On February 11 at 10:30am, I attended Aggieland Saturday, an open house for prospective students, and observed the Aggie band play. The band played a total of 4 songs and the last song being the Aggie War Hymn. Unfortunately, the performance didn’t contain the entire aggie band as I expected, but rather members from all the necessary subgroups were present. The key instruments were aerophones, membranophones, and idiophone. The major aerophones consisted of: clarinets, piccolos, trumpets, trombones, and tubas; the membranophones were the drums and snares, which demonstrated indeterminate pitch. Finally, the idiophone was the sole cymbals player in the front. The duration of each song played was relatively short lasting only 3-5minutes each,
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The aggie band began its roots with Joseph Holick, a campus cobbler, who arranged the Aggie Band in 1894, and after 4 directors and years of work on marching and precision maneuvers the Aggie Band has become an irreplaceable and important aspect of the Texas A&M culture (1). Therefore, it was essential for the band’s informal performance at Rudder Fountain to showcase this important aspect of Aggie culture, and remind everyone they are in the presence of the “Nationally Famous Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band.” The culture of Texas A&M is very different compared to other universities, it is rooted in agricultural and military beginnings, and these military beginning play a huge role in shaping the band’s performance and attire. The Corps of Cadets are regarded as “Keepers of the Spirit” and maintain that record with ensuring traditions and the culture is upheld and taught. Furthermore, the last song played by the aggie band on February 11 was the Aggie War Hymn; however, the most fascinating portion of the performance of the Aggie War Hymn, was that the band members immediately quit playing and joined in arms and legs and sang the hymn. The hymn is geared towards Texas A&M’s former athletic rival, University of Texas, referring to sawing off varsity’s horns off, and corps members swaying back and forth—resembling a sawing
The aggie band began its roots with Joseph Holick, a campus cobbler, who arranged the Aggie Band in 1894, and after 4 directors and years of work on marching and precision maneuvers the Aggie Band has become an irreplaceable and important aspect of the Texas A&M culture (1). Therefore, it was essential for the band’s informal performance at Rudder Fountain to showcase this important aspect of Aggie culture, and remind everyone they are in the presence of the “Nationally Famous Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band.” The culture of Texas A&M is very different compared to other universities, it is rooted in agricultural and military beginnings, and these military beginning play a huge role in shaping the band’s performance and attire. The Corps of Cadets are regarded as “Keepers of the Spirit” and maintain that record with ensuring traditions and the culture is upheld and taught. Furthermore, the last song played by the aggie band on February 11 was the Aggie War Hymn; however, the most fascinating portion of the performance of the Aggie War Hymn, was that the band members immediately quit playing and joined in arms and legs and sang the hymn. The hymn is geared towards Texas A&M’s former athletic rival, University of Texas, referring to sawing off varsity’s horns off, and corps members swaying back and forth—resembling a sawing