Klarinet Archive - Posting 001152.txt from 1998/04

From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: Smart people and Music (was Music and Science)
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 11:09:00 -0400

On Mon, 20 Apr 1998, Rich & Tani Miller wrote:

> Darn you! I said I wouldn't get in this conversation and you got me in. How can you
> call playing marches and patriotic music a musical problem? No it isn't Mozart but
> marches are certainly an important part of band history.

*sigh* I usually only jump into issues that I feel strongly about such as
music education issues and (of course) the performance
issues.....especially ones that require a perspective I feel is important.
The latter may be because I teach so many students who have a dream of
performing.....but many do not have the motivation to practice toward that
goal (although, they may have the talent)......it is possible they were
given just about everything growing up, and they never really learned how
hard they had to work to achieve a level consistant with being considered
for a symphony orchestra.

I jump into the music ed. issues partly because that was my burning desire
between the ages of 14 and 26, partly because I have children who are
learning musical instruments now and I am beginning to focus on the
education they are receiving and what is available to them in the public
schools, and partly because I teach a large number of private students,
from beginning 5th grade to a 53 year-old public school administrator who
wanted to get back into playing the clarinet.

I mean no disrespect toward Tani Miller by asking the question that seems
to have pushed her button! I generally find her posts to be intelligent,
thoughtful musings about honest feelings. No huge ego - just a nice
conversation. But, that doesn't change my passionate side when it comes
to the music education issues. So.....that all having been said, I must
jump back into answering the questions.

The problem with going on a band trip and doing nothing but parading and
marching it is not so much what the band IS doing but what it is NOT
doing. Considering the fund raising that went into the event, the idea
that it is to be a trip only to 1) entertain; and 2) be fun - in the
absence of 1) significant musical learning; 2) education of audience (gee,
can a 9th grade band really play with that kind of sensitivity, sound,
color, feeling, emotion?); and 3) musical experiences that represent the
scope and breadth of learning associated with a trip of this magnitude.
How much money did the students have to raise in order to play some
marches and popular arrangments? How much time and effort was spent
earning such money in the name of fun and entertainment? How do we
justify this as our reason for going? How was such a trip different than
traveling to the next city and doing these things? What did the students
tell the people they sold candy/fruit/whatever that they were fund raising
for?

Marches are musical! I love them! Did they play Sousa? Goldman? King?
Alexander? Grafulla? Zo Elliot? Fillmore? Bagely? Santiago Lope? J.F.
Wagner? Coates? Alford (there are two)? Were they arrangements or the
real thing? Or, were these show tunes....arranged by someone from
Jennings, Barnhouse, Hal Leonard, etc. that we all do at the basketball
and football games? Let me ask this........if the students all had their
music put away in their cases, could they tell you who the composer of
each tune was that they played? I mean....if it was a show tune, who
wrote the tune, what the story of the show was, and who arranged it? If
it was a Sousa march, can they tell you what event he wrote the march and
the year it was written? What about musical form of the march? Do they
know it is a dance form and what that means? Do they know that the
strains can be altered as long as melodic and harmonic elements are left
intact? Do they know why?

Patriotic music! I love the stuff. There is an arrangment for high
school band, American Civil War Fantasy by Jerry Bilik (who writes for
television, movies, and jingles now in CA) that is often played.
But....do the students know even the date the Civil War began and ended?
Do the students in this band know what the music was used for? What
instrumentation a band during that patriotic time period was? Do they
even know what war was being fought for the particular work being played?

Was there any learning on the trip that made such a
trip significant to the trip? In other words, except for the fun, was
there anything that justified such an expense musically? Or, separate
from the fun, could they have traveled to the nearest town and
accomplished the same thing musically? And keep in mind, so many people
go to Disney World/Land and march, the argument that the school was
spreading its name around is not much of a musical reason!

> Besides, the trip was EXTRA not required. No school district money was spent on it
> other than to provide a substitute. It was a trip!

Ok...I'm all for it .......but it was a trip for what? How is it
different than the math class raising money to go on a trip as a group to
the same location? Trips are incentives to keep the students interested
in staying in band.....but the music is not necessarily.

> The marching band doesn't
> compete, doesn't take up a massive amount of the music department budget, the high
> school has a wind ensemble that plays grade 5 literature, will be commissioning a
> piece from Michael Dougherty in the near future, brought in Martin Mailman as a guest
> conductor, a symphonic band with over a 100 players (I think?), a ninth grade concert
> band with 50 kids it, . . . how did you get me into this
> discussion!!!=$#$%^&^!!!!!!!!!

Is the 9th grade part of the high school or the jr. high? If it is the
top of the jr. high.....why march them? Are there better ways for them
to learn music? If it is the second band at the high school, shouldn't
they be spending time on literature and fundamentals that will help them
get into what sounds like a really terrific top group (wind ensemble)?
And....they could play a sit down concert at the same
location......perhaps even educate the audience about music!

> No it isn't a musical problem at all. It can only be that if I (if I say "we" my
> husband will kill me for dragging him into this conversation) try to pretend that it
> was the ultimate of musical experience. It was a fun trip with a little bit of
> education that gave students the opportunity to perform a march and a patriotic
> medley for thousands of people!!!! We certainly strived for a quality parade
> performance including playing the march in a stylistically appropriate manner using
> good performance and technical skills . . . HOW DID YOU GET ME TO RESPOND TO THIS!

Keep in mind, this conversation is on the heels of the one that was
discussing failed budgets, cut music programs, etc..........trips that are
educational, as you mention above, should be educational in a musical
sense.....or they do not set the band apart from any other class that is
in the core curriculum. Otherwise, the band is in jeopardy of being the
target of a budget cut.

> Science classes go to Hershey park and do physics experiments on rollar coasters.
> English classes go to the Renaissance Faire. I'm not trying to pretend that it was a
> trip to see the Philadelphia Orchestra although we do things like that to! I'm not
> saying that it is a total musical experience--it isn't in the grand scheme of
> things! It was just one event in a miriad of experiences that are part of this
> program. But we had fun and entertained in the process (didn't you emphasis that
> marching band provides entertainment without being a great musical
> experience--someone did as I recall)

Yes.......at the football game and in the local parade (gotta reward that
community spirit!). But, that is where marching should and could end.
Now....it is entirely possible that your band program travels frequently
and does lots of other types of musical things other than marching. I
don't know your program....and your description is of a band program that
is healthy. However, the majority of band programs do these trips to keep
the tubas and horns in the band - keep the instrumentation up!

I worked with the local 6th grade band two weeks ago. I had 60 minutes to
get through three tunes. There were 108 kids in the band, and this
included 24 trumpets. I was unable to get the trumpets to take a huge
breath, and play a true forte on a second line G. We went by twos, we
went by threes, we went individually, we involved other sections......the
problem? Students are playing on 7C mouthpices (too small for their age),
they haven't been taught to breath and blow correctly (thus screwing the
brass for any conceivable range within the next year or two), and
"balancing to the bass of the band". Geez.....in a 108 piece band they
had one tuba, two baritione horns, and a ton of saxex. What a concept!
And my kids have to come up through this band program? Know what they do
at the end of 9th grade? They start learning to march in parade style.
Great....now we blow their already poor musical development by having the
mouthpieces and reeds jamming up and down inside the mouth.....with a
questionable embouchure to begin with!

I teach 7th graders that are outplaying the high school kids - and it is
because they work on fundamental musical skills......if even 25% of the
students played well, the trip would take a new turn for the better I
think!

> . . . . . how did you do this . . . I swore that I'd stay out of this conversation .

> Incidently, I heard some colleges jazz band perform at the Magic Kingdom on
> Saturday. Very good group! I wish I remembered the group!

Any listening the students did would have been a good reason for going.
Taking in a musical event unique to Orlando might have been good too.

I am not advocating no fun......I am advocating a complete musical meal.
I don't advocate feeding children candy, ice cream with an occassional
tomato - just so they won't hate me and look for other parents! They
need balanced meals..........they also need balanced learning experiences.
Perhaps this was part of a scheme of trips......I don't know.....but to
only march - after spending so much money. I wonder.

Roger Garrett
IWU

   
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