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By Monika Spaulding
This Friday, the Salem Marching Lions will take the field for the first time this season during halftime of the home football game.
Band Director Brittany Hildenbrand is excited for the community to see this year’s theme: "The Witching Hour." The show will specifically focus on the time and how things are progressively more spooky as it gets closer to 12 a.m.
Hildenbrand said, “the show opens with the color guard in a circle performing what almost seems like a ritual-like dance while hidden under black cloaks. Shortly after the start of the show a tuba (played by Ben McClure) comes out from behind the clock tower playing the Dies Irae as a solo, signifying the beginning of the end.”
She explained that Dies Irae is a Latin gregorian chant that translates to "Day of Wrath.”
Friday night, Hildenbrand said fans in the stands will see that the field itself will be made out to be the top half of the face of a clock.
“There are black triangles laid out starting on side one (left side) around the 25, 30 and 40 yard lines representing 9, 10 and 11 o'clock,” she said. “A clock tower on the 50 to represent 12 and more black triangles on side two (right side) around the 40, 30 and 25 representing 1, 2, and 3 o'clock. The show begins somewhere around 10:00 with the first movement ending right after 11 p.m. The second movement will progress from 11 p.m. and end at 12 a.m. where the third movement will begin.”
There are currently 32 members in the marching band this year: one Drum Major, 19 winds, six percussion and six guard members. Timothy Pate is this year’s drum major.
Hildenbrand said the band will, hopefully, have six competitions this season: Sept. 7- Salem; Sept. 14- Paoli; Sept. 21- Floyd Central; Sept. 28- Springs Valley; Oct. 5- Prelims; Oct. 19- Finals.