I posted this story on drum corps planet and my facebook and Steve D asked if I would repost here. It won’t make as much sense to the band family not understanding the history of the 27th Lancers, their association with the song “Danny Boy” and all they meant to the drum corps community, but I think it’s still rather poignant in relation to us not always understanding the “why” of how things happens for us sometimes… Here’s the post…
My band was making the trip from Georgia to Chicago to march in the St. Pat’s Parade there this year. Getting the band ready for the parade, I was determined to find something Irish to play OTHER than “Danny Boy” because that seemed so “overused”. I looked around for weeks and played with different ideas…. never really finding anything that I liked better.
Finally, I had to make a decision and reluctantly felt like I was a slacker and had kind of “failed” myself a little bit by not finding something else. Ended up writing a chart that combined a bit of an Irish jig melody and then transitioned into Danny Boy to finish. Rather than reinvent the wheel, I just based the last half of my chart off my memory of what 27th Lancers had played so many years ago.
Just before we left on this trip to Chicago for the parade, I was chatting with Chris Sink (my asst director) telling him I’d try not to be such a slacker next time around and make sure I found the tune I wanted instead of falling back on something so trite and overdone……
Last night on the eve of the parade I found out that George Bonifiglio, the founder and long time director of the Lancers had passed away.
I aged out of drum corps the year the Lancers folded. I cried that night, knowing that one of the legendary corps in DCI’s history would most likely never take the field again…. Only a few years after performing at the Winter Olympics and missing a DCI World Championship title by tenths of a point, they were gone, never to return.
I wiped a tear from my eye more than once today walking down the street listening to the band play the climax of the parade tune….
“…….And I shall hear, tho’ soft you tread above me
And all my dreams will warm and sweeter be
If you’ll not fail to tell me that you love me
I’ll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.”
Sometimes, I guess some things were just meant to be……..
RIP George B….
thoughts and prayers for the entire Bonifiglio and Lancer family tonight…..
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