Brown University Band

The Brown University Band is the official band of Brown University. Like all Ivy League bands except Cornell's, it is a scatter band. The Brown Band is famous for being the world's best and only ice skating band. It is the source of much of Brown's school spirit, and often appears as a public representation of Brown to the Providence community and to other universities. The Band is present at Brown's football, hockey, and basketball games, in addition to Commencement and many other events each year. It receives funding from Brown's Undergraduate Finance Board.

Leadership

The Brown Band is a student-run organization with a faculty advisor. The leaders of the Band are collectively known as the Band Board, and are elected near the end of the fall football season. Band Board consists of a president, vice president, general manager ("mom"), business manager ("money god" or "goddess"), corresponding secretary ("corsec"), and recording secretary ("recsec"). In addition to Band Board, there are several appointed positions of leadership, including a student conductor and one to two assistant conductors, script writers, historians, librarians, webmasters, section leaders, and alumni liaisons.

History & Traditions

The Band was founded in 1924 by Irving Harris, a freshman who was shocked to find that the University had no band. This established a tradition of a student-run organization that currently has University practice space and a faculty advisor (currently Matt McGarrell), but is primarily driven by its student leadership.

The Band creates between 600 and 1000 buttons for each football game. These buttons have short [http://www.brown.edu/Students/Brown_Band/buttons.shtml messages] that make fun of the opposing team, usually through wordplay and stereotyping the opposing school. Brown Band members proudly display these buttons on their uniforms, often making large patterns out of them. Buttons are handed out to every fan who goes near the Band. During the third quarter, several bandies will walk over to the opposing team's stands and hand out buttons. Other bands are typically the first recipients of buttons during this time, and many band members at other Ivy League schools wear Brown Band buttons on their uniforms.

Elrod T. Snidley

Elrod T. Snidley is the Brown Band's mascot. He is always depicted carrying a bugle and leaning on a bass drum. Elrod was created in the late 1960s as a self-portrait of Douglas "Doogi" Ballon, '69. Elrod's likeness adorns almost every object that the Brown Band wears or sells, including their uniforms, pens, and kazoos. Bandies often form intramural teams for various sports, and always sign up under the team name "Snidleys."

Elrod also made a nearly successful run for President of the Undergraduate Council of Students in 1988. Bandies taped up posters of Elrod with the slogan, "Vote for Snidley - he won't do diddley!" While he was not officially recognized, he received nearly half of the student votes as a write-in candidate.

Repertoire

Approximately fifty pieces of music comprise the Brown Band's repertoire, which changes each year. The repertoire comprises several Brown-specific songs and many more pop songs. While most Brown students know the words to Ever True to Brown (Brown's fight song), few people outside the Band know the words to any other Brown song. Many songs have alternate lyrics that the band sings to pass time on long bus trips. Brown songs are typically played, sung, and played again. The following Brown songs are always kept handy:
* Ever True to Brown (a.k.a #1)
* Brown Cheering Song (#2)
* Brown Forevermore (Brown Three-evermore, #3)
* For Bruno and For Brown (4 Bruno and 4 Brown, #4)
* Alma Mater (That Song)
* Brown Bear (a polka)
* Bring the Victory
* In the Fray
* I'm a Brown Man Born

In addition, some songs are played only at certain events. Ki-Yi-Yi is played when the hockey team scores a goal. On the Chapel Steps and the Commencement March are taken out only during Commencement Week.

Finally, the band plays many pop songs, which are often arranged by the band's own members. Some of the more popular pop tunes include:
* You Can Call Me Al
* Stacy's Mom
* The Horse
* I Want You Back
* Build Me Up, Buttercup
* I Touch Myself
* September
*Ghostbusters

Events

The Band is present at every home and Ivy football game in the fall semester. During the spring semester, the band will play at basketball or hockey games once or twice a weekend. Other sports, such as soccer, water polo, and even rowing will occasionally be cheered on by the Band. Brown University administration also occasionally asks the band to be present at certain important events, such as the kickoff of the Boldly Brown campaign. Other yearly events include the stealth show, where the band hides in bushes and building surrounding the main green, then surprises students who are just leaving class at the busiest time of day with a humorous and uncensored scatter band show. On the morning of the Parents' Weekend football game, the Band completes a Campus March that takes them inside several dorms and outside most of the rest. While the Band stands by the claim that this is to build team spirit and to get people to come to the football game, many students are unhappy with the early wakeup [ [http://media.www.browndailyherald.com/media/storage/paper472/news/2007/11/19/Columns/Ben-Bernstein.09.All.The.Small.Things-3109486.shtml Ben Bernstein '09: All the small things - Columns ] ] . However, not all parades are early in the morning. Every December, the Band parades around campus playing Christmas and Hanukkah carols and giving out hot chocolate and candy canes to anyone willing to brave the cold New England weather. Finally, once a year, the Band plays for the people waiting in line for Ben and Jerry's Free Cone Day before getting their own free ice cream.

Hockey games

The Brown University Band is famous for being the world's best and only ice skating band. After hockey games at Brown's Meehan Auditorium, the Band does ice shows, which are very similar to field shows during football season. However, each ice show ends in a maneuver known as the Counterskate. The band lines up in two rows perpendicular to the red and blue lines on the ice. The band begins playing "In the Fray," and after eight measures, the lines begin skating towards center ice, intersecting each other near the blue line. The lines continue and by the end of the piece, a capital letter B is formed between the two blue lines. This maneuver is the most difficult stunt attempted on a regular basis in the Brown Band. Many bandies have never put on ice skates prior to ice rehearsals. In addition, the Band normally never plays and moves at the same time during field shows, making ice shows even more distinctive.

References

External links

* [http://www.brown.edu/Students/Brown_Band/ Brown University Band's official website]