Klarinet Archive - Posting 000861.txt from 1997/04

From: Karl Krelove <kkrelove@-----.com>
Subj: Re: marching bands
Date: Mon, 28 Apr 1997 20:07:30 -0400

At 06:14 PM 4/28/97 -0500, George Landis wrote:

>Amen. The time spent on marching bands these days is just appalling.
>I've always suspected that the only reason marching bands persist in any
>significant way is because most band directors don't have the requisite
>skill or musical sense to succeed in the concert realm and they resort
>to marching to keep the students fired up and interested.
>
I had decided to stay out of this thread because it seemed peripheral to
clarinet discussion and maybe better suited to one of the music ed news
groups. This struck a nerve, though, and I need to respond.
You're painting a large group of educators with an awfully broad brush.
Band directors range in talent, "skill and musical sense" from barely
detectable to tremendous. Some probably "resort" to marching in the way you
describe. Others feel, rightly or wrongly, trapped by pressures on their
programs from school boards, administrators, and even parents into
competing in marching events and performing at football games. Some even
make strong arguments (which I personally find a little delusional) that
what they are teaching in marching band is real music requiring skills
identical to those promoted in the more "serious" concert programs. I'm not
especially fond of marching bands or of requiring music students to play in
them, but I spend my days (and earn a large part of my income) working in a
public school music program, and I find characterizations like yours of the
teachers who work in them unfair. If you work in school music, you know
better. If you don't, you should look a little more deeply into the problem.

Karl