Klarinet Archive - Posting 001201.txt from 1998/09
From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Marching band and (Concert Band also)
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 19:23:40 -0400
Bill Cole, the former conductor of the wind ensemble at Western Washington
University (while principal trumpet of the Seattle Symphony), was a
proponent of sight reading. When the wind ensemble was on tour, at least
one piece in each concert would be sight-read--at the show. He spared no
rubatos, either. This seemed to impress the high school kids much more than
any prestidigitation in Pineapple Poll; to them, it seemed almost magic that
one could sit down and just play! His point was that professional musicians
don't get to rehearse much, so we should get used to it.
kjf
-----Original Message-----
From: Edwin V. Lacy [mailto:el2@-----.edu]
Subject: Re: [kl] Marching band and (Concert Band also)
On Wed, 30 Sep 1998, Kung-Gene Chu wrote:
> The band at my high school usually plays 6-8 pieces divided into a
> winter and spring concert
> is important to play a wide variety of music
It is difficult for me to see how you can achieve a "wide variety" of
music if you play only 6 to 8 pieces per year. I expect many high school
bands today, perhaps most of them, learn no more music than yours does.
Just so you will have a point of comparison, when I was in high school,
and later when I was a high school band director, in the 1960's, my bands
would play over 100 pieces of music per year. That included different
music for every football game, and sight reading materials in most
rehearsals.
The difference? People were expected to be able to sight-read music, and
didn't know that they weren't supposed to. When I was in high school, if
a marching band rehearsal was rained out, we would stay inside and play.
Often, in such instances we would read through something like the entire
"March Masters" book. That would be about 16 marches, in the original
arrangements. Today, I would predict that there are not a dozen high
school bands in the United States which could sight read even one of
those, because they are hardly ever asked to sightread. They learn their
7 minutes or 10 minutes of music, whatever it is, and then play from
memory from June until November, at which time they get their 3 or 4
pieces which they will play for contest, and set about learning that by
rote and by memory. Sight readers are nearly an extinct breed.
For a period of many years, teaching at the university level, I noticed
that our incoming students' became worse and worse at sightreading, until
I had to teach my jazz ensemble to play things nearly by rote.
Fortunately, this situation has gotten better within the past five years
or so. I don't know why it has improved. I wonder if any other college
teachers have noticed similar trends.
Ed Lacy
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Dr. Edwin Lacy University of Evansville
Professor of Music 1800 Lincoln Avenue
Evansville, IN 47722
el2@-----.edu (812)479-2754
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