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What about the little tune the band plays for a first down? Where does that one come from?
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The view from 30 years away by Patrick Harris '69
...The most frightening thing the Band ever does is the few counts right after "Saw Varsity's" and before "Wildcat". Nothing. Four full counts of nothing. I'm sure many observers aren't fully conscious of it. But there are few instances where a performance organization gets so much effect out of silence. On a street march, you hear the shoe taps on the street: click, click, click, click. Hoo-wah.
"Wildcat" is wonderful. It explodes like a bomb out of the preceding quiet. I think it sounds like bagpipes when it's really right. It's the one thing in the War Hymn music (the full Band rendition) that may be truly original. Isn't this where the bass horns butt in, spitting through their mouthpieces with the big double stinger in the middle?
Then comes "Hot Time"...
