A couple dozen bones honking out a rock'n'roll classic.

Johnny B Goode

The Official Walk-On Tune of FSU Coach Mike Norvell

Play That Funky Music

My arrangement of "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" is published by Pro Jazz Charts (http://www.projazzcharts.com/products-and-services/bob-thurston/grinch/). 

"Featuring a written bass trombone intro and plunger tenor trombone solo, this happy creation goes from slinky swing to up-tempo and back, dropping presents down chimneys the whole way!"

This recording is by the US Air Force Airmen of Note, from their 2005 CD "A Holiday Note From Home." Bass trombone soloist is Dudley Hinote; jazz trombone soloist is Joe Jackson. Enjoy!

You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch - for Jazz Ensemble - published by Pro Jazz Charts

This original composition for concert band is the title track for The United States Air Force Band's CD "Departures," released December 2, 2014. 

"Departures" premiered on March 7, 2014 at the American Bandmasters Association convention in Montgomery AL, with Col. Larry Lang conducting The US Air Force Band.

Departures, for Band (2014)

Just before the opening kickoff of every Florida State University home football game, a student portraying the Seminole Indian Chief Osceola rides an Appaloosa horse named Renegade to midfield, where he plants a flaming spear in the ground. It's a challenge to the opponent and a declaration of the Seminoles' determination to defeat them. 

The tradition began in 1978. Osceola is always portrayed by an FSU student; most of them have played the role for two years. The sixth and current Renegade took the field during FSU's 2014 season. 

The departing Renegade has traditionally been honored in a halftime ceremony. In 2000, I wrote this piece for the FSU Marching Chiefs as background music for that ceremony, and they have used it for each retirement since. 

Song for Renegade - The Florida State University Marching Chiefs (2000)

When we give the gift of joy
We give a gift that's ever giving
'Tis a song of our love for the life we’re living 
When we give the gift of joy
When we give the simple gift of joy 

When we give the gift of love
We give a gift that's ever gleaming 
'Tis the hope of all mankind’s redeeming 
When we give the gift of love
When we give the simple gift of love

When we give the gift of hope
We give a gift that's ever growing
'Tis the peace in our heart that keeps it glowing
When we give the gift of hope
When we give the simple gift of hope

When we give the gift of peace
We give a gift that's ever ringing  
'Tis the joy of a world in elation singing 
When we give the gift of peace
When we give the simple gift of peace

When we give the gift of joy
We give a gift that's ever shining 
'Tis the glory of voices in song combining
When we give the gift of joy
When we give the simple gift of joy

USAF Band - DAR 2008 Part 1

The Simple Gift of Joy

I wrote "Red Hills Saga" for the Montford Middle School Symphonic Band, Tallahassee FL, Holly Dunaway, Director. They gave the premier performance at their spring concert on May 12, 2016. 

The Red Hills Region — also known as the Tallahassee Hills — extends northward from Tallahassee, Florida, across the Georgia line into Thomasville, covering about 475 square miles between the Ochlocknee and Aucilla rivers. The area is rich in cultural history and scenic beauty. The "saga" in the title is a fictional adventure that takes place in my own imagination. It's a little bit different every time. I hope this piece sparks your creative impulses in the same way! 

One of the melodic motifs in the middle “pavane” section is a nod to my middle school band director, Hamilton “Hamp” Hollins Jr, very subtly echoing a piece our 8th-grade band enjoyed playing. (I will leave it to my bandmates to puzzle out which musical figure I’m referring to, and its source.) 

Mr. Hollins made music fun for all of us, and he encouraged my earliest interest and efforts as an arranger. In fact, the first time I ever had a band arrangement performed publicly (a couple of years after I graduated high school), it was under his baton. 

I was lucky to have Hamilton Hollins shape my earliest band experiences — he is a part of my musical soul. "Red Hills Saga" is fondly dedicated to his memory. 

"Red Hills Saga" CPS0203 
Copyright © 2017 by Carl Fischer LLC

Carl Fischer Music for Concert Band 2017-2018

Red Hills Saga (Grade 3) - Robert Thurston - published by Carl Fischer

"Dreidel Dance" is a lighthearted mashup of "The Dreidel Song" and "Hava Nagila," running both tunes through a stylistic funhouse and winding up in a flurry of energy that just might make you plotz! It was first performed and recorded in 2008, in a slightly different arrangement, by The United States Air Force Band in Washington DC under the baton of Col. Dennis Layendecker.

"Dreidel Dance" Copyright © 2017 by Carl Fischer

Dreidel Dance - Robert Thurston - published by Carl Fischer

This is the premiere performance of "Jabberwocky," an original fantasy for wind orchestra, inspired by Lewis Carroll's immortal poem (see below). The piece was commissioned by the Florida Gulf Coast University Wind Orchestra, Dr. Rod Chesnutt, Conductor, and premiered in Naples, Florida, April 23, 2017.  

I've loved the poem "Jabberwocky" since I was a child. My dad loved reciting it for me and my siblings, and I probably had it memorized before I was even able to read it from a book. 

I've never seen any of the movies that feature "Jabberwocky," like the eponymous 1977 film by Terry Gilliam, or Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland." I'm not sure why that is. Perhaps I've had my own visualization in my head all along. This music is the soundtrack to that mental movie of mine. 

Jabberwocky 
Lewis Carroll 

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Jabberwocky (Premiere Performance)

My orchestral arrangement of "Simple Gifts," recorded by the US Air Force Symphony Orchestra. The premiere performance was given as part of the Macy's July 4 Fireworks television broadcast in New York City in 2016.

America

Simple Gifts

"Robert Thurston imagines his challenging but delightful 'Mischief' as a day in the life of a toddler: their herky-jerky first steps; their mercurial moods; their blissful naptime dreams of butterflies, unicorns, and magical super-powers—and most of all, their wide-eyed, innocent-yet-impish happiness and curiosity. 'Mischief' is the ecstatically playful dance of a little human who is loving every minute of being alive and awake, and having the best day ever!" -- Coming in September 2019 from Excelcia!

Concert Band 2019-2020 

Mischief - Robert Thurston

"Robert Thurston’s 'Tower of Inspiration' has something of interest for every young performer in your ensemble. A stately fanfare sets up a noble ceremonial march theme, and softer interludes provide dynamic and textural contrast. Throughout, the players will find the inner lines to be as engaging as the melodies they’re supporting. 'Tower' can open or close your beginning band program, or fill any slot in between! " -- coming in May 2019 from Excelcia!

Tower of Inspiration - Robert Thurston

My arrangement of "Come Alive" (from "The Greatest Showman"), written for and performed by my favorite college band ever (says the somewhat biased alum) — the Florida State University Marching Chiefs. It's the title track of their 2018 season collection.

Written by Benji Pasek / Justin Noble Paul
Kobalt Music Pub. America | OBO Breathelike Music 
Kobalt Music Pub. America | OBO Pick in a Pinch Music 
TCF Music Publishing

2018 Come Alive!

Come Alive!

I wrote "Chief of Staff" in 2010. As I wrote, I was thinking less of the traditional marches epitomized by John Philip Sousa, and more of the great Hollywood marches of composers like John Williams, Elmer Bernstein and Jerry Goldsmith. 

I came up with the melody after attending an Air Force Band concert on the steps of the U.S. Capitol one evening in August. As I walked a few blocks from the Capitol to the Metro station, I worked out the main tune in my head. By the time I got to the Metro, it was complete — pretty much as you hear it here. But I had no pencil or paper to jot it down with, so I texted it to myself on my phone, using letters for pitches and dashes as 8th-note markers. When the Air Force Band sightread the march about three weeks later, that melody had changed very little, if at all. 

I hope you like it!

Chief of Staff (2010) - March for Wind Band

My working title as I wrote "Hiding in the Shadows" was “Fast and Quiet.” There aren't many pieces for wind band that are up-tempo and stay mostly in the low end of the dynamic spectrum. (My favorite one is Warren Benson’s "The Solitary Dancer.") As soon as I started my piece, a sense of mystery and dangerous enticements set in. I imagined walking through a haunted house, wanting to be scared (but not too scared, of course) — walking along, knowing something is going to happen … but it doesn’t, and you keep walking … and then it doesn’t some more, and then BOO!!! That happens a few times here, when things jump out at you from the shadows. I hope you enjoy the piece!

Music for Concert Band (2020-2021)

Hiding in the Shadows

"Time Travels: Caprice for Band" 
Composed by Robert Thurston 
Recorded by The U.S. Air Force Band, Col. Larry H. Lang, Cond. 
Hylton Performing Arts Center, Manassas, VA 

Dedicated to the memory of Dr. James E. Croft

I composed "Time Travels" to highlight the virtuosity of my brilliant musical colleagues in The United States Air Force Band, the premiere band of the U.S. Air Force. The piece has no underlying programmatic idea or structure; it is a caprice, moving freely (almost improvisationally) from one idea to the next — wherever my ear happened to lead me each day over the course of about six weeks. 

As I was completing "Time Travels" in early September 2012, I was saddened to learn of the death of Dr. James Croft, one of my teachers and mentors at Florida State University. It was at Dr. Croft's urging that I auditioned as an arranger for the Air Force Band in 1993 — a life-altering decision that still reminds me of Jim Croft as someone who cared about his students long after they graduated, who instinctively understood their gifts, and who never stopped trying to help them find their place in the world. 

"Time Travels" is gratefully dedicated to his memory. 

"Time Travels" was premiered by The U.S. Air Force Band at The Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago, IL, on Dec. 19, 2012, under the baton of Commander and Conductor Col. Larry H. Lang. 

Time Travels: Caprice for Band (2012)

"Salute" was commissioned by The United States Air Force Band to celebrate music educators of every kind, at every level. This is the premiere performance, led by Col. Don Schofield, Commander and Conductor of the Air Force Band, on December 18, 2019, at the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago.

Midwest 2019 Concert #2

Salute

This recording is of the 1978 Florida State University Marching Chiefs drumline, long known by the nickname Big 8. The recording was made outdoors, on a cold day in late fall 1978, at the Chiefs’ practice field in Tallahassee. The string of cadences, collectively titled The Sequence, is typically used for the march into the stadium before games, as well as for parades, and just jamming in the stands. The instrumentation is: 

6 snares
4-6 tenors (traditional single drums, discontinued after 1979)
4 bass drums (traditional unison, replaced with tonals after 1979) 
4 cymbals 
2 pairs of bongos (discontinued after 1995; see below)
2 pairs of timbales (w/cowbells) (discontinued after 1995; see below)
2 sets of tri-toms sized c. 13”-14”-16” (ish) 
1 set of tris sized c. 16”-18”-20” (ish) 
(For more on the tri-toms, see below)

The order of cadences is: 

0:00 Count-Off* (missing the first two seconds: “1, 2! Buckle my shoe! 3—“)
0:06 Biddly-Dump* (Traditional Roll-Off) 
0:08 Bobo (Booboo)* (George Rosete) 
0:22 Jig* (Rick Stuart/G. Rosete)  
0:57 Transition (Scott Smith)  
1:01 BOYA** (David Bruce)  
1:28 Tita Grande** (Serafin Alorro) 
2:10 Jingo* (S. Alorro) 
3:06 Tita Pequeña* (Bob Thurston) 
4:14 That's All There Is (Transition)(S. Alorro)  
4:17 Mambo (Gary Swiderski/S. Alorro)
4:45 Transition (Smith) 
4:48 Digga-Dump* (Latin Roll-Off) (Rosete) 

* Here’s the really cool thing: Big 8 still plays a lot of this material. The sequence may change from year to year, but collectively it’s still The Sequence. Asterisks denote cadences still in the current rotation, though some of them (**) have evolved almost (but not quite) beyond recognition. 

The first minute of the 1978 version (Count-Off, Biddly-Dump Roll-Off, Bobo, and Jig) is fundamentally the same today. Musically speaking, it has evolved to reflect the constant evolution of chops and instruments. These days it sounds crisper, tighter, and busier (for better or worse, sez us old farts) – but it’s still easily recognizable to anyone who played it back in the day. 

Beyond that first minute, the Sequence these days consists mostly of newer material that rotates in and out each year, but several cadences from the original group still often appear either intact (e.g., Tita Pequeña @3:06, newly added to the Sequence that year), or modified and blended into more recent additions. 

Big 8’s instrumentation underwent a similar evolution. Through the 1950s and 60s, it was a standard battery (snares/tenors/basses/cymbals) loosely modeled on traditional Big 10-style bands (Ohio State in particular). The bongos, timbales, and variously-sized tri-toms heard in this recording were added in 1971-72, and most of the cadences were written to feature the new instruments. 

Big 8 stuck with that lineup for the next 25 years, with a few modifications. The traditional unison bass drums were replaced with four tonal drums in 1980; the traditional tenor drums were retired the same year. The tri-toms went through the most changes over the years. The sizes were standardized in the mid-80s with 12”-14”-16” (ish?) toms. (Many of us old farts greatly miss those mega-boom monster toms, especially in “Jingo” @2:10.) The newer, smaller tris took over the role of the timbales around 1988 – for a few years they were called “tribales,” and they marched alongside new sets of quads acquired the same year. 

The bongos and tribales were discontinued in 1995. Since that time, the original bongo and timbale parts, where featured, have been covered by the quads (often splitting the parts, using the pair of spock drums as bongos, and relying on mounted bells and/or blocks). The basses may cover an old tom lick or two as well.

Big 8: The FSU Marching Chiefs Drumline – Sequence 1978

"Come On & Go" is the entrance sequence for the FSU Marching Chiefs Pregame Show. 

According to Bill F. Faucett's book "The Marching Chiefs of Florida State University: The Band That Never Lost a Halftime Show," the Go Cadence was adapted from an original interlude written for Paul Yoder's "Haskell's Rascals" (1954), which featured three snare drummers accompanied by a concert band. 

Faucett writes: “Yoder’s piece, featured on the FSU Symphonic Band’s spring tour in 1955, had been arranged for three drum-set players (to replace the trio of snare drums) and included a special 32-count double-time interjection composed by FSU graduate student and percussionist Andy Odum. Odum himself was one of the drum-set players, along with percussionists Chris Welker and Jon Gilbert.”  

Sometime between that spring tour and the 1955 football season, Faucett writes, members of the Big 8 (the Marching Chiefs' drumline) fashioned Odum’s interlude into the Go Cadence – but apparently the reception from the Chiefs wasn’t 100-percent positive. Faucett quotes one Big 8 member, John Garrett, as saying that Manley Whitcomb, the Chiefs’ director at the time, “did not much like it when we played it for him. And some of the Chiefs complained that they missed the steady beat of the military cadence. But most of the Chiefs liked it, and Whitcomb relented.” 

Ever since, the Chiefs have begun their pregame show by marching onto the field to that double-time step, and for many years. Big 8 hot-footed it along with everyone else. But in 1971 the Chiefs’ drumline had acquired several new multi-drum rigs – two sets of bongo-conga “clusters,” two sets of timbales, and three sets of tri-toms (not matching sets, either: one high set, one medium, one low). In 1972, Big 8 section leader George Rosete convinced director Richard Mayo that “there was no way we were going to be able to ‘double-time’ it out on the field to the Go Cadence. The drums were too heavy and cumbersome. I approached Mr. Mayo with the idea that we could … position ourselves with a cadence that led into the Go Cadence and [then] segue into it so that the rest of the Chiefs could then come on as always (double-time). Mayo left it up to me to come up with something. That’s why I wrote the Come On cadence.” 

The “Come On and Go” sequence has opened every Marching Chiefs pregame show since. And in contrast to the cadences in The Sequence, which have undergone extensive revisions across five decades, both Come On and Go are still performed very nearly as they were originally written, with only occasional interpretive tweaks.

Big 8: The FSU Marching Chiefs Drumline – Come On & Go 1978

Big 8 Sequence, recorded live at the Tallahassee Civic Center, 1981 
Order of cadences: 
Boo-Boo (George Rosete) 
Jig (Rick Stuart/G. Rosete) 
Transition (Scott Smith) 
BOYA (David Bruce) 
Tita Grande (Serafin Alorro) 
Jingo (Alorro) 
Tita Pequeña (Bob Thurston) 
That's All There Is (S. Alorro) 
Mambo (Gary Swiderski) 
Transition (S. Smith) 
Digga-Dump (G. Rosete)

Big 8: The FSU Drumline - Big 8 Sequence (1981)

A medley of six Santa classics, recorded by The US Air Force Band, Washington DC, Col. Dennis Layendecker, Conductor 
* Up On the Housetop
* Must Be Santa
* I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
* Santa Baby
* Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town
* Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

A Season of Hope: The US Air Force Band

Santamania!

A Facebook friend issued this challenge a few days before Christmas in the memorably weird year that was 2020: 

"I think a Bela Bartok-styled Christmas Medley would be completely appropriate right now." 

"Bela Bartok-styled" sounded intriguing to me, even though I've never studied Bartok in depth. I did find, courtesy of YouTube, a set of Romanian Christmas Carols that Bartok set for solo piano (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ex2lfglJ8I&ab_channel=thenameisgsarci). So I gave them a listen, and then I tried my hand at a very not-Romanian carol: "Jingle Bells." I don't know how close I got to an authentically Bartok-ish treatment, but oh what fun it was to try!

Jingle Bela

The Florida State University Wind Ensemble performs my fanfare setting of the Shaker tune "Simple Gifts," conducted by Brandon Meeks. The Wind Ensemble is led by Dr. Patrick Dunnigan, Director of Bands at FSU. 

I wrote this fanfare on "Simple Gifts" for The US Air Force Band in 2016 for their nationally televised appearance in the Macy's Fourth of July celebration in New York City.

This arrangement is available for both orchestra and wind band. Please contact me at bob@bobthurston.com for details.

Simple Gifts — Florida State University Wind Ensemble, Brandon Meeks conducting

I compose and arrange music, mostly for concert band. My work is published by Excelcia, Carl Fischer, and Pro Jazz Charts. I'm the former chief composer-arranger for The US Air Force Band in Washington DC, having served from 1994 to 2014.

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