Klarinet Archive - Posting 000626.txt from 1997/11

From: Jim Lytthans <lytthans@-----.net>
Subj: Concert Bands vs. Orchestras
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 02:03:12 -0500

Regarding concert bands:

I grew up in Pomona, California, wich was blessed with both a good
community concert band and a community symphony. I joined the Pomona
Concert Band when I was about 13, and learned much of the standard
Romantic orchestral repertory by playing with this group. We did (and
still do!) a series of 10 park concerts in the summer, and performed
many overtures, suites, operatic arias.... all in transcriptions. I
didn't discover that the William Tell Overture was written for orchestra
untill I played the boring clarinet part with an orchestra. The violin
parts were so much more interesting and challenging! (To be honest, I
knew the William Tell from the old Lone Ranger radio show) When I was
16, I became a member of the Pomona Valley Symphony (the director was my
high school music teacher) and enjoyed the solo work, but most of the
parts were somewhat uninteresting, compared to the band experience.

In college (USC), William Schaefer, our Director of Bands, arranged many
fine orchestral pieces for our Wind Orchestra, believing that most of
the players would never find a career playing in a crack orchestra. We
did Mahler, Berlioz, Saint-Saens, Mendelssohn, Rossini, Moussorgsky,
Shostakovitch, Bruckner, Stravinsky, Mozart, Beethoven.... you name it.
His arrangements of the complete Shostakovitch 5th and 9th are really a
challenge, as is the Saint-Saens Organ Symphony, or his arrangement of
Petrouska. We performed the 5th with Shostakovitch conducting once! The
whole damn thing! How many of you can say that you did the same with an
orchestra?

I enjoy orchestral playing today, because it's generally less tiring,
and has some great solos. But playing in a good wind ensemble really
offers more of a challenge, as far as technical virtuosity. I just wish
that audiences would recognize the band as a viable symphonic medium,
and not just something for half-time intertainment at football games
(no, let's not start that thread again!). Adult community bands are
enjoying a revival, as orchestras seem to be on the decline. A pity,
really...
--

Jim Lytthans "Primo Arundo Donax!"
Principal Clarinet
La Mirada (CA) Symphony Orchestra
Claremont Symphonic Winds
(http://www.galcit.caltech.edu/~dooley/csw.html)
My home page:
http://home.pacbell.net/lytthans/index.html