Overture: Strike up the Band

The first version of George Gerswhin’s twelfth musical, Strike up the Band, which opened in Philadelphia in 1927 but never made it to New York, was a flop. The audience was not ready, it seems, for a satirical comedy about America declaring war on Switzerland over the price of cheese - in spite of the presence of “The Man I Love” in a score with many other good tunes in it. Three years later, after the Wall Street crash, the mood was rather different. With the satirical element toned down and chocolate substituted for cheese, the show was revived at the Times Square Theatre and ran for 191 performances - in spite of the absence of “The Man I Love,” which in the meantime had embarked on what was to be a highly successful career of its own as a separate item. The most popular numbers in the revised version turned out to be “I’ve got a crush on you” and the “Strike up the Band” march. Cunningly constructed, the overture opens with a fanfare and brisk march rhythms but offers glimpses of a variety of other songs, together with a bluesy clarinet cadenza, before releasing the energy of Gershwin’s most brilliant march tune at the end.