Bigler's Crew

from 'Great Lakes Voyage'

Put on your sea legs for this exhilarating nautical adventure. Setting out on the waves of the clarinets, the flute calls to the sunrise as the chimes mark the beginning of your voyage. The brass lead the 6/8 sailing song on the Bigler schooner.

Program Notes

Great Lakes Voyage was commissioned to celebrate the memory of Andy Anderson, a charter member of the Bay Concert Band. The charge was to create a piece that would have special meaning for the band, and one that Andy would have enjoyed playing. Great Lakes folk song themes seemed a natural topic. The tunes chosen include:

I. Bigler’s Crew
II. Low Bridge, Everybody Down (commonly known as The Erie Canal, written by Gov. Thomas Allen of NY in 1913) III. Nearer, My God, To Thee (Sarah F. Adams, 1841), The Persia Crew, also known as Lake Huron’s Rockbound Shore
IV. The Huron Carol (French Canadian Tune), Hoot Owl Song (Chippewa/Objiwa, collected by Gertrude Prokosch Kurath), What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor and Once More A-Lumbering Go (collected by Earl Clifton Beck)

Bigler's Crew
Come all my boys and listen, a song I’ll sing to you.
It’s all about the Bigler and of her jolly crew.
In Milwaukee last October, I chanced to get a sight
In the schooner called the ‘Bigler” belonging to Detroit.

Watch her, catch her, jump up on her juberju,
Give her the sheet and let her slide, the boys will push her through.
You ought to see us howling, the winds were blowing free,
On our passage down to Buffalo from Milwaukee.

Grade Level: 3
Copyright: 2006
Number of Players: Standard
Duration: 4:00
Publisher: C. Alan Publications
Category: Concert Band

Listen to Recordings

Instrumentation

Piccolo
Flute 1/2
Oboe
Bassoon 1/2
Clarinet in Bb 1
Clarinet in Bb 2/3
Bass Clarinet
Alto Saxophone 1/2
Tenor Saxophone
Baritone Saxophone

Trumpet in Bb 1
Trumpet in Bb 2/3
Horn in F 1/3
Horn in F 2/4
Trombone 1/2
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
(Baritone T.C.)
Tuba

Percussion 1 (chimes)
Percussion 2 (snare drum, bass drum)
Percussion 3 (triangle, suspended cymbal)