Klarinet Archive - Posting 000667.txt from 1997/10

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Revelli ;)
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 21:19:05 -0400

On Wed, 15 Oct 1997 Gary_VanCott@-----.com wrote:
> I just don't believe in paying to take abuse. It is different if you are
> being paid. Sort of like the difference between West Point and the Citadel
> or VMI.

Well, some people didn't take it and left while others stayed and did what
they needed to do to avoid being targeted....which was what the "abuse"
was for. Actually, I don't think he went to the extent of telling a
person they were a horrible human being or that their parents were lousy
people, but he did tell them the truth....examples:

"Do you like that tone?? Does ANYONE in this BAND like that
tone??

"You need to consider a change of degree to business or law, but
frankly, if you practice law the way you practice the trombone, you won't
have many clients."

While these seem mean today, they were just honest statements. Today, in
the world of "don't hurt me or I'll sue", or political correctness, sadly,
you are right....he would never get away with it. Please don't get me
wrong...I am not ADVOCATING this approach, just explaining it.

> I am sure that the people who played for him thought they got something out
> of it and were certainly prepared for the world of professional conductors.
> Everyone has to make choices.

I think you have hit on something here......you know, more people left
Michigan and went into professional playing or college teaching postitions
because of the approach Revelli used. But let me say this, many of the
people who complain about his treatment were those who didn't want to
practice or to improve. Anyone who has an opinion should have one based
on what they saw or heard - not what someone else told them. The context
is very important.

Let me share with the lissterv an excerpt from a Rose Bowl Rehearsal -
Revelli's exact comments to the band in December of 1964. The Band was
practicing the music for a special dance step arrangement of "Auld Lang
Syne," but some musicians weren't getting the rhythm right. Here, in his
own words, are highlights of the version of the "Revelli Creed" he gave
that day:

Quote:

"You know why our high school bands play with such atrocious rhythm? You
know where it starts? Where do you think it starts? Right here. Right
here. Just listen to them! I don't care what parade it's in. Just
listen to them! It's abominable! It's a disgrace! There's no rhythm!

All you have to do is count four: one, two, three, four; one, two three -
I heard Mr. Toscanini spend 45 minutes on eight bars of the Italian
Symphony with the NBC Orchestra, and he didn't get to anything but rhythm.
These are pros - finest in the world! Now, they KNOW better, but the
never had anybody discipline them to do it right. And when they came out
of there, they KNEW they had it.

DEMAND OF YOURSELF! How much do you demand of yourself of what I'm
talking about? Not even 10 percent, some of you. You have a negative
apporach to it to begin with. You see, I'm uncompromising with myself.
It'd be easy to stand up here and let you go: 'Have a jolly good time! Go
and see Los Angeles!' And go out and play like a bunch of rummies!

I want to know how you can dedicate yourself to your forthcoming positions
in the musical world, when you can't dedicate yourself right now to what
you're doing in a simple little march. I want to know how you expect the
students who are going to be under your tutelage in the next 40 years to
come out with any ideals. I'm talking to the whole gang of you!

The world is full of people who do things just about right. Just about.
And a few on the top do them just right - most of the time. Nobody's
perfect! When are you going to start to demand of yourself what I demand
of myself? When are you going to be as uncompromising with what you do as
I am uncompromising in what I hear and what I insist on? When? Are you
waiting for some miracle? The miracle will be when you demand of yourself
everything you've got of yourself. That'll be the day. And I don't only
mean 5 minutes of 10; I mean 10 minutes out of 10; I mean 60 minutes out
of an hour, 24 hours a day, at least all of your waking hours.

I'm talking about a little quarter-note. I'm taking a lot of time here,
and I don't care if we take all afternoon. Twenty-five years later from
now we won't remember a lot of things about the Rose Bowl. We might
remember this. It may make the difference between what we are and what we
might have been. That's my job.

I DON'T WANT IT JUST ABOUT RIGHT! TO ME, JUST ABOUT RIGHT IS TERRIBLE!
The man who put the gate down one second late and wiped out a whole family
across a railroad crossing was just about right. He was only one second
off; he was almost right. We've had pilots hit peaks. One out there in
Utah some time ago. He was just a little bit off; planeload of
passengers.

To me, you say, 'Dr. Revelli, you think it's that crucial?' It is for me!

Now, nobody's killed when you play a half-note as a dotted quarter. But
you might, from learning to play a half-note a FULL half-note, make the
difference in the lives of 50,000 little kids. And I think this is very
serious in education. If all you were going to hurt was yourself, then go
and play alone.

There's going to be 100 million people hearing you. They hear the
half-note right or wrong. They don't know why it's right or wrong, they
just know it is; they just know in one instant it sounds good. There are
50,000 truck drivers that are going to be listening to this band on New
Year's Day. They don't know one note from another. There'll be 100,000
plumbers. They don't know one note from another. Does this forgive me,
then, for playing wrong?

My responsibility as a musician, one that's serious to his art, is to PLAY
THAT RIGHT! And I say that this IS art. Anytime you pick up that horn
and you play a tone, you're dealing with music, and I don't care if it's
in a honky-tonk jazz band, or whether it's in a clarinet quintet, or what
- and it is your responsibility to play that right, NOT just about right.

How do you initiate and develop these attitudes? By being honest with
yourself. Just be honest with yourself. Don't even PLAY it. Keep the
horn in the case. Put the horn in mothballs until you have made up your
mind: This has to be right! You don't piddle with music - it's a
good-time-Charlie business, and for me, the wonderful good times come out
of hearing somebody play beautifully. I don't care if it's "Stars and
Stripes," "The Victors" or what it is. I mean, there's a PRIDE. And this
guy KNOWS he's good! And nobody can take that away from him.

When they play sloppy and don't care or don't know - a great many of them
don't even know, they don't know how bad it is - they can be forgiven, but
more they should be pitied. But when you DO know, and you play badly,
then you have no right to be forgiven, your ONLY to be pittied."