Charles Ives Meets President Bush

Thanks to Tom Allen, and his great CBC morning show (which tragically will be going off the air this coming fall to make way for the new CBC2 programing changes - but that's another blog post) for finding this good one:

Quote from Tom Allen's "Junk Drawer":

Here's the musical event Charles Ives waited for his entire life. On April 16, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI visited the White House. Two musical groups were there to welcome him - the Herald Trumpets from the US Army Band, and the President's Own Marine Band. The President, not surprisingly, was there, too. Protocol says that any time the President of the United States turns up in an official role, the band has to play "Hail to the Chief." As you hear from the clip, protocol apparently doesn't say they have to play it in just one key. The story is that one group came to rehearsal and the other didn't, so they ended up, at the big moment, playing the same piece in different keys. I've received, predictably, contradictory reports of which group, the Army or the Marines, fired in the wrong direction, but the result was a direct hit for music fans who like their military bands on the experimental side. It's fantastic!

Here's the link to the video and sound

It is a real player video and might require you to upload something to hear it.