Klarinet Archive - Posting 001189.txt from 1998/09

From: "Karl Krelove" <kkrelove@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Marching band and (Concert Band also)
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 18:24:48 -0400

-----Original Message-----
From: Craig Earl Countryman <cegc@-----.net>
Date: Wednesday, September 30, 1998 3:29 PM
Subject: Re: [kl] Marching band and (Concert Band also)

>This issue reminds me of something that has been eating at me for a long
>time. Is it standard practice to play only three concert band numbers for
>the majority of concert season

My impression is that the increasing involvement with formal competitions
and other kinds of less formal contest and "adjudication" playing at both
the high school and junior high/middle school levels has made this a more
common situation than it was when I was in school. It is, in my opinion, not
good music education to limit students' performing repertoire for the sake
of a bundle of new trophies each year. But, once a director has committed
his ensemble to participate in these "festivals," he more or less obligates
the band to learn the contest pieces as thoroughly as it can. The problem
seems to be that in some cases, the competitions become the prime reason for
the group's existing at all. Whether this orientation is driven by parental
pressure, administrative expectations, or the teacher's own ego, the end is
that it allows the director to take no chances that the group will sound
less polished than the others. This fear of comparing badly to other
ensembles is indulged, in my opinion, at the expense of good music pedagogy,
which in an ideal world would concentrate not on learning that other
disciplines can provide equally well, but on those areas in which music is
unique.

Karl Krelove

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