Trombones, trumpets and a very tall drum major get ready for the inaugural stage
WASHINGTON — Before the nine trombones, the 27 clarinets and the trumpets, saxophones, sousaphones, piccolos, euphoniums and drums, 6-foot-6-inch Marine Corps Master Sgt. Duane King will be marching in his bearskin hat.
He’s almost 8 feet tall in the hat — a giant in a red tunic with gold braid, white leather gauntlets, and a black sash called a baldric. He’ll be carrying an ornate signaling staff, known as a mace, and a ton of responsibility.
King, 40, is the drum major for the Marine Band, “the President’s Own,” and on Friday he is scheduled to lead the legendary, 218-year-old band, for the first time as its drum major, in the Inauguration Day parade.
“Easily the biggest performance I’ve ever done,” he said recently.
Behind him, if all goes as planned, will march 99 musicians, in 11 rows, whom he must start, stop, speed up, slow down, help execute two turns, start playing, stop playing, mark time and keep in step.
“It’s a huge role,” he said at the band’s headquarters in southeast Washington.
“The band won’t do anything if I don’t give them the commands,” he said. “If I don’t tell them to play honors when we pass by the president ... then we don’t play honors when we pass by the president.”
“So, I’ve got a lot on my shoulders,” he said.
King, a former trumpeter in Marine bands, must decide when to signal the two tunes between which it will alternate along the parade route — John Philip Sousa’s marches, “Semper Fidelis” and “The Thunderer” — and when to start the Marine Corps hymn, reserved for the White House reviewing stand.
He must decide when to rest the musicians as they march, to give them time off their instruments.
“I’ll let it go a certain length of time, in between playing the band,” he said. “That way, everyone in the crowd gets to hear the band play, but we’re not killing the band trying to play every single step of the way.”
The drum section — three snare drums, two bass drums and a set of cymbals — must play the whole time, to keep everyone in step. The bass drums are old-fashioned “rope tension” drums that provide a deeper, regal, more ceremonial sound, he said.
But there’s the potential for bad weather and protests, both of which must be ignored, he said: “I just kind of block it all out and focus on what I have to do.”
As the band’s 40th drum major, King walks in history’s footsteps.
One early drum major, John Roach, is said to have helped capture abolitionist John Brown at Harpers Ferry in 1859. Another, Richard Johnson, was a drummer, blacksmith and chain welder in the 1860s and ‘70s.
Another, Hiram Florea, headed the band in four inaugural parades — one for Herbert Hoover and three for Franklin D. Roosevelt.
During this parade, King must count cadence and keep a proper distance — six to 12 paces — behind the unit marching in front of him as they move along Pennsylvania Avenue and past the White House.
To avoid rear-ending the preceding unit, he plans to add a little stopping distance.
“From the time I see the person in front of me stop, I have to do a handful of things to get the band to stop,” he said. “I can’t just snap my fingers and the band stops.”
He has to judge: Is this a pause? A full stop? Is the band playing, not playing? And where in the music should he stop?
He signals the band with the mace, a handmade, specially balanced, five-foot-long staff of lightweight malacca wood wrapped in a gold chain and topped with a golden orb.
To stop the band, he twirls the mace like a windmill — the initial cue — and turns and faces the musicians. He holds the mace horizontally at head level, then raises and lowers it four times.
It can be a little difficult to see through his hat’s drooping black fur, which partially obscures his eyes, but it’s not usually a problem. The fur is from a Canadian black bear.
The Marine Band, established in 1798, also provides music during the swearing-in ceremonies on the west terrace of the Capitol, starting at 10 a.m. There, it will be conducted by its director, Lt. Col. Jason Fettig.
After the swearing-in, scheduled for 11:50 a.m., the band leaves the dais and prepares to join the parade.
“Then it’s my show,” King said.
King will lead the group along Pennsylvania Avenue, following the light-blue line in the middle of the street that marks the way.
At 15th Street, the musicians must execute a right-hand “gate turn” to head north for three blocks, then turn left back onto Pennsylvania Avenue for the critical pass before the president at the White House reviewing stand.
“Once you make that turn, you get everybody straightened out . . . it’s like a different part of the parade. It’s like, ‘OK, we’ve finished the parade for the audience. Now here’s the part for the president. Now we’re passing by him.’ “
A native of Jacksonville, Fla., King has been the band’s drum major since 2014 and a member of the band off and on for six years.
He started playing trumpet in the sixth grade and joined the Marines as a trumpet player shortly after high school.
He’s been in the Marines for 22 years, and in 2007, because of his height and bearing, was switched from trumpeter to drum major, a job that requires music and leadership skills.
King said he admires renowned trumpet players such as Phil Smith, formerly with the New York Philharmonic, the late Adolph “Bud” Herseth, the principal trumpeter with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and jazz greats Miles Davis and Wynton Marsalis.