Klarinet Archive - Posting 000070.txt from 1998/10

From: Bill Hausmann <bhausman@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Marching band
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 22:18:22 -0400

At 03:40 PM 10/1/98, Kelly Abraham wrote:
>I just have to add that I truly am sorry to those people on the list who
are adamant against marching band just because they were not lucky enough
to go to a high school/college with a musical marching band director, and
good arrangers on staff who could score for brass, percussion, AND
woodwinds without using the "masking" technique that made the woodwinds
disappear.
>
>The masking technique is part writing with the woodwinds doubling parts of
the brass to bolster the volume without being heard as a separate entity.
Bad arrangements (like most stock/bought arrangements) place the woodwinds
in the middle to low end of their horn where they can't be heard on the
field, and brass in the top all the time, where NOTHING else is heard
anyway. This is a problem with the idiot arrangers who don't know how to
write for color layers in a marching band setting, even though they might
be good at concert arrangement (and of course, lots of marching bands buy
these arrangements.)
>
I'll wager this is done deliberately so that, whether you band has
woodwinds at all or regardless of how many, you can use the same
arrangement as an all-brass band. This is cheaper and easier for the
arranger, publisher, etc. In other words, incredibly LAZY!

Bill Hausmann bhausman@-----.com
451 Old Orchard Drive http://www.concentric.net/~bhausman
Essexville, MI 48732 http://members.wbs.net/homepages/z/o/o/zoot14.html
ICQ UIN 4862265

If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is too loud.

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