Honor Band

The following article was respectfully submitted by Clear Creek Amana Middle School 7th grader, Miles Lucas.

Once every year a whole week is dedicated to students in the musical arts held at Coe College. Many different concert bands perform, including the Junior and Senior Honor Bands. These bands are all students selected by their instructors, brought together to make music.

This year the juniors (7-8th graders) are going to play 4 songs, Senor Cadera (Mister Hip), The Gandy Dancer, An English Celebration, and The Corcoran Cadets March. Our group was very lucky because two of the songs, The Gandy Dancer and Senor Cadera, were going to be taught and directed to us by the composer himself- Len Orcino.

Mr. Orcino is a very vivid man; the guy walking off the beaten path. The same goes for his music. The Gandy Dancer is a composition that depicts the sounds of what railroad worker’s daily lives were like. It started off with a steady anvil noise (the hammers on the railroad) and progressively reached a climatic “noon-time” noise, then falling back to the end-of-the-day anvil noise.

His other work, Senor Cadera, is a latin-style work that assembles an image in your mind of “Mister Cool”. Mister Cool was the original name but when Orcino decided to make it Spanish, he changed it to Mister Hip because he was unsatisfied with the Spanish translation of “cool”.

Our other three songs, An English Celebration, the Corcoran Cadets March, and Magga, were directed by David Law- a local junior high band director. Magga was a mysterious tribal-like work which mystified and almost terrified you at the same time. An English Celebration was an up-tempo song that featured a “dog-fight” between brass and woodwind instruments. Corcoran Cadets March was an up-tempo march that put a spotlight on the avid percussionists, as most marches do.

To put it in a few words, Honor Band was a fast-paced, challenging, fun, and entertaining event for both the musicians and the audience.

Once every year a whole week is dedicated to students in the musical arts held at Coe College. Many different concert bands perform, including the Junior and Senior Honor Bands. These bands are all students selected by their instructors, brought together to make music.

This year the juniors (7-8th graders) are going to play 4 songs, Senor Cadera (Mister Hip), The Gandy Dancer, An English Celebration, and The Corcoran Cadets March. Our group was very lucky because two of the songs, The Gandy Dancer and Senor Cadera, were going to be taught and directed to us by the composer himself- Len Orcino.

Mr. Orcino is a very vivid man; the guy walking off the beaten path. The same goes for his music. The Gandy Dancer is a composition that depicts the sounds of what railroad worker’s daily lives were like. It started off with a steady anvil noise (the hammers on the railroad) and progressively reached a climatic “noon-time” noise, then falling back to the end-of-the-day anvil noise.

His other work, Senor Cadera, is a latin-style work that assembles an image in your mind of “Mister Cool”. Mister Cool was the original name but when Orcino decided to make it Spanish, he changed it to Mister Hip because he was unsatisfied with the Spanish translation of “cool”.

Our other three songs, An English Celebration, the Corcoran Cadets March, and Magga, were directed by David Law- a local junior high band director. Magga was a mysterious tribal-like work which mystified and almost terrified you at the same time. An English Celebration was an up-tempo song that featured a “dog-fight” between brass and woodwind instruments. Corcoran Cadets March was an up-tempo march that put a spotlight on the avid percussionists, as most marches do.

To put it in a few words, Honor Band was a fast-paced, challenging, fun, and entertaining event for both the musicians and the audience.