Klarinet Archive - Posting 001223.txt from 1998/09

From: "Kevin LeNestour" <klenestour@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Marching band
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 12:24:20 -0400

Aeons ago, when I was in High School in the mid 70's I was a member of the
Burlington Teen Tour Band (Ontario, Canada). We were a marching band (about
160 strong), and we would generally learn 1 field show a year, but would
have a large variety of parade music to memorize as well. We used to do
quite well in the few competitions we entered in the US, but most of our
marching band performances were straight parades - from the summer parades
where kids were fainting from the heat in our navy wool pants, red wool
jackets and black busby hats, to winter parades where brass players
mouthpieces would freeze to their lips if they weren't carefully, and
clarinet players had to worry about wet reeds freezing solid, and icicles
forming on the bottom of the clarinet!

BUT we also had a very strong concert band formed out of this town band,
and we would perform an annual concert in the great hall at Hamilton Place.
The repertoire included many of the standard concert band transcriptions
1812, William Tell), as well as a few Band numbers , and a large variety of
music arranged by our conductor Eric Ford.

Although the marching band was fun ( and I treasure the many hours spent on
buses travelling to parades ;-) ), it really was in Concert Band that I
developed musically.

Carol LeNestour

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