Moocho Macho Moocow Military Marching Band

Moocho Macho Moocow Military Marching Band

Type of group	Arts
Selective	No
Membership	0
Meeting time	1x weekly during fall semester; 2x on game weeks
Meeting place	Shapiro Hall
Office	The Band Closet
Established	the dawn of time (er, post WWII by Prof. Irwin Shainman)- 2017
Website	http://wso.williams.edu/orgs/moocow/

The Williams College Moocho Macho Moocow Military Marching Band was composed of roughly 25-30 musicians who meet weekly each fall in preparation for home and/or away football games. The band operated from sometime post WW2 until Spring 2017, but Alum continue to carry the spirit of the band.

Old Description

These musicians have varying musical abilities and experiences allowing fledgling musicians the opportunity to play alongside and learn from those with more experience, which bridges the gap between the novice and other Williams music organizations. Although marching bands at other schools are limited to wind instrumentalists, the Williams Band honors equal opportunity and welcomes all instruments, such as violin and string bass, and even features vocalists in the plastic section, kazoos. Each week, under the direction of two caped student leaders, the Williams Band parades down Spring Street carrying with them the Williams Competitive Spirit to all home football games, opens the game with the Star Spangled Banner, performs an original halftime show and intersperses witty cheers along with rousing melodies throughout the game. Overall, the Williams Band prides itself in enthusiasm and musicianship while HAVING FUN!

Contact Jessica Luning (jl9) or Austin Paul (ajp1) for more info or to join. Also, check out the band's website.

Rehearsal are held Mondays from 7-8 and Fridays from 4:00-5:00 during football season. The Band also plays at several basketball games during Winter Study.

Band Mythology

Conditions before the Band came to be

In the beginning, there was no band at Williams. The school's few students, too dispirited to wander outside into the shoulder-high drifts, huddled around the dull fires that smoldered in West College's fireplaces. They suffered from malnutrition; no one had invented an ID-card reader, and the students could not use their dinner points. The creatures of darkness scratched at West College's thin brick walls. In the cellar, Elijah.I.Berman struggled to set up Colrain.

Emilus and Magilus

One snow-covered winter, a Priestess of the Order of Ephiram gave birth to twins, who eventually came to be known as Emilus and Magilus. The people of Williams were horrified, for the Pristesses of Ephiram had vowed to remain chaste. The President of the College, perhaps attempting to hide evidence of his involvement, ordered a few fellows from B&G to throw the twins into the Hoosic River, which was then in flood. However, the men were afraid, and they left Emilus and Magilus in the shallows of the flooded fields that bordered the main channel. The waters quickly receeded, and the babies were deposited on the drying ground.

A purple cow came upon Emilus and Magilus, and suckled the two babies. A shepherd discovered the three, took the babies off to his rude hut, and raised them. The twins became quite musically proficent. Emilus even learned to play the viola, but she set it aside in favor of the kazoo because she wanted more respect.

The early years of the Band

Emilus and Magilus attracted much attention as they wandered about Williamstown, tending their sheep. One fine April day, with Zepherus blowing softly and flowers budding all about the countryside, the twins were watching their flock just above the Hairpin Curve. They spotted a raiding party from Amherst swarming down the road. (The warriors hoped to steal a card catalog so that they could find books in their library -- a collection which they had taken from Williams.) Emilus and Magilus drove their flock into the road; the knot of sheep delayed the raiders while the twins hurried off to warn Williamstown. Today, the cult of the Elizabethans honors the brave sheep.

The President of the College realized that he needed to defend his tranquil realm. Acting with great wisdom, he formed the Williams Band, a group which would protect the College using such fearsome weapons as Sousaphones, piccolos, and snare drums. He placed Emilus and Magilus in command of this organization. The twins won many victories and made the Band feared throughout the NESCAC.

Mr. C arrives

Many years later, Emilus and Magilus wandered off to the west, where they settled, and founded a small clan. They left the Band under the capable leadership of the legendary Mr. C. "Tough as an armadillo," Mr. C proved to be an outstanding Band Director, with a mind honed by many years of paddleball and golf. The other bands in the NESCAC shriveled and disappeared, having been repeatedly humiliated by Williams. Under student leader Moody, the Wesleyan Band put up a tremendous resistance; it fell after Moody graduated. Williams Band gained a hegemony over the conference, and has won the New England Division III Marching Band Championship for thirty-six consecutive years.

The last Moocow?

An unfortunate series of events befell the Band starting in the Fall of 2017. Several members quit. The senior leader left the College. Recruitment was poor. The Band was only able to operate because Chris "Two-Quatah" Caproni (Mr. C) was able to levy high-schoolers from Drury to fill the Band's ranks.

Then, in the fall of 2018, Mr. C did not return. To replace him, Ashley Paradis was selected. But by that point, the Band had only three student members. Then two. Then one.

The alums returned for Homecoming, as they always do. A sextet performed (which included the legendary Denny Blagden '62) which was met with cheers. The Band hasn't performed since. Professor Ed Gollin, Chair of the Music Department, is poised to restart the Marching Band. But until then, I am the last Moocow. - Jra5