Klarinet Archive - Posting 000474.txt from 1996/07

From: "Daniel A. Paprocki" <dap@-----.US>
Subj: Re: Clarinet Jobs & Brahms in Band
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 1996 20:10:46 -0400

Tom,
I'm in total aggreement with you. My first exposure to some of the
orchestra rep was through playing band transcriptions (Shotakovich
5:finale, William Tell Overture, etc.). For a high school or undergrad
college player, the band is a great experience and all should do it.
The military bands are great jobs - let me qualify that - the top
military bands are great jobs. I have a friend in the DC Marine band and
he loves it. I might have reservations about the other military bands.
How much parade duty is really involved? Would any list member (who is
also a member of a non-DC band) like to comment?
Tom, you're right, there are good transcription and bad. My point
is that if you spend all of your time training for orchestra playing and
orchestra auditions , playing in a band is a big shift of gears. Yes, you
do get paid to play and no, you don't get your own part (unless you're the
pricipal solo clarinet). For some players the military band is a great
thing - if you can accept the rules (no one-on-a-part, parades, no Brahms,
you're government property for 3 or 4 years, etc..). By the way I did
equire about a DC Marine band audition a couple of years ago and found out
I'm too old.
One of the best traditional (non-wind ensemble) band concerts I
heard was at Midwest in Chicago two years ago and it was the DC Marine
band. The whole show is so well put together and paced that you don't even
realize that an hour has gone by. And talk about electricity! Well my
point is bands are good but they are not orchestras.

Dan

******************************************************************************

Daniel A. Paprocki
dap@-----.us

******************************************************************************