Pre-order of Starvation Army: Band Music No. 1 - Songs of the IWW and the Salvation Army. You get 2 tracks now (streaming via the free Bandcamp app and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the complete album the moment it’s released.
Purchasable with gift card
releases May 3, 2024
$9USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Includes digital pre-order of Starvation Army: Band Music No. 1 - Songs of the IWW and the Salvation Army.
You get 2 tracks now
(streaming via the free Bandcamp app
and also available as a high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more), plus the
complete album the moment it’s released.
There is still power in a union and its songs. Starvation Army: Band Music No. 1 - Songs of the IWW and the Salvation Army resurrects the IWW’s forgotten brass band repertoire. These songs helped the “Wobblies” prevail in the infamous Spokane Free Speech Fight of 1910, where protestors battled for the right to organize against bad pay and corrupt bosses. In response, the companies hired the local Salvation Army band (nicknamed “starvation” by the workers) to drown out their protests. Fighting back, J.H. Walsh’s IWW Brass Band waged sonic war with note-for-note parodies of these popular songs in a battle of the bands. Eventually the “Wobblies” won the public’s sympathy and helped overturn the ruling that made public protest illegal, in no small part through their music. This collection, performed by the Brass Band of Columbus together with New York Democratic Socialist choir Sing in Solidarity, features songs from the IWW’s Little Red Songbook, including those composed by the legendary Joe Hill, a surreal piece by the eclectic classical composer Charles Ives, as well as old Christian hymns paired with satirical lyrics. It’s a landmark revival of a forgotten thread of protest music and what conductor and project creator Chris David Westover-Muñoz says he hopes will renew the labor singing tradition.
credits
releases May 3, 2024
Chris David Westover-Muñoz, conductor
Harris Ipcock, bass-baritone
Sing In Solidarity
Brass Band of Columbus
Recorded June 3 & 4, 2022
Sharon Martin Hall, Michael D. Eisner Center for the Performing Arts,
Denison University, Granville, OH
September 24, 2022
Gary’s Electric Studio, Brooklyn, NY
Additional engineering by Robbie Chemical
Onyx Lane Productions
Produced, engineered, mixed, and mastered by Christina Giacona and Patrick Conlon
Album art: Chris David Westover-Muñoz and briandesign
General William Booth Enters into Heaven by Charles Ives is licensed through Carl Fischer LLC o/b/o Theodore Presser Company. This arrangement for brass band was realized with permission by Chris
David Westover-Muñoz from primary sources in The Charles Ives Papers held in the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library at Yale University.
Richard Brazier’s "A Dream" is performed with Carl Fischer’s Universal Band Journal, Nr. 429, The Holy City, arranged by L. P. Laurendeau. Public Domain.
Brass band arrangements for tracks 1-7, 9-10, and 12-15 are drawn from the following Salvation Army sources: Band Music 1 (Nr. 13, Old Hundreth; Nr. 113, We Shall Win; Nr. 194, My God, I am Thine; Nr. 161, What a Friend; Nr. 207, Are You Washed; Nr. 313, Covenant), Band Tune Book (Nr. 371, Nearer, My God, to Thee; Nr. 379, Onward, Christian Soldiers; Nr. 491, Throw Out the Life-line; Nr. 509, When the Roll is Called up Yonder; Nr. 746, There is Sunshine; Nr. 753, Wonder-Working Power), The Salvation Army Brass Band Journal (Nr. 28, We Shall Win; Nr. 210, Are You Washed; Nr. 510, When the Roll is Called up Yonder), Brass Band Journal Favorites (Nr. 33, When the Roll is Called up Yonder), and Bandmasters Companion (Nr. 6, Nearer, My God, to Thee).
My deepest gratitude to the following individuals and organizations that made this project possible: Denison University Research Foundation, Asbury College, the Salvation Army Heritage Centres in Toronto and the UK, the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library at Yale University, Dorian Wallace, Ronald Holz, Nathan Miller, Christina Giacona, Patrick Conlon, Josh Feintuch, Joe Grim Feinburg, and Tony Zilincik. This project would not have been possible without the support of my partner Angie. She read and heard countless drafts and provided important feedback. Todos amor y solidaridad a Angie, mi amor.
El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido
SOLIDARITY FOREVER!
~Chris David Westover-Muñoz
This collection, performed by the Brass Band of Columbus together with New York choir Sing in Solidarity, features songs
from the IWW’s Little Red Songbook, including those composed by the legendary Joe Hill, a surreal piece by the eclectic classical composer Charles Ives, as well as Christian hymns paired with satirical lyrics. It’s a landmark revival of a forgotten thread of protest music....more
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