Klarinet Archive - Posting 000964.txt from 1999/05

From: "Edwin V. Lacy" <el2@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Unfeeling Band Directors
Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 09:24:28 -0400

On Thu, 20 May 1999, Jack Kissinger wrote:

> Can anyone on the list, from personal observation (not heresay)
> document the existence of a school district with such a requirement?
> Maybe I'm wrong about this but, if so, I would like to see some
> evidence.

I have been a music educator in public schools and universities for 40
years, and I have known of exactly one such instance. In the tiny town of
Dawson Springs, Kentucky, in the western part of the state, there was a
period of a few years in the early 1960's where all the clarinet players
had Buffet clarinets, all the saxophonists had Selmer Mark VI's, all the
trumpet players had Bach trumpets, etc. The director decided which
instrument he thought was the best one in each section, and he believed
that there would be a better blend in the sections and in the band as a
whole if each group played the same instruments.

I don't know whether his attempts to achieve uniformity extended to the
choice of mouthpieces and brands of reeds. It wouldn't be surprising.
There was no music store in that town, but the father of one of the band
students owned a drugstore, so the director induced him to add a line of
reeds, valve oil, drum sticks, and similar accessories. I'm sure the band
director told the proprietor which brands to carry. So, kids could go to
the drug store after school and buy cough drops, aspirin, soft drinks,
candy bars, and clarinet reeds.

This was far from a financially well-to-do area. The economy of the area
had been based on coal mining, and at that time, things were very bad for
the coal industry in that part of the world. I don't know how the
students managed to obtain the expensive instruments they played from a
financial standpoint.

I had been a college classmate of the director, and I guest conducted in
that school on one or two occasions, and I must say that it was a
remarkable band for such a small and economically depressed area. But, in
my opinion, their musical successes were based on many factors, and
uniformity of instrument brands was a very minor factor if it contributed
at all.

Ed Lacy
el2@-----.edu

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