Celebration Galop; is meant to embody the excitement, joy and lightness one feels after the burden of a long journey is complete. Imagine working toward a goal for years, experiencing little success along the way. Toward the end, you might see the light at the end of the tunnel and you know it is now just a waiting game. As the completion of the journey approaches, you can't help but feel overwhelmed by pure giddiness that soon you will no longer be subject to the whims of fate on this journey. You will have finished what you set out to do and you know that AMAZING things await you on the other side. Mr. Riley was feeling this very thing while nearing the end of his undergraduate tenure. Knowing that the work was done and that it was just a matter of waiting, he spontaneously started singing the main melody for this piece. It got stuck in his head long enough that he said, Son of a gun! I think this should be a band piece! And so it came to pass.