Royal Air Force March Past or Aces High

[FrogPrince]

Chaps, chapesses,

Any idea where I can obtain a piano or keyboard score for the Royal Air Force March Past or Aces High ?

In a warming display of indulgence for her father, my teenage daughter has volunteered to learn to play these if I can get hold of the music.

All pointers gratefully received,

FP

[FrogPrince]

Google has saved the day, for one score at least.

:-)

[Twon]

You may want to try contacting RAF Music Services; I was once a Stn Adjt asked a similar question by a retired RAF type and Music Services were only too happy to help.

Not sure if they are still at Uxbridge though and I cannot remember any contact numbers.

[orgASMic]

Frogprince

Check your PMs.

Always liked 'Aces high' myself. Der Luftwaffe always had style.

[Tankertrashnav]

Think you'll find that's Die Luftwaffe, orgASMic. Always knew that O-level would come in handy one day ;)

[kevmusic]

Always liked 'Aces high' myself. Der Luftwaffe always had style.

It certainly has a very Teutonic feel. All the more credit to English composer, Ron Goodwin! :ok:

[Like This - Do That]

Always thought it was a Steve Harris tune ..... :}

Ah! My coat, thank you.

[orgASMic]

TTN, you are correct, of course. My very little spoken German was learnt whilst serving there and has little to zero academic basis.

LT-DT I am with you there. I have an excellent 12" picture disc of Maiden's version.

[mtoroshanga]

I believe that the RAF march past tune is 'Salute to the Prince of Wales' but I could be wrong.

[XV490]

The RAF March, specially written for the Service, apparently had two composers, Henry Walford Davies and George Dyson. The latter wrote the reflective 'trio' section, which can be sung with these words:

Through adversities we'll conquer.
Blaze into the stars,
A trail of glory
We'll live on land and sea
'Til victory is won.
Men in blue the skies are winging
In each heart one thought is ringing.
Fight for the right,
God is our might,
We shall be free.

:D

[Warmtoast]

Two sources for the RAF March Past by H. Walford Davies.

1. Currently on offer on eBay with an opening bid of 99p. No bids so far.
THE OFFICIAL R.A.F. MARCH PAST MUSIC
by H. Walford Davies
Pianoforte Solo - Copyright 1922
No Creases or Marks of Any Kind
(just a little frayed around the edges)

Details here:
Vintage Sheet Music - R.A.F March Past on eBay (end time 24-Feb-10 16:58:18 GMT) (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Sheet-Music---R.A.F-March-Past-_W0QQitemZ140383484297QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxq20100217?IMSfp=TL 100217202001r28027)

2. Or the old stand-by for miltary music, Boosey and Hawkes, where it can be downloaded for £1.99 here:
Boosey & Hawkes Sheet Music View Selected Scorch File (http://www.boosey.com/pages/sheetdownload/scorchview.asp?sheetdownloadID=10460&filename=M060616068.sco)

Not sure about Aces High though.

[XV490]

FrogPrince,

Let me know if you can't source a score for Aces High. If you've a decent, recent Yamaha keyboard, the tune sounds great with some of the march accompaniments, and the chords are a simple I-IV-V arrangement. I'll write the melody out for you for if you stand me a beer! :ok:

[Chugalug2]

Just a general question, expressed with due deference to the musically literate posting here, of which I am definitely not one! Why is it that so much Military Band Music associated with the Royal Air Force is in fact written not for it but for films depicting it? Most Army marches are just that, written for military parades and the cadence of marching feet. RAF music (notice what I did there?) seems to be themed, which it probably is, given that it was scored to accompany scenes in films. The only march that I recall that was written for the RAF in WW2 is "Eagle Squadron" by Kenneth Alford (?), a thumping good march celebrating the US volunteers that fought in the Battle of Britain and thereafter while serving with the RAF. It cleverly has hints of the RAF March Past and of the National Anthem of the USA. Other than that we have "music" rather than "marches" from the 20's and 30's, eg "Cavalry of the Clouds" etc. I know that the RAF, notwithstanding the QCS, is not renowned for its marching. Is the music it plays cause or effect of that?.............and retire to a safe distance!

[Green Flash]

Chug

The tunes that the Army has were probably once popular well known songs known to one and all of the peasantry that became adapted over the (many) years the Army has been, well, an Army. Fast forward a few (million) years and we have some well known tunes that have become associated with the Light Blue. In time I bet they'll change, be interpreted differently and morph into something to accompany the sound of boots, just like the Army tunes did years ago. Or I maybe wrong. Time, in both cases, will tell.

[Tankertrashnav]

I know that the RAF, notwithstanding the QCS, is not renowned for its marching.


I hope if anyone from QCS reads that you have retired to a very safe distance Chugalug! ;) Or did you mean QCS excepted?

[Jig Peter]

The infantery's job is moving about on foot, so except when on patrol, it's a good idea to give them a strong beat to keep 'em all together.
The RAF's job is operating aeroplanes, from maintenance to flying them, and administrating those who do. Marchin' about "three thick" is not a proper task for engineers or aircrew, much though Town Councils and such like to have the "boys in blue" doing just that through their streets.
Years ago, there was one tune to which all on parade knew the words - the "General Salute". A sprightly tune, to which recruits were taught the words to sing (mentally) and which ensured the whole parade got the required 16 (?) steps simultaneously. The words were "Stand by your beds, here comes the Air Vice Marshal, he's got bags of rings but he's only got one **** ..."
Some time in the '50s, suddenly it was replaced by something specially written NOT to be sung to - twiddling flutes symbolised Spitfires and booms on the Bass drum the efforts of the Bombardment Command (or some such symbolickery).
Plitickly Creckt attitudinising long antedates the term itself ... together with fear of "lower" (or other) ranks' "bawdry" on the part of the insecure looking for "pwomotion" from people who never ever sang a rugby song in their timid little lives ... Bah !!! :ugh::ugh::ugh::ugh:

[FrogPrince]

:ok::ok::ok::ok:

Many thanks !

Now tracking down "Recce Flight" and "A Bridge Too Far" using the same approach.....

FP

[Chugalug2]

Yes, good point TTN, and as I suspect there is no safe distance to retire to from an enraged QCS member, I did indeed mean the QCS excepted!
JP I am not for one moment suggesting more than minimal RAF marching by Air or Ground Crew, once a year for the AOC is surely an elegant sufficiency for anyone! But if needs must, and at least in training it usually does, then let's have some decent stirring RAF Marches! The Army as I said before seems to have no lack of them:
The Great Little Army, Children of the Regiment (though possibly German?), Bond of Friendship, Sons of the Brave, Imperial Echoes, Colonel Bogey, the RA Slow March, being just some that come to mind.
In comparison we seem to borrow some of theirs or use dirges that no-one else wants. It was years after I had left Sleaford Tech that I discovered that we always did the Slow March Past to an old German March called Coburg. Presumably the Nazis had felt it was as dirge like as I and did not bother with it, thus allowing us to do so. Many of the ones that they did bother with seem to have since been rehabilitated though, being of course Prussian in the main rather than German and certainly not Nazi, and are being heard again on British Parade grounds. Perhaps we could adopt some of those? Somehow though I suspect our first choice would indeed be Aces High, best stick to the Film Script eh?
Now to show myself up as a complete anorak! Didn't the General Salute happen after the 16(?) steps that you mention, JP? Was it not an "Advance in Review Order" and the music, to which you have now added words that I just know I will now never forget, I think was "Point of War". Whether I am right or wrong I have a sickening feeling that I have now sacrificed any credibility that I might possibly have had before posting on this thread. Why did I do it, why, why?

[Jig Peter]

You're probably right about the "Advance in review order" - it's many a moon since I was anywhere near an AOC's parade ! But I'm very glad that the words I too have never forgotten will also long resound in your mind as well ...
It goes in my memory along with the slave behind Caesar in his chariot on parade, reminding him that even mighty emperors are mortal, but with that certain "je ne sais quoi" ...

[ian16th]

Might the ending of the Boy Entrants and Aircraft Apprentice schemes have some effect on the recent standards of drill in the RAF?

[alisoncc]

Might the ending of the Boy Entrants and Aircraft Apprentice schemes have some effect on the recent standards of drill in the RAF?

Yes. It should significantly improve it. :ok:
(ex 96th Locking)

[BEagle]

Back in the days when we could afford an RAF, at RAFC Cranwell we did indeed march to 'Aces High' - complete with the glockenspiel part. Played by the RAF College Band, of course.

One day they also played 'The Liberty Bell' by Sousa - well know as the theme tune to Monty Python's Flying Circus. Our marching suffered a bit that time!

Someone told me that they use recorded music over speakers at Cranwell these days as the College can no longer afford a real band.....:mad: