Three Cheers (Overture on a Theme by Bigelow) was commissioned by conductor Bryan Stepneski and the Clifton (NJ) High School Band in honor of the 75^th anniversary of the All-City Band Concert. Because of the special nature of this event, the piece was designed with two sets of additional parts that are playable at various levels, so that students from across the entire district can perform the piece together as one unified band.

The piece is entirely based on the classic march Our Director, by Frederick Bigelow (1873-1929), which was originally composed in 1892 for Jospeh Morrisette and the Ashland Brass Band. By trade a pharmacist, Bigelow spent much of his life as a member of the famous Salem Cadet Band, for which he composed several marches, including Our Director. The trio of the march became so popular that it was adopted as a school fight song by high schools and colleges across the country, including, beginning in 1938 and continuing into the 1940s, Clifton High School. Even today, the school uses it during parades and in their Pre-Game Show “Script CHS.” Older band members may even recall the trio melody as the point at which they would sing “Three Cheers for Clifton High School.”

The piece reflects these “Three Cheers” in several ways. It is constructed in a large three-part, “ABA” form. Within each section there are three smaller “aba” subsections. The initial motive is even a three-note gesture. All the materials throughout the work are drawn from the original Bigelow melody and used in obvious and not-so-obvious ways, including in melodic augmentation, melodic embellishment, accompaniment lines, and even vertically as the underlying harmony. The tune itself appears most obviously at the climax of the piece. The only other recurring motivic idea is a short, arpeggiated fanfare passage derived from the introduction to Our Director. All these elements are designed to ultimately provide “Three Cheers” for the Clifton High School Band, a program which has brought so much to its community for so many years.