The Duke University Marching Band is the marching band of

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

, located in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

. The band performs at all

Duke Blue Devils football The Duke Blue Devils football team represents Duke University in the sport of American football. The Blue Devils compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Coastal Division of th ...

home games, select away games, bowl games, and other events. The band also supports various other sports in the form of a pep band. Band membership consists almost entirely of non-music majors and includes roughly 150 participating students. First founded in 1906, the group is very significant for being one of the oldest marching bands in the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

. In 2012, they produced and released their own

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, ''Gameday Faves: Duke Classics'', containing favorite music selections of the band and university.

History

What would become the Duke University Marching Band was founded in 1906 at Trinity College (Trinity College was renamed Duke University in 1924). The history of the band over its first decade and a half remain rather spotty, though an article in the 1914 edition of the ''Chanticleer'', the university's student newspaper at the time, made mentions of a "college military band".Trevarthen, R.R. and Paul Bryan. ''PB, Who He?'' Trevarthen Music. 2008. Chapter V: The Duke Years--1951 - 1988. p.47. In the 1920s, the band switched gears and became an "entertainment jazz band", which performed at football games and other various events. The band dwindled in size during the 1930s, most likely due to the ongoing

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. In 1935, director Robert B. Fearing divided the band into two units: a military unit (the marching band) and a concert unit. The military unit was given uniforms modeled after those used by the

West Point Band The West Point Band (also known as the U.S. Military Academy Band or USMA Band) is the U.S. Army's oldest active band and the oldest unit at the United States Military Academy, traces its roots to the American Revolutionary War. At that time, fife ...

, and women were granted membership into the band in 1943. Much of the evolution of the band program at Duke University occurred under the leadership of Paul Bryan who was hired as the new director of bands, who then hired Jim Henry to be the exclusive marching band director nine years later in 1960. Under their tenure, the band also started to play at Blue Devil basketball games and became one of the first modern pep bands in the country. The structure of the pep band remains much the same to this day. In 1976, the marching band took a much different and nontraditional approach to its field shows as it experimented with becoming a scramble band, much like those found at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

and all but one

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate athletic conference comprising eight private research universities in the Northeastern United States. The term ''Ivy League'' is typically used beyond the sports context to refer to the eight schools ...

institution.Henry, James. Duke University--Former band director. Written questionnaire. November 2008. However, the band quickly reverted to a traditional corps-style marching band in 1977. The band continues to grow steadily and size and gain recognition throughout the

Directors

* 1920–1924: H. L. Blomquist * 1924–1935: G. E. "Jelly" Leftwich, Jr. * 1935–1944: Robert B. Fearing * 1944–1951: Allan H. Bone * 1951–1960: Paul Bryan * 1960–1987: Jim Henry * 1987–2005: Neil Boumpani * 2005–present: Jeff Au

Performances

At all home football games, the band performs a pre-game show consisting of the ''

Star-Spangled Banner "The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the bo ...

'', ''

Dear Old Duke __NOTOC__ The Duke University Alma Mater, also known as ''Dear Old Duke,'' is the official alma mater of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. History The Duke alma mater was written by R. H. James, Class of '24.Fight Blue Devils, Fight!'' and '' Blue and White.'' The band performs at several halftime shows during the football season, usually featuring current popular music, occasionally incorporating dance moves into the usual marching. In addition to performing on the field, the band maintains a large repertoire of stands music, which includes both fight songs, ''Everytime We Touch'', and ''Mortal Kombat'', among many others. The band also plays at several away football games each season, and appeared at the

2012 Belk Bowl The 2012 Belk Bowl was a post-season American college football bowl game held on December 27, 2012, at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina in the United States. The eleventh edition of the Belk Bowl began at 6:30 p.m. EST a ...

2013 Chick-fil-A Bowl The 2013 Chick-fil-A Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 31, 2013, at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. With sponsorship from Chick-fil-A, it was the 46th edition of the game known throughout most of its history as the Pea ...

, and the

2014 Sun Bowl The 2014 Sun Bowl was an American college football bowl game that was played on December 27, 2014, at Sun Bowl Stadium in El Paso, Texas. In this 81st edition of the Sun Bowl, Arizona State from the Pac-12 Conference met Duke from the Atlantic C ...

. The band practices 2-3 times per week - on Wednesday and Friday evenings and on Mondays prior to football games.

Pep Band

The band serves as a pep band at all home men's and women's basketball games, adding to the hostile game-time atmosphere of Cameron Indoor Stadium. The band leads the cheers of the

Cameron Crazies The Cameron Crazies are the student section supporting the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team and the Duke Blue Devils women's basketball team. The section can hold approximately 1,200 occupants. The section, also deemed "The Zoo" by Al McGu ...

, Duke's famous basketball student section. Come March, the band travels with both the men's and women's team to all

ACC ACC most often refers to: * Atlantic Coast Conference, an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference located in the US *American College of Cardiology, A US-based nonprofit medical association that bestows credentials upon cardiovascular spec ...

and

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

tournament games. The pep band also performs at volleyball, field hockey, and soccer matches in the fall. Marching band membership is required to be a member in the pep band.

References

External links

* {{Duke Blue Devils football navbox

Marching Band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Most marching bands wear a uniform, ofte ...

Atlantic Coast Conference marching bands 1906 establishments in North Carolina