Klarinet Archive - Posting 000086.txt from 1998/10

From: "Cathleen Renee Orr" <orrcathl@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] whoa matt
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 02:32:10 -0400

since matt cullen's email doesn't appear in his message, I cannot reply to him
personally. While yuo may think someone is an ass, please Matt, send it to
them, not the whole list. Let's keep personal attacks just that.
Thanks, and let's go back to having a shiny happy list.
- cathy

PS my 2 cents about marching band:
LOVE IT! ( some people just don't get it, like my lesson professor )
It can be good and musical and worthwhile IF the director chooses to do so
through careful show selection and rehearsal technique and countless other
factors. I am glad we had this discussion because it makes me think of ways
when I am teaching how I can get my students involved in more higher order
thinking during marching band. Just today, my band director told me that
( at our university ) the marching band rehearses more efficiently than any
other ensemble...and some of those others he conducts.
Also, don't forget, for some high school kids, the games and competitions,
and camps, and bus trips that go with marching band is what motivates them to
join band. I would hate for those kids to miss out. I want them in my program
someday too.
As for those who dismiss marching band because it is not about Ravel and
Mozart, for those who dismiss it because it is at football games, because it is
for entertainment and spirit....so what? It's a completetly different genre and
still worthy in it's own. As I do more intern teaching and serve as staff at
more and more high school band camps, I have noticed that I have become less
and less tolerant of "musical snobs", the people who think if it doesn't come
in a tux and bow tie, if it wasn't written by some dead white European guy a
hundred years ago, that it's not worthy. Frankly, life's too short and there
are too many kids doing good things for me to get snobby about what kind of
music they perform. If they perform it with all their heart, if they work hard,
if they learn and grow, if they love and respect it, then it's good.
I'll stop now.

PS: some of the drum corps people I know are better muscians than some of the
- performance majors I know. yeah.

Cathleen R. Orr
orrcathl@-----.edu
www.msu.edu/~orrcathl
Corresponding Secretary Tau Beta Sigma - ZE Chapter
Michigan State University

" I used to rock and roll all night and party every day. Then it was every
other day. Now I'm lucky if I can find a half an hour each week in which to
get funky. " - Homer Simpson
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