Glory Raised High by Horns

The Marine Band's grand gig has run from Presidents Adams to Clinton

We are talking two centuries of pure American spirit--formless and weightless but as powerful as our arsenals, the stuff of thumping pulse and shiny eyes and the voice of glory raised high by horns and reeds. The U.S. Marine Band, a band now judged by experts to be the best the world has ever produced, turned 200 this past weekend. On Friday the drums shook the South Lawn of the White House as President Clinton paid tribute. The next evening the piccolos rode the heavens in a Kennedy Center concert attended by the men and women who run this country.

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