447 - Hockey Night in Canada
About this Song
The Hockey Night in Canada Theme was written in 1968 by Dolores Claman. It is often called Canada's Second National Anthem, and is one of the longest running themes in broadcasting history. This version of the song was arranged by Howard Cable.
Instrumentation Requirements
The song starts with a measure of bass, so they are probably the most important instruments to have. In the past it has been confusing for most members of the band to start the song without the bass line since everyone assumes there's been a false start during the measure of silence. Other than that nearly any instrumentation will work since the different parts are pretty evenly distributed:
- Melody: Flute, Clarinet, Alto Sax, Trumpet 1, Trombone 1 (mostly), Bells
- Countermelody: Tenor Sax, Trumpet 2+3, Mellophone, Trombone 2
- Bass: Bari Sax, Baritone, Sousaphone
- Percussion: Snare, Bass Drum, Cymbals
It should also be noted that there are no written parts for tenor drums or auxilliary percussion.
Roadmap
The song is played as written except for the tempo - the original calls for 128 bpm, but the band typically plays it at around 156 bpm.
History
- This song was requested to the band by the men's hockey team in 2006, and was purchased as one of Dan Schwarting's songs later that year.
- This arrangement was transcribed by Chris Behrens in 2008 to make the individual parts more legible. The original music was on full pages (since it is actually a concert band arrangement), so to make it fit on a half page it was shrunk down on a copy machine. Unfortunately, this made the notes very small and difficult to read. The transcription made the music the size of the rest of the music in the set.
| Live in Québec 2008 | ||
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