Finale to HAIL! CALIFORNIA

The Centennial Performing Edition incorporates all of the original music for wind band that Saint-Saens composed in the ending section of Hail! California now edited  for contemporary wind bands, as well as including the orchestral material, now arranged for band, into one comprehensive performing edition. Of significant interest, the full score manuscript also includes Saint-Saens' orchestration of the two organ interludes if an organ was not available - or possibly if technical difficulties occurred, like at the premiere in 1915.

Previously, Saint-Saens had composed three known works for band: Orient et Occident (1869), Hymne franco-espagnol (1900),and Sur les boards du Nil (1908). With the Finale to the massive Hail! California, he in essence composed another work for band, this time featuring the band with orchestral accompaniment and interplay, as well as serving as a politically-charged composition: What Saint-Saens composed for the Exposition was a work that attempted to unite France and the United States. What better way to make a statement of the French and Americans joining forces - musically and politically - than incorporating the national anthems of the two countries into his composition for the Exposition? Thus, La Marseillaise and The Star-Spangled Banner are masterfully woven together  in the "Finale" of Hail! California. While the music of Hail! California is most certainly French-inspired and characteristic of Saint-Saens' oeuvre, the use of The Star-Spangled Banner and the employment of the Sousa Band at the premiere lent a distinct American quality in both musical and extra-musical ways.