinks we can do it as well as any highschool band, when were eight graders LOL

  • FLUTES!!!!!!!=D

  • wildcat thats iike the most generic mascot EVER

  • @djq1324 Yeah, and I know with me it helps me play better because I get into it more. I even sway when I'm playing my tuba, it can be any instrument. ^^

  • This was a really good song. We play it my band and its difficult but funny to play. Tuba rocks ^-^

  • great job! my band is learning this... but we only have 25 if you count the percussionists.... bass clarinets rock!!!

  • What a great song my high school band just played this at a concert today. Pure music at its best!

  • awesome job on this. My band is playing this and is going to be getting judge on it in two weeks. = D i play the clarinet/flute solos. Clarinets Rock! Also my schools called Wilson! kinda funny.

  • songs like this make me miss high school band  : (

  • good job except for one thing: during the part with the bells and the snare drum, it would've really been awesome if you had a siren. my school played this song and used an old crank siren and that really added to the atmosphere!!!

  • It was good, but everyone was as stiff as a board...I'm the flute soloist and I kind of sway when I play.

    I really love this song!

  • @Kagome811 We're playing this for our spring concert and we have a soprano saxophonist playing that solo.

  • @bandgeek630 Oh I see. I didn't mean just the soloist, though, the whole band is just very still.

  • calling all band geeks to subscribe to me please

  • you need to watch your director more. and the beginning was to fast. your band also didnt have a siren when almost everyone was doing the sixteenth notes. thats the really cool part. other than that, great job! im doing this song on bassoon in a week and a half in disney.

  • @mrluke787 it doesnt matter if you play clarinet and your a guy, thats like saying its a girl instrument which is wrong, some of the best clarinet players are males same for the flute

  • I agree! I have a friend who is the only guy in our clarinet section. I'm not saying that I'm agreeing with mrluke, but I'm just saying... It doesn't matter at all. It's all just a matter of opinion...

  • whoa, it's faster then the actual recording at the beginning hahaha. I'm playing this in my band too, I'm Clarinet. pay no attention to my manly acc. name, i'm on the wrong one hahaha i'm actually a girl :P

  • We are playing this song right now too for contest. Ours holds together a little bit better except for measure five in the beginning with the low bras; our low brass is very weak. Other than that, I think this sounds great. I think they need to watch the conductor a little more, though. There were a few parts I was worried it would fall apart.

  • We're playing it tomorrow for the Veterans. Our band has 80 people. (Marching people and concert band!)

  • it almost sounds like the percussion cant keep up in the beginning

  • Wow... That started really fast.

  • Omg Im a Tri- County band flute player and I made first chair and Im gonna have to do that solo also!!!!! In the middle were the flute player plays, Im so nervous!!!!!

  • @Brooklyn2400 Thats good i got 3rd seat in my band and 6th seat overall out of 18.... i wish i could do a solo

  • im a freshman and my bands doing this song for consert band :) in the beginning though we are a lil slower with the tempo :D great song tho :D

  • we played this for Remebrance Day, we epic failed though because our band has 130 people! D:

    It's so hard to control everyones articulation. :/

  • lol what school are you from?

    my school also had over 100 people, we did pretty bad too...DX

  • im in farmingdale so we almost about 200 but my best friend last sunday 11/5 so we have 199 :(

  • to fast if you play it slower it sounds way better my school band did this slow and it was way better

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  • To dirtdude I would agree with you, however, The tempo is Allegro Vivo! therefore they played it correctly

  • @btrfly93 yes it is allegro vivo, but it does change throughout the piece. I listened to it professionally done and it was slower.

  • wow we doin dis right now the only crash cymbal there FHS ftw

  • I remember being a sophomore in high school we drilled this song day in and day out...

    My band director at the time took this song to serious heights...

    After 4 months of drilling.... We played it for a judging contest...

    We nailed it... Not much could shake the conductor, but he was almost in tears when he stepped down from the podium...

    And we got a standing ovation from all of the judges...

    What a beautiful piece of work!

  • also i think what makes it wonderful is the true story behind the song.

  • i graduated in 2001 and i play the trombone we pick this song for our senor class going away song

  • I played this song in 8th grade on bassoon and, I must say, I miss it quite a lot! It's such a beautiful piece, and one I'll always remember playing.

  • this was my favorite song to play in highschool, i was 2nd chair trombone, loved every note of this song!

  • This was my favorite as well, especialy when we came in with the french horns in that beautiful slow section!

  • This is amazing!! love it. The 8th grade band i was in played it, but it sounded nothing like this!! wow

  • Oh my gosh! The major chord at the end was played without any missed notes! Incredible! That never happened in our band. :P

    I did think it was weird though that at the end you played four-measure phrases. We did two-measure and it sounded great.

  • i can't here the clarinet

  • listen at around 0:34 ish

  • This was one of my favorites from high school. I believe we played it Junior year, which would have been 2002.

  • you guys took this song wayyyyyyyyyyy to fast

  • ur right

  • thats the speed it calls for. its not a slow song

  • who is conducting in this recording?

  • Clarinets Rock ! :D

    Great Band ^_^

  • wow...played this in my high school symphonic band back in '99 :D

    Thanks for uploading this!

  • Comment removed

  • bleachfan1216,

    oh wow, that would suck.

    this song is for highschoolers mostly.

  • uhh i dont know you!!!! who the hell are you anyway..

  • i tought it was a little fast in the beginning but it was good

  • goodness, I played this song before, I was a really good arrangement. I really enjoyed listening to this piece preformed from this band

  • This was the song we played last year for a festival...I heart this song!!!!

  • I just played this tonight. It was amazing. TUBA FOR LIFE!

  • awesome song! James Swearingen writes the greatest stuff. great performance!

  • I am a freshman in high school and the freshman band just learned this song in about a week. It was amazing. Though it kinda messed up at the concert.

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  • Yup!

  • I just played this yesterday. haha nice.

  • thats was my last hight school concert band song...... this video took me back!!!!!!

  • This is very good. but it's just not the song unless it has an english horn solo instead of the flute. Don't get me wrong the flute is very good. but the english horn adds so much more to the song. It sound edgier and tougher like the men on the ship. It is also heard a lot better.

  • i play this at school but we dont play THAT fast!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Great song, great story with the song too.

  • Damn, i remember playing this

    song freshman year of High School!

    :D

    Great Memories!

  • Finally a band on youtube that knows how to play.

    Thank you

  • This piece is so beautiful. I play french horn and I love my part <3

    But where's the hand siren in this song?!

  • We're playing this for our contest and most likely for our last concert to. I enjoy the song, its exciting, upbeat(at some parts) and tells a good story. Overall its a good song. Personally my favorite part is a couple of measures before the drums come in(in the story that would be the alarm on the ship)

  • Wow this is actually really good. I mean I am personally a horn player and i could hear the horns very well. Our band might possibly be playing this for OMEA districts this year and oh yes Mr.Swearingen himself comes to critique us every year before we perform at contests. Hes a pretty amazing guy once you meet him:)

  • I am in our band High school just played this at our winter concert, they kicked butt and so did you all.

  • yea...its a flute solo with a little clarient accompanyment

  • Is that the bass clarinet playing with the flute?

  • I played this my Senior Year in High School. We actually had a power outage and ended up playing "The Light Eternal" in the dark. This song brings back tons of great High School Memories! Go Generals!

  • whoa! How ironic..no!??

  • im playing this song this year, i get to do the gong hit, at FFF!

  • lol

  • I played this last year, I loved it! It was my favorite piece. You guys do really well! That slow prat after the siren thing always makes me tear up XD

    By the way, we used a break drum and not a hand crank siren. We don't have the siren thing.

  • I played this piece like... 5 years ago. No, 4. This is nice. :) Thanks for the upload.

  • i played this 2 years ago for symphonic band contest..and we got away without the sirens....but i love this piece...the composer's one of my favorites...i've alos played "Into the Joy of Spring" by him, and absolutly loved it...

  • my high skool played dis song @ issma, too

  • There is a part for a hand crank siren that they left out. This is a MUST for this piece. The sirens are hard to come by (we paid $500 to rent one for festival one year) but make this great piece of music.

    DW

  • yeah, you are right, it is written to use that, but all we used was some sort of tire rim that made a really loud clang... well, it resembled one

  • my high skool played dis song

  • i'm playing this for my 7th/8th grade symphonic band.

    holy crap you guys are so fast!

    but this is an AMAZING song.

    and you guys are really good!

  • These people is fantastic! I have played trombone onlñy one year, but is enought to know that i have to practice a lot to play like them! =( Good presentation ^^

  • love this song but i agree slow down it sounds so better when you do (p.s.) played the sax in concert band and we played it perfectly!!!

  • Marvelous

    but slow down

  • Played this song my freshman year in high school... we rehearsed it so much, but by the time May came around, we had the tune whipped into shape... Got standing ovations every performance... It's wonderful to be able to relive that memory with another bands beautiful rendition of this very articulate music... Thanks for posting this...

  • Ive never played this song but I have a recording and the alto clarinet part *Hated the bassoon part that much lol* and I feel important when I play its part.

  • it may be a tad bit on the fast side, but the group performed it WONDERFULLY! they took the tempo change well, and instead of playing it sloppy, they played it very articulated.

  • TOO FAST TOO FAST TOO FAST. :o

  • its SO FAST.... itts not the real speed ...

  • wow..it was awesome

  • This was faster than what my band played it freshmen year, but it sounds so awesome! Great work!

  • Played this my freshmen year in HS and got a one. Love the song, and euphonium section, you rock =)

    Great job.

  • omg i love this song. my band just played this a week ago for a competition in williams burg virginia. at bush gardens. We won We won. go APEX MIDDLE SCHOOL.

  • we just performed this song last night and my self esteem is totally lowered after watching this lol this was AMAZING.

  • We played that back in '96! I was the flute soloist!! Gosh, that makes me feel old.  ((blushing)).

  • my highschool band playd this song, we had a wonderful flute solo and slowed the tempo about 10 counts, it was simply amazing

  • great job sounds really good we currently playing two of james swearingens pieces this one and seagate love them both

  • This is way faster than what our Band plays but it still sounds pretty good :) I just think It should be a little slower so the majesty of the song is heard.

    I love the Flute solo...reminds me of our wonderful soloist. :)

  • Oops . . . I think I posted a comment wrong . . my bad. . I was posting it as a reply to yorkstem's comment.

    But I just wanted to add, the horns sound amazing.

  • you did reply to me

  • Oh . . oops hehe my bad.

  • this rendition is much faster than the way my band is doing it. doesn't give much time for the audience to enjoy the song, I say. just my opinion, though.

  • I'm only in middle school and were playing this.

  • fuckin middle school kids thinking theyre all that. if i saw you in real life i would punch you out. its not about how hard the mucsic if fuck head. its about how it sounds and with your shitty ass school playing it it probably sounds like bullshit. so fuck off

  • word

  • That's a really horrible way of putting it :(. The person was simply making a statement . . no need to cuss them out. I'm in middle school too and we're playing this as well, though not quite as fast as this band is. And they're obviously much better than us.

  • yes but he makes it sound like he is trying to make a hightschool band sound worse then a middle school band.

  • im performing this next friday for the pope with my highschool band....you guys performed this extremely well!

  • for the Pope! WHAT????

  • haha yeah my school got chosen by the Archdiocese in Brooklyn...you can watch us perform a little on Channel 7 ABC News i think....

    Xaverian High School

    Brooklyn NY

  • wow what a Great Honor! don't mess up!

  • hahaha thanks!

    were gunna be on the today show tuesday morning if anyone wants to watch ;)!

  • marched to this 10 years ago, brings back some memories

  • onme of the BEST so far you played it up to speed it was great! we are doin it for outdoor hopefully we sound as good as u guys! im so excited!

  • Our School just recently performed this (look at Video Response) and I think we did a pretty kick butt job.

  • my high school did this piece and i really loved doing it (trombone player). we actually did pretty much as good as this band, though we played a tid bit slower. we slowed down on the trombone drammatico part and it sounded much better style wise in my opinion though =/

  • awesome job!

  • We're playing this for festival in two weeks. It's a beautiful song. Our band isn't nearly as big as y'alls though. (As in 4 flutes 5 clarinets small)

  • we are too!

  • This has always been a beautiful piece. My band director is considering having us play it for a competition despite we played it last year.

  • were playing this in our concert band this year.. its an awsome piece!.. but at 1:56 when he ships goin down, thats my most favorite

  • Me too! About the only time you can play ugly and get away with it lol.

  • OR have every percussion insturment known to man at full blast!!

    At my college we even have a turbine sound just for this song its great!

  • The story behind this song is about the Four

    Chaplains, US Navy Chaplains-a Catholic, two Protestants, and a Jewish Chaplaim who gave

    their own lifejackets to other sailors in WW2 when their ship was sinking sacrificing their lives for others. They were last seen on deck arm in arm praying together as the ship sank.

  • this is my favorite piece by far! i played this last year and when we first played it i thought it was the stupidest song ever... but a few days later our director told us the story behind it and i almost wanted to cry. when we performed it in contest and concert, i took so much pride in it, and i played it the best i could in honor of the sailors lives that were lost.

  • We're playing this for our Middle School Band concert festival :D I thought it sounded a lil slow. But sounds great :]

  • Us too!

    i love this song.

    and we have a siren in our percussion section =P haha

  • You guys went a smidge too fast. Overal though, it sounded great!

  • Wow your band did really well on that ^^ We played that for our first concert this year and I think we're bringing it to festival in April...yours is much better than ours, seeing as we've only got 31 people in all, 2 percussionists O.o We played it a lot slower than your band did too...but that might just be director's preference.

    Anyway, amazing job!

  • Lol good Job Kevin Tien and Phoun Tien :D <3 geo!

  • such a sad story behind this song:(

  • Very good! best one i've heard for sure

  • best version of light eternal ive heard on youtube. kudos

  • wow! must say this is my fave version on you tube. we played this last year for senior concert band. and u guys have a very very impressive percussion section! we only had 4 -_-' including me lol

  • nice!!

  • My symphonic band just played this piece for our final concert of the year, very balanced piece. We performed in our performing arts center at school, and with the "God of our Fathers" hymn, we shook the place. Very triumphant piece of work. Good job.

  • WOW! 13 percussionists?? niiice i think we have 9... i have to fill in allot of mallet stuff but it doesnt look like u had much problems w/ that

  • yes...incredibly fast. my middle school played it really well in the CMEA conference ^_^ it was great. nice playing!

  • This songs we play for our SYF 2005 and get silver

  • WOW this was fast but overall sound well

  • A little too fast...make sure nobody gets ahead of themselves and rushes.

  • awesome work, the bands sounds real together. i miss being in a concert band! go trumpets!!

  • Ah, my favorite!

  • Great job Wilson! WILDCATS FTW!!!

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