At this year's Youth in Music Marching Band Championships today, the Irondale Marching Knights' contribution will be the edgy, dark and eerie "Nevermore," a tribute to the quaint and curious poem by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven."

Yes, while the teen musicians and their director gush about the familial affection they feel, and about the ways band has changed their lives for the better, today the Marching Knights will draw on that teamwork and mutual affection as they strut, pivot and create stunning visual and musical art in their study of a man's descent into insanity.

Welcome to marching band.

Director Bill Sucha (pronounced SOO-ha) laughed when a visitor pointed out the proximity of Halloween to the band's tournament appearance at the Metrodome.

"It never once entered my mind," he said, noting that the piece was written expressly for competitive marching bands by composer Frank Sullivan, and that many students had encountered the poem, if only on "The Simpsons" Halloween shows.

"[The students] bought in immediately. Part of that comes from the excitement of the staff. We were really juiced on it, and they were, too. It's dark, it's got a lot of dissonance, it's edgy, it's rhythmic and very angular at times. The kids like it; high school kids understand angst and all that dark stuff."

Senior baritone player Eric Lemke noted the choice meant a surcease of fantastic terrors.

"This spring, the seniors were kind of worried because the staff kept throwing out the idea of a western show, which we weren't too happy about," he said. "So when we heard the final show music and started to drill for it, everyone was totally psyched and the show turned out to be just an amazing piece."

On Tuesday afternoon, the marching band was having its final full rehearsal at their school in New Brighton before the weekend tournament. Spurred on by the tapping, tapping of the drum major, a group of brass and woodwinds practiced their moves; their footsteps made hustled crosshatches on a blustery football field. From a spot nearby came a rapping, rapping from the percussion corps, and a flirt and flutter from the color guard.

In the final tableau, the band will form "an abstract raven," Sucha said. "You can see the yellow eye and the menacing look that's driven this man crazy."

Only this and nothing more.

Maria Elena Baca • 612-673-4409

Maria Elena Baca • mbaca@startribune.com