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Guardians We! Lyrics

COPYRIGHT for Semper Supra

While this song is under development, we retain all copyrights to this work.

If this song is ever selected as the official song of the U.S. Space Force, to replace the current selection, then the composer will change this to an “Open Copyright.”

What this means is that first, all military bands will be granted the rights in perpetiuity to perform this work without seeking permission or paying royalties.

This further means that anyone will be automatically granted “Permission to Arrange” for any instrumental and/or vocal ensemble, either as a stand-alone work or for inclusion in a medley, such as a medley of service songs, as long as the essential character of the work is not altered.

Under this open copyright, we will retain the rights to performance and broadcast/netcast royalties, such that if royalties are required to be paid by an entity for any other performed works, then appropriate performance royalties will also be due for this song.

As of this date in the third quarter of 2022, both the Air Force Song (“Off We Go”) and the Coast Guard Song (“Semper Paratus”) are under copyright, and those copyrights have been bought up by a large publishing house. This publishing house is refusing “Permission to arrange” for these songs, thereby prohibiting anyone from creating new arrangements of the song or creating new medleys of service songs to be played nationwide. Further, they have terminated permission to publish existing arrangements, thereby assuring the only arrangement currently available is their own. Many band directors around the world are very unhappy with the quality of this arrangement, and it seems the only reaction to their unhappiness is “too bad.” I don’t want that to happen with the Space Force Song. The Space Force Song (whenever it is made official) should belong to everyone in the country, and to the Space Force in particular. Retaining performance royalties, when such are legitimately due, is simply remuneration to the composer for the effort expended in creating this work.

What’s Next for Semper Supra

The next things for Semper Supra are to create Virtual Concert #2, finish the third verse, and create a more comprehensive symphonic arrangement to include 3 verses.

In Virtual Concert #2, we are looking to have 50 or more instrumentalists, in addition to a full choir of 24 voices or more. The target date to complete this video is the end of 2022.

As for the lyrics, the first two verses are complete (see Lyrics above). I have written a third verse, but it still needs some refinement. Refining the third verse is on hold for now while I work the Virtual Concert #2 project.

Still to do:

• Write a more complete symphonic (3-verse) version (perhaps with a modulation for the final verse)
• Write a Big Band (jazz band) version
• Write a 5-voice Combo Version

The TIMELINE for completing all these tasks is TBD, and will depend on whether the song is selected as the official song of the Space Force, and how many people clamor for the other arrangements.

Semper Supra BLOG

Status as of 6 Mar 2024, 0435 hours (CDT)

It has been a year an a half since I updated this blog. The gap is because I had the wind taken out of my sails, when it was announced at the 2022 National Air and Space Force Convention that the commending general of the Space Force had selected some other song as their official Space Force song … without ever considering any other tunes.

I tried diligently for six months to get this tune played and heard by anyone in authority, but alas to no avail. I was met with stone walls at every turn. It seems the general had his mind already made up and wasn’t interested in hearing anything else.

Oh, well, that’s the way things happen sometimes.

In the meantime, I have sent out free copies of this music to more than a dozen bands nationwide, and all who have played it report they truly like the tune.

I have also made one change to the lyrics. If you already have a copy of the tune, you should make this change to your copy. The change is this:

In lines 3 and 4 of the song, the lyrics are “We or-bit the globe, guard-ing the peace.” I am changing “the globe” to “on high” so as to rhyme with the previous line and be more consistent with the form of the second verse.

I have not yet made this change in any of the published versions, but I will get to it when I can. If you are reading this and would like an updated copy of what you have, please use the Contact Us form and let me know, and that will motivate me to make those changes more quickly.

In the meantime, take care everyone, and let me know if you have any suggestions as to what else we can do with this tune.

Status as of 20 Aug 2022, 0740 hours (CDT)

Whew, it has been an amazing week – I have been finishing up Virtual Concert #1. It is now posted on YouTube and at the top of this page.

I am truly delighted with all of the participation and support for the tune and for the virtual concert project, and I still have high hopes that more and more people will hear and promote Semper Supra far and wide. Eventually, it should come to the attention of those who make decisions.

More and more people are reporting to me that they LOVE this tune, and that they think it fits in beautifully with all the other service songs of the armed forces. This is so very good to hear, and makes it worth all the work we have put into the tune so far.

More soon – I have a lot of website updating here to do.

Status as of 10 Aug 2022, 1930 hours (CDT)

It’s been nearly two weeks since the last blog post, and all this time I have been working on the virtual concert. We have nearly 100 people signed up to participate, and as of today, we have received 43 recordings from 23 different people. This means, of course, that several people have submitted more than one part!

We have all the instrumental parts covered, but nowhere near enough singers yet.

My goal is to have this first virtual concert video completed in time to send it to the AFA in time for the Air & Space Force Association’s national convention in mid-September. Not that they definitely WILL show it there, but if it’s not done, they couldn’t.

The next goal will be to get 100 musicians participating before the end of the year.

There’s more, but that’s enough for now.

Status as of 28  Jul 2022, 0635 hours (CDT)

It is now three days before the first deadline I set for sending in recordings by the virtual concert participants. We currently have 84 people who have volunteered to be a part of this virtual concert, but with only 3 days to the first deadline, I have received only 13 recordings from 8 different people. I’m going to have to extend the deadline, I fear.

Another issue that is causing me some anguish is that while I am immensely grateful for all these participants, it seems that quite a few aren’t strict enough with rhythms. There are several places where this is true, but it is most evident in the key “space motif rhythm” in the beginning and in the second-to-last measure, as in the image in this paragraph.

I have put together 11 of the 13 recordings received so far, and it is this rhythm that seems to be the biggest challenge.

I strongly suspect it is because this is a VIRTUAL concert, and that people are not sitting right beside other players, that they pay less attention to the rhythms than is needed, but it is noticeable, for certain.

Perhaps adding more recordings will help? We will see what happens.

But the bottom line here is that the REAL players, even on video, are a much more exciting rendition of this tune than any computer-generated rendering can be. And I love that this is coming together.

Status as of 20  Jul 2022, 1514 hours (CDT)

It has been a couple of weeks since I’ve updated this blog, and I have been totally swamped putting the VIRTUAL CONCERT together.

As of today, we have 73 people who have volunteered to take part in this project, with several offering to submit several parts. This is amazing and wonderful! I have already received video submissions from several of these wonderful people, and I’m getting excited about how the virtual concert will sound.

I have also sent out complete sets of parts to four bands, and I hope some of them will enjoy programming Semper Supra this year.

Finally, I met yesterday with the military advisor to one of our Congressmen, and he is a tremendous resource and source of information about how to get this tune considered by the people who count. That’s one reason I would love to get this virtual concert finished soon – so the people “who count” can see and hear dozens and dozens of people from all over taking part in this exciting project.

Things keep moving forward, and I’m open to any and all ideas you may have. Just use the contact us form on this website, or email me directly. Take care.

Status as of 07  Jul 2022, 2015 hours (CDT)

I have completed all the PDFs, and all of the audio tracks, and have sent out the first seven packages to musicians who have volunteered to participate in the virtual concert!

I have also sent out the very first FULL SET of Concert Band parts to a band that requested them.

Tomorrow, I will be starting the media blitz to let EVERYONE I can think of know about this project, and see how many volunteer participants we can get.

If you’re reading this now, please sign up to be a part of the virtual concert.

Status as of 05  Jul 2022, 0940 hours (CDT)

It’s been a few days since I’ve posted an update, and I wanted to catch you up on what’s been going on with Semper Supra.

I have completed printing all the band parts to PDF files, and I have compiled and printed to PDF both the condensed score and the compressed score. I have created a Piano-SATB score of the symphonic version (to match the concert band version), and printed that to PDF as well, and have rendered an audio file of that score. Finally, I have created four different additional audio files, each one highlighting the audio of each of the singing voices, soprano, alto, tenor and bass.

I’m ALMOST READY to begin sending out packages to the volunteers for the VIRTUAL CONCERT of this work.

About all that’s left to do is to create the instructions for the participants, and then to get busy and recruit a LOT more musicians.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Status as of 28  Jun 2022, 0755 hours (CDT)

This Morning, I posted the latest video, the concert band rendition of the symphonic version, with Bill Martin singing and background videos from NASA. I think it’s the best rendering yet of this tune.

But it cannot compare to a live performance, and to that end I have two new things to accomplish in this project.

The first is to recruit players and singers for the VIRTUAL CONCERT. See this page for more details. But I would love to have a number of people participate, from all over, and be able to post a virtual concert of this tune maybe by August? Is that wishful thinking?

The second thing I want to accomplish is to get this tune played as widely as possible. This means I will probably have to GIVE AWAY the band arrangement of the tune, and that’s okay with me.  If you would like a FREE set of PDFs for your band, just send me an email on the CONTACT US page, and let me know. Tell me who you are, who your band is, where you are, and when you might be able to program it.

Of course, those aren’t the ONLY things still to do on this project. I am already working on a third verse, and when that’s finished, I’ll need to make a 3-verse version of the symphonic version for concert band.

Let me know any other feedback you have. Comments, criticisms, suggestions, bright ideas, and even lyrics suggestions are always welcome.

Status as of 25  Jun 2022, 2043 hours (CDT)

Three big things to report today:

First, I finished formatting all the instrumental parts in the symphonic arrangement of Semper Supra and they are ready for printing to PDF.

Second, I have updated the Virtual Concert page (see the blue box at the top of this page) with much more information and have tested the Volunteer Submission form.

Third, I have written a first draft of a third verse to the song. It’s still in VERY preliminary shape and needs a lot of work before it will be ready for prime time, but it’s a start. And, sadly, it means that all the work I did formatting the parts this morning will have to be redone, as I will now need to redo the arrangement to accommodate three verses.

If you were planning to volunteer to participate in the Virtual Concert of this tune, that page is now ready for you.

More to come. Stay tuned.

Status as of 24  Jun 2022, 1832 hours (CDT)

I have now completed the CONCERT BAND arrangement of the Symphonic Version of this tune. As of this writing, I am in the process of doing the fine-toothed-comb routine of all the parts (still in the score), to make sure they all sound good, and that the markings, such as dynamics, phrase markings, etc., are uniform and consistent in all the parts. When that’s done, I’ll format them for printing to PDF files.

I have also rendered the full band version to a WAV file and have set Bill Martin’s marvelous singing against this, and I have been exceedingly pleased with how it sounds. Yesterday, I harvested a number of NASA videos to use as video background, and I hope to have the video of this latest version – full band with singer – completed and posted tomorrow, both here and on YouTube.

Once the parts are formatted and printed to PDF, I am going to start actively seeking band instrumentalists to participate in the VIRTUAL CONCERT of the tune.

Finally, I am contemplating how best to get a massive groundswell of support for this tune to be the official Space Force song. If you have any thoughts on this, just send me an email (if you have my email address – if not, then use the form on the Virtual Concert page).

Then I can work on the audio files for singers’ parts, so I can recruit singers for it as well.

Whew. This project keeps growing, but getting more and more exciting.

Status as of 20  Jun 2022, 1100 hours (CDT)

A few days ago, I made a few tweaks to the lyrics of the song, eliminating some melismas, and replacing “We probe new frontiers” with these words, “With final frontiers” – both because it is easier to enunciate while singing, and as a nod and a salute to Star Trek (“Space – the Final frontier!”), the quintessential space exploration TV show.

I created a new PDF with these words and sent it to Bill Martin (our outstanding singer).

Within a day, Bill had sent me back FIVE renditions of the tune. I spent far too much time listening to all of them, trying to decide which was best. I finally selected the one that had the best rendering of the first few words, and that’s the one you can hear in the current video above.

In the meantime, I have completed writing all the wind parts for the Symphonic Version of Semper Supra, and next I need to go through them all very meticulously before formatting them for printing to PDF files.

Finally (for today), I am seriously considering putting out the call as widely as possible for musicians to participate in a VIRTUAL CONCERT of this song.

Stay tuned for more updates and information.

Status as of 12  Jun 2022, 1346 hours (CDT)

In a conversation yesterday with Bill Martin, the singer, he and I pretty much agreed there are places in the lyrics of Semper Supra where there are simply too many words squeezed into too little time; that is, the words come so fast it makes the tune hard to sing.

It is apparent to me that if this tune is to have ANY chance at all – however slim – of being accepted as the official song of the Space Force, it must be easy for everyone to sing.

Consequently, I spent some time today re-doing the lyrics (both verses), and modifying the notes in the melody to match these easier-to-sing lyrics.

I have put out some queries to some musician friends, and if they all concur, the revised lyrics will become the official lyrics of the song.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Status as of 11  Jun 2022, 0902 hours (CDT)

Yesterday, Bill Martin sent me a re-recording of him singing Semper Supra, this time with the corrected lyrics.

He did an OUTSTANDING JOB with the version I sent him with the wrong lyrics, and he did another outstanding job with the corrected lyrics.

The little hiccup in this process involved syncing his voice recording with the piano accompaniment – for some reason, the sync was off.

Thanks to a suggestion from my wife Jan, I was able to import both the old (well-synched) and new recordings into Audacity, and replace the two lines of incorrect words in the old recording with the correct lines from the new recording, and the result was a well-synched recording with the correct words!

A big round of applause to Bill and Jan for their help in this.

I have now created the Piano-and-Tenor video with the correct words, and that video is now displayed at the top of this page.

Let me know what you think of it.

Status as of 8  Jun 2022, 2015 hours (CDT)

AH! A huge sigh of relief and accomplishment! I have finished the break strain!

I completed the first draft of it just after lunch today, then let it sit for about five hours. When I came back to it, I found three notes/chords that I needed to change, and now it seems to flow much better.

I will try to post a video of that version of it tomorrow, so stay tuned for that.

I’m still not certain whether the Symphonic Version is complete – it still has the same coda as before, but that might be a good thing.

So far, the differences from the Short Version are that the Symphonic Version has an expanded introduction – with more “space” sounding elements, and it also has a break strain between the verses, with all the characteristics I described in yesterday’s posting.

I want to let it sit for another day and listen to it again and see if I think there’s more changes to make. If not, I’ll post it and move on to the arrangement for band with voice(s).

This is getting exciting. I sure hope someone in the leadership of the Space Force at least gives this tune a good listen and fair consideration.

Status as of 7  Jun 2022, 1900 hours (CDT)

I know it has been several days since I’ve posted here – but as I have mentioned in previous posts, we’ve been traveling. We finally got home yesterday, after 22 days on the road, covering 19 states and 6,132 miles. It was a good but LONG trip, and I did manage to keep working on Semper Supra throughout the trip.

Even the last two days, while visiting our daughter in Tulsa, I was on her piano, working on the break strain for the symphonic version of the song.

A few days before that, I had annotated the expanded introduction for this version – one that has more of a “space” feeling to it, and is a bit longer than the shorter versions.

I am looking for a few things to characterize the break strain for the tune.

First, I want to use the motif from the trio of Sousa’s “Invincible Eagle” as a key tie-in for this break strain. The main reason is that this tune is currently the “unoffcial” interim song of the Space Force until they select a new official song – which, as of this writing, I cannot tell that they have done. The other reason is as a respectful nod to John Philip Sousa, who embodies the American March and was the commander of the U.S. Marine Band for a number of years.

The second thing I wanted for this break strain was for it to NOT be a traditional dogfight a la Sousa or Fillmore, but to still be identifiable as a break strain.

The final thing I wanted as a characterization of this break strain is for it to have some “Space” feeling to it, an aura that would not be out of place as you watch movies of a space ship hurtling towards Mars or Jupiter.

I’m currently working on that, and think I’m making good progress.

More to come, very soon.

Status as of 30  May 2022, 1600 hours (MDT)

Several days ago, I asked my brother-in-law, Dr. Bill Martin, one of the finest tenor singers I have ever known, to record the tenor voice part for this tune.

Yesterday, admittedly after a few days away from my computer while traveling, I received from him the recording. I spent yesterday evening setting it against the Piano-SATB recording I already had made, and balancing the two recordings so neither one of them out-balanced the other.

I thought it came out quite well, especially Bill’s powerful performance of the tune. Today, it was raining pretty much all day in Rapid City, SD, where we currently are on our travels, so it was a day of rest from playing tourist, and I was able to use the time to create the video of Bill singing Semper Supra, with the piano accompaniment, and set the lyrics against a number of images downloaded from the NASA.gov website.

As I was creating the video, I realized I had sent Bill an older PDF of the score from which he could sing, and two of the lines of lyrics in the first verse had changed. Rather than request Bill to remake the recording, I simply put the newer words into the Lyric overlay in the video, and created a little orange popup alerting viewers to the discrepancy.

If Bill (or someone else) should send me a corrected recording, I’ll replace this video with the newer one.

Overall, I am pleased with the progress being made.

Next up: complete the Symphonic Version for band (alone), then the Symphonic Version for band with voice(s).

Still a lot of work to do before this project will be done.

Status as of 22  May 2022, 2015 hours (MDT)

Today, I finished the SATB and Piano arrangement of Semper Supra.

I’m going to have to listen to it several more times, and do a more detailed analysis of each part to make sure there are no awkward intervals to challenge the singers. But I expect it is better than 90% done as it is.

I have also included the second verse of the lyrics in this edition, and have added rehearsal numbers and the appropriate repeat sign.

This is the SHORT version, meaning it has only a 4-bar intro and a 4-bar tag/coda. I still plan to create the symphonic version, that has a longer and more involved intro, and a bit longer coda, as well as a break-strain, that at this point may or may not have words.

I’m happy with the progress so far, and would love to hear what you think. Take care, everyone.

Status as of 20  May 2022, 1545 hours (MDT)

Two days ago in our travels, we arrived in Provo, Utah, about 45 minutes south of Salt Lake City (SLC).

Being as how SLC is home to arguably the most famous choir in the world, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, with their orchestra, and knowing that I needed to get Semper Supra recorded as soon as I could, AND knowing that Latter Day Saints are fiercely patriotic, I called them to ask if they might consider performing and recording what had a chance of being the official song of only the sixth military service branch in the history of our nation.

The executive assistant there was very pleasant and helpful, and put my inquiry before their music director. Sadly, they did not have any time at all in their very cramped schedule to consider this. But at least I asked.

I figured, it NEEDS to be recorded, why not start at the top?

By the way, this choir consists of some 360 singers and 110 orchestra musicians plus the staff required to make it function, and they are ALL VOLUNTEERS.

We need more of this kind of thing in our country.

I am now working on the SATB arrangement for the tune, and will let you know when that’s done. Take care, everyone.

Status as of 16 May 2022, 2015 hours

After two days on the road, this is my first chance to get back to updating this web page. There will be more days on the road before I can do much more here. BUT…

But I haven’t been idle! I have  worked out some much better lyrics in Verse 2 of Semper Supra. You can see the ORIGINAL lyrics in my blog post (below) for 12 May, if you’d like to compare the old with the new.

Besides working on the lyrics, I’ve also been doing lots of thinking about what the symphonic version of the tune should sound like. That one will take a bit longer to work out than did the original melody and chords, but it will definitely be worth the effort.

Take care, everyone, and I’d love to hear from you what you think about the new lyrics in Verse 2.

Status as of 14 May 2022 2035

I have COMPLETED (first draft of) THE CONCERT BAND ARRANGEMENT of Semper Supra! As of today, and for at least several more days, you can see it above, in the videos section. It will be there until it isreplaced by a later (and better) version.

All thoughts and inputs are welcome.

Status as of 14 May 2022 1152

I have decided to change the title of the tune back to what it was – Semper Supra.

I have also completed the band arrangement condensed score, and it should be a simple matter from here to explode it to a full score. I may do that later today.

I’m glad to have that done, because for the next several days, I will be traveling. I will, of course, have my computer with me, but won’t be able to do regular work or posting. Even so, the tune’s evolution will continue in my mind. I can’t help it. The tune is THERE. It needs to get out, it needs to get finished, it needs to get played, and it needs to be heard. 

Stay tuned for more.

About the Composer

MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS

With a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Music from the University of Florida, David Miller has served as director of bands at the P.K. Yonge Laboratory school and at Boca Raton High School in Florida.

In 2004, he (co)founded the Mississippi Community Symphonic Band in central Mississippi, and served as the conductor and business manager of that group for 15 years. He still serves on their board of directors.

During this time, he has written and arranged more than 50 pieces of music, mostly for concert band. Many of these pieces can be seen and heard on this very site. See the Silver Clef Music catalog here.

You can also see and hear more of his works at www.YouTube.com/mcsbvideos, and read more about him at https://www.windrep.org/David_P_Miller

In addition to conducting, composing, and arranging, he was also the brass instructor for the Florida Vanguard Drum & Bugle Corps in Hallandale, FL (just north of Miami) in 1980, and he has played principal Horn with a large number of wind and orchestral ensembles. He has guest conducted the Air Force Band of New England (1982) in a performance for the commanding general of the Strategic Air Command.

Always Above – Guardians We! is his latest work (2022), for band and voice.