Klarinet Archive - Posting 000939.txt from 1997/04

From: MattP69@-----.com
Subj: Re: marching bands
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 1997 10:38:17 -0400

Marching Bands are an american tradition. They are wonderful to watch but a
pain in the rear to be in. I went To Calvert Hall College High School (
don't ask why there is college in the name it is a high school) and was in
the marching band for fours years. And I was always thankful whmarching
season was over and it was time to start doing conert music indoors. First
there is memorization which often just lessens the wuality of the music.
Now let me explain. When you have a high school and even college bands.
Trying to get the entire band to playthe dynamics, the expressions and
articulations as a group is quite a challenge when they are looking directly
at the music. But then take away the music and then apply movment and drill
routines for the people to focus on too. The Dynamics articulation etc are
often lost. They are sacrificed to playing the right notes and marching. I
remeber times when I would getmy entire clarinet section of about 15 out of
120 to get a song down memorized with the expressions and articulation etc
and then we get on the field they forget all the little things we worked on
inside and just pla the notes. I say something and they try to do the
expressions and then I see them out of step or moving late etc. So in
marching band you really do sacrifice some of the quality of the music in my
opinion.

Now the problems with the instruments is a story we all know. But I have an
interesting story about this. My sophmore year back in the winter of 93 I
believe. The marching band was asked to perform at the grand opening of the
new mall down the street. Well it was about 30 degrees and a windy. We were
outside for at least 2 and half hours. I saw one trumpet player tear some of
the skin off his lip when we finished one song. What happened is the spit
froze his lip to the metal mouthpiece and when we finished a song we were
supposd to snap the instrument away from our mouths and return them to a rest
position. Well when he did this he didn't realize his lip was frozen to the
mouthpiece and he torn a little skin off his lip. When I returned back to
school. half of the clarinet section could not disassemble our clarinets.
The extreme weather made the joints sieze up and freeze together It was a
nitemare the entire day.

But the thrill of marching band is undeniable. Every two years the Calvert
hall marching band goes to disney world and performs at epoct center and the
magic kindom. Now my senior year. April of 95 we had a number with a
dixland group in it that I was the clarinetist in. We would actually stop
the entire marching band and we'd fall out to the front of the crowd and play
with the band accompanying. Now Im telling you that was a extremely huge
thrill to be standing in front of literally 8-10 thousand screaming people
and performing. But it sure is a lot of work and nothing but problems

I remeber my years in marching band foundly but I am not looking forward to
doing it again nin college next year when I have to do it as a requirement
for my major.

//@-----. P=l=sik