When The Saints Go Marching In arranged for pitched percussion (marimba), acoustic guitar and bass guitar in the key of D. The playback tempo is 100 half note or minim beats to the minute whilst the music is notated in cut time. Traditional American music songs such as “When The Saints Go Marching In” are excellent pieces for developing an understanding of the style elements associated with the performance of 20th century popular music. There is opportunity for players to explore the arrangement - the bass line played by the bass player is open to being played with some rhythmic variation particularly during the playing of the repeat sections. Many melodies and lyrics that are recognised as spirituals are often a synthesis of several songs that had their origins as work songs before, during and after the American Civil War. Songs sung from the 1850’s and onwards were perhaps published around 1918 and then first recorded in the 1920’s. The history of the song is well documented and many there are performances to be discovered embracing a range of styles and different types of performing group. The marimba player has the option of playing the repeats an octave higher whilst chords shapes have been indicated in the guitar score and the bass guitar is notated both conventionally and TAB. Individual parts are appended to the full score. The accompaniment mp3 features a string bass in the playback.
