Harry James Lincoln (1878-1937) was an American composer of marches and rags. “Midnight Fire Alarm” was his first publication (released in 1900) which went on to become a hit upon the release of the piano and band arrangements done by Edward Taylor Paull (1858-1924), a composer/arranger/sheet music publisher who was successful in producing a large number of circus marches in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s.

This arrangement has been prepared for the instrumentation of Alford’s “Hungry Five” polka band books and serve as a fine addendum to those familiar pieces. While the clarinet parts tend to be the most active, they often feature diatonic scalar patterns that remain accessible to most intermediate-level players. The trombone part here is more active than many other arrangements for this kind of ensemble and could also be handled by Euphonium if desired. Again, it’s mostly diatonic 16th note bursts. At the risk of sounding sloppy, it may be better to take the tempo a little lesser than a circus march tempo to accommodate. Besides, if playing this piece for Polka dancing, it would be best to take this at a more danceable tempo anyway.

This downloadable PDF package contains a full score and a set of parts that are ready to go for adding some extra variety to your German Band’s Oktoberfest OomPah gig!

Also included as part of the E.T. Paull Hungry Five 2-Pack