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October
4, 2004 Vol 75, no. 6F
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| THE RIGHT
FIGHT: Environmental Engineering grad student
Hirokazu Hiraiwa was written up in The Berkeleyan, The Chronicle,
and The Oakland Tribune after winning the national contest for a
new Cal Marching Band fight song. |
CEE grad
student wins national search for new Cal Marching Band fight song
What does it take to write
Cal’s newest fight song? According to first-year environmental
engineering grad student Hirokazu Hiraiwa, a bit of boredom and a lot
of spare time.
“California Triumph,” written by Hiraiwa, a former Berkeley
CEE undergrad and ex-member of the Cal band, won the national search
for a new Cal fight song. While Berkeley is famous for its large repertoire
of fight songs, the Cal Marching Band has not had a new one since 1978.
Hiraiwa, who never wrote a song before, beat out 15 competitors, won
$2,000, and got a chance to conduct the band at the first two premieres
of the song at Zellerbach Hall and at the opening Cal football game.
This past summer, in search of ways to spend his copious spare time,
Hiraiwa wrote the song as an afterthought, five days before the deadline.
He studied fight songs from other schools and devoted seven hours a
day to writing music.
“I’d never done this before, but I did arrange music for the
Cal Marching Band, so I was familiar with the way music is structured,”
he says.
His engineering background was also helpful, he says, because it gave
him the analytical skills he needed to parse and assemble the fight
song.
“I came up with a melody that fit the traditional fight song pattern,”
he says.
While his technical skills are sharp with regard to music, his creativity
has limits, he says. The fight song still needs lyrics, but Hiraiwa
will leave that task to someone more qualified.
“There’s a reason I’m an engineer, I’m not very
good with words,” he laughs. Listen to “California Triumph”
at www.calband.berkeley.edu/calband/media/triumph.html.
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